I got some crude sim trading in today since real money equites were not that exciting. Basically to keep me from pressing buttons in a day when I was bored! lol Trade 1---- long above 98.25 to resume uptrend, closed at .14, should have been closed at .18-.17 area. 2 x -12 ticks trade 2---- short at 97,95 to continue downtrend, stopped at 98.02. 2x -8 ticks trade 3, starting to gamble which is not good. short at 98.03, actually was green but it did not break down. closed at even. trade 4----long at 98.12, green a little bit...but could not push higher, closed at 98.09, 2 x -3 ticks trade 5--short 2 at 98.03, add 1 short at 97.94= 98 average. closed 2 at 97.79, and 1 at 97.80. 2x 21 ticks, 1x 19 ticks. should have let the 1 contract ride back to .90 and look to add another below .85. But thats sort of after the fact trading.
You've got the right idea! Work on your entries, you're chasing a bit and CL's not forgiving in that regard if you're a scalper.
I was doing my best to stick to the trend following, I must admit...its not easy to take trades when your first 4 dont work and you are -45 ticks. Also I should not have quit trading after I made it all back. another good entry at 97.70-.67 area at 12.15. I'm not sure if I am a scalper or not, hence the reason I like 2 contracts. 15-20 tick target on the first...and let the second one go for 35-45 tick target, but those 2 contracts chew your PnL if you get the first 4 trades wrong. Not sure if letting 1 contract for a larger target works enough to be worth it in the long term, ( will study those probabilities if I consider trading crude with real money) And thanks again for continuing to post here NoDoji, you have taken some serious heat in the past, not sure if I would have stuck around!
This has taken forever. I didn't end up selling the 98 call until this morning for a whopping 2.24 and now I'm thinking about buying it back because we should drift up a little as we form the right shoulder on this hourly h&s top we a making. Now that I think about it it seems like it would be more efficient to just exit the short now, wait for it to drift up then get short at a better price and then if if breaks the neck line add to the short. I'm proud that at no point throughout these 5 days I haven't added to the loser.
This is why I'm all in/all out. I can't figure out how to make the R:R work well for me. I've even had detailed lessons (with full illustrations) from an ET-er regarding scaling/adding to winners and I wasn't comfy with it. I like to just ring the cash register often and cut the losses quickly
In equities I have a good money management system which allows me to trade at 40% wins sometimes and still make profits. lol so that naturally makes me want to scale out on crude...not sure if that is the best way. right now its just for fun/practice because I rarely trade equities after 1130am. If I work on something else I dont get bored and do something dumb with the stocks.