ramora, I generally don't use stops, but I do use limit orders to get in and out of trades. For example, when I see an FTT forming and my tapes/channels are drawn, I can get a feel for the range within the bar. Often I'll place an order using limit orders to optimize my entry (or exit). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This may not be textbook Hershey/Spyder, but I find it works for me. The other thing I will do is when I see an FTT forming and I'm pretty confident about it and the signals are strong, I may buy two contracts instead of one. I actually hope I'm not forming any bad habits here, but my only goal (obviously) is to "bank coin!"
WGT, awesome just awesome man, especially the 10:48-11:39 trade, holding thru the entire congestion! I might have a heart failure right there
one rule of thumb with sims: make sure the market has traded THROUGH your price. e.g. if you bid at 1471.00, you can consider your order filled if it has traded at 1469.75. But if the market has just touched your price, some sims will notify you that you are "filled", but in real life you might not.
Tums, You bring up a good point. My real-money experience with TOS has been with option trades which are nearly always limit orders and I haven't noticed this problem. However, I don't know what it will be like when I start trading futs. I suppose I'll quickly find out when I start for real!
WG, could you tell us, what did you use to go long at 10:48am. Was it based on the YM upside break or ES volume? tia.
OP, Here was my thinking at the 10:48 trade. The Pt 3 (Forest Level) channel had been established at the 10:25 bar. I actually entered a long position at 10:36 and held it until 10:44 when I sold it and collected 2 points. (I donât recall exactly why I got out here⦠things must have appeared murky to me at that point, but I should have stayed in). At 10:48 I entered a long position again because of the breakout of the rather wide lateral channel on the ES at the 10:40 bar. Also my Gaussians were saying that we had nicely increasing black volume which said continuation. So we enter a lateral channel on decreasing red volume and we stayed within the forest level channel. This again said continuation (hold through the flaws). After a breakout of the lateral channel at the 11:30 bar, the Gaussians are showing increasing black volume which says keep holding. Then by 11:39 I was anticipating an FTT, we were well above the 20SMA, I was sitting on some profits, so I exited the position (donât be greedy I say!). The FTT that I was anticipating did come (the 11:50 bar) and I did go short at 11:49 and 11:50 which I held until 12:28 when I closed out those trades. The volume had dropped off dramatically starting around noon, so I didnât see any point in remaining in the trade. I took a couple of points and went and had lunch. Hope this description helps.
Yes it did. =) The reason I asked is because I was short at the bottom of the 10:45 bar. If I would have been out of the market at the time it would have been easier to see that the correct position was long at that time. Live and learn. Thanks again and good trading to ya...!
My chart for the morning. Trading was not bad but I was clueless for a while around 11:30. I was expecting a point 3 down after the breakout but instead we got increasing black. regards, Ivo