So I wrote a system recently that daytrades ES futures...pretty low risk system that does decently. Fully automated. Ultimately, boring but profitable. Today I took a spin manually daytrading some 10 lot ESpositions...What a difference...man that was like smoking crack. Super addictive. Seemed easy too. Please...no exortations re: risk, etc...i already know quite well. Just found the ES action to really be something...
More or less shooting from the hip using support and resistance (to a degree)...not totally reckless as I had entry/exit points locked in before entry, but i have no doubt i was probably playing a losing game (although not today) I can't really effectively execute my system manually...too much fluctuation in the exit points
Also, one thing i was using/reacting to was what i will call velocity, which was sort of a volume combined with speed of price movement to detect possible reversals or probably more accurately areas where the price would end up fluctuating for a while and i could pick off a couple of points. Kind of hard to describe, but basically where the price movement and volume would dry up for a bit, where the market seemed to be deliberating...these seemed like safe areas to play the fluctuations for a point or two. Not necessarily a good R play, which is what makes me doubt it. Would be interesting to automate and backtest but I'm not sure it can be done (or, at least, that i could do it..)
I am far from a pro but when I trade stocks I call those sucker points. Those are the points that I think a lot of smaller traders get in at. It's like the magic trick where you flash a lot of cards in front of the victum and hold 1 card a split second longer, that card(price) is stuck in their mind and every other card (price) is a blur. Only thing I find is if it's a stronger trend it will continue at those points and if it's weak, it will reverse. I am learning as I go, but those are just thing I picked up
Interesting feedback...it would make sense that i would get caught at sucker points given that i was more or less fooling around (with risk management in place)...still, it seemed easy to pick off a few points at those times, as the price tended to fluctuate a bit more at those times. Anyway, thanks for the insight...i had not heard that perspective before, definitely will take it into consideration.
yeah, haven't been running it long enough to be certain. It works backtested on historical data, and has worked live for the last month, but I believe it is predicated on specifics of current market dynamics and could change any day (or could continue for 6-18 months or longer). I really don't know, i just know it will stop working at some point, so I am exploring other alternatives all the time.