Trader Mark McRae was asked by David Jenyns what the things are that he likes to see to make him want to get into the perfect trade.
David: I'd like to find out what are some buy triggers that you look for, I mean obviously there are hundreds of different ways to get into a trade. What are some of the things that you like to see for you to want to get into a trade?
Mark: Well, you know, I'm much more comfortable in longer time periods, and one of my students, a chap I've been talking to lately, is a very good trader, but he trades five-minute -- he trades very small time frames and he's burning out. I think it's very hard to trade a live account on a small time frame for more than six months. Maybe even three months without a break. But at some stage, you go crazy.
It wasn't until later on that I became successful in the smaller time frames, but I sort of went from five minutes to thirty minutes, to an hour, to four hours, and I became very comfortable at four hours, and then recently over the last year or two, I've become very comfortable with daily charts. And I think also because now I'm more comfortable with much larger stocks. But what gets me into a trade? And also that evolution is I don't rely so much on indicators anymore.
There's a lot more in price action. So, if, for example, there is a two-bar reversal or a reversal of a particular formation of bars, a particular juncture in that trend, then that gets me into a trade. I keep a record of every time a particular formation - how successful it was, and also I'm very choosy. I mean, one of the other problems I see with new traders is they feel a compulsion to trade every day, and the market just doesn't always give you a trade. There might be something happening, the market's dead, there's no volume in the market. There is often a reason you can't trade. It's more important that you wait for the perfect trade.
So, I'm over the compulsion now of my trading. If I only trade once a week, or once a month, or however often, but that one trade is perfect. One of the things I found that helped me and I think would help everybody who trades, is when you see that perfect trade or you have that perfect trade, print it out.
I used to have a library of trades, so whenever I was taking a particular formation, lets say it was a double bottom for example, a breakout of a double bottom, or a re-test would be better as a much higher probability of a trade, I would flip through ten or fifteen previous ones I've printed out just to remind myself what that should look at.
At the hard right edge, it doesn't look like it does a week later. Because you can't always see it so and that's saved me many times because I'd say okay, that doesn't look quite good, and so number one, it has to have a particular formation, it has to lineup just the right way, just the right time, and it must look a certain way for a high probability and that gets me into the perfect trade. - 31876
David: I'd like to find out what are some buy triggers that you look for, I mean obviously there are hundreds of different ways to get into a trade. What are some of the things that you like to see for you to want to get into a trade?
Mark: Well, you know, I'm much more comfortable in longer time periods, and one of my students, a chap I've been talking to lately, is a very good trader, but he trades five-minute -- he trades very small time frames and he's burning out. I think it's very hard to trade a live account on a small time frame for more than six months. Maybe even three months without a break. But at some stage, you go crazy.
It wasn't until later on that I became successful in the smaller time frames, but I sort of went from five minutes to thirty minutes, to an hour, to four hours, and I became very comfortable at four hours, and then recently over the last year or two, I've become very comfortable with daily charts. And I think also because now I'm more comfortable with much larger stocks. But what gets me into a trade? And also that evolution is I don't rely so much on indicators anymore.
There's a lot more in price action. So, if, for example, there is a two-bar reversal or a reversal of a particular formation of bars, a particular juncture in that trend, then that gets me into a trade. I keep a record of every time a particular formation - how successful it was, and also I'm very choosy. I mean, one of the other problems I see with new traders is they feel a compulsion to trade every day, and the market just doesn't always give you a trade. There might be something happening, the market's dead, there's no volume in the market. There is often a reason you can't trade. It's more important that you wait for the perfect trade.
So, I'm over the compulsion now of my trading. If I only trade once a week, or once a month, or however often, but that one trade is perfect. One of the things I found that helped me and I think would help everybody who trades, is when you see that perfect trade or you have that perfect trade, print it out.
I used to have a library of trades, so whenever I was taking a particular formation, lets say it was a double bottom for example, a breakout of a double bottom, or a re-test would be better as a much higher probability of a trade, I would flip through ten or fifteen previous ones I've printed out just to remind myself what that should look at.
At the hard right edge, it doesn't look like it does a week later. Because you can't always see it so and that's saved me many times because I'd say okay, that doesn't look quite good, and so number one, it has to have a particular formation, it has to lineup just the right way, just the right time, and it must look a certain way for a high probability and that gets me into the perfect trade. - 31876
