I can't access my IB until Sunday afternoon so I don't have the info or chart to look at, but here is what I recall from yesterday's action: Because news was due out, I chose not to trade until after the news. I like to see the reaction to the news and find out where the market wants to go after the initial news shock wears off, so I was busy sim trading CL for quite a while. Since the consumer sentiment was really bad and the market sold off, I expected a "drifting down" day with a late day selloff and was looking to short the first bounce as long as it stayed below the 20 EMA. However, when strong support was found not far below the previous day's support level (1085), I really didn't know what to think. The analysts were saying DIS earnings painted a rosy picture and that overrode the dismal consumer sentiment. Then again there's the weak dollar propping up the market. So I waited to see how much steam was in the bounce off the 1082.00 zone. Quite a bit in fact. The funny thing about my initial short position is that before I put it on, as price was continuing to push new highs but only a few ticks each time, I almost placed a sell order @ 1096.00. My thinking was that stops would be placed above the latest high and that would drive price to the 1096 zone and a lot of potential sellers would be waiting for that next small push to a new high and have orders parked near there and the market would then correct, because after a strong move up we nearly always get a pullback. But the market being so irrational, I decided to wait a bit more until weakness appeared, because I didn't want to be a top picker and get caught in a breakout/short squeeze. Well, 1096 turned out to be the exact HOD and later in the day when I saw that, I was thinking, "Darn! OracleWizard would've been so impressed if I'd sold short at the exact top!" Anyhow, 1096 was where resistance truly showed itself and when it piddled around there I shorted with a very tight stop just above that high.
Thanks for explainig your thoughts. fwiw I took a short at 94.50, based more on a range estimation more than anything else, and after taking 1.50 heat and watching the market seeming to lapse into the dreaded sideways shuffle, I bailed with just 1 tick, LOL. But since our entries were in the same area, I was just curious how your "p/b from lower high" concept translated into an entry near the return to the high of that 1st lower high bar. Thanks again. Enjoy your weekend.
Nod, check this out, compared to trading crude oil. I am assuming you looked at crude oil as a bigger bang for the commission dollar because the CL can have some rather hairy swings in price compared to the ES. Well, that is true but it should be recognized that the CL car is a FULL car and the ES is a MINI car. The full SP500 car trades in 10ths and at $25 a tick. The full SP (symbol= SP) comes out to $250.00 a handle. Last Fridays action the full SP had a rounded range of 13 handles which comes out to $3,300 per car. The CL had a range od 77.17 down to 75.57 which comes out to $1,600 a car. Just thought you would like to see the difference. I did not bother to look at the e-mini crude oil car. ES surely wins in the volume catagory over the full SP 500 car. http://www.marketswiki.com/mwiki/S&P_500_Index_futures PS: before electronic trading the floor traded SP was $500.00 a handle. Try doing that gorillia on the phone and get caught in a FAST mkt and the broker says: "hey Slim, we will call you back with the fill report, DON'T call us, WE will call you" you detect a laugh as he hangs up on your mkt order. :eek:
Yes, I've found the CL swings to be gratifying to say the least. With a .20 - .30 stop and .10-.30 jumps, I usually know in seconds when it's over. When I sim trade it, I look at nothing else except the DOM and the 5-min chart. I watch the chart like a hawk for a specific S/R level in the trend to be reached and I jump in at the first sign of a pullback reversal signaling continuation, or if counter-trend trading I place a limit order in advance at the price level I expect the next breakout to reach. That's also worked real well. I'm thinking, though, that swing trading CL is the way to go. The other day I was counter-trend scalping when CL was at a major resistance area and my last trade (sh @ 80.32) turned out to be .20 from the top before the nearly 5.00 pullback to Friday's pivot low ($5K on 1 car). "Mawty, get smaller!"
I agree crude would be better to swing trade. The e-mini crude car is a dog for daytrading ...........thus people look at the full crude car. The full SP500 car is just the opposite, the e-mini is the big dog on the block. Which tells me for daytrading i want to go with the big dog traders because they have better setups. Crude looks very eratic UNTIL a nice run happens and that can set up a FEW rather large losers in a row......... something that must be considered. ES is the KING of daytrade instruments. Crude and gold or Soybeans have their day in the sun for sure. Crude and gold are more for Johnny come late (lately) specs and thats where the rather erratic setups are spacey until the pros make a run..........probably after chopping up the KNOWN new specs in the game. Remember the MUSIC MAN..............Know the territory. Not trying to discourage you, just that you need to find a niche somewhere first. Nice day out....... INDIAN Summer still here.
If I'm long a CL car on expiration, does a big ole truck drop off 1000 barrels of oil at my house? It's always Indian summer here; already been out with the dog and will be spending most of the rest of today outside.
Nod, Prius owners are exempt from delivery unless you have a state approved storage tank in the ground. I was trading sugar once and the broker called and asked if i had 11k pounds (something like that ) to deliver or would i prefer he closed out the car. I said, let me check my sugar supply in kitchen. :eek: need less to say, i said ok, close it out. They usually like the specs to be out by FIRST notice day. https://customers.reuters.com/community/commodities/Cross_Asset/futures.aspx PS: get your BIGHOG machine fired up for todays dogfight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J0BYq3yevs
No trading for me today. Nine years of soccer on 2-4 teams at once and never had an ankle or knee injury. Till yesterday. They over-irrigated our field, turning it to slick mud patches. Slide tackle + muddy patch = severely sprained ankle. Laid up with pain meds trying to get much-needed sleep after being up most of the night. Maybe some trading tomorrow...