Even better......another nice day to tallk about the holy grail!!!

It's Wednesday and the second day of trying to explain that first bar trade...I plan on doing this until all the examples that come up can be explained.....Today we had the first bar within the 2 point idea.....and the next bar did take out the high without taking out the low.....SO LONG IT IS!!!

It is not uncommon for the stoch to be overbought when the price pops thru on a lower time frame like the 70 tick that I use.....so we hold tight until it recycles back down and moves back up....and idea could be to use the as a way to adjust the first stop which would be 93.20 or so. Once the stoch gets to overbought again, the ideas of taking some off now apply. Once the stoch is overbought I like to watch the low of the last bar on the 70tick and when it's taken out, take half off and move to BE......which today was a small loser......yes no lunch money for me today....

BUT, I took the trade, managed it the best I could, stayed out of trouble and ready for my ideal setup which we will talk about later........

Good grief......nice day to start talking about trading ideas again.....

Well the first bar was within a 2 point range, so when the high was taken out without taking out the low of the first bar (setup bar), we went long, using the low plus a tick as the stop for our little out of the shoot trade....WELCOME back to the real world after a nice three day weekend....:)

Not to say that after a few days off, you won't be a little on edge to just lean into it, because you never really know ...DO YOU? Just after the entry, we move down to a 70 tick to manage the trade. When the stoch move to overbought, in this case, we take half off and move to BE which is (B). Now you could have used either one, since the first one didn't actually get above the 90 level, while the second one did. Once at BE, we just wait for the next pullback and pray we don't get taken out....which today we did at point (C).

So the bottom line is that we took the trade, we managed it, we stayed out of trouble and we made lunch money......just no dessert today for YOU!!!!!!

Tradin time all over again......

This week we are going to take a closer look at trade setups.....now of course, I only hope you do your own research and just don't lean into it. Because "you" are responsible for your own decisions......

My trading is divided into several areas......long term stocks, short term stocks from 5 to 21 days, selling some covered calls and during the day to keep busy some futures trading. This last area is were I would like to spend a little time this week. My trading is also divided into three different types of trade...the first is "MY" ideal load the boat the mother of all trade setups. Then when I am waiting for my ideal setup, I will do a scalp or two to keep my head in the game, so to speak. The last one is, of course, the first bar trade.

Why the first bar trade, you ask? Well, anyone would will really talk about their trading and be somewhat honest would tell you about the time it didn't matter what they did....they only lost money. They would tell you about being in a chat room and trying to follow some market guru and they only lost money. About buying some stuff or attending a workshop and only lost money. It didn't mater what they tried....they only lost money. Well, I had that period of time also, in fact, I think I might have had that at least once a year for a period of time for the last 9-10 years.

I would sit at my desk, afraid to pull the trigger, because in my gut I knew it would fly back in the my face, late entry, not taking profits, you name it...then as the day wore on I found myself in a panic....I needed to take a trade because after all I was a trader...RIGHT? You guessed it, more trouble, after dinner I would look back and go....WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!!!!!! Then one day, I decided the I had had enough, I would just take the breakout of the first bar and manage it. So let's me explain the trade. Tomorrow, I will take the breakout of the first bar on a 3m chart, if it takes out the low and the high of the first bar I will pass and if the opening bar is more the 2 points, I will pass. So let's see what happens.

Everything is back up and running.....so let's do it again

Well, it's been a long time coming but today, with the markets closed, we were able to find the problem. It seems that someone and we won't mention any contractors by name but while using a drill they hit an USB cable that was connected to the scanner. SO with new cables in place we can again scan thousands and thousands of pictures.

I have had a couple of comments about "nothing here and I'm leaving and never returning again". Hey, just glad you are moving on to bigger and better things...I have heard that the Woodchipper has a new and exciting program.....yada, yada, yada.

He said.....She said.......

>

Ready for a new Congress....maybe not!!!

Perhaps it's time for old folk to get organized and let the administration and Congress know it'd be nice if our senior citizens could get the same considerations as illegal aliens routinely receive from the government.

5 million of our older Americans have not signed up yet for their Medicare, Part D, drug plan------they are old and confused.

We are NOT going to grant them an extension.

However, 12 million illegal aliens are in our country and we are going to allow them to stay, protest, procreate, receive support monies, attend schools, avoid paying income taxes, have our teachers take 300 hours of ESL(English as a Second Language) training at our expense, etc.

So the people that worked their behinds off to build this country get the shaft while those who are sucking it dry can get whatever they want.

Mid Life Crisis I think......

When I was married 25 years, I took a look at my wife one day and said, "Honey, 25 years ago, we had a cheap apartment, a cheap car, slept on a sofa bed and watched a 10 inch black and white TV, but I got to sleep every night with a hot 25 year old blonde. Now, we have a nice house, nice car, big bed and plasma screen TV, but I'm sleeping with a 50 year old woman.

It seems to me that you are not holding up your side of the bargain." My wife is a very reasonable woman. She told me to go out and find a hot 25 year old blonde, and she would make sure that I would once again be living in a cheap apartment, driving a cheap car, sleeping on a sofa bed and watching a 10 inch black and white TV.

Aren't older women great. They really know to solve a mid-life crisis...

Test for the new year.....

Beginning after the 2nd, this blog will be back in business with tons of new pictures and of course, some interesting market crapola....I've been saving everything.....ROTFL.

Finally got it back up and running again

So, there I was having a computer I bought back in 1997 having problems remembering who it was, where files were, what operating system it was suppose to be and totally confused. I lost about half of blog files and forget about asking it to scan anything in.....pics...I have thousand now, WHY scan more the message would pop up.
Was I in 2001 A Space Oddity...and Hal was in charge?

I finally broke down and bought some new machines for the new office....no pictures of that....YET!, first I have to get a banner made that says, "NO, This is not the super computer system that Steve Matrix uses." Then maybe I'll post it....ROTFL.

Anyways, the blog is back in business I guess, and finally also figured out how to upload pics, since the program I was using is out of business, thanks Google.
SO stay tuned, as soon as I figure out how to load from my camera....well you know!!!

IF THEY HAD ONLY LISTENED TO THEIR MOTHERS…

IF THEY HAD ONLY LISTENED TO THEIR MOTHERS…
“I’m warning you John, if you continue hanging around with that boy,‘Carrot Top’, you’ll botch your career.”…..
Mrs. John Forbes Kerry

“Listen to me, Brittany; get hooked with FedEx not K-Fed.”…..
Mrs.Spears

“Stop playing with fireworks Stevie or the National Fireworks Association will be knocking on the door. Let me tell you, you don’t want trouble with the NFA.” …..Mrs.Matrix

“Young lady, if you continue making those faces, it will stay that way and you’ll like Edvard Munch’s, The ‘Scream’."…..
Mrs.Pelosi

“I don’t care how many Disney characters the Swartz’s have on their shower curtain, there’s a special on with flamingos at Woolworth’s and that’s that.”…..
Mrs.Kozlowski

“Mark, sweetie, don’t fight with your sister, Santa brought you the train set, the Betsy Wetsy doll is for her.”…..
Mrs. Foley


“Teddy can’t you build something else other than bridges with that Lego set.” …..
Mrs. Rose Kennedy.

“Daniel, how many times must I tell you, ask your brothers’ if you can borrow their bicycles, don’t just take them.”…..
Mrs.Baldwin

“George, it’s time for someone from the ‘Sunshine State’ to become President.” …..
Mrs. Barbara Bush, 1999

“Listen to your mother, George, it’s time someone from the ‘Sunshine State’ became President.”…..
Mrs. Barbara Bush, 2003

“George! It’s time someone…oh, what’s the use…”…..
Mrs. Barbara Bush, 2006

“Son, even though you have GI Joe you’re still outnumbered by your sister’s eight
Barbie dolls, even Ken couldn’t help.”…..
Mrs. Rumsfeld

“I don’t think it’s very funny to call the University of Wisconsin Badgers a bunch of
Cheese Head, who can’t even stand up on their on two feet, Joe."…..
Mrs. Paterno

“That Daley boy seems like such a nice you young man, I don’t know why you have to run off to Arkansas, Hillary, dear.”…..
Mrs. Rodham

“Stop the whining Harry, the Monopoly board only has Atlantic City properties, they don’t have Las Vegas.”…..
Mrs. Reid

“If you want to make the Leafs, you should be out in the backyard practicing on the rink you’re father built for you, Stephen. If you don’t, you’ll end up working for Conrad Black or be Prime Minister, now you don’t want that, eh?”…..
Mrs. Harper

“I think the team should be named after Benjamin Franklin’s original idea for our
national bird, the Philadelphia Turkeys.”…..
Mrs. Lurie

“Katie, take those ridiculous fake glasses and mustache off, you don’t look at all
like Mr. Cronkite.”…..
Mrs. Couric

JAB

A case for using your seat belt!!!!

So what kind of a day did you have today? Did you take that 50 CCI ZLR at around 1:00pm......or was it the first bar trade today and you went to the kitchen for a snack without having a stop in? Did you take the three bar breakout and watched a rally pop in your face?

Three small moves today and a lot of time in a channel to get in trouble.....but if you had used good money management rules, instead of jumping all over the back seat and hanging out the window barking at the girls.......well you would be in fine shape.

Now sit down and always wear your seat belt.....ROTFL

A close call yet again.....

It was August 1, 2006 the day before the first year anniversay of the house fire and we were a little nervous about things anyways as my wife and son drove up to our house we live in. They were following a truck from 84 Lumber as they approached the driveway, then it happened. The truck caught one of the electric line hanging across the road and snapped the light pole in half and pulled several others pole over.


The pole in front of our house fell like a lead balloon and just missed landing on top of her car. The electric, phone, cable, night security lights and my T-1 line laid on the road in a pile of trash.


As my family sat in the car, I got the first call about one of the electric cables laying over the car....DON'T OPEN THE DOOR....DON'T GET OUT!!!!!!!.
I told a screaming wife......just relax and call 911....and NOW!!!!!


Within 3 minutes, there were cops, firetrucks and rescue trucks lining the street we live on.....sirens everywhere. After they cut the power down at the main road, they said she could exit....being the smart little cookies she is...she said, "Could you open the door?" They did and everyone got out.


Then the street really got filled up with electric company trucks, Bellsouth and the Charter....along with supervisors and so on.....it was a mess as 4 poles had to be replaced and it took until 4:30am to get everything back on again.

So again we are lucky that no one was hurt....very lucky, this is one reason that I haven't been blogging as much lately...

Daytrading the S&P500 Futures - 101

Daytrading or trading in general has a lot of problems if you are interested in making money....your ego, fear of losing so you can't take the trade, greed falls into play that doesn't allow you to hold on to a winner, stress of being wrong yet again, stress from watching your account slowing go in the wrong direction, thinking that someone else is making a killing while in a chat room and so on, believing that you are "just" one more filter away from paradise.

All these things will stand in your way, some sooner then others but they will and I'm sure that most reading this would agree. Trading isn't about "trading with an opinion", it's about finding a few things that can shift the odds in your favor. During my time giving workshops and speaking at Trader's Expos, I have shown the roulette wheel and talked about playing just the red and black. Of course that game is a 50/50 deal...and the casino is not greed, but 50/50 is also nothing to make money with either. Then they had the problem of risk, at the Horseshoe Casino a player was able to let it ride for 33 spins and set a new world's record. Without control on the risk side the casino would have had a new owner, plain and simple.

SO, they add two greens and stuck a small sign on the table that said...the max bet was 100 bucks or 200 bucks or whatever. The odds went from 50/50 to 53/47 and even if you could set the new record of 34....the most you would walk away with is 34 x's the limit. The bottom line is you want to develop your style of trading and be the casino instead the moron that goes there thinking they will walk away with pocket full of gold.

Trading with an opinion can also be deadly, you can trick yourself into seeing things that really are not there so you execute on your opinion. Take a look at the volume of contracts traded at the CME each day....SP, ND, YM and the ER.


Something like four and a half MILLION.....contacts. Yea that is right....4,500,000 contracts and you are trading what? A two lot, a couple times a day???? And you believe that the market gives a damn about "YOUR" opinion......GET REAL BABY!!!!!

What I have found over the past 10 years is the more education you have...the worse you will be at trading. Engineers and doctors are at the top of the list when it comes to trading because they actually believe they are smarter then the rest of the us, which is fine with me, because I need someone to handle my order flow. Now some people have given me a little grief when it comes to busting and straight talking about you being my order flow.......but it's reality.

So the first thing is park the ego, after all it's not really me against you or you against "them", you will find it's just you against yourself.

Drywall baby....just get'r done....PLEASEEeeeee!!!

I am going to try and get this blog back on track and also get the house construction up to date.....a lot has been going on the past three weeks as we are racing to the finish.....I can actually see it now. The drywallers have finished the second floor....with 3 coats...


It's now time to go back and look for those little nicks and bumps that the drywallers never quite get done.....


After the three coats of mud was sanded to a slick finish, they ran a sweeper over the walls, ceiling and then the floor before the primer went on.


The theater room is ready for primer after the roof was cleaned.....the open area will be for 4-32" flat screens and a 65" flat screen to watch 5 channels of football ....and SOON!!!!!.....ROTFL


After priming the walls and ceiling they started to cut in the ceiling with a color that the feng shui guru picked out.....so I am in harmony with.....I guess sound waves..


The Jack Daniels pool room is also ready for painting, the beam logs where covered and taped just in case someone is messy.....


I asked the guys to finish the exercise area with an old fashion plaster look.....well these guys are in their 20's and they never used anything but a spray gun and did knock down. So they took several pieces of scrape and worked it until they found a style I could learn to love.......


With 12 foot ceiling in the house, the amount of plaster on the floor is measured in 5 gallon buckets to the dumpster. Twenty buckets on the wall.....one to the dumpster.


The drywaller are ready to finish the exercise area......the boxes above the windows are for flat screens...a total of 3 so you can watch Maria, F-troops and the Adams Family at the same time....just going to be hard to tell which is which.....

Where have you been??? What no updates, no trading.....

After nearing two years, I got a phone call.....FINALLY. The fellow on the other end worked with Disney as a designer/animator and was going to take his vacation and head up to the Smoky mountains for two weeks. He wanted to know if I still was looking for someone to do some custom work, which he could do while here.


The garage areas has 13 foot plus ceiling that are painted purple, and the walls are painted a bright orange.....so it would only be natural to have 69 Camaro busting thru the wall...RIGHT?

I also wanted a 34 Ford red pickup done in another area and those who actually know me know that I have a big Disney character collection. This collection will be displayed in the theater.....so for the past 10 days or so I have been busy from 8am to 9-10pm working with this artist. I will be posting some wild pics as soon as they come back.....but what a great week or so building a dream........you know, "When you wish upon a star, ain't no different who you are...blah, blah, blah."

Those sneaky Marines...look closely

THOSE SNEAKY MARINES.........
Look Close......


According to the radical mullah's and recent teachings in the Wadahi schools, the birthplace of the Taliban and a major recruitment source for al-Queda, if a muslim sees a naked woman--- they are supposed to kill themselves or they can't go to heaven.




Whether true or not, you know it's good for the Marines morale to play mind games with the enemy.
Ya got to love the Marines!

Tile by the pallet load

Everyday now the tile is piling up by the pallet load as we have started the run to the finish......


The doggie bath, will be tiled with 2 by 2 inch natural slate.....there must be 20 different colors in each square foot speed sheets. The reason we are calling this a doggie bathroom is because "WHEN" not if, they roll in some mud somewhere, this will be where they get a shower with an adjustable shower head. Also if the "BOY" comes home from dirt bike riding, his mother will stick him in here before he gets loose in the house...ROTFL.


Since we have started to finish the house, once the drywaller move out of one floor and move to the next one, there is no cutting inside the house. A wet saw is used to cut tiles along with a hand held cutting tool for circles....


The bathroom/shower in the first floor apartment is also being worked on, here we are using a collection of green tinted 1 by 1 inch green tiles. They have installed a rubber mat under the shower as they built the shower base. Once finished with tiles, it is normal for water to drain thru the grout and into the base, so a rubber barrier is installed to direct the water into the drain.


Once the base is finished, the tiles are cut and set to finish out the base.....


The entire vanity wall has been installed and grouted, the camera is not kind to colors of the tile....but what can you do??? Heating elements were installed under the floor so the floor will be nice and warm during the winter months....


A dark green row of tile is used against the wall with a lighter green tile being installed in the center with a 4 inch decor tiles in between....


The cap pieces or trim pieces add the finishing touches....


The camera did a crap job with the colors, but it looks great...now let's paint them walls...

It was just another day....until 9:13pm

ON August 2nd, 2005 at 9:13pm the first 911 call came into the emergency management center in Sevierville, we got the call while on vacation in Spain within 20 minutes that our dream was going up in smoke.


We arrived back home on Sunday and it was still going up in smoke, a year and a half of work laided on the concrete 2nd floor.


The crown jewel of the house, a 46 foot tree laid over on it's side.


The second floor deck railing that was handmade by a couple of college guys laid on their sides, half burned......The fireplaces were melted into the floor.....


Nothing but burned posts and beams along with a mountain of scaffolding was all that remained....


The first floor was protected by the concrete pre-stressed panels and had little damage.


The crane and a highlift were also destroyed, the temp electric meter burned off it's post, and the trailer that had delivered roof trusses on Monday had it's tires melted.......


While the Fire Marshall worked thru the remains, we finished the bridge so we could start the cleanup...and there was over 100 pieces of scaffolding that ended up in the dumpster.


We brought in another crane to lift what was left of the posts and beams that had been cut to 6-8 lengths. What a mess.....


Once everything was removed, my son and I personally power washed the second floor down.....it took us three days....it was a personal thing at this point.


Even as we continued to clean the second floor, it was day 21 when the first wall went back up. 5 days for the fire to be declared out, 5 days for the Fire Marshall to release the house back to us......and 7 days to fix the back retaining wall....and it's was it to get back to business.


We still don't know how this happened, but after the fire we found these pics, with the roof over the great room being installed, and the guys cleaning up after the fire.


While one worker is handing up boards from the second floor, the Fire Marshall is picking thru the mess...


Lots of questions......but in reality there can only be one outcome...to press forward....with no retreat and no surrender.


While standing their talking to the guys about rebuilding and when we would get back on track, I looked up and saw a rainbow and their was no doubt in my mind. REBUILD it, but this time built it better, built it without shortcuts, without taking away but only increasing the value of the outcome. We all agreed and to this day they are still working on the dream.....

YOU never ever give up on a dream