Scalping: 3LZZ DSR

[Jhx]

Winrate is now at 54.17%; between yesterday and today I was able to bump it up a little bit. I'm 0.8% away from the 5% profit target before the account resets.

Entering this way helps (I think); I find myself taking a better look at the pattern itself (looking for momentum and strength of the pullback), and the context (if I'm in a range or just broke one) before pulling the trigger. If the trade takes too long, then I look to exit with a smaller profit / BE / smaller loss.

[Jhx]

Also, I think I'm more comfortable charting the patterns this way, with the M1 and the M5 overlay. In most cases I just use the highs and lows off the M5 candles but the M1 gives me a better view of how the price has been moving inside the candles. This specially helps on candle where there were wicks to both sides, or larger M5 candles without wicks (sometimes I can see the pullback in there off the M5).

I use no more than 2 lines per M5 candle, so that helps me to not grab every small M1 swing and keeps me focused on the more 'general' price movement.

[Yirbu]

Good stuff man.
So, if I understand it correctly; you aim for a breakout but also do that using m1 entries (and m1 SL ???) but in the context of the m5?
Like in your chart.

GU_08102022_7.png (149.19 KiB) Viewed 2028 times

[Jhx]

Good stuff man.
So, if I understand it correctly; you aim for a breakout but also do that using m1 entries (and m1 SL ???) but in the context of the m5?
Like in your chart.


GU_08102022_7.png

Pretty much, yes. This is the explanation. At the end of the day it's something that I found to 'fix' a problem that I had of focusing too much on every small swing, and fixing the problem of where would I place the stop if I were to take trades off the M5 candles.

M1M5_1.png (240.34 KiB) Viewed 1997 times

M1M5_2.png (233.6 KiB) Viewed 1997 times

The case 3 (which I forgot to add there), is using the current M5 low or high, but it has the same issue. This has happened a few times. Even if the trade doesn't go to profit, placing it behind the swing means it is a bit better protected, and maybe if the trade goes back almost to that swing, I can attempt to exit for a smaller loss or BE instead of taking a loss.

SL_Issues.png (50.62 KiB) Viewed 1989 times

M1M5_3.png (210.67 KiB) Viewed 1997 times

So if I only trade off the M5 only, the stop placement is iffy. If I solely focus on the M1, I get lost, and that is evident when I turn on the M5 overlays.
Now, if I use them together, the pattern looks much clearer. Hope it makes sense.

M1M5_Why.png (163.34 KiB) Viewed 1997 times

[Jhx]

Kept charting outside my session, practice practice practice. It is not so much about hindsight, but more about identifying patterns, ranges (which are also patterns) and taking action when price breaks them, and noticing when not to take action.

These last 3 days I think I made progress in being less 'mechanical' and asking more questions as the trade happens. Having a better thought process as prive moves.

I counted 1 loss, 1 BE (due to stalling), 3 winners (one of which I would've gone for 2R).

GU08102022_OutsideSession_1.png (222.21 KiB) Viewed 1980 times

GU08102022_OutsideSession_2.png (215.95 KiB) Viewed 1980 times

GU08102022_OutsideSession_3.png (203.53 KiB) Viewed 1980 times

GU08102022_OutsideSession_4.png (189.08 KiB) Viewed 1980 times

GU08102022_OutsideSession_5.png (194.17 KiB) Viewed 1980 times

GU08102022_OutsideSession_6.png (184.67 KiB) Viewed 1980 times

GU08102022_OutsideSession_7.png (178.7 KiB) Viewed 1980 times

[Yirbu]

Good stuff man.
So, if I understand it correctly; you aim for a breakout but also do that using m1 entries (and m1 SL ???) but in the context of the m5?
Like in your chart.


GU_08102022_7.png

Pretty much, yes. This is the explanation. At the end of the day it's something that I found to 'fix' a problem that I had of focusing too much on every small swing, and fixing the problem of where would I place the stop if I were to take trades off the M5 candles.

M1M5_1.png
M1M5_2.png

The case 3 (which I forgot to add there), is using the current M5 low or high, but it has the same issue. This has happened a few times. Even if the trade doesn't go to profit, placing it behind the swing means it is a bit better protected, and maybe if the trade goes back almost to that swing, I can attempt to exit for a smaller loss or BE instead of taking a loss.
SL_Issues.png

M1M5_3.png

So if I only trade off the M5 only, the stop placement is iffy. If I solely focus on the M1, I get lost, and that is evident when I turn on the M5 overlays.
Now, if I use them together, the pattern looks much clearer. Hope it makes sense.
M1M5_Why.png

Thx for explaining! Very clear and it does make sense.
I do see advantages in having a tighter SL because I just put my SL at the m5 swing low.
Why do you think that is too far away/too big SL?
How do you decide on your position size?

next couple of days I will try to see if it would have made a difference if I placed the SL different and entered different.

[Jhx]

Good stuff man.
So, if I understand it correctly; you aim for a breakout but also do that using m1 entries (and m1 SL ???) but in the context of the m5?
Like in your chart.


GU_08102022_7.png

Pretty much, yes. This is the explanation. At the end of the day it's something that I found to 'fix' a problem that I had of focusing too much on every small swing, and fixing the problem of where would I place the stop if I were to take trades off the M5 candles.

M1M5_1.png
M1M5_2.png

The case 3 (which I forgot to add there), is using the current M5 low or high, but it has the same issue. This has happened a few times. Even if the trade doesn't go to profit, placing it behind the swing means it is a bit better protected, and maybe if the trade goes back almost to that swing, I can attempt to exit for a smaller loss or BE instead of taking a loss.
SL_Issues.png

M1M5_3.png

So if I only trade off the M5 only, the stop placement is iffy. If I solely focus on the M1, I get lost, and that is evident when I turn on the M5 overlays.
Now, if I use them together, the pattern looks much clearer. Hope it makes sense.
M1M5_Why.png

Thx for explaining! Very clear and it does make sense.
I do see advantages in having a tighter SL because I just put my SL at the m5 swing low.
Why do you think that is too far away/too big SL?
How do you decide on your position size?

next couple of days I will try to see if it would have made a difference if I placed the SL different and entered different.

Why do you think that is too far away/too big SL?

Well I mean, I think it's all relative, so when I say it's too far or too big it's because it's large relative to what I expect to get out of the move if it makes sense.

For example, I wouldn't like to take a trade that doesn't have room to get at least 1R.

Here, had I placed my stop at the extreme of the M5, I wouldn't have able to get at least 1R, the upside is that I might've been better protected, but then again I wouldn't be able to get the 1R (of course, based on what I see at that area).

SL_Example.png (196.97 KiB) Viewed 1950 times

Another example would be larger M5 momentum candles. There are better examples, just picked one at random. (Or at least I could've picked one that worked lol )

SL_Example2.png (197.86 KiB) Viewed 1950 times

How do you decide on your position size?

At first I was using the same lotsize. It was odd because not every swing has the same length, therefore the risk wasn't always the same. When some of my stops are 3 pips, and others are 6, and I'm targetting at least 1R, then 2 wins and 1 loss can result in BE if I'm unlucky, so I prefer using a set % per trade and that's it. Even if it's the same in the long run, I prefer consistency. Lotsize is calculated automatically based on the SL line with an EA.

next couple of days I will try to see if it would have made a difference if I placed the SL different and entered different.

Well, depending on where your targets are you might have a larger R:R but less winrate. But if what you're doing is working then don't change it !

[Jhx]

Question to Don or anyone who uses ranges like this. Can ranges 'morph' or change without having a significant breakout? Or should I just attempt to adjust the same range as it evolves?

Referring to the ranges at the end:

GU_AsianSession_08102022_1.png (231.67 KiB) Viewed 1914 times

GU_AsianSession_08102022_2.png (233.45 KiB) Viewed 1914 times

[Don_xyZ]

Question to Don or anyone who uses ranges like this. Can ranges 'morph' or change without having a significant breakout? Or should I just attempt to adjust the same range as it evolves?

Referring to the ranges at the end:

GU_AsianSession_08102022_1.png
GU_AsianSession_08102022_2.png

The first and foremost is the market can do basically anything.
What you can do is either take a risk and then choose the place to enter. This can be at whatever level of hindsight the pattern gave you. The breakout is at the end of that hindsight thus, more of a safer place compared to other level of hindsight. However, each level of hindsight has their own Achilles heel. For breakout is the fakeys where the price broke away and then return to the pattern. And then there is also the double fakeys where after the return to the pattern, price go back to the direction of the breakout. And finally, you realize that there is yet another obvious multiple fakeys called the Megaphone pattern. Can you fix this problem? Yes, there are methods to blunt the effect of a fakey after it happened and then there are also methods to prevent you to take this pattern. Using bias like the moving average is one of the solutions. Risk control is also one of them. This is all part of trade grading. How good is your filter? How deep is your WIL? The longer your WIL is, the more you can become flexible when things don't go your way the first time, second time and the better you will adjust yourself with the new and different trade scenarios at that time.

[Jhx]

This is the last day of the FTMO challenge.

First win for 1R; the pullback did touch the first BO by just a bit, but it had broken off a pattern so I took the continuation.
On the same move, I took the next, the pullback was a bit slow but then shot back up, was moving up nicely but was taking too long and exited for a smaller loss (good, because it would've failed). -0.6 ish.
Third trade, price reversed, good momentum, below the SMA, short for 1R. The break was at the next M5 bar of the momentum candle, so while the overall move was good, I was trading against a small pinbar so I took only 1R (could've gone for more but didn't want to target more).
4th trade took the next continuation, was looking ok initially but took too long and exited at BE.
Then moved up, to another range, broke it, pattern to go short, took it, was going down but suddenly went up. Took a full loss there. I should've exited at the close of that candle after 5 minutes and should've exited at -0.7, as 5 minutes is the 'max' time I'm allowed to wait for a trade to work out.
6 and 7 worked well; took each for 1R even though they could've gone for more.

In this case every trade went for at least 2R but doesn't happen always so I can't just target 2R. I'll re-check all my stats to see if there's anything I can tweak positively, if not I'll just keep it this way.

Total for today was 2.3 ish.

GU_08122022_1.png (228.84 KiB) Viewed 1735 times

Yesterday I had 2 losers, 1 winner, and a some trades with smaller losses (3 of those had missed the TP by just a bit but oh well).

So unfortunately I couldn't hit the profit target in these 2 weeks, fell a bit short on that. On the same note this week was better than the first as I had made some good adjustments to my trading I think.

Also, last night I attempted to scalp during Asia using other triggers (I thought I had opened my other MT4 terminal on another account but apparently didn't), and although the result wasn't detrimental it did skew my stats . So I'll have the stats off 2 days ago as something to improve on.