It warms my heart to know this is possible!! There were two winning trades I didn't take because of a lack of confidence in the setup (not enough back testing yet), but even so, that would have only put a max of 80 ticks on the scoreboard - assuming I played them perfectly and squeezed out every tick.
1) Rarely will you have a 'perfect' trade 2) Rarely will you squeeze out every tick Do not make the assumption in your back testing that you will be a perfect trader taking perfect exits on the CL day in and day out. Today was a tough one for me at +45 gross/ct and it was a battle on the open to get it going. My point is that after many years of trading and focusing on the CL in recent years, you can't assume anything on this contract - esp that you will enter perfectly and exit perfectly.
It was not one of those quick easy days with big fast moves. I worked the channels through the day, from 10am to 2pm, and did some sim trading in between trying a few alternate channel trading tactics. I did better in sim because I'd placed a limit order, totally forgot about it while trading live, and later saw it was up about 40 ticks
Understood. I was just saying that even in a perfect world I wouldn't have done that well today. If it sounded like I was complaining or had unreal expectations, then I apologize. My goal for back testing is to identify setups that will 'probably' give me some wiggle room to manage the trade. After I'm comfortable with taking trades without hesitation, I'll focus on managing the trade. Baby steps. I'm such a nube right now that I consider it a success to swim with the sharks without loosing too much blood.
Taking my first long trade in god knows how long at .60. My guess is support at the 25 day ma. If we get down to 83.35 im closing and reversing because 82-81.50 looks like next area of support.
I'm just gonna take my small profit here, +22ticks the more headlines I read the worse I feel. I guess I should read the news before I start the day.
Where did BigHog's post go? Edit: possible dislocations in FX at 10:30 EST - Bank of England's governor speech. I know: trade what you see
sim long 83.11 SAR 83.04 Target between a test of .60 and a test of 84 flat - no adds, I think we have room to fall some more :15 stop to .19 (cancel SAR) and a new order to get short again at .04 Flipped at .31 (poor fill, but well, what can you do), stop .40 (+20 first leg of the trade). order now at .06 to add to the short position :23 stop to be at .31 (I "see" a buyer) stopped out be