Greetings everyone. I just began trading the ES and am looking for any tips, advice, etc. anyone is willing to offer. I've spent months reading trading books and going blind watching charts, and have been actually trading for about a month now. So far the most helpful writer/trader/guru/whatever you wanna call him is Mark Fisher. I've been following his ACD methodology religiously and have realized reasonable profits. Of course, I'm only trading one contract but hey, you've gotta start somewhere. Does anyone else on here use this methodology? Any advice about ACD or trading the ES would be greatly appreciated. I've read all the posts about money management, risk management, the inevitability of losing, etc. and I'm pretty familiar with all of that. I know the first thing everyone tells a newbie is "Just be prepared to lose your ass," and I've accepted that. I'm trading with strictly risk-capital so I'm prepared for the losses should/when they come. I'm also Irish so my cynical nature keeps me ready for the worst. I have noticed the Murphy's Law applies to nothing so much as it does to trading. Thanks
I tried to automate it on equities and it didn't work very well due to slippage when wrong, however I think it would work better with Futures that are more fluid. There is a link somewhere on ET to his seminar that is archived either on the cboe or cbot website. All in all its one of the better methodologies I have seen.
gotta trade--I am pretty much a blank canvass when it comes to trading. I really do believe that far from being easy money, it is a skill that must be developed, just like anything else. For me the ACD method just struck me as making more sense than anything I've read to this point. Everyone has to have some place to start, and I'm just looking for as much input from people with experience to see what I can internalize and put to use. For instance, in your opinion, how valuable do you think the study of chart patterns, MACD, Moving Averages, Bollinger Bands, Fibonacci indicators, Keltner channels, Andrews Pitchfork, are? It would seem to me that it could be very easy to over-complicate and over-analyze. I'm trying to absorb as much as I can but everyone has their limits.
I watched the Mark Fisher seminar on ACD. http://www.clicklive.com/NYMEX/symposium_2003/ Here he states that indexes are hard to trade (using his system) because there is so much backing and filling. In his presentation he also states that he has traders executing ACD across a wide variety of markets. Like a lot of mechanical systems, it seems that ACD needs to be run across multiple markets in order to get positive returns. What opening range are you using to trade ES using ACD and how many ticks beyond the opening range do yoy execute your orders? Have you backtested this system? good luck
Avalanche--That was one of the questions I've had about the whole methodology, whether it could be automated. I watched the seminars from NYMEX and it seems the system is largely discretionary. While the method is very clear as far as stops, the entry point seems to be largely up to the individual trader. That's part of my curiosity as far as chart analysis and its usefulness. It seems that looking for signals based on charts is somewhat controversial in trading circles, but I'm willing to explore it. Like Fisher says, the ACD really only provides a pulse upon which other indicators or signals can be layered. At least that's how I understand it.