============ For example wouldn't even try to get any or 20 points on YM this afternoon, looked slightly siweways slop ; probably some of the best scalpers could have. So didn't have any problems with exits on YM this afternoon. Take a load off your mind osho67; can either exit to early or too late, not any or not many hit it exact. However would wisely generally snug up stops[obviously might not work for me on like this afternoon, since didn't enter YM then] However when its obvious that one misreads market & it turns out to be a trend day, like YM ,ER2,ES just don't pull back much, for example on FEB 14. Plan works to reenter again. If you played football, & not sensitive to pain; probably could work something out ''holding thru the pain'' One ER2 trader called it ''holding thru the pain'' Would rather give CME,BOT or Eurex- US ,an extra commission or 2; could be less pain unless you missed all the trends.
This is a great question actually, and one which vexes many a trader. While there obviously is no "one size fits all" answer, there are a number of options that you can try out to see how they feel when you are trading (I'd start with "paper", as you should when trying anything new). Three Different Options: 1. When you get 2.00/20 pts ES/YM, move your stop to breakeven +1 tick (commissions and slippage), and let the trade ride until price crosses over a predetermined Moving Average Study (20ema/34ema, 18sma/40sma, 4ema/18ema, etc. - you have to experiment to determine what "works for you"). 2. When you get 2.00/20 pts ES/YM, move your stop to breakeven +1 tick (commissions and slippage), and let the trade ride until price hits 3.50/35 pts ES/YM, have your stop trail by 8 ticks, and move-up every 4 to 8 ticks (this type of stop trailing works when great when you have a software like NinjaTrader (no plug, just giving info)). 3. When you get 2.00/20 pts ES/YM, move your stop to breakeven +1 tick (commissions and slippage), and then just let the trade ride for the rest of the day. While the financial indices do trade back-and -forth more than 50% of the time, the other 40+% (give or take) you will catch some really sweet moves, where you just sit back and count your chips, like we had today! (in the ES and NQ) Best of Luck! Jimmy
same here partner 0.5 to 2 points exit target on ES works for me. "It has been my experience that you come out about the same." I assume u were talking about comparison to holding until more points are gained in 1 trade in relation to 3-4 trades that same day.
The title of this thread with the word best is already the wrong approach unless we knew exactly what got you into the YM, ER2 or ES trade. Thus, your exit strategy should be related (based upon similar approach) with your entry strategy to maintain some sort'uv coherent flow in your overall trading methodology. My point, YM going up 20 points today will not be the same reason why YM went up 20 points yesterday nor the same reason why YM will go up 20 points after 0930am est nor the same reason why YM goes up 20 points in the overnight trading session. Simply, when you understand the price action of YM (the why) when it does move 20 points in your favor... You will know when to hold longer for more because it has a high probability chance to continue in your favor or when to take that 20 because it has a high probability chance of retracing. Thus, its flawed to only look at some fixed number like 20 points without even discussing the price action that involved the 20 point movement. In fact, there's a few traders that responded in this thread that are aware intraday price cycles or market seasonal tendencies about YM... Reason why I said a 20 point movement today is a lot different than the 20 point movement on a different trading day. Therefore, the best approach starts with learning to understand the price movement of YM in comparison to concentrating on some fixed number like 20, 30, 40 or whatever. You don't need to know the answer every single trading day...just most of the times or when it matters the most. Mark (a.k.a. NihabaAshi) Japanese Candlestick term