Trades for 11- 17-03 Trade 1: Short @ 1039.5 , Cover @ 1037.00 , Stop @ 1040.75, +2.5 pts 8:00 This trade was played fairly well I saw the signal and entered properly and was able to sit tight for a pretty decent portion of the move. Trade 2: Short @ 1037.00 , Cover @ 1037.00 , Stop @ 1040.75, 0 pts 11:39 This trade was actually taken slightly early before the signal came. The idea here was when it looked like the MAs were about to cross and the previous bars low was broken I was going to enter the trade. I originally thought we might see a retest of the 1034 low, so I had high hopes for this trade. However after I saw that the move was not confirmed by the averages I scratched the trade. Technically I did enter early on this trade which is not included in my rules, however I have noticed that sometimes waiting for the averages to cross provides the entry point with too much slippage. I am not sure what to make of this violation of my rules. Overall a pretty slow trading day (as was the rest of last week although I did not trade) It would have been nice to catch the end of the day move however I never got the signal on the 5 minute chart and therefore never entered. Profit/Loss for day: 2.5 pts Overall Profit/Loss: 15.25 pts
Something to add... I am currently pursuing setting up an account in hopes of going live within the next three week or so. Initially I plan to limit my trading to 1-2 trades a day for the first week or so, from there I plan to expand until I am completely live trading all of the time. BTW..... Does anyone have any idea if the CME will be lowering commissions anytime soon ? or is this just more of a rumor than a truth, it seems to me with the upping of margin rates the likelihood of lower commissions seems more out of the question.
Well thanks for your thoughtful reply porgie, Im glad you were really able to help me here. Since commisions are irrelevant, I would like to make an offer for you to trade through my new brokerage. Minimum deposit is only 1,000,000 and our commision schedule is around $400 per side. Our trading system is excellent, and if you sign up now we will send you our new platform, A sports illustrated football phone, absolutely free of charge. Seriously though, if you are going to keep posting crap I would prefer if you post it somewhere else outside of my journal. I have enough problems of my own the last thing I need is you projecting all of yours on to me.
I guess the way porgie put it was blunt and without clear reasoning. I'll try to help though... You shouldn't be too concerned with commissions, as long as they're reasonable (below 10$ round-trip, try IB $4.80 round-trip). Why porgie said this may be because many traders that are new to trading with real money live will tend to make bad decisions just because of fear of paying the commissions. I also had this fear when I first started trading stocks with a very small account, was $1000 when I first started, you can imagine how tough it was for me to pull the trigger with $12 a side; you must overcome this and concentrate on the trades and the market, don't try to save a few bucks because you will end up losing huge or missing out on good opportunities. just my 2 cents
Trades for 11-18-03 Trade 1: Short @ 1044.5, Stop @ 1046.5, covered @ 1046.25, -1.75 pts 7:17 I really had a downside bias going into this trade however I did not have a wide enough stop, I am finding that these trades in the morning definetly need larger stops to account for the morning whipsaw, although I lost here, I definetly learned something from the trade. Trade 2: Long 1043.25, Stop @ 1042.25, cover @ 1045.75 +2.25 pts 8:12 Although I said I had a short bias, I was not about to pass up a good trade opporunity seeing as how the market was confined to a range in the morning. I took this trade knowing that once 1044 was violated that the market should take off, if it didnt' it would be a sign to me that this trade was not destined to be. Well 1044 was violated and within a few minutes (covered @ 8:23) I was able to get out of the trade for more than I had risked. Initially after I got out of the trade I thought there was a chance that where I had gotten out was merely a pullback level because of the potential to go back to about 1048, but I turned out to be correctly following my originaly intuition. Trade 3: Short @ 1041.75, Stop @ 1042.25, Cover @ 1037.75 + 4 pts 10:36 Took the short, I had a really heavy short bias going into here, I knew that once price got going down, there was going to be no stopping it. In fact I knew from yesterday that the only solid support was @ 1031, however after about a half hour of this trade I was tired and wanted to get out (the early mornings kill me here). I guess in a case like this I should have just put in some price alarms and a trailiing stop, but damn I was tired. While I made a good amount of points on this trade, I could have turned a good day into a great day with this trade. Profit/Loss for day: 4.5 pts Overall Profit/Loss: 19.75 pts Well I made money today and I learned some really good things, can't say much was wrong with today. It's nice when you get to lose from your winning trades as well as your losing trades.
Trades for 11-19-03 Slow day for me, not to many trades triggering, morning was a total bust. Trade #1: long @ 1038.25, stop @ 1036.75, Cover @ 1039.75 1.50 pts 10:26: This trade took off real quick but the slope was not there to convince me to stay in it. Would have been nice to catch the next move but unfortunately did not have the patience to do so, also I did not feel like the trade was going to move higher. this trade was simple and straight to the point. Trade #2: long @ 1042.25, stop @ 1041, Cover @ 1043, +.75 pts 12:24: This trade was taken off of the 10 minute chart actually, I could see something forming on my 5 minute however the lines were really close together. I was anticipating a break of the 1044 area, with a "to the moon" trade potential, but when i saw that the trade was having trouble getting past the 1044 mark coupled with an extremely high tick reading I felt that the trade had nowhere to go. Decided to take my profits while i still had them which was nice for the short amount of time this trade lasted. I was looking for a break and potential sell off this afternoon, but looked like it was not going to happen within my timeframe. All i could see was whipsaw, So i stopped trading early. Profit/Loss for day: 2.25 pts Overall Profit/Loss: 22.00 pts I've been really lazy lately about posting charts lately so here today's trades.
Trades for 11-20-03 Today I really kind of blew it, I only did one trade but I tried to enter early in hopes of getting a better fill for a real quick trade. Not only did the trade not confirm but then i stayed in until I was stopped out, fortunately this was the only trade of the day and I got out when I should have. Trade #1 long @ 1036, stop @ 1034.75, stopped out - 1.25 pts 12:46 well I had patiently sat on the sidelines all day in anticipation of something happening, unfortunately I had missed the big reversal move because I recieved no confirmation with the 5 minute, in fact there was no confirmation on any of the time frames I have been looking at. So anyways out of frustration and complete boredom I placed this trade. I was mainly looking for a short covering rally at the end of the day, however my entry was not confirmed and I should have gotten out right then, but I let hope and other emotions come into my trading and was blinded until my stop point was hit. This was just a terrible trade, and for the first time it resulted in a losing day and it's probably not a coincidence that this is the first time that i was trying to trade off of emotion. Profit/Loss for day: -1.25 pts Overall Profit/Loss: 20.75 pts Today I really learned about how you should wait until your trade shows you an edge, by trying to outguess my edge resulted in a losing trade. On a completely separate note I have been noticing a strange sort of pattern that would not be easily quantifiable, but basically it occurs when the moving averages look like they are about to cross but do not cross, intead they touch and then the 5 vma turns around resulting in what can be played as a quick scalp and sometimes as a longer move there were several of these today and they will be highlighted in the chart. I am not planning on trading these until I see more proof that they work, however they would be nice to add to my setups.
Kserra- "the thing" with the Mov. Avgs. you are noticing. Keep on it. You are on the right track. However, there are other market dynamics at play here that you won't understand looking through the eyes of Moving Averages. there is a fella on Tradestation World, that is on his way to becoming a trading God. his mortal name is eKam. he has a piece of code that marks off "hesistation" points in the market as well as constricting of the BBs as witnessed in your chart. With a little modification, it could have you capitalizing on these "patterns" that you are noticing. I consider this best when used with an existing setup of mine, quite often herein lies they answer to the question: When the hell are we most likely to break out of this damn trading range, and oh, btw, which direction? Try adding some fractals to your trading diet, helps to see the forest from the trees. -momo