bubba, are u stoned? the market is not a person... rather it is a collective of people who are all out to take eachother's money. Most of the collected end up on the surprise side of the market. I don't see how the market can be a partner. Please elaborate. Or pass the ganja dis way mon.
anyway, i yank out my keyboard and mouse and start swingin them around by the chords. most people don't like that little habbit so I had to start trading at home.... gotta take out the aggression, or the aggression takes out YOU!
Maybe your stop in not appropriate...you say $400 swing diff. but i wonder how much of that you would have really taken. It's the whole package(stops, entries, size, exits, etc.) in sync with each other. Ok, so you know this....so what's the issue...tweek the parameters 'till it fits. Either that or learn to identify the plays that merit chasing, and how much to chase, yada yada yada...did you ever see that Seinfeld ??
Excellent - there is more wisdom in this one post than there is in the entire "The Truth about Daytrading Futures" thread.
Never ever do that..I recall 2 years ago, I told my wife I was up 20 days in a row, lost the whole wad over the next 8 days!!!! Call me superstitious, but when doing well just keep it to yourself. You'll be ok, just go back to the basics and scale down. Best, David
My first trade in the futures market was in live cattle... 1980. I've had the same "tragic" near misses as you. Rather than entering with limit orders, use market. When you use limits, your concept for the trade AND your estimation of price... BOTH have to be correct... that's often expecting too much. If necessary, trade smaller and give yourself a little more "ride-out" room after a market order entry. If your concept for the trade is wrong, it's going to be a loser anyway. You should at least give yourself more "room to be right" so that you catch the ones where your play was generally correct.
I'm with this guy. I keep track of how many times I am stopped out too early, or close too soon. If I see a trend then I'll adjust my stops and/or exits.
IMO near misses are as much a part of trading as losing trades. you have to accept them and move on to the next trade. They are frustrating, but they will happen, even if you start adjusting stops and targets. You may find that by using a larger stop that you catch a couple of extra 4pt trades a week. However, that may be offset by the 8 losing trades that you now have to take an extra point on. You may also find that even although you adjusted your stop you are still getting as many near misses, just 1pt further away. The bottom line is whether your system/strategy is profitable to an acceptable level, over an extended period of time. This is not to say that adjustments shouldn't ever be made, but if they are, make sure it is not at the expense of the long term bottom line. If you are struggling with the occassional near miss, try keeping track of the near catches. Those trades where it just misses your stop by a tick or it just hits your target before turning. You may find that they even out over the long term. Makes the near misses easier to live with. If all else fails then go with Brandons advice.
======================== [1] Like to meditate on a somewhat accurate paraphrase of what Ed Seykota wrote this year-To avoid whipsaws, stop trading. [2]There are at least 2 ways to apply-To avoid whipsaws, stop trading.Also like Bubba-7 comparing the market to a partner. [3] Dont know the cattle market; the first thing I diligently check for when I get a whipsaw or hit my mental,written stop -is a trend change. ====== ''In all labor there is profit''-Solomon, trader king