Bright and many others I have talked with make it very clear that most accessible edges are in the stock and stock option market rather than futures. Would you agree with this? With that said, I also believe I could pass the combine criteria provided 3 to 6 more shots at it. How long I could last afterwards day trading oil wold be entirely dependent on controlling greed. surf
Not anymore. I think "most" of the stock edges are gone. Even the biggest HFT firms are only making fractions of a penny now per share. But they do millions of shares a day so the p&l looks sexy. It's very deceiving. Ten years ago there were so many edges in stocks the hard part was focusing on which edge you wanted to focus on. The "true" edge Surf is in the basis trade. Always has been the case. We're talking about the "physicals" here. I stated that on one of the older TST threads. It was also the advice I gave to any young people still in school and just starting out. Get into the physical market and don't touch stocks!!!!
Thanks for the knowledge-- it has been several years since my info was updated on such things. I got majorly burned in an investment in redk*te physical copper fund. ( farmer) Those guys have. Huge huge edge with stockpiles etc--- but we still lost our shirts.
no offense, eagle... I meant none either. no apology necessary I began trading OEX and SPX options in 1999. Went to ES futures in 2002, ER2 futures in 2004, good dose of FX along the way. Dabbled with bond futures, traded quite a bit of 6E and NQ as well. Started trading CL in 2010, part-time alongside TF and ES. Same this year, back & forth between CL and eminis. Now I am focused on CL first, ZS and NQ as secondary symbols. Both are good, 6E is good... but I cannot concentrate on more than two symbols max intraday. ** Futures trading is no different to me than stock trading... but stock traders have a hard time with futures, generally. The reverse is not true. Stock traders usually gravitate towards mean reversion tactics but that don't work overall in futures. Trend - direction - momentum trading is what works in futures, long term. For the veteran stock traders who fondly recall 1998 thru 2002 and again 2008 - 2009 as the glory days of huge $$ ranges and high volatility? That's what CL trading is all the time. Has been that way for years, will continue to be this way for years. Actually, recent price action (including today) has generally sucked. Wait until the next $10 - $15 trend move with $4,000 and $5,000 per contract daily ranges. That's when CL block trading gets real interesting
Well how about that! I mentioned 'BM' the other day for the very same points, i.e the crap on this thread would not be seen or tolerated on the TST saga, and it got deleted by Magna. Must be having a day off today.
This combine is damn hard because it mirrors real money in every way. Anyone who dicks around in sim and thinks this is similar will be sadly mistaken. It has rigid structure and 3rd party oversight. There are no do-overs if you lapse and screw up. In my case, I've got 1,000 - 1,300+ hits per day on a blog where I'd really rather not post something like, "Well folks, I screwed the pooch on this one. Thought I could make it work, but I finished down -$20,000 and washed out" The personal pride factor is added pressure for me... self-imposed. So I can't complain about something I chose to create. That said, I'm under way more public scrutiny than what's here in this thread. Overall for anyone else? If you can skillfully trade futures you can pass this combine. If you're not sure, the process will give invaluable feedback you cannot get from random sim programs on your own. imo this is every bit as tough as trading real money, once a trader gets over the real-money anxiety in our profession