Monday 17 May 2010

Battle of the Bots and Training Update

Market action was quite interesting today. The "battle of the bots" seemed easier to see today for some reason. Maybe it was just me because I was working on Flo over the week-end. It seems that there is more and more volume chasing smaller and smaller moves. I opened a short term volume chart on the ES to watch. The range bars get rid of more of the noise than they ever did. I guess if you are trading the noise then you want to see it but I found it very hard work following the 'bot action. As they are trading very much inside my range bars it does not look like they have much impact on me apart from providing more liquidity, although there were a couple of trades I was in that must have caught a bunch of the 'bots offside at the same time because my target was hit with a pop almost straight after the trade was put on. Interesting but it seems like we'll see more and more of this as the Goldmans of the world go more in this direction.

I'm looking forward to starting the training on July 10th. Still lots to do for me but I'm getting more eager as the date gets nearer. I'm planning on having an open microphone so the communication is more natural rather than have you all type. If it doesn't work out, we'll have to go back to the typing and only me talking.  So those of you already signed up please have a good quality head set with a microphone available.

After the first two days of theory on the Saturday and Sunday, I intend to start working with you on creating a trading plan. I expect the plan to evolve during the whole training process as you begin to get to terms with your own goals, styles and money management ideas. Somewhere along the road you will have a good idea of how you will run your business, at least in it's first incarnation. And as your experience grows and you hit milestones in your achievements, I expect you will refine your trading plans. Each attendee's trading plan will probably be different and tailored by them, with my help, to suit them in every way. This process is important as you must own your trading plan and have confidence that following it will take you to where you want to go, CP.

My goal for the training is to help each of you to have a trading plan that, if you stick to it, will make you consistently profitable (CP). The training will also be aimed at teaching you techniques to help you stick to the plan.

As the training is a very hands on and practical one due to the fact that we are working with live markets, I expect to see everyone progress day by day and I will be watching to ensure that I do my part to see that this goal is met.

In addition to me recording the training, I strongly recommend that you use some sort of software to take snapshots of the screen as we work so that you can capture the pictures of triggered trades and make notes on those pix. Windows 7 has this built in. If you are using other operating systems there are numerous other applications available that can do this, many of them free, just google, 'free screen capture'.

I have received quite a few emails from people who want to do the training without payment and we are going through those emails carefully. It's not going to be an easy choice. Our criteria is based upon a balance between need and our idea of what we think the chances are of the person succeeding, taking into account their personal circumstances. It would be an easier choice if there was a way to measure a person's ability to manage risk and fear of failure.

5 comments:

  1. Howdy,

    You realy did nail it on the #1 reason traders fail. (fear of loss) Do you think that it can be helped or is more part of ones makeup?

    Rocky

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  2. Hi Tom,

    How do you cope with fast moving markets...meaning the entry and exit signals on your setup are so fast. Whats the best way to ensure you dont miss out on the trades?

    Marco

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  3. Rocky, I've spoken about how to overcome this problem earlier in this blog. Use the Google search in the blog.
    Marco, Range Bars go part of the way because I can anticipate where they will close. Also, I'm not trading indicators but "the picture" and that comes together as the market unfolds. The markers on the chart are only to draw my attention to what is happening. I also use audio alerts.

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  4. Tom, Through what software will you be offering the training program and what software will you be using to record the training and how soon can it be accessible?

    Marco

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  5. Marco, I'll be mainly using MarketDelta and also MultiCharts for easylanguage testing. Looks like we'll use Go To Webinar which has a built in recording feature. I'll probably also record with Camtasia as a backup. We're starting the testing of this in about 10 days.

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