Making this the best year of my life

As I mentioned earlier, after 2 years I have put my day trading activities on the back burner, or at least 2nd priority. I still keep an eye on the markets and put on some short to medium term option trades, but I don't devote my full 8 hours a day to trading. I look forward to being able to do that again in the future though and I have every intention of doing so.

In the meantime, I am very busy with my revived 3D animation company. We bought RenderFriend server farm for other 3D animators to use on a lease basis. What I'm focusing on right now is the lessons learned from a book I just finished reading called "The Best Year Of Your Life" by Debbie Ford. It's actually my wife's book but I picked it up and started reading it too. There are no new life lessons to be learned here, but sometimes it's nice reading someone else's perspective on things we already understand. It gives us a a different slant on things sometimes. Making this year the best year of my life doesn't equate to finances necessarily, it's the steps involved in moving forward, being better, becoming better by taking an active role in the things that you do, not a passive role. Of course it's so much easier to take the passive role and let life happen to you. I've certainly done that.

But in rebuilding my company, the important thing is to take an active role DOING something every day. Make the day count. Put out the effort by making a new contact, enhancing your advertising, even take time out 3 to 4 times a week to exercise. I need to do that because what good is any future success if I can't enjoy it in a worn out body that I haven't taken care of? Taking active steps on your list to do something every day that moves you closer to your goal is what makes the difference. So, I'm keeping very busy with these things, even when I don't feel like doing them... I always feel better afterwards.

How are YOU making money trading the markets?

OK, time to open up the forum for discussion about how you are trading the markets these days. We all know there is no such thing as a holy grail indicator that works all the time, it's a matter of finding your own suite of indicators and refining how you like to interpret them.

What are your favorite markets to trade these days? Futures, options, forex, stocks? What are the timeframes do you like to look at when trading? 5-minute chart, tick chart, hour or day? And best of all, what are the indicators you like to use, whether it be CCI, whether it be stochastics, MACD or any combination.

For me I have been looking closely at a variety of stochastic settings along with some moving averages for medium term stock trading. Holding for 1-3 weeks. I also utilize options in my retirement portfolio use the ThinkOrSwim tools to help screen through various option possibilities.

So, what works for you? All topics and methods are always welcome for discussion here without fear of being thumped on the head ;)

My daughter is in the "Twilight Movie"

OK, this may not totally be on topic with trading and money management and all of that, but hey, blogs can deviate right? Sure. And what dad wouldn't want to brag on his daughter when exciting stuff is happening in their lives. Well, first off, my daughter Bri is getting ready to graduate from college soon. She has applied to graduate study for a Master's degree at Portland State University and hopefully she will be accepted to get a Master's degree in Sociology. But as big as that is, the news of the month for her for sure has to be the fact that she got a part in the movie "Twilight" that they are filming near here. She has been working as an extra in the school scenes and doing lots of walk ons and stuff. This is being hyped as a pretty big movie like Harry Potter and there is already a ton of buzz about it. Anyway, she's had the time to hang with a couple of the main stars and see what it's like to sit around for hours upon hours waiting for a scene to get set. She has been filming it for the last couple of weeks and yesterday she had to show up on the set at 9:45 a.m., and didn't get a break until 1:30 a.m. the next morning. She got a few hours of sleep and then was back on the set again today and I probably won't see her until late late in the morning yet again. It's pretty fun and exciting stuff for her and she is jazzed beyond belief to have gotten the chance to be in it. Hopefully all of her scenes won't end up on the cutting room floor ;)

Is this REALLY front page news?

Everyday I peruse my morning news for issues and stories that impact my daily life. So I turn to trusted news sources such as CNN and MarketWatch. This morning I noticed that CNN had a story so important, that it HAD to be on the front page of their news site...no, I'm not talking about the war in Iraq or the recession (or possible recession), but the vitally important story about the actress Mary-Louise Parker breaking her engagement with actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Yes I know, I had to take a deep breath, take a shot of whiskey and sit back and ponder how my life will change with this bit of news. I know! They just got engaged earlier this year! Maybe I'm being too much of a stick in the mud, but it seems to me that front page news means something with some substance to it. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for celebrity gossip occasionally, but that's why I go to TMZ.com, not CNN front page news....sheesh.

Update on my involvement with Woodies CCI Club

Hello everyone, it's been a while since I've posted here and a lot of things changed in my life, but for the good I'm pleased to report. For the last 2 years I have been a moderator and full time trader within the Woodies CCI Club group. I have made the decision to leave that group 2 months ago after a number of revelations and truths have come to light about the system and about the leadership.

First of all, after 2 years of full time trading with WCCI, I simply could not make the system work for me. I felt bad that I just wasn't good enough, etc. But as I spoke with many many former moderators and some long time supporters who were among Woodies' inside circle, they all confided that nobody that they have ever met could actually make money with Woodies CCI system. Now, of course in the club they'll just talk about me as another loser who quit and gave up. They say that about everybody who leaves, even high leadership. But one clear fact remains, I have yet to talk to anybody in leadership or former leadership there that has ever made any money with it. Fortunately TradeLogger indeed help me mitigate many thousands of dollars of losses, but despite it, the WCCI just doesn't work, even in auto-trading. For 2 years I was blinded to this because the mantra being taught in the group is always based on the principle of "Do not doubt", "Do not ask questions" and most importantly "Do Not Think"...just react. So you are taught to keeping on trading, even though you are losing...if you question it then it's just YOUR doubts that are betraying you keeping you from being a winner. It's a very typical brainwash methodology I've seen in religion and in Amway.

Anyway, I couldn't continue to try to moderate and mentor people and contribute to providing false hope for those sincerely seeking a way. Every person that I was taught by in the club and respected have all left and have all confided in me that none of them every made any money. I also felt duped that I was promoting the Make-A-Wish charity so heavily, only to find out that no money for the last 3-4 years ever was donated. Profits from the seminars and tools that were so publicly touted as being slated for this charity never went. This information was verified by a former moderator hired by the group to write a book about WCCI to show them in a favorable light. After doing first hand investigations, he discovered that nothing was true that he had been told for many years. The group over there is really nothing more than a giant feeder site for the PFG Brokerage to sign up new accounts and start trading. Of course they make money if the trades are winners or losers so it works for them.

Anyway, I wanted to clarify that I no longer have an affiliation with them and feel tremendously bad that I may have helped to perpetuate the illusion that the system worked and that charities that were promoted as a means to entice people to buy, but in fact were not beneficiaries. I didn't know about this at the time until after I left, but I wanted to apologize to anyone that may have listened to me and lost money in the club. You can find other information from many many other former leaders there posted at: Trader's Paradise.

I do continue to use TradeLogger in my part time trading and find that I really do yield a benefit from drawdowns with it, and it will continue to always be free for all to use and benefit from.

Video tutorial - importing data into TradeLogger

Hello everyone. I have started creating some useful, narrated video tutorials about using TradeLogger. My hope is that these videos will help explain things about using this software in a much more clear way for those just getting started.

To check out all the video tutorials as they are uploaded, you can find them posted in the TUTORIALS section of TradeLogger's site.

I'm also posting them on YouTube for added convenience, but the ones posted on the TradeLogger site are much higher in resolution.

The first video is a two part look at Importing Data Into TradeLogger.
PART 1
PART 2

Please post your comments about how you like them, if they are helpful and what other topics would you like me to cover. Thanks for your support and good trading everyone.

Whippy Russell today made for a tough day

The Russell 2000 futures were pretty whippy today, taking out my stops on over half my trades leaving me with a down day. No big deal, but just didn't see that nice get-up-go follow through that I've been used to the last few days.

On another note, after meeting with several key people in Las Vegas, it looks very likely that TradeLogger may form a partnership with a few other charting packages such as TradeNavigator. This will allow charting packages with built-in front ends to talk directly to TradeLogger and automatically import trade data as it occurs in real time while you trade. It may also be possible to have TradeLogger control the switching of the front end between "sim" and "live" mode as the equity curve dictates. Details are still developing but it looks likely that TradeLogger will become even easier to use for traders.

Fantastic trading today using Range Bars

Today was simply a banner day trading using Woodies' CCI set against range bars instead of price bars. 3 winning trades on the YM. 16 trades overall and 15 winners. Not too bad. The way that the range bars smooth out the moves of the CCI and get you into trades much earlier have made this a fantastic method for trading. Woodie tested this setup for 9 months and finally revealed it to me in Las Vegas and I have to say that I think it beyond fantastic. Thanks Woodie and good trading.

Back from Vegas and ready to trade

Hi everyone, I just got back from a week in Las Vegas as a presenter at a Woodies CCI Seminar and had a simply fantastic time. I received a lot of great feedback for future enhancements for TradeLogger and met some of the nicest people in the world. Now that I'm back I'll be busy implementing some of these ideas for TradeLogger to make the program even better for traders to use in order to keep more money in their trading account. If you have any suggestions or comments please let me know by visiting www.tradelogger.net and contacting me. What a blast Vegas was, especially getting the chance to watch the Frontier Hotel implode...very cool. OK, we'll be talking with you all this week, take care and good trading.

Fixed a bug in TradeLogger version 2.3R

Hello all, a recent self-update to TradeLogger to version 2.3R fixed a bug which occurred when clicking on the SHOW# button. It used to draw both the "before" and "after" curve on the graph when it should only draw the "before". This glitch was remedied in this latest update. Good trading everyone!