Hey All, I have a question for the ES daytraders out there. I'm curious what is the max heat you will allow yourself to take ? The firm I'm at wants me to dump/hard stop at 4 boxes, and it seems I'm always getting stopped out at a disadvantageous price. Just wondering if 4 boxes is standard, or if most ES traders will take more.
"Max heat" on any particular trade SHOULD be determined by the chart.... it's the difference between your fill and some nearby support/resistance + overshoot buffer.
Oh, I call a tick a box. I guess I just got used to calling them boxes, because each tick is graphically represented as a "box" in a market depth window.
<b>tt76</b>, how are others at your firm doing with similar position management? Most importantly, how are the heads of firm doing with said trade management?
What is your target on these trades ? Only a point ? I always use 2 point stops, but sometimes fudge them to 2.5 if I got a poor entry near a SR level.
some comments: 1) i scalp for ticks for a living. so, whomever thinks it's a suckers game, it's a suckers game that you can make a great living at (note: i also do long-term and swing investments and positions plays in different accounts, but my primary income is YM scalps for 4-10 points 2) your stop (imo) is best set based on the setup structure you are trading, vs. some arbitrary #. imo. all my (scalp) setups have predetermined stops, and many of my position setups do as well. for other position type trades, i use basic support/resistance (primarily based on market profile). the problem with arbitrary stop #'s is that, while they manage risk, they will manage it (often) very suboptimally, since they don't take into account market structure, or setup dynamics. imo i don't trade ES, I trade YM some setups use a 12 pts stop some use a 6 pt stop some use a 20 pts stop etc. depends on the setup (note: 9-10 dow points = 1 ES point (which is 4 ES ticks))
A fixed stop (be it 4 ticks, 1 point or any other hard measure) has the inherited characteristic of ignoring price volatility. It might be a productive exercise to do some research in volatility...
We dont have many ES traders right now. I'm one of a handful of guinea pigs in a sim room. My goal at the moment is getting 4-12 ticks per trade with a high win% or at least a low losing %. I'd say average winner I'm shooting for is 6 ticks.