Beeflover, First of all don't quit cause you need to learn how to trade for your retirement. That's why I am here and it takes as long as it takes. So...back to the drawing board. More money, more time, more studying, more learning...such is life... Enclosed is a chart of today's (ym) market. I put the vertical lines in as well as I could with my new software E-Signal. (Cause Omnitrader didn't workout...). These are just the long trades. There are some short trades also. Keep in mind that I didn't trade today cause I'm fine tuning my system with the help of everyone here. (Thankyou!!!) The trades are when the Macd goes through the zero line and the stoch is moving up through the 50% line and T28-SMA3 shift +2 all align up...jump on it. Enjoy the process and tell yourself that you learned something new today...Hang tough Trader28 will get us straightened out. snarlyjack
I took the time to work out Jack's signals for myself on my charts (QuoteTracker). Here are the results from Jan 16. Assumptions: Entries taken when candle closes in order to assure a 50% cross of Stoch 5,2,3 P/L 8:40 L1 623 0 9:00 S2 624 1 9:30 L3 611 13 9:40 S4 604 -7 10:05 L5 606 -2 11:05 S6 612 6 11:30 L7 615 -3 11:45 S8 616 1 12:35 L9 605 11 12:45 S10 601 -4 13:00 L11 606 -5 14:00 S12 619 13 14:30 L13 624 -5 14:15 C13 630 6 Total 25 Utilizing this one criteria for entries, this day would have been a loser when you include slippage and commissions. That doesn't mean it wouldn't kill on another day.
Beeflover, sorry to hear that you are experiencing a drawdown. Look upon your experiences as further education. Couple of observations here: 1. There was a question about avoiding price spikes. The trader has to understand that a price spike represents large numbers of market participants experiencing pain, they are long or short, and the market is moving rapidly against them. The pros know where the stops are likely to be, and they will go for them like fishermen search for the best fishing grounds. Many are forced to get out at these points, and the market can then reverse without them. As a trader, one wants to be takng profit at these times, ie on the other side of these losing trades. One quote I really like: "Enter the market in quiet times, exit at wild times". 2. People have to realise that very short term trading strategies (like some variants described here) are not for everyone. Slippage & commissions will be high as a proportion of profits (or losses) using such strategies. The trader has to feel comfortable with the trading style chosen. For me, 3-4 trades per day is quite a lot, for others it's 2-3 per week.
One more thing, many traders employ a daily loss limit, in points,$ or whatever. If you use such a limit, you know in advance that you cannot lose more than this amount (+ poss slippage) for the day. Something worth considering. Apply it to your trade history and see how it affects the P&L.
Jack Hershey is correct, What a trader needs to do is: draw your trades out and look at them. Then determine what your buy points are and what your sell points are. In yesterday's (ym) action, it looks to me that their were 9 trades. 1). Buy when the macd crosses the zero line. 2). Sell when the Stoch rollover and crosses over. I didn't count the points but by visually looking at it a trader would have made money. So in my mind the buy is the Macd cross of the zero line. The sell is the Stoch rollover. Now we have a buy and sell position. See enclosed chart. snarlyjack
thansk for all your guys work--this looks solid--i just gotta get some screen time in here to get used to these new indicators. here are my first 3 trades 9:30 sell at 1440.25 sold at 1439.50 +0.75 got spooked and exited too early? 9:45 buy at 1439.50 stopped out at -1.00 entered too soon--not near zero 9:55 buy at 1440.50 stopped out at -1.00 entered too soon again?
how do these indicators work in a news situation. for example bernanke jsut started speaking but things are already down signif.--obv im not getting a zero line cross anytime soon but if the bottom is really gonna fall out what is my signal to get on board with the short?
Sweetdeez, My first trade of the day was at 8:00 Mountain Time. Trading the (YM) went short at 12,645 on the macd cross. Just liquidated at 8:06, at 12,625 when the Stoch crossed. 20 Points x $5.00 a point = +$100.00 Perfect so far...Glad we could help you with our analysis. We have only been perfecting it for 6 months now. Traders from all over the "world" have given us their ideas and input!!! Pretty cool huh... snarlyjack
Enclosed is a picture of the 1st trade of the day. 12,645 (short) 12,625 (liquidate) 20 points, = $100.00 Sweetdeez, If the bottom starts to fall out... Wait for a pull back over the SMA3 +2 horizontial shift, then when it starts dropping through the M.A. place your short. snarlyjack