Well TNTneo, it seems taking a hard stance on something is frown upon by some. So I will restrict any more suggestion or comments on such topics. Its good to be open minded but when you know something wrong its hard to take both sides. I dunno what I was thinking in the first place by making suggestions. I think Oldtrader inspired me to do it
Toronto, "Wrong" is subjective and relative... What is "wrong" for you works for many others... That is all I and I suspect Tnt was trying to say... PEACE and good trading, Commisso
By just reading the time/sales how do you realize when the nq started to turn, as opposed to the usual chop. Also how often are you right, and how much more right than wrong. Thanks for sharing your style.
toronto, sorry I told you my opinion and you disagree. I try next time to tell my opinion only when I agree with you.. LOL. BTW I am open minded since I trade both ways. Can you say the same ? read my posts again. we don't disagree that much. and who cares ? I know you are trying to help struggling traders. I respect that. it seems I am trying to do the same on this board. same with all members posting in this thread. so that's fine with me. commisso, we understand each other, thanks. tntneo
First, not sure how you figured I was "reading the time/sales". There is a time and sales window that some software packages offer. I think it's useful, but I don't happen to use it....drives me crazy. Usually I stick with a position as long as it's doing what I expected it to do. When it stops doing that I get out. In this case I was short on the possibility that the market might come apart late in the day. As the trade developed it was going pretty much according to plan...the NQ which had been somewhat stronger for a good portion of the day had gone negative. But then the NQ came back...went unchanged to positive. That was enough for me. I closed my position. How did I know this was the end of the move? I didn't. But it was no longer doing what I expected and therefore I was no longer interested in being in the position. Had it continued on down after a little chop, I would have been wrong to close my position. It happens. But I don't mind being wrong when I've made 5-6 points either....especially when I had no intent to hold anything over the weekend anyway. As far as how often I'm right, etc., that's not a number I keep. All I'm concerned about is my P/L. I could care less what my percentages are. Having said this, I would guess I'm right a fairly high percentage of the time. I wouldn't enjoy this business much if I were wrong more often than right for example....even if my trades were profitable enough to justify. That's just me I suppose. I trade because I enjoy it....not because I have to. I don't do some of what "they" say you should do....like keep statistics on myself. I figure I am supposed to be right most of the time...or I'm doing something wrong. But keep in mind I'm not trading like alot of people are. Sometimes I hold positions for more than one day. Sometimes I'm in and out in seconds. I'm not using the indicators provided by software vendors. In short, I'm not "gaming" the market. Most of these software type indicators cause you to buy on stength, sell on weakness. This is a big disadvantage on the normal types of trading days....ESPECIALLY if you're a day trader. The problem most people have is that they don't have TIME to learn the market, what makes it move, how it moves, etc. etc. To think that one could master one of the more difficult pastimes on earth (trading) by simply downloading an intraday chart and putting some indicators on it is to me laughable. You should understand that you're competing with some of the smartest people around. This is a big money game...so it pays well if you know what you're doing. The guy sitting on Goldman Sachs trading desk I GUARANTEE you is not watching MACD. He knows he's putting up a big block in IBM, and the stock is going to move. He's seeing the order flow on the desk. So when he goes into buy the SP, he KNOWS.\ None of us can have that type of information, or those types of contacts. But an understanding of the major components of the index is important. Clues as to direction will present themselves at the proper time. Until then, you don't have to trade. Just my opinions...and again, if you are more comfortable trading with tools that I don't use, you should. OldTrader
In the E-minis, there isn't a pennies worth of difference trading a 1 lot vs a 50 lot. You could probably go past 100 contracts without any slippage at all. So any system that works for 1 lot scales easily to 50 or more under almost all conditions. Haven't you ever looked at the SIZE sitting on the inside?
Doesn't get said enough. Folks tend to think that their beloved indicators are DRIVING the moves, not the other way around. The best you can hope from any indicator, is that is is somehow capturing the internal dynamics of the boyz. And yes, the big money KNOWS, we're just guessing.
Good stuff Oldtrader. Different strokes for different folks. I think there are two types. Leftbrain and rightbrain maybe. Linda Raschke is not too bad a trader and she loves her indicators. Whatever works for you!!
This may be a bad analogy for daytrading w/o indictators.. but it reminds of Star Wars where Luke is in the death star trench and the other pilot says: "Luke, you switched off your targeting computer" Obi Wan says: "Use the force, Luke... Let Go!" He blows up the deathstar flying blind. I like this idea of "using the force" ~ price action and "letting go"~ turning off tech analysis.
lol -- "The Jedi Traders." I think you just found a good name for a new book. May the force be with you. (Btw, your name should now be ESZ2. Get with the times.