Had another "family" weekend here. Everyone loves seeing the baby, and we had a good time. Unfortunately, it takes away from my studying time. I went back to paper trading on Friday and continue so today. Actually, I've never left paper and there's no reason to leave paper at this precise moment. My loss on last Thursday was a fluke in every sense of the word, and the only argument I have for taking real trades right now is to immediately attempt to make up what I lost. That, to me, is a bad reason for taking a trade, real or fake.

The schedule I had in mind was at least 2 months of studying and simulation trading. That was the first week of August, so I'll revisit this upcoming weekend where I am, and whether I'm ready to do dive back in (or at least dip a toe).

For whatever reason, I'm having a seriously hard time picking up setups. My daily trading plan is to "limit" myself to 10 trades a day, and it's been a challenge to find those 10. The urge to invent trades is strong, though my (mostly) refraining has been the thing I'm most proud of the past few weeks. The post-Labor Day pick up has been a bust so far. Blame it on whatever: oil, the War, the election, mixed gov't numbers, etc.

Last Friday: 10 trades (7-3-0) for +$35 (-$47.32 comm)
Half day today: 2 trades (2-0-0) for +$100 (-$9.60 comm)

I've been experimenting with chart settings again, which indicates my current boredom and frustration with the market and my progress. My latest thing has been to add CCI "ribbons" by adding a 34 ema, 50 CCI, 70 CCI and Fisher Transform to Woodie's setup. It makes for mighty purty lines. A nice rainbow of things crossing and bouncing off each other. Maybe there's something significant and useful in there. I won't bother showing it here unless it proves more than just novel.

Kiwi Trader seems to also have been bitten by the bug to improve the CCI. He has come up with a CCI2 (found at http://www.e-minitraders.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=929) using a CCI based on the 20 ema, rather than the regular 14 sma. I think what we're both trying to do is to "fix" a market that's been plagued by prolonged flatness and lack of follow-thru.