interesting thread. you've obviously done your homework and found something that works for you. I've had good luck with opening moves in the ym so I find your approach very interesting however I find myself wondering what the purpose of you starting this thread was. Your answers to questions are appreciated but they are so vague and repetitive. If your not willing to help others or at least give them more information so they can do their own work in the same area you find so successful why tease them with your successes. If you could post what your order stacks were for a couple days after the fact that would be cool and help the few following this thread. Also what is EC, the new market your trading? best of luck
The EC is the CME Eurodollar futures contract - http://www.cme.com/trading/prd/contract_spec_EC2465.html I started this thread to see if anyone else was doing something similar and share ideas on the concept. I have spent a lot of time developing this trade set-up for myself and I will not go into the exact details of what I do. I have shown here a concept that anyone can run with to develop something for themselves - the idea of brackets is nothing new and these trades have risks just like any other. Through many late nights and much hard research, I feel I have developed a good enough method to "mechanically" handle whipsaw trade action at the open. There should be no "tease" about this thread, just a point in a possible new direction for those interested to look into for themselves. I am currently working on one other simple and very powerful "mechanical" trade system, if I finish my new concept and it works as good as I think it can, then I will come here and give you my bracket trade "details".
There was a little bit more idea sharing from this thread - http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=70760&perpage=6&pagenumber=4 I would like to see if anyone else is doing something similar to this at market opens - I can't be the only one who has found these times solid for bracket trades.
It's refreshing to find threads by intelligent people with valid ideas. Especially when the concept is something your interested in or attempting to trade already. Like I mentioned earlier, I recently started playing the open move in the YM. No where near as thorough as you. But you have given me ideas and the confidence to pursue it more. Of all the trades I do on a daily basis this has been the most consistent. What experience do you have with the YM? I used to trade the es only but started the YM to see if I can get a feel for it and because the spread was better which helped with fading tick extremes. Now the YM is all I trade. Out of curiosity what other concepts did you trade before finding this method. Please keep the thread going, it has value.
I have never traded the YM before, but I am finding through backtesting that it has a different behavior from other products I have traded. I will need to spend additional time to make sure I have solid out of the open "spacing" and proper "stack" quantities to get the most out of the least amount of contracts. I need to design and test several entry/exit combinations, and the first entry to last cover spacings to get to where I feel I have something to put to the test of time. In addition to this, I am looking at the DAX and EC at 03:00 est and several other currencies and bonds at their opens. This all takes a lot of time, so slowly week by week I will have more product choices and times to trade. I will keep my progress posted with everything. If I ever get my "Phalanx" type mechanical trade concept completed for the ZB, then I will be set and I will share the full details of my bracket trades.
Also - I need to check into how a person trades, if possible at this time, the Hang Seng index at the open.
Thanks for the feedback. I have read some of your posts in other threads because it sounds like you have some experience in trading and I valued what you might have to say. I wouldn't expect you to reveal the details of your system but it would be cool to see. I looked at the charts you posted on the other thread but am not sure what the orders mean. I thought the numbers were positions size but they didn't look like they matched up. It looked like right after you get done scaling in you started scaling out. Do you let any contracts run incase you caught a trend day? What is the general concept for the new system your working on.
The general concept of the ZB system (at $31.25 per tick) is a very simple and completely mechanical system that will be automated - It enters the market at any time (at the open for me) and makes numerous small incremental profits through entry/exit mechanics that are fairly simple in nature. I have at times let some bracket positions run, according to what the market delta is at the point I am near my final cover price level - but that is not needed and is not a part of the system.
I've been experimenting with similar techniques in forex. The nice thing about forex is that you don't need 2 accounts (one for long and one for short). Just find 2 negatively correlated currency pairs and trade them in the same account. For example, I use EURUSD and USDCHF which show strong negative correlation. I've also been experimenting with pyramiding (reverse scaling?) as well which seems to enhance the reliability of the technique. So far these no-charts/no-indicators breakout methods appear to be the most promising ticket to doing this for a living. I'm not there yet, but I'm feeling more encouraged. Also I'd like to add that even though the forex market doesn't *technically* have an "open" since it's technically 24/7 there are in fact several market open opportunities every day. These are London, New York and Tokyo. Volatility breakouts occur at these times most days.