$2,500 - $1,000,000

FTMO Trader Scouting

Aarnog

Well-Known Member
I'm back!

For those that don't remember (or don't know me), I had a trading journal a while back detailing my attempts at trading. I had a string of losses, and kind of dropped out of the game for what I thought would be a few weeks, but turned out to be nearly a year.

I realized that the markets were too thin, and the profit potential was too small for me to concern myself with spending time trading; so I waited until the markets started moving again. They have, and I'm hopping back into it!

I'm hoping I learned my lesson from the previous thread - only time will tell, of course, but we'll see how she goes! I'm definitely going to be less stupid with my stops this time around though.

My general plan is as follows:

Post my overview of cable and fiber, highlighting the trades that I will be looking to take that night.

Post a result (positive or negative) as well as trying to analyze where I went wrong.

Looking to take 2 trades per day, 30 pips per trade.

Looking to trade up to $1,000,000 as rapidly as possible!

As well, I'm throwing around the idea of trying to put together a 90 second long video every day highlighting the trades I will be looking for - I was inspired while watching a few of ICT's videos today, and realizing that there is no reason for his market analysis videos to be more than 5, maybe 10 minutes long. I figure I could probably get a daily analysis on 2 pairs down to a minute and a half or less by trimming all the unnecessary information. I don't know how to edit videos, and I doubt I will want to spend my 30-60 free minutes a day figuring it out, so don't hold your breath for this.

Either way - hopefully this is a success story and you guys can enjoy the ride! If it isn't a success story, hopefully it's at least an educational failure that can be used as a textbook example for "what not do to."
 
Thanks!

It's actually really good to be back, and I'm feeling more confident than ever! The tricky part is turning confidence into results.
 
Aarnog said:
Thanks!

It's actually really good to be back, and I'm feeling more confident than ever! The tricky part is turning confidence into results.

Sup other Aaron :p

The trick is to realize that "they" don't want you to make money, so the best entries are either subtle or downright scary to take. But hopefully you've been keeping up with all this order block material, it's a real 'ace in the hole' ;)

Good luck with your journal, videos or not!

-Aaron (akeakamai)
 
the golden gun said:
Sup other Aaron :p

The trick is to realize that "they" don't want you to make money, so the best entries are either subtle or downright scary to take. But hopefully you've been keeping up with all this order block material, it's a real 'ace in the hole' ;)

Good luck with your journal, videos or not!

-Aaron (akeakamai)

You're still around! That's good to hear -

I've been watching the videos and keeping up as best I can!

I would still prefer if ICT put out PDF files with screenshots instead of his videos - I find that his videos have a lot of tangents and superfluous information, and with a text document I can skip over that. Videos I can't, because I don't know where I'll end up when I skip ahead! But that's a pretty minor nitpick over such quality teaching.

Also, I may have slept through my alarm last night. Turns out I'm absolutely exhausted from my day job and I need to catch up on sleep or something weird like that.

Either way - I am looking to get in short on the Euro around the 1.2580 level (I see it just touched 1.2575 and sprinted away. I don't think I'm going to get my entry today, but I can deal). Hold that for my 20-30 pips, and call it a night.

Failing that - I'd like to get in on the cable around the 1.5720, maybe 1.5740. I doubt it'll reach there tonight either, so I'll probably be ignoring the Cable until it gets there (unless 1.5675 or so starts to look really juicy).

I'll do a better analysis tomorrow in-between bouts of Dragon Age.
 
Update:

No orders last night or this morning. 1.5670 on the cable was not really an option, and it didn't reach 1.5720/40 until just recently. Maybe tonight I'll grab a short in the cable, we'll see what my analysis says.
 
I said some overly critical things about Michael in the chat room last night - venting, had to get it off my chest, yadda yadda.

I take it all back. All of it. I just spent a couple hours this morning working on my order block analysis and it all makes sense now and I'm seeing dollar signs everywhere. SO EXCITED.
 
You zonked out before I could really explain the Hidden OTE.

It was really a way for Michael to hide certain concepts, but people always made the OTE to be more than it truly is: it was always just a Visual Guide. The Levels were the important part.

Oh, and I did check: yes, I've taken a real money trade (+70 pips) via a Hidden OTE. UJ managed to make it to 62% of the range retraced, but that wasn't the setup I used. ^_^

You're going to like the market maker stuff.

Edit: Be warned, since more than just me has been dealing with it: The Precision can get a little too good. SlugFX split a spread yesterday for a +90 day lost. I've left around 600 pips on the table the past 2 weeks by an average of 10 pips (over 5 trades). It's amazingly frustrating. :)
 
sqa said:
You zonked out before I could really explain the Hidden OTE.

It was really a way for Michael to hide certain concepts, but people always made the OTE to be more than it truly is: it was always just a Visual Guide. The Levels were the important part.

Oh, and I did check: yes, I've taken a real money trade (+70 pips) via a Hidden OTE. UJ managed to make it to 62% of the range retraced, but that wasn't the setup I used. ^_^

You're going to like the market maker stuff.

I knew it! Thanks for the confirming my bias ;)
 
If one was to go back through all of the examples of the Hidden OTE that ICT has shared, I imagine we could *now* pick out exactly what each of them worked from. In the main, they were always just shallow pull backs to, generally, a Higher Time Frame level. The "Big Fig" trade just happens to be the most common variety, of a few blended concepts.
 
I BET YOU THOUGHT I FORGOT ABOUT THIS!

I DIDN'T!

Things are looking to be bullish (at least in the near term) - long term support has been reached on both the Cable and Fiber (although I would like the Fiber to dip just slightly lower - down to around 1.7420 or so).

Gonna keep the trades tidy for the moment, just in case we get a nice little dip lower.

Looking to take a long around 1.5135 on the Cable, possibly down to 1.5125, see if I can't nab a few pips (OTE, OB, Stop raid - I know it was in the most recent video and it's convenient that it's all there already. Shut up.) We've also got the "power of 3" happening - price is dipping down into London open, which is typically a good sign for a bullish move for the day.

The only problem is you can make a really compelling argument for taking a short in the Euro, and a long on the USDX. I might keep it close to my chest today as well. Will update as things happen.

Side note - I didn't post this yesterday, but I took a long at 1.5110 that played out pretty well for me. +30 pips. A good welcome back to trading if I do say so myself!
 
Update:

I was half-right. Price did make a very nice bounce today, but not where I expected it to - 1.5080 was the buy instead. I should have stayed up just a little bit later!

As it stands, I am now up 25 pips so far this week. No complaints.
 
Plan for tonight:

SHORT THE CABLE AT OR SLIGHTLY ABOVE THE 1.5890 LEVEL.

See those three tops on a 15m chart? Lots of stops there. Likely to be raided. Order blocks at 1.5200 and 1.5210. Also an OTE at 1.5200. Overall? Even if I lose this trade, I'll be happy. It looks pretty solid to me.
 
Update:

Went short a 1.5211 - price came back and stopped me out at +1 pips.

Took another short (same level) - closed out at 1.5193 for + 8 pips.

Price wasn't breaking the 1.5190 level like I was looking for, so I figured I'd close the trade early before things went bad for me.

Update #2:

No more than two minutes after I posted that, price crossed 1.5190 and sprinted down. I would have my 30 pips right now had I not exited early. THERE IS SOME SWEARING HAPPENING.

Lesson learned. Trust my analysis. Hold on to trades. Especially when so many things line up in my favor.
 
Aarnog said:
30 pips/trade, so 1.5181 or so

Ah, okay. If you were going to sit in that trade for a run of the day, well, that wouldn't have worked out too grand. Still, profit is profit. And, sometimes, a short TP and going to sleep works out well.

Emphasis on a Short TP. /learned from experience.
 
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