Dave from Sydney's Journal [Awarded Title: the Box-Trader]

[Dave]

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[immy]

Dave from Sydney! before you put your picture here is what I saw on my chart... oh yes, I SAW THE DA! (but did not trade it as I was trading Dax on m1)

[Dave]

That's it, Immy. Perfect setup. At the time I closed it too early, wasn't in the now, took it off in the W5 TZ and then W5 became W3. But a nice setup all the same!
Cheers

[Dave]

Didn't go anywhere, but a genuine M5/M1 setup nonetheless. I was 'hoping' M1 W5 would turn into W3, but it didn't so I had to trail M1 for a small net winner. GU was the one, but I didn't take it, cya tomorrow

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[immy]

Perfect!

[Dave]

Without speaking out of line, if anyone wants to know how to trade AIMS then this picture is everything you need. Perfect!
Print it. Put it on your bathroom mirror. Save it as your desktop background. Look at it when you're on the toilet.

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[Dave]

A little excerpt from an article in the Australian Financial Review.... just for interest.

"Richard started out as an options dealer at Schroders before spending time in the notorious bank bills pit on the Sydney Futures Exchange. In 1990 he returned to university and, as part of his thesis, immersed himself in the ­mind-boggling mathematical strand of chaos theory and fractals.
Fractals are curious natural ­phenomena that mathematicians and ­scientists are only just beginning to understand. They are essentially ­common repeating patterns that occur on every scale. Zoom in on a branch and that twig will have a similar pattern. Zoom in on some ocean rocks, snowflakes, leaves, crystals, lightening bolts, mountain ranges and market prices, and fractals are found.
Grinham’s own study of fractal-like patterns and non-linear dynamics helped him to unlock part of the market’s great secret – which price movements were random and which were non-random and thus predictable. The basis of his system was to identify through fractal patterns when markets transitioned into a non-random states.
While Grinham was turning his academic work into a market-beating trading system, star futures traders such as Paul Tudor Jones, John Henry and George Soros were setting up CTAs as precursors to the modern hedge fund.
Many had discovered the axiom “the trend is your friend” and built systems that made money on the basis of prices sustaining moves in a given direction.
But the Grinhams were isolated at the other end of the world, which meant they were able to identify ­patterns and trends the northern hemisphere didn’t.....

.... So far, 2014 has been another grind. The fund is on a meagre 2 per cent gain. Volatility, as measured by the VIX fear index is as low as it has ever been. There’s been a record run of more than 60 days when the major market indices haven’t moved by more than 1 per cent. These clear skies have forced Mitchell and the team to batten down the hatches and wait for storms to return.
“Our strategy tends to do well during periods of rising volatility, so at other times our challenge is to preserve capital,” Mitchell says.
“The real skill for us is to manage our risk and make sure we aren’t losing money when volatility is falling. Opportunities will present themselves and we prefer to be making new profits rather than making up lost ground.”
While Boronia may be winning the plaudits, what they really want is for the markets to heat up. When the markets will transition to a state of disorder has become the trillion-dollar question.
“Anyone that says they can predict volatility is kidding themselves,” Mitchell says.
“But in 2005-6 there were people predicting that the periods of high volatility would not return – then 2008 happened. Volatility could stay low for a long time but it tends to act like a spring after long periods of contraction.” "

[kooky]

WOW Dave, after struggling with Aims and giving Immy Grief for 2 years, all to no avail, it sounds like Sir Immy is before his time and I'm as dumb as Dogsh*t.
kooky

[Dave]

Kooky, you're not dumb. Believe in yourself and in the content of the AIMS system and you can be successful. But if you're here because trading is a hobby then so be it, but don't ever put money into an account because it's an expensive hobby! If you're here to learn and grow and become a trader and make money then start a journal, show us pictures of your entries and we will help. If you are too embarrassed to put a picture of an entry then that's probably a sign that it's a shithouse entry! Don't judge yourself by the outcome of an individual trade. Take 1000's of trades that all look exactly the same and convince yourself of the method.
We talked months ago in the chat room about how good we think we are as traders out of a possible 5. I reckon I'm a 1.5. But I've progressed from a 0 to a 1.5 with years of dedicated chart watching and trading and hammering into myself the necessary traits to be a successful trader. Hopefully one day I'll get to 2, and then 3, and maybe even 4, but it won't happen without hard, dedicated work.
I met a guy last week who works for an investment company similar to the one described in the article above. His job, along with a team of highly intelligent traders and computer programmers, is to identify probable setups in the market and to build computer programs to trade the setups. This company spends millions on their staff and their reserch every year and is successful. Do you think you're going to beat this company to the prize in a zero sum game without the same level of application and sweat investment!?
I hope to see some pictures of your charts and trades this week.
Sorry for the rant.

[bambino45]

It's a great point Dave, I had a lot of people come to me in the past asking what works and what doesn't and it's the same answer. People will not find what they need in a system. Not initially anyway, what you're looking for is always inside yourself. Once you've found that then the system will take care of itself.
Immy has rightfully always advocated and emphasised the importance of the human and trading psychology.

If you consider your example of self scoring out of 5 you'll probably agree that to progress up that scale is as much to do with mastery of oneself as it is following a methodology or becoming a better analyst.

One thing I know for certain is that this forum is a great portal for improvement in lots of areas not just with the technical aspects of trading. If you've been trading a system for two years without achieving pre defined goals then you have a lot to consider. One other thing I know as fact is that if you do not take this 100% professionally you will fail. I consider it my business because it is, so just like a business I run it to the best of my ability. It's easy to be tardy with it but it's a fatal trap and as you say Dave, an expensive hobby. Not only that but an expensive way to find out who you are or perhaps who you are not.