No need to do that, I am a breakout trader but I don't expect everyone to be. There are some guys that want to know about getting more points anyway, this might be a good way. If you don't mind sharing. By the way have you been keeping up with the TI guys and how they are doing?
You should checkout the ACD Breakout Method. It could be used as a filter to determine when to trade divergence and when to trade breakouts/trend/JOT. I take the 30 min. high & low of the ES (after the 9:30 EST open) then add 3 pts. to the high and subtract 3 pts. from the low to generate a range. IMHO it's a useful guide. I'll post a couple of charts.
by .25 slippage, u mean the bid ask spread, right? I am shopping for a broker now to get into eminis, that's why i'm asking. Doesn't it depend more on the broker than on the "front-end"/platform?? I mean, if u did have a slow trade (i know you're not a scalper, 4re) would it be ninja's fault or GHCO's? I actually contacted GHCO, and I didn't here anything about free X-trader, that would be awesome. There must be some volume, success, or loyalty restriction on that. I'll call them tomorrow.
Nope, that is their platform of choice, it is free. Yes, that is what I mean by slippage. Trades happen almost instantly in this market, nothing like what you are used to. When you put in an order they stick it in a pile. First come first served. If price goes through your order even for one tenth of a second all orders at that price are executed.
See the following thread: X-Trader with no monthly fee! New Transactional Model. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=62730
You can also download Ninja Trader simulation from their website for free. I have not done it so I don't know the details. I use it because I can program it and keep me disciplined. The guys at GHCO are really good and so is their support. My friend really like Alaron as well. I was not very happy with Velocity though. Night Night, I am kinda ugly and need some beauty sleep..
Candeo, I was not unlike you when I switched to this market from options. One thing I realized early is that this market moves extremely fast when we have a lot of players. That is one reason that picking a target and sticking with it is so important. The more time you spend with it the more you'll understand it. I also noticed that a lot of people just go for 2 points and reverse. That really can swing the market fast. I tried several different methods that had worked for me in the past to no avail. When I noticed that S/R levels were very important in this market I started to research it. That is when I noticed that unless it is a trendy day 2 points was about all you could safely get. A couple years back trend trading worked very well in this market but has since been changed by the 2 point guys. Not being a person to fight the market I just developed a method that worked for me. Not saying you can't go for more, because you can but it can also be dangerous. 4re ---------------------------------------------------------------- 4re, Thank you for the explanation. I have some questions though: - Why do you think it is that traders go for the 2 points? And how could it really affect you if entries are different anyway? In all markets there are traders with very short time frames. You just need to decide what you will consider as "noise". Saying "it is moving fast" is very relative, and it is easy to adapt your stop to a multiple of the ATR for example, to take care of volatility. - This might be really stupid, so please bear with me: the ES is pretty much a reflection of the 500 stocks. So how could it be that much affected by supply/demand and the 2 points traders if anyway it needs to follow the S&P? I am basing this comment on my experience with ETFs that just follow a pool of stocks, but maybe there is something I am missing here, thank you for clarifying. - As we are talking about this, I have noticed with ETFs that technical analysis in general is not as useful as with individual stocks, because of what I have just been saying. For example, S/R are not as significant because for a resistance to be very strong you need most of the stocks to stop moving when this point is reached on the ETF's chart. Most traders of individual stocks do NOT study S/R of the corresponding ETF. So the comments you posted from Douglas (especially about traders self-fuffiling their own expectations) are not as true for ETFs. I would think it is the same with market Eminis. What do you think? Thanks again for helping a beginner.
Wow, that sounds good. This market impresses me more and more. I just wonder why the J-trader rep was pushing X-trader so hard on that point then, saying VPN connection on X-trader is so much faster than an open internet connection like ameritrade or J-trader. I actually new VPN was slightly slower! weird