You can do both. Continue with your NG trades and move to MGC to continue your GC strats. Be warned though, NG is going to be entering the phase of larger moves with colder weather coming up. (I.E. If you continue to trade GC and not move to MGC, you will be flogged.)
Yes, I understand that about NG. Ironically, I'm making steady money in NG during the doldrums of the summer months. I thought it will be too slow. But that's exactly the quality that made me make easy consistent money in NG! GC is too news driven. Inflation is tame and it drops 50 points. Dollar is down and it's up 30pts. And I notice the moves are so violent. So FAST! it moves so quick! So now I'm net negative on GC. *sad* I was net positive on it up until today's violent moves. And the frustrating thing was had I just stayed put I would have done fine. It came back up. But who can sit through 30pts intraday swing. Gotta cut losses at some point. Or my entries are bad. Need to be more patient. I told myself to be more patient when trying to catch the falling knife GC periodically goes into. What other instruments are slow moving? Maybe I should find other slow and steady moving instruments that I can move size and trade those. With NG, you can trade SIZE even in the summer months. no problem. With size even a few points move make it worthwhile.
It is funny you ask that, as I have been wondering the same thing. Equities are always out these days. Then how about cows? No, limit down two days in a row (See the Commod section for the report). Corn? No, apparently they had a shock on the USDA crop report. Silver? Copper? Wheat perhaps? Geez, it seems nothing is safe from rapid violent moves. You could always try class IV Milk futures? Never followed it, but I admire it's total illiquidity. Which is the last thing we need.
Can't believe it! Lost all that money on GC for nothing. It went up even higher. I realized the crux of my problem. I was trading based on the daily charts but the intraday moves are so violent and fast that it shook me out. I would have been up huge if I just held based on my daily chart readings. Those long wicks on the daily candles. Yes, the trend is up. But the bottom of that candle can be a long way down before it comes back up. Also late yesterday, I started shorting NQ near the highs based on my daily chart reading. Took a hit. A small one. And today it tanked. Timeframe mismatched. 150 pts. oh well. Like clockwork, I'm losing money in NQ again. And making money in NG. Maybe I should just trade NG exclusively with even bigger size.
Exactly. That's why I bit the bullet and sold. But I bet you the big long term players like Ray Dalio, the founder of the world's largest hedge fund with over $100B in assets and who has been promoting gold for months now, did NOT sell. He probably added in. That's the advantage of size. So small retail traders like us have to be super precise in our timing. From my historical stats, I think my chart reading is about 70% correct. Very high rate. but my profits are not much is because I get shaken out a lot of time. Just now, I bought GC at the lows as 1518.80 and I was thinking it will probably go to 1522. Which is a decent short term trade in the next few minutes. It went to 1520 then went back to 1519 I got out because I want to protect my profits before it goes back to my entry. Of course, after that it went past to 1525. In mathematics and physics, it's called "path dependency". That's what makes trading hard especially if you are trading leverage instruments like futures. Even if your directional target is correct, you can still lose money because it depends on the path in which the instrument moves. To your point, let's say in one day it goes down 100 pts then the next day it goes back up 150 pts. Extreme example. Of course, one can say one is right because the trend is up and it went back up the next day. But with futures being down a 100 pts will wipe out most players. It doesn't have to be as extreme as a 100pts but yesterday's high to low was 58 pts! That's why they tell you to trade much smaller. haha.
You have now been flogged. Work gold in MGC, or do not work it at all. Stick with NG. Save yourself from yourself.
Today I played GC very conservatively. Made a rounding error. Most of profits came from NG and NQ today. Would have been up hugely if I didn't get whipsawed in NQ in the morning. But I'm grateful I was able to catch a 37 points reversal and a few other smaller reversals in the afternoon to be net up in NQ from being net down.
In analyzing my trades in GC vs NG and NQ, I think GC behaves quite differently. Or at least I'm not as familiar with these patterns and actions. In theory, it's all the same price actions. But the behavior is quite different. no wonder I've been struggling with it vs the other well known patterns in NQ and NG.