Available Capital: 4697 I redeemed myself today without taking inordinate risk but effectively utilizing my capital. It took me what felt like 20 seconds to lose $211 in the Nikkei last night and all day to make around $315 today. Net net I'm up. Given I don't trade the Nikkei 225 then I want to a risk a MAXIMUM of $70 if I try.
I couldn't really find a good entry so I didn't take a trade which was the right decision. It gap higher and near the top of the range of the spreads. Seems like it would be a difficult market to trade but worthwhile for me to learn because of the hours. The NKD futures doesn't seem to have any volume at all which seems peculiar(?) Anyone know of a Nikkei symbol under ThinkOrSwim that has good volume flow? The NIKKEI seemed a bit weak before the tragedy struck. I suspect though that some companies may have been beaten down more then they should be be. I feel the opportunity may be there for the individual issue trader. Overall I traded excellently today and feel good about taking a break at this point or continuing to taking measured risk when I have a good read of things.
Available Capital: 4647 I didn't think I'd have a chance to buy the Nk225 tonight with a good risk/reward. But, it looks like we are forming a triple bottom pattern on a natural sell off at new highs. I could have got in for $35 risk. But, I got in for $50 risk when price pulled back to my primary buy zone after I seen it rebounded from my $35 entry. Market is really volatile. One thing I learned watching this market is that I don't want to chase it. Potential gain $350 on this trade. Max risk is $50. This is an experimental trade for sure. Wow just huge selling pressure came.. I don't feel bad about this trade even though it is going against me because I planned and recognized I didn't have a huge edge. I was patient and didn't get suckered to buy where I didn't want too. I executed plan. Max risk: $50 Max gain:$350 Targeted gain: $108 On a trade like this, I will not be making any more adjustments to it. The spread will either expire worthless or where it goes. But, I see $108 potential profit with $50 max risk and upside of up to $350. If I lose on this trade then it is not like I lost before when I was just an being an idiot. In this case, I feel better because I planned ahead and traded to my ability in this market -- which isn't very much. I'm down 80% on my position so far. Just enough enough for me to write this up.. Market is now approaching the far end of the buy zone.
I always watch the market when I'm out and when I'm in -- that is when I can. And the reason I do that is because I want to know you know if my trades made sense. If you shut down the screen when you exit a trade then that is a mistake. Right when you exit a trade then that's a great time to learn. One thing that surprised on this trade is that price is rebounding to my original zone point. But, I'm still down quite a bit. Not as much as before but $18. I don't really know much premium I payed into this trade. But it looks like I payed mostly premium into this trade. Really volatile, I'm up now 60% of risk on this trade.
wow these NK futures are really crazy.. was up $50 then crashed to -$15 in 2 seconds. Now up $15. Very unique type of tape action.. very little actual trade.
Available Capital: 4812 I took out about $115 on that trade. This is pretty much what I anticipated. However, I could have taken out $177 if I had grabbed my profits. I wasn't thinking about how close we were to the market close when I decided to hold out for more. Feel pretty good. Unfortunately, on my sim account my stop was hit. I was trading the NKD which doesn't appear to be a very good contract to trade. Losing that $500 on my sim account bothers me. I was a bit late placing the order and didn't really get to buy it in my target. The market did retrace several times and I could have bought in my sim account in my target zone. I didn't expect it to retrace though. I try to keep my sim and real money accounts synced at all times. But, there are some differences. I like trading both futures and spreads/binaries. Both require discipline. However, with spreads you must be disciplined not to take wrong actions whereas with futures you must be disciplined to take right actions. The risk is higher in futures. Due to the stop placement, the max risk is higher as well for risk/reward or one must trade a fairly active/aggressive style which tends to have more its own risk. I like both and seeing the differences in terms of trying to trade well with both instruments.
I'll have the capital updates shortly. I made somewhere between $30 and $50 today real money. It wasn't very much. In this case, I way over payed for the premium to reduce my maximum risk. This is something I want to share is that the amount of premium you pay is related to how close you are to a floor/ceiling. Today, the premium I had to pay was just too high to overcome. I should have taken more max risk and would have pocketed a good $200. I made excellent money on my hypothetical account today, though. That is trading the futures.. Exact same trade idea, exact same execution.. But, I took more max risk with the futures and didn't have the premium to overcome. In general, I like the spreads and think that paying maybe 1 point in premium and having a 20 point-30 point no knockout stop will work better then paying what.. like 8 points of premium today that I did.
Seen a thousand lot go off on the ask side of the market.. that is someone hit the offer with a thousand lot. I'm short. I figure that if a thousand lot can't move the market then this move has ran its course. However, I will exit if I take any heat. I don't know if this is a smart move or a dumb move right now. Confidence is slightly below average. Well I'm out with a loss. Market is moving higher still.
Available Capital: 4789 Hmm, I thought I was getting commission free trades for my first 30 or 45 days. It looks like I'm being charged commissions. I'm having them look into that for me. I've moved my capital around with this changing accounts thus I have to be a bit more diligent in tracking everything.