E-mini traders who trade stock index futures (ES, NQ, the Russell, HSI, EMD, DAX, etc), please answer. Many thanks.
One of my best weeks - over $120,000 profit at close of trading Thursday; day still has some time to go until close but I estimate another $40K today. I trade S&P & e-mini futures, and options.
I just started swing trading futures last week. Thursday actually. I was up quite a bit by wed and then the dollar, euro, yen, pound, oil, gas, and gold all reversed on me! What a case of bad luck!! I will finish today positive but only at 1/3 of what I had topped out this week. If I learned one thing this week it was patience. Not jumping in and out. Not easy with this market.
Had my best day thursday and worst day on friday. I voted worst because friday more then took care of my outsized profits on thursday. here's the story for friday http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2079208#post2079208
I wonder if the percentage of big winners to big losers was the same for those who trade options. All of those who were short gamma/bearish on financials were crushed by the end of the week if they did not cover. This was my personal best week ever, with two 90+ days per on the ES (did not trade on Friday). But I know that I missed other opportunities. I think the lesson here is to be PARTICULARLY CAREFUL during options expiration week. The overnight moves and giant gap up on Friday were due in part to the need to hedge because of settlement of S&P options. I bought IAI and UYG close to the bottom on Thursday noon, but there were opportunities in otm calls in individual stocks that I simply did not consider. The wild, jaw-dropping moves this week were as strong as anything I have seen in the markets since September 2001. Good luck in the coming weeks.