Scott, a sad story. Almost like a reverse Jack Schwager interview, hahaha! I shouldn't laugh. I know the pain of divorce and halved trading and investment accounts. Married pussy is the most expensive kind, clearly cheaper to lease it. As we say down here: "What's the difference between a divorce and a tornado? None. Either way you're gonna lose your double-wide." IMO index futures are a good place to be after experiencing the manipulation of narrower markets. But beware holding overnight. Oil is moving NQ late nights. It's so obvious I have been thinking about trading it because the spreads often are tolerably tight (unnnh!).
I started off 18 months ago with the 1 minute chart (sometime even 30 seconds at the open) and gradually moved up through 2, 3 and 5 minutes to end up at 10min & 60min (plus 120min/240min views). I just keep channels on my charts for the same reason I use pivots - they seem to have enough followers to merit use as R/S levels for profit targets and entries IF I get a market internal signal. I've been a happier more relaxed trader since I moved up the TFs. I started off at 1min charts because I needed instant feedback on my open positions and I also wanted lots of signals because that felt more comfortable emotionally in terms of making daily $$$ target (now I don't have fixed daily targets). Cheers
Jessop, thanks. So you only use those longer TF channels if supported by shorter TF events? As support for entry/exit /reversal decisions, or as encouragment for a longer hold once a position is taken? I ask because I am simple-minded, if it reversed, it reversed, I couldn't care less why. Always willing to learn. Re your increased comfort watching longer time frames, for the edification of our readers (and we ARE being read), I am the opposite. I get anxious when I cannot see what is happening in one of those moving molasses bars. I want to get a feel for the ebb and flow of the now. So in the lower left hand corner I keep a bid/ask tick chart up, just big enough to attract my attention when things heat up. I like to be able to say "OK, it's channeling nicely, we're on a roll" or "They're ratcheting with a series of floor rotations, it's a shakeout" or "They're just fucking with us trying to take our money in a dull period".
Those of you who subscribe to the WSJ (a decided minority on ET, I am guessing, you get your finance news from USA Today) and who read my market commentary drivel here in various guises know that I have a particular loathing for Market Watch's Virtual Stock Exchange ads there. I am highly offended that they picked a doppelganger of me to depict a puerile post-middle-aged trader high-fiving in a fucking GAME. Worse yet, Mr. "Buy low, sell high" moved from black and white on page B8 uptown to color on page A10. But it's a cheesy colorization of the original B&W photo. Looks even more like me (I look cheesily colorized in real life). Brown age spots. Drunk's burst veins on the nose and cheeks. Shaving rash. Receded hair line. Streaky application of Clairol for Men, especially in the spots you can't see in the mirror. They don't need to MAKE you stupid by playing their game, they know you already ARE.
Hilarious, Equalizer, but there you go again, violating Posting Rule Four! Now you owe me two snippets of NQ trading lore!
Yes - everything has to have a 10min signal as a minimum.........a 60min channel/monthly pivot level touch or even a 60min signal are a very nice bonus.
Ohh yes, Im young. Senior year in collegue. No offense taken, Im also my grandmother's grandchild, I have deep respect for those who manage to acumulate such an amount of years. Respecting my webname, I use it in all of my web activities and I intentionally made myself a name so that google will point only to me when asked about my name. If you want you can also search for my other screen name xctico [I went through a few screen names before coming up with eusdaiki] To my recall I havent made any porn, I try not to leave evidence of such entretaining activities. Im glad to hear that you took the time to read the definition of my name. Good effort. I've also fallen into overtrading before. Doing over 200 trades a day in rebates is what I consider overtrading. However I consider that such an instrument as NQ can provide with countless oportunities to enter the market. I would trade more once I get used to the fast pace trading that I can only maintain for a few minutes now without doing serious mistakes [im rusty from attempting swing trading for a few months]. NQNQ. I have no need to lie to you, nor do I gain anything from liying to you. I cannot just post a screen shot of my trade list as that will violate confidentiality issues with my company. But I can post the text of my trades, with time stamp price, side and quantity. Just for entretainment pourposes, I'll do that after the market today.
NA, NQU6.NA, B, F, 1504.2500, 1, CME, 0.0, 0.0, 09:29:08, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, S, F, 1504.5000, 1, CME, 5.0000, 5.0000, 09:29:57, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, B, F, 1504.5000, 1, CME, 0.0, 0.0, 09:29:59, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, S, F, 1504.7500, 1, CME, 5.0000, 5.0000, 09:30:04, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, S, F, 1500.0000, 1, CME, 0.0, 0.0, 09:46:47, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, B, F, 1500.5000, 1, CME, -10.0000, -10.0000, 09:46:53, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, S, F, 1499.7500, 1, CME, 0.0, 0.0, 09:47:03, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, B, F, 1500.7500, 1, CME, -20.0000, -20.0000, 09:47:08, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, S, F, 1500.0000, 1, CME, 0.0, 0.0, 09:47:46, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, B, F, 1500.5000, 1, CME, -10.0000, -10.0000, 09:48:28, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, S, F, 1498.5000, 1, CME, 0.0, 0.0, 09:49:53, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, B, F, 1499.0000, 1, CME, -10.0000, -10.0000, 09:50:33, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, S, F, 1498.0000, 1, CME, 0.0, 0.0, 09:51:02, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, B, F, 1497.7500, 1, CME, 5.0000, 5.0000, 09:51:58, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, S, F, 1497.2500, 1, CME, 0.0, 0.0, 09:52:06, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, B, F, 1496.2500, 1, CME, 20.0000, 20.0000, 09:52:34, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, S, F, 1496.0000, 1, CME, 0.0, 0.0, 09:52:40, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, B, F, 1495.5000, 1, CME, 10.0000, 10.0000, 09:52:55, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, S, F, 1496.2500, 1, CME, 0.0, 0.0, 09:53:06, 2006/07/13, A, NA, NQU6.NA, B, F, 1496.0000, 1, CME, 5.0000, 5.0000, 09:55:02, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, B, F, 1496.2500, 1, CME, 0.0, 0.0, 09:56:28, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, S, F, 1496.5000, 1, CME, 5.0000, 5.0000, 09:56:54, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, B, F, 1496.2500, 1, CME, 0.0, 0.0, 09:57:17, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, S, F, 1496.5000, 1, CME, 5.0000, 5.0000, 09:57:27, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, B, F, 1497.0000, 1, CME, 0.0, 0.0, 09:57:40, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, S, F, 1496.2500, 1, CME, -15.0000, -15.0000, 09:58:50, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, S, F, 1496.2500, 1, CME, 0.0, 0.0, 09:58:58, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, B, F, 1495.5000, 1, CME, 15.0000, 15.0000, 09:59:11, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, S, F, 1494.2500, 1, CME, 0.0, 0.0, 09:59:17, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, B, F, 1493.5000, 1, CME, 15.0000, 15.0000, 09:59:51, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, S, F, 1494.2500, 1, CME, 0.0, 0.0, 10:00:00, 2006/07/13, R, NA, NQU6.NA, B, F, 1495.0000, 1, CME, -15.0000, -15.0000, 10:00:24, 2006/07/13, R, here's my list of trades. I had to take care of some bussiness that interrupted my trades for the first 15 minutes of the market... but you can get the idea.