lol I will explain it for the third time. Previous winners scored gains over 100%. I cannot generate those returns in a one week competition if limited to monthly options so there is no point in wasting the effort.
Mmm, ok. You are who you are, no more no less. Groovy. I admire your self-honesty. You have identified who you are, and know what you can and cannot do within timeframes. That's a darn admirable thing to do. Maybe the CME will have in the future, a monthly options-linked contest. I need to see that action.
Any tips for someone trying to trade futures, and hedge with options for the first time? Abandon all hope ye who enter my brain?
In this contest? Convert long/short swing trades into synthetic straddles. Fly them off at edge and wait for the next signal. Not what I planned to do. The winner isn't going to be anyone trading the Dec20 vol. I suppose that I might give it a try but it's unlikely that I can do better than 40-50% and that won't place me on the podium. The upside is that the Dec vol will only have two weeks to exp. I need those MWF expirations to do better than 100%. I'll probably just treat my IRA balance as the "contest."
@Overnight seems to me like destriero is still doing it basically but with real money. The simulator's shit. It's already glitching out. It was working fine but now I can't click the "submit order" button and all my trades are gone. I don't think the fills are realistic either. I was scalping CL and I kept buying and then selling it when it went up a tick. Is that normal? Shouldn't there be a spread so you need 2 ticks to capture a tick? sometimes it would take awhile to fill, once or twice it went unfilled and came down, but usually it's pretty quick. What I'm saying is the fills are pretty easy (or seem to be, my experience is limited never traded futures in a real account). Never traded CL in real life before, first time paper trading CL ever. I still might give it a try though. Oh and no order book either. CQG sim has one.
Yep, I agree. The simulator is shit. If I still wanted to do an entry, I'd go 50% in to some slightly OTM thing every morning and see if I get hugely lucky. Maybe if there is something with a 25-40% probability of being ITM by end of week.
Yeah, I suspect that ppl are gaming it by essentially filling first in the sim-queue. Obviously complete BS. Imagine filling 10-lots at $100 per r/t on a penny-gained. 1,000 trades and you've doubled your money. Runs against you and you limit-out at one tick and rinse/repeat.
Hummm... I dunno' what you are doing. But I can guess... When you trade with real money on CL, the live fills are way more "accurate" than the fakemaker fills through any sim engine you can imagine. Trust me on this. The contest the CME is putting up is a lark, a way for them to seek out potentials. You get some cash if you win? Fine. But really, we are beta testers for their sim engine if we engage their contest. And their sim engine sux if you are not getting hit on their bid if you are offer, or not getting hit on their offer if you are bidding. That's just not how it works man. If you have a bid limit at a price to buy the ask, you WILL get filled (and vice versa). The fuck. Am I the only person who has ever traded CL here, ever?
@Overnight so you think I could have gotten those fills in real life? I was in and out of this super nice and easy uptrend (just a couple hours ago I think) that's how I made the 460. probably just luck. I just started trading less than three months ago. Appreciate the input from someone with experience, thanks!