The Drummond Geometry Forum

I wanted to first say to you that I know most people, especially DGers I think, don't want to get involved in someone else's "negatives" if we should call my dilemma that. So if this is or may become a problem for you to assist me please feel free to let me know. I don't want to burden others with my problems even though that is exactly what I've been doing! I wonder what you and Bill Bhame did when you had problems and questions with DG? Frankly, besides you, B.B. and Charlie there is no one else to ask for pointers from a DGers perspective. Where else would one turn except to the professor.
I know we all learn this at our own speeds but is there any other student who has been working on DG for 3 years without earning a nickel from trading?
After more thought on my failure to succeed thus far with DG one thing I have noticed is I seem to be doing the opposite of what I need to do quite often. IE D setting up CE down from Wdot or Wxst area and selling 60min xst up into that xpected strong Dre would be nice trades,,,,I would take one of thse off the 15 min. but when the 15 min vibrates a little bit against me and sets up the next bar for 15min C-wave up into the 60min xst area I xit with loss when I think I should be adding more possible or at least not getting antsy by forgetting WHERE price is in context of HTP's.
Also, when market setting up a turn on 60min since prev. daily closed in xst down into Wsu near W59buy (22Feb2002),,,so 60min nbsu holding bar after bar and should have been pinging away and also from 15 min xsts down into strong Hnbsu (holding) but instead was waiting and waiting for ever surer sign that turn was occurring and before you know it Hourly 65buy kicks in. Pretty classic set up so why was I hesitating. This mistake seems common when I think back over trades,,,, turn is occurring on HTP, nb holding, etc..., and should be comfortable picking up any xsts on LTP against new direction and turn. Seems like common sense to say it but why not doing it real-time? What good is 20/20 hindsight in trading? -0-

C.G.

+++getting antsy are they key words here. What would happen if you got antsy and didn't exit but rode it out?
(set a loose stop of course and watch for genuine flow shifts but ride out the small fluctuations that bring out your "tickistis.")

+++hesitation likely fear of being wrong, based on past painful experiences. Again, you have to ride it out and if you see a signal and you can define the risk and then you have take the trade anyway, even if you are fearful. Your fear will not kill you.
Say, "so what? I spit in your eye and take the trade anyway."

It seems I am still having trouble keeping thoughts organized going into the day. Just do not have clear cut expectations of a particular trade for each market of interest. Perhaps am just making it all too complicated and thinking too much during trading instead of thinking and planning BEFORE opening the charts. How to remedy?? notes before day opens for each trade??? Have also tried various types of charts with and without various HTP plots.

C.G.

+++written plans the night before are a good idea.

Obviously the problem lies between my ears. Am I sabotaging myself without knowing it?


Want to learn about yourself, get into trading! Although you may not like what you find. Every flaw will be dragged out into the light of day and you will not be able to put it away again in the closet,,,it must be dealt with and overcome. I guess I didn't know my closet was so dirty. But is at least half clean now!

C.G.

++++self sabotage would be an issue if you fear moving to a new level and thus unconsciously "choose" to remain where you are by acting to ensure losses that constrain progress. Some traders experience bad days near the ends of winning months, for example. If this is an issue for you, you probably know this at some level, and can take steps to deal with it, such as being extra careful after a series of wins, or taking sometime off after a significant win to re-stabilize yourself.

+++this is what makes trading such an interesting game....

All this deals with putting knowledge into action, and is in the arena of performance, and has more similarities with athletics, with musical performance, and other real-time based activities than with the intellectual exercise of analysis itself. You are experiencing inhibitions to trading and your difficulties are most manifestations of the classic trader's fears... fears of being wrong, of being later and missing out, of being left behind, of losing still more money, of leaving money on the table, and so forth.


What makes this hard is that these fears are based in normal human psychology, and you cannot escape feeling them. All of these fears are ultimately based on the feeling of being part of the group,the community,the herd, etc. You cannot be human without having these emotions be a regular and constant visitor, especially while you are learning to deal with them.


There are several steps to working through your current difficulties.


1) do your analysis ahead of time. Yes, making notes about the market set ups is a very good idea. Don't "analyze" while trading. That should all be done and you are looking for the mechanical patterns to appear. If you are trying to figure things out and deal with crippling emotions at the same time, you will likely fail.
2) make sure you know what you are looking for in a trade, and that you have the patterns in mind. Do the research that will tell you that your trade patterns are valid. I suspect you have already done this.


3) Expect and welcome hard emotions as an old familiar friend who will be present but does not need to be listened to. You can feel fear and not react to it, and not take action to avoid it. This requires discipline but if you learn to experience emotion while not reacting to it, listening to it, or doing things like taking market action in a panic or hesitating to take action when it is appropriate, then eventually the emotions will lessen. Simply because your emotions are flooding you with fear is no reason listen to them or to do what they say.
Another way of saying it is that you have to trade "through" your fear just the way an athlete has to play through pain or through the anxieties caused by a critical moment in the game or a musician has to face down and play the concert even though he may have some stage fright. The more you do it, the less you will experience the crippling effects of emotions. But for that to happen, you cannot react to them, but it is senseless to try to deny them, since they bare natural and an inevitable part of being human. Put your head down and go through that wall. It can be done.

I know the problem lies in basically two areas for me.
First, poor planning and preparation for upcoming trades (writing it down). In my other businesses, though somewhat complex in detail, my thinking seemed to always be clear and concise without debris filtering thru.
Second, I'm am allowing too many other matters to clutter my thoughts during the day and this prevents me from interpreting signals and patterns correctly. This lack of mental clarity also prevents relaxed trading and makes it practically impossible to play out in my mind the expected patterns ahead of time, and keep all of this in context of HTP's. (this is also main problem causing what you call tickitis of 15min chart) I am capable of using the 15min properly within context of 60min and D and have done so but if mind is not clear of all irrelevant thoughts to trading "while trading" then that 15min is tortuous to use as mind is always trying to play catch-up to what is unfolding with price. So I simply must find a way to either be secluded during trading hours until I can readily exercise mental discipline or achieve the mental discipline without seclusion during trading. I simply cannot achieve success with DG under these circumstances so some tweaking is necessary.

C.G.

Privacy and solitude can indeed work wonders on one's confidence and ability to focus on the essential matters.

Work at keeping it simple. It boils down to determining is the FTP support or resistance will be strong or weak; to determine that you need the HTP and sometimes the 2HTP. One you can determine the anticipated strength/weakness of the FTP, then you have determined direction, and then you can buy support and sell resistance.