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Member Trading JournalsAnyone can start their very own public trading journal to document their winning and losing trades, get opinions from community members, and learn from each others' trading experiences.
Hey traders. Welcome to my trading journal where you'll find a little of everything from information about my background to my live trades, and the strategies I used to carry out those trades. I will be posting winning and losing trades to hopefully better my own trading management as well as others.
So to start off, here's a little bit about myself:
I grew up in Southern California where I began working my way to becoming a Firefighter/Paramedic in highschool as I thought this would be the perfect job for me. After working 4 years in the field as a Paramedic and Volunteer Firefighter I realized it wasn't what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I basically dropped everything and moved to Lake Tahoe, CA where I lived it up and worked seasonal positions as a Snowboard Instructor and dockhand. I soon came to realize more and more that my problem didn't lie within the jobs themselves, but the fact that I hated having a boss. It was December of 2008 that a buddy I met up in Tahoe (who was essentially doing the same thing as me... "getting away") turned me on to the markets. I fell in love instantly and have dedicated hours on end to eventually becoming a full time trader.
I now reside in Scottsdale, AZ and follow the Emini's the most, but also look for swing trades in the stock market from time to time as that is how I was first introduced to the markets. I am, by no means, trying to come off as experienced and "know what I'm doing", so to speak. I am very green still and have a lot of learning to do. I am simply sharing my experiences with you all in hopes that we can all get something out of it. I WILL say that taking Shoot and Brendan's Pro Course was exactly what I needed to take my knowledge to the next level. I now look at the markets in a completely different perspective and for the first time I feel like I get it.
I have recently been working hard to transition myself from paper trading to real money by building up my capital and continuing to watch educational videos and read articles. I would say that I "hope" to one day become a successful full time trader, but I KNOW this will happen eventually as I am constantly learning and being motivated by other's like Shoot and Brendan.
Anyways, thanks for taking interest in my approach to the markets and I hope to talk to you around the TradingApples Community soon! Also, be sure to leave comments with your thoughts on my videos. Enjoy!
Last edited by pmccandless; November 2nd, 2009 at 09:11 AM.
I'll second that thought on having bosses. Four years having different stupid people at different levels of command kind of ruins the whole boss experience for some one. Anything worth doing is worth doing well and being enjoyable.
Good luck Patrick, I hope to see some great trades and lessons learned. Welcome to the community.
Allow me to be the first to welcome you and say that I have high hopes for you as a trader based on the videos you've show us already. Looking forward to seeing your trades and thoughts man.
Here's to learning and freedom from all of the asshole bosses out there (this also contributed greatly to me pursuing my own thing).
Okay guys so I wasn't able to upload my previous videos to youtube because they were originally captured as flash videos. I don't have a program to convert them so I won't be posting them from YouTube, but here are the links if you're interested:
I'm now able to upload videos to YouTube and have made one from today. It was a papertrade of the NQ (Emini Nasdaq). I've been watching the correlation between the NQ and ES a lot lately as they begin to approach support or resistance lines together. Even though this was just a paper trade and I wasn't going to lose money anyways, I would have been extremely confident going through with this trade today with my real account.
I explain it all in the video, but basically I watched the NQ as it approached a major support level and actually began to present a "No Show" type of behavior (an extremely effective strategy explained by Shoot in the Pro Course). As the NQ's price was stalled out on that level, the ES was still approaching it's support level. Once the ES finally DID reach that support level it bounced off it without ever breaking down through it at all. This is where I took the entry, set my stops for both loss and profit, and proceeded to head out for a late breakfast! (Note: I don't recommend this type of trading behavior, but it was a paper trade and my woman was hungry!) When I got back it had hit my target and continued way past it.
I also show a nice mix-n-match paper trading platform setup for those of you who are interested in papertrading futures.
Anyways, enough talkin' smack... enjoy.
Last edited by pmccandless; October 8th, 2009 at 01:24 AM.
Wow, great video man. You explain everything so well. I almost feel like I'm listening to a pro because it's like you have a thorough knowledge of everything you are saying.
That was a pretty decent looking No Show too. Makes me want to try my hand at the Eminis sometime soon.
So when you said the nd emini came down and touched that area before the s&p, what do you think that really means? Maybe that the other might follow suit? And have you seen this in your study of the correlation between these two eminis?
Anyhow, thanks again for helping the community out and sharing your knowledge about how you approach the markets.
Wow, great video man. You explain everything so well. I almost feel like I'm listening to a pro because it's like you have a thorough knowledge of everything you are saying.
That was a pretty decent looking No Show too. Makes me want to try my hand at the Eminis sometime soon.
So when you said the nd emini came down and touched that area before the s&p, what do you think that really means? Maybe that the other might follow suit? And have you seen this in your study of the correlation between these two eminis?
Anyhow, thanks again for helping the community out and sharing your knowledge about how you approach the markets.
Best,
Shoot
Shoot, like I've said before, the biggest motivator for me is when traders of your caliber compliment my analysis so I want to thank you for that.
I think the NQ definitely leads the ES to some extent. Thats not to say that someone could tell the future of the ES just by looking at what the NQ is doing. Everyone would be rich if that were the case. What I've been noticing are, for example: the NQ and ES could both be heading up to their respective resistance lines and if the NQ reaches it first and bounces off as it reverses, then the ES will stop dead in it's tracks and reverse as well. I've come to realize that watching these two together not only helps me read the price direction much better, but also has opened me up to more setups.
I wanted to just say that I probably won't have any live trades posted up until I finish with my house moving situation and get a solid internet connection. Like I said in the video, my internet is being tethered off of my iPhone right now and if I try to record video/audio with it connected it makes that buzzing sound in the video and overpowers my voice. So until then, I will be doing my normal thing and then disconnecting the phone at the end of the trading day to record my stuff from earlier in the day.
Awesome vid again man. really cool to see a lot of what shoot talks about in his pro course being applied to different markets and so well explained as well.
Patrick's Trading Journal
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