thanks guys for the honest replies...I will think it through...either I will record everything (every trade every day) or put this thread to rest...
OK, I've already invested a little in this thread, so let me be serious for a moment and try and contribute: that statement scares me. Trading is a business, like selling cars, making widgets, or digging ditches. The objective is to make money, not feel excited every moment of the experience. If you have not read "Trading in the Zone" yet then you need to stop trading and go read it, particularly the part in chapter 3 where Douglas describes the mental state of the new trader. The new trader gets intoxicated with the feeling of winning until he loses, and once he loses, instead of taking responsibility for his actions, he either 1) blames his decision tools or he 2) blames the market, or both. If he blames his tools, he will go on a search for the holy grail so he doesn't have to lose again since losing caused him emotional pain. Of course, as we all (should) know, there is no holy grail and this cycle of intoxication / losses / blame the tools will repeat itself. If the trader blames the market for his losses, thereby refusing to take responsibility for his own actions and refusing to recognize "the market" for what it really is, then he will go on search for a better market to trade. Now, while each market has its own set of advantages and disadvantages, no market is inherently better than any other market... think about it: someone is making money and someone is proportionally losing money in every single market you have access to, therefore no market is superior to another. The only difference is you. And since we're talking about you in this thread, from your first post on this site you have done nothing but 1) look for better tools or 2) look for better markets. STOP THE INSANITY! The fact that you are even trying to trade multiple, non-correlated markets as a newbie boggles my mind... this game is hard enough when you only focus on one contract at a time. Here's my advice: 1. Pick 1 contract, preferebly one where you will lose money the slowest. Like, I don't know, NQ! 2. Pick one tool for decision support (in addition to price action itself). Make sure that tool has you entering the market in the opposite direction of the most immediate price movement on your timeframe instead of chasing it (in other words, not an oscillator). I'll throw you a bone here: Fib retracements. Study them until you're blue in the face. Figure out which level the market will most likely bounce off based on the volatility of the last trend leg, and then front-run the big boys. There are lots of other trend-following methods out there that are equally effective, maybe more so, but I'm giving you one that works. However, you'll have to do some of your own work and you'll have to pay some tuition to make it work for you. Until you do the two steps listed above you will trade in a frenetic, disjointed, and confused way, never knowing if you're improving or not. However, you will also never have to take responsibility for your actions, because your losses will either be due to 1) inferior tools or methods (you can go on another grail search!) or 2) inferior market (you can come ask us more questions about which contract is best!). However, the fact that you think NQ is boring says a lot more than you think it does. Trust me on this, if you post your blotter every single day, whether you trade or not, no one here will think you are boasting. I'm confident in it.
What is the contract symbol for DaX and CL? and the time it's open/close? How about the Nikkie index futures? For example, ER is ER2U08. ER is closed at 1:15 pm west coast time and open again at 1:30 pm for after hours session. Thanks
easiest thing to do is go to www.barchart.com and click on futures exchanges or go to www.nymex.com for CL or google eurex for DAX
thanks...yea 1 DAX contract got the power of 8 YM contracts...easier to handle 1 dax contract...what do you trade?