Thanks, Picaso. It wasn't disbanded out of animosity or anything, just a couple of the roomies managing multiple accounts, and me soon to be testing some remote ATS monitoring stuff, we decided to take a break for better focus. I really appreciate everyone's live posts and I learn much from them, so I thought it would be nice to post a bit for the newer folks here to see some of my "tight stop" trading style and management (sometimes a little too much management, but this volatility today was nuts at times).
I was thinking about your post while I was away. The "hold for Monday close" thing seemed very risky over the weekend.
That's interesting about the "widen your stop and reduce size". I was thinking this same thing too while I was away. Didn't think of the QM option. Good point. And good points about the possible crisis resolution..............or not.
Got so caught up with trading ES, I forgot about this trade. Anyway, it's still open and I plan to hold it over the weekend. Depending on where it wants to go on Sunday night, the stop will be adjusted accordingly. Today's monster range looks a bit unreal and methinks there will be some selloff on Monday. We shall see.
Yes, as vol increases, decrease size definitely. Widen stop? Maybe. Note that if you operate on some sort of 3:1 reward/risk ratio or whatever, the profit target would increase by 3x the increase in the risk level, which may not be justified (i mean did vol jump 3x?) If the volatility becomes too much, you have to stop trading it.
Decreasing size might be difficult if you're only trading 1 or 2 lots, of course. The granularity effect.
I think this all depends on how the Mid East situation unfolds. But generally you're right that when there is such a huge move in a condensed amount of time there is a reversal. This is what I've seen anyway. Stay tuned.
I liked the idea of trading QM instead maybe that Picaso mentioned. A little safer. Of course the reward is reduced too when you're right. And as you say if it's too volatile I just let it go. I generally don't trade when there's an economic report coming out. Not too long ago I lost $2856 in a little over a minute trading 6 TF contracts (which I pretty much never do either) when the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Report came out and I forgot it was coming out. It's at a weird time, 6:55 PST. Prices just dropped in a blur in the Super DOM. A lot faster than I've seen CL move. The risks of the market.
I just saw a headline on Yahoo! Finance stating that today's selloff is attributable to Egyption unrest: "Stocks Retreat as Egypt Unrest Shakes Wall Street". Oh really?! I, on the other hand, think today's selloff in the stock market is politically driven to counter the $2.5 trillion spending cut bill introduced by the House Republican. This was the case with just about all of the previous corrections. At any rate, do you seriously believe political unrest in Egypt will have much impact on oil supply? If that were the case, then why isn't the market concerned about the possible Israeli/U.S. attack on Iranian nuclear facility? That should really disrupt the flow of oil. After all, Iran is the second largest OPEC producer. But more realistically, do you believe Uncle Sam will sit idly while Egypt goes down the drain and possibly igniting a fire that will engulf the entire Middle East? I think not. I know how highly the American government values democratic ideals like freedom of speech and whatnot (well who doesn't, especially when it serves one's own interest), but I will bet it will throw the good ol' democracy with the bathwater for capitalism--or money, to put it more bluntly.