https://www.worldoil.com/news/2021/1/22/biden-s-plan-to-cut-us-oil-production-becomes-clearer. As noted Biden plans to cut oil production which is good for oil prices going forward.
I took just 1 of my contracts off at 1st target but plan to keep more for higher targets. Also, I still plan to add more back on if price falls.
In this trade, I thought to myself, instead of trying to get long lower, I better have more contracts on now since price may never fall lower. However, for my 2nd contract that I got in 2 ticks higher, I had a lower target and stop. This way I could take a small loss on this contract if needed and then add it again lower. What I don't like to do anymore is have 2 contracts with both falling and then add a 3rd contract then have all of them stop out if I am wrong. Also, don't you hate when you go long and price just falls right after. This way I watched price a bit before adding the 2nd contract. Please feel free to reply on how some of you pros handle trade management.
I added the contract back on at BE, then I took it off again around 1st target, then I took 2nd contract off a little higher. So I turned a longer term trade into 3 scalps, if price goes back down I may try to get in again. This is a way to trade price if its in a range and not really trending up yet.
We can see there were both short and long spikes. Spikes like these also occur in Forex, so you need to give price room to breath or you may keep getting stopped out in a range. You don't want your stops just 1 tick higher than previous R and S no matter which direction you are trading. I normally will trade a range with my current bias and current trend, and not take counter trend trades.
Use caution in CL man. Busy data/news week coming up, and CL could suffer some serious swings. Certainly much larger than that latest chart you posted.
I decided to trade 2 contracts again on the ES this time. The main benefit of trading 2 contracts is you can have 1 of your contracts go a bit higher. I did move down the target for the 2nd contract after moving stop up to BE. Really, I could and probably should have just let target alone. Worse case once 1st contract hits target is that I get stopped out on BE on 2nd contract. I will check my chart in the morning to see how I did if I should have just left it alone. I was not trading ES on news, just PA on the long side, I saw where I thought I could get in with limited risk in that my stop was not very far under the support level. The other benefit of 2 contracts is you can trade less. If you are scalping with just 1 contract, you need to be right multiple times during the time you trade to be profitable. With 2 contracts at the same time, you can just wait for 1 good trade. The main thing to do is look at your win percent. If you have a high win percent on equal risk vs reward there is no reason not to add more contracts. You just need to stop trading for that day or night if you do hit a loss. The reason being your win percent could actually relate to the specific day. For example, you may not be aware of some type of report that came out say a bomb exploded. So instead of keep over trading or revenge trading, stop before you create a greater loss and look to get back in the next day. However, if you do like to spend all day looking at charts there is no reason not to take every trade setup that you see. Some people do very well trading like this. On the other hand you might be a position trader who holds a contract multiple days and have a much lower win percent. You can have a lower win percent if you have a much higher target. However, if you do have a lower win percent you then might only want to do one contract at a time since you will have a bigger stop than someone that scalps. I don't trade for a living, I make money other ways too. The main thing to do is determine a trade setup which has an edge and wait till you see that pattern develop enough that you can trade it without making a mistake. I define an edge is any trade setup that has positive expediency. This means if you are able to execute your setup correctly each time, you will have a higher win % than 50% on close to equal risk vs reward. I don't believe in standard stops and targets, you need to adjust your stops and targets based on R and S that you see on the charts while giving your trade room to breath. The main thing to do is build up self confidence in your system. You can start small and then add more contracts later when you have more statistics that prove your system works over time. I saw one trader say online, your trades have 4 possible outcomes. A big win, a big loss, a small win, or a small loss. He stated if you can remove that big losses from your trades, and have an edge you can achieve profitability.