I have to disagree, there are times when NASDAQ has more intraday movement than S&P and times when you can be long/short.
Feel free to disagree. I don't think it makes sense for someone inexperienced trying to juggle day trading two markets at once. If higher volatility is desired, then simply choose NQ.
Agreed It's already been acknowledged in this thread that current market conditions are tough for day traders. Totally disagree with this...I've been in so many good trades only to get shaken-out with half the profit I could have made. I tried that and all it did was increase my commission cost due to more trades needed and lowered my win rate to 40% or below. You of course realized that once you get into a trade, especially in the Emini market, price action can change quickly beyond your expectations. In that case I need to get out of the trade before my stop is hit. I understand this and need to add a volatility measurement component to my system....that's missing right now. Thanks for the terrific feedback.
Totally disagree with this. There are times when price action and set-ups are in ES and not in NQ and vise versa. I consider this a method of diversification. BTW: I call NQ "the beast" due to it's crazy movements at times.
That's what makes all the difference. If you created them based on your trading and observation, you know the "ingredients".
I could offer you a lot of very good advice for someone at your level, but if you don't pony up how you're taking trades, it's not worth the effort to correct your thinking. Nothing is "secret". No entity who actually moves the markets would listen to anyone on these forums, let alone "steal an idea". They're so deep in their own dogma with staffs of programmers and math PhDs, everyone is a scrub on this kind of website as far as they're concerned. The ES is for advanced traders only. It moves like sheet and requires deeper pockets and higher risk tolerance than you have. Trade the YM. You'll get fantastic reward to risk ratios by comparison. You should consider the RTY over the NQ. When it trends, you'll get less pullback. Honestly, 2 RTY contracts and trade that one alone should be no big deal for you to make $500 avg per day. You can trade 1 contract from 9:15 PM to 12 AM EST on the HSI (Hang Seng Index Futures) and easily make $500+ if that's your goal and you're any good at trend trading. You could do the same on the HHI, highly correlated to the HSI and make $500. The HHI moves like 1/2 of an HSI contract. They even have mini contracts which are 1/5th the size you could trade to get up to speed. Up to you. A little less bravado and a little more humility and maybe you get way more than you ever asked for. Because all you're getting now are platitudes and one-liners, not detailed in-your-face-this-is-how-it-gets-done solutions.
Feel free to 'totally disagree with this', but you're the one currently losing money and starting a thread to ask advice. Diversification is fine if it adds to your bottom line, but both ES and NQ separately offer more than enough opportunity on any given day. If you're not profitable day trading one market, you're not likely to become (more) profitable trading two markets.
Syswizard, You say 4 ES and 3 NQ...you talking about trades in both at the same time or that you're trade both in the same day while not simultaneously at the same time as in not two positions open at the same time ? Also, in the beginning of trading the Emini futures (you mentioned you only have 3 months real money trading experience in the Eminis)...you should be concentrating only on one of them and not both unless your trade method is dependent upon some kind'uv correlation between the two. Yet, if eventually you've gotten yourself into the position where you can only trade one of them...Emini NQ should have priority over Emini ES. The price action of Emini NQ is just better and a lot less games being played out with it than the Emini ES by the big boys. I think when you drop your position size down to 1 contract, you'll be able to reset and then make the appropriate adjustments...test it and then try again but this time with only 1 contract. Later if things are going well after several months on the 1 contract...gradually move back up the position size. wrbtrader
Its nice to have goals. Being profitable, or at least staying afloat, till you become profitable is numero uno. You seem bent on making X dollars per day (trading way more contracts than you should, with your account size and experience) and X percent winner/loser, both of which are secondary. Until you focus on the first you are doomed to flame out. Also all indicators work ... and don't work. My suggestion is to ignore those who claim differently.