I trade the CME EC product - today at the 09:30 est US market open my long account made the hit. You have to realize that my order stacks are not all spread out over a wide range from the opening price - this is what all the backtesting of a particular product is for, determining spacing and stack size.
No - I just happen to trade the EC in conjunction with the US markets open at 09:30 est. I will also trade the EC at the EU market open again tonight at 03:00 est.
5 Pillars- Great thread. Are you using a 1/1 risk-reward ratio for your bracket target and stop? Are you trailing the stop? Thanks.
The trade risk to reward is not 1:1 it is actually more like 1:3. If something goes wrong in the trade and you flatten with technical platform problems you will possibly have a loss. If you stay in the trade until price moves out one side of the bracket area then you will make money. The positions in the opposite accounts have an asymmetrical relationship and there is no trailing stop. What gets filled on one side and then dragged in the opposite direction will be accounted for by the other account. Today I traded the ZB and ES for the 08:30 est news release with both short accounts making very nice hits. For the US market open, I traded the ES only and had some of my short account positions filled first. Price reversed and then I made my 1.2% profit from the gains from the long account side. I was not able to make any EC trades at the open because of a technical problem with the PC I am using for one of my trade platforms. I need to go and get a new pc I think for all the platforms I have set-up now. Time to go to Fry's.
Congratulations 5P, trading is a thinking mans game and you have certainly proven yourself to be all of that. Have you given any thought to posting your entries, long & short. I cannot see that the entries will give away your hard work.
So it's the pyramiding or "reverse scaling" that really does the trick? Say the main opening move is mostly to the long side with some movement to the short side. When the main opening move is finished, you'd have a bigger position built up in the long account than in the short account. Close out both sides, one at a profit one at a loss and the profit is generally bigger than the loss. Periodically you'd re-balance the cash in both accounts. Am I close?
Yes I may do that one day when I finish my ZB system and then turn it on - at that point I will not be worried about my bracket trades as much. I should have my new ZB trade backtesting done by next week.
Yes that is one way to do this trade from a fundamental starting point - but that alone will not handle the chop periods by itself as you will need other components active in the trade. I have gravitated away from a pure "pyramiding into" start of the trade to something very close. The final version of my concept that proved itself out in backtesting is more gradual in growth, to handle if price were to have numerous reversals within the bracket area prior to a trend. On occasion I do have the accounts balanced out as needed.
Great system 5Pillars, you've shown would good strategic thinking can do when applied to the financial markets. I do have one question (actually 2) for you though. 1. Do you ever try to catch a trend with your system?, or are you done once your strategy has played-out in a given trading session. 2. How do you deal with the um, "greed factor" if you do not try to catch trends (i've found that while it is not "easy" designing a profitable trading methodology, it is doable, but frankly, my "greed" keeps tripping me up) - ah, maybe the answer is in the question? Thanks, Jimmy