Years of trading have evolved me to a "dumbed-down" (actually, hard-won technique drawn from painful experience) approach which is, to scale in long after weakness (trickily, avoiding buying during panic selling) and scale out into strength. This obviously doesn't always work in the short run but as we've noticed, the market tends to come back, eventually. Obviously, the more capital you have to work with, the more doable this approach is. This is basically a hybrid approach between day and swing trading. In looking at your statement, if you are "only" working with 200K+, another option for you would be to use the 3X ETF's, TQQQ/UPRO/TNA instead of the futures, if you were willing to take a less active trading approach. I like the 3X ETF's not to leverage up but to minimize my cash-at-risk (black swans) and allow me to scale in and out more incrementally, with smaller amounts at-risk than the futures. I would try and hit more singles and doubles, with more patience. GL.
Thanks, I had encourated that in late January, if markets swing too much for me to trade I trade the equivalent of ETF, for example instead of 1 ES contract I might trade or just buy and hold 100 SPY or SSO shares, if not trading futures holding these helps as my 'indicator' I think I had posted something about this. But to your suggestion, no I have not looked into TQQQ/UPRO/TNA
Problem with range bound market is ... -moves slow, -hits your stop, then moves in your direction, -gives false entry/exit signals -standard stops need to be adjusted for range bound market -sudden and expected breakouts on low volume very frustrating
If this happens more often than not, consider placing a limit order to enter the trade at the price where you're planning to put your stop when you get the urge to trade that "false entry signal".
I do distingwis between stop and limit orders. In other words - in a trending market can enter on stop, for example, buy above prevos bar's close. In in a trading range day...buy at limit with wider stop since after hitting the limit buy it might go lower. Stop orders no good if market is range bound
<b>Week 8, ending Feb 28, 14</b> Improvements made but still down week. Will post some observations later.
2014 Monthly P/L update January -11,083 February -$4,398 YTD: -$15,415 these might differ slitghtly from daily/weekly p/l but these accurate end of month MTM balances.
I may be misreading your post but I don't believe you are understanding what Nodoji is saying. On the other hand maybe I don't understand.