See attached for a 3 minute chart of this mornings Heng Seng session (MHI charted). Every other equity futures contract I looked at was making higher highs and higher lows during this period... gap days in Hong Kong can drive me nuts.
filter, Are you trading all these contracts 1 at a time, or in lots? Im just trying to understand if you are making 25 individual trades or 4 or 5 trades using multiple lots? It seems you could be trading 1 HSI contract and saving a boatload on commissions, if you are in fact trading lots. If you are scaling 1 lots though, then it wont scale. Im not looking to be critical or anything, just curious. I've been trading the HSI for the last few years, and just was interested in your thread since you are trading HK.
don't let the gap bother you your job is to focus on the day's action the market oscillates with or without the gap as long as the market moves, there is money to be made.
thats the very nature of this index and most HK stocks by the way. I recommend you start looking at Kospi futures if you must trade Asian indexes and seek a more liquid product. HSI and HHI are increadibly illiquid, the mini products even more so, in terms of traded notional value. P.S.: The index name is "Hang Seng" ;-)
Depends on the setup and its rules. for example, I will oftentimes initiate a position (one contract) on the 1 minute chart (early in the session when its most volatile), then add to the winner when it sets up on the 3 minute and 5 minute charts. Then I might scalp 20 ticks from my first & second entries, and then if the market fails to hit my eventual target but in the process forms another setup and I'm still in the trade, I'll add another contract if the setup is confirmed. Of course, oftentimes, like last night, I get stopped out on the contracts I added last. In other scenarios, if I'm counter trend trading, like the previous night (6/1), I may enter one contract on a setup, but if that setup breaks down and my rules tell me not to stop out, I will either add another contract on the next valid setup at a better price or exit (win/lose/breakeven) on the next pullback in my favor. Last night was unique, in that I basically held one position for the first hour or so, and was scalping (and stopping out on partial positions) in and out of that position, as I was pressing hard to get a runner to the north. In that sense, it's difficult to say how many unique trades I actually made last night... somewhere between 5 and 15 depending on how you look at it. Obviously HSI would be a better choice for single entry / single exit setups. As soon as I hit my profit goal I will move up to HHI for these types of setups, which make up the bulk of my trades on normal nights. For a description of why I'm trading MHI for the moment, see my trading history on the first page.
I'd love to trade the Kospi, but its hours don't work with my schedule (can't get home in time to trade it during the winter). I belive liquidity will only be an issue for me once I scale up to ~3 contracts per entry / exit on HHI and HSI. I'm a long way away from that, and even with that I still believe I could average 1k USD of profit with that liquidity. LOL, thanks for the correction on the spelling... somewhere along the way I got screwed up and thought it was "Heng."
Got in an argument with the wife tonight and missed the first 20 minutes of the session (don't worry, it wasn't about trading). This caused me to miss a couple of nice setups on the nice down move we had at the open. Was able to place two trades later (both had two contracts), and both were winners. However, just 10 minutes ago I flat-out missed the best, most reliable setup of the night because I wasn't paying attention and thinking about other things, a sure sign that I need to pack it in for the night. +543 HKD (~$70 USD)
So for the week, my net results after commissions were as follows: +4792 HKD (~$615 USD) 75 contracts traded A decent week overall, I'm particularly proud of how I pressed it on Tuesday night when I was up, as I've been trying to develop more of a killer instinct and not protect my profits when I'm up. Obviously because I'm in high commissions hell right now with MHI, a good chunck of my profits went to pay comissions (I paid about $240 USD to IB). This will improve after I move up to the bigger contracts. I'm still 6200 HKD short of my goal, so we'll see how long it takes me to reach it. If I keep having weeks like this it won't be long at all.