Michael, I have to add, in your opinion, would you say a 2 point stop on ES is to be considered as small? What would be an equivalent stop on YM, when using 2 point stop on ES taking into account intraday volatility ranges?
For sure are small stops working for you, I don`t doubt, but you don`t want to stay in 1(one) position till MOC or late afternoon. The rule of this system is 1(one) trade/day max. not a second this day...So small stops take it out cause the zigzag reversal stuff will hit any small stop staying the next 2-4 hours in the market, different play, different stop.... If you had to think about a stop keeping you in a position whole day, uuuh better not mmmh, but if.....you would and have to come up with other stopsizes...The point is some strats don`t work and don`t need with small stops and other strats need small stops. I just wanted to show that some presumptions are not true IN GENERAL, like small stops are fine to reduce your drawdown or small losses are good for the overall netprofit, this keep losses small thing, that MAY be true for one system, but not for another... different play, different stop And for sure are small stops working in some cases, i was short (little bit late...) today with a 6 point stop (YM) not getting hit, we had nice swings with good volume, an idiot could make money ( if not trying to fade....) I know the play too, but I know me losing in my discrete trading on other days if not very, very cautious and all in all I´m not made for the very fast action, fast in, fast out, so i prefer some more boring styles of trading often... By the way, is anybody using Tick or volumecharts? For my discrete trading I`m off the minutecharts, cause there is an adaption to the marketaction with tickcharts, more bars/time in fast market, less bars/time in slow market. I find indicators/charts more meaningful and more readable. I´m just trying skip all indicators, just distraction...and skipped price too today, this nervous wriggling of pricebars is also distracting, have to try it the next days/week....if this is a good idea... here my chartsetup today, mainly 2 special MA`s to define trend, 2 Keltnerbands and some smoothed price, i only take pullbacks in direction of MA`s and i like to see the openprice as line, cause i found the openprice to be meaningful to define the marketmood later in the day...
Romik, I would easily say 1 : 10, if you are good in entries and there is no chop and nice swings you can indeed try a ~10-15 point stop YM with good successrate, so for some kind of pullbacktrading i agree under good marketenvironment with porgie with this 10 point thing, but better a few ticks more 12-15, depends of possible targets, I used brackettrader earlier to adjust breakeven +1 after ~ 8 points profit and some autotrail, but was not profitabel in this years, now I´m trading so slow, i don`t use brackettrader no more, but may be i give it a try again...? Had always probs in the profittaking, I´m not too good in fast trading....
The system did very well today providing just two signals both winners. It is apparent to me that days with big moves will most likely have less trades while the system still provides a point or two in chop.
Scalping ES for 1 - 2 points is a relatively easy target, you need to have a clear objective where you would get out of the trade, it is very different to trend based trading, where you would have a lot more time to analyse market conditions. During high volume times it's pure tape reading and working numbers every second, risking 2 or 4 points (max 2% of TC) and aiming for 2-3 point gain in HIGH probability situations. Risk/reward is not cute on these type trades, it's probability factor, which swings the success rate into a trader's favour.
The reason I do these type trades, I think I'd be repeating myself, is for 2 reasons. 1. I have tested my primary system over a long period of time and found it to be tradable on most days; 2. I do not yet have a system, that would establish positive entry/exit targets, which are trend based. I do test secondary systems, but at the moment just with 1 lot trades.
OK, my posts today on this 'leased' thread courtesy of B1S2 will concentrate on relatively short time frame trades, scalping for 1-3 points using e-mini S&P500 June 2006 contract, using "relatively small" stops between 2-4 points. I say relatively small, as in the case of 4 point stop, not quite a narrow stop, though position size will be adjusted according to the stop to be used. Current trading size is 15 lots maximum, decreasing depending on the stop to be used. Maximum lots to be traded @ 2 point stop, 10 lots @ 3 point stop and 7 lots @ 4 point stop. Maximum Gross loss @ $1,500.00 or very close, depending on slippage. I do face a challenge though of real-time posting, not an easy task considering time frames involved, but what the heck, I'll give it a go. I will answer any questions (if I have the answers) at the EOD. All the best to all as always and me included. Romik.
There is no system fits all, it has to meet your individuell cababilities, this is very different from person to person, and you must have deep confidence, so you have to develop and test it by yourself. I´m very convinced about some systems of mine, but a friend would not touch it in his hottest dreams, cause he does not understand the complete logic behind and so he can not reach a high enough confidence level.... My logic says no breakouttrades today, higher prob of range, but I´m still mediumterm bearish, a lot of traders can see this on a daily chart as nice pullback in an uptrend, so expect more buyers coming in, VIX suggest still low fear level and did not climb yesterday, no worries about yesterdays selloff ( i would call it selloff...), that`s a good bottom for further decline soon, but a new low today should attract more buyers in the shortterm, so expect some reasonable bounce from weakness, just my 2 cents... wish a good day
The system signalled long at the end of the 5.30 bar at 1293.25 and then again at the end of the 7.06 bar at 1294.00