I fail to understand you IndexS. Your setups worked without a glitch and 43 trades later you drop 203 bucks, award yourself a meaningless 2 and your broker (or sim broker) walks off with a couple of hundred in his pocket, all because you failed to implement your own strategy. The reason that I write to you in this manner is because this is exactly what happened to your trading day as you described it. Is this thread simply a cry for attention or are you serious in your endeavours to become a consistently profitable Trader. The answer is not apparent to me. regards f9
F9 I can't speak for Index but I don't understand your point. Not everyone can stick exactly to their gameplan. When I stick to my gameplan, I can run up my account 50-70% in two hours or less, but I am not that disciplined unfortunately and have made much more on the losses then gains. Perhaps Index has the similar issues. I wrote on p.13 or so that he needs to be EXTREMELY disciplined and only then will this work. It seems that the setups are there. The discipline is another issue altogether.
good morning OTM, Another day another dollar. Let me try and respond to your excellent post as best I can. This is only about the ES, I know nothing about anything else in detail. ES moves each RTH from level to level. It pauses at a level, an almighty battle quite often takes place between big traders and sometimes it just pauses and then moves. So, there are optimum levels in which to enter and exit. If you filter your T&S to >99 you will see clearly what the big boys are doing. This does in no way imply that the < 99 crowd are wrong...not at all, it is simply a technique to slow down the action so your eye can see it and your mind can capture it. When your strike enters within the optimum range of a level, you will be in the company of some of the big traders and you will be against others big traders. Do not let this be of concern because the big strikes are trading exactly to a strategy, their strategy, and you must do the same.... trade your strategy. What are I trying to say. When your strike enters the market, you are in the company of some very big players and you do not have the luxury of allowing your emotions to lead you astray. Played properly, this game can be very difficult, made all the more so by the quality of the major players. I have several friends who are surgeons. Differing expertise but they are have one thing in common and that is they have a ritual they go through before surgery. Now, I have a computer solely for trading, chart and front end programmes only. No email, no google, nothing other than chart and front end. I need to physically roll my chair to be in front of it. Not a great distance I grant you, but sufficient to form a part of the switch in my brain that puts me in trading mode. My Wife says that you could blow up half of Buenos Aires when I am in trading mode and I would not notice. My entries are by way of stops and covering stops.(brackets) I will manipulate the stops once I am in the trade but I never never ever open my protective stop... quite the opposite in fact. But I digress because your very fair question was centred on trading your strategy. Solo Virtuosos and tennis players are in a similar situation to traders IMO, in that they are alone, supported solely by their training and strength of character. However their show must go on, whilst a Trader can always take the day off. Surgeons and golfers have their teams and caddies for support, but again their show must go on, whilst we Traders can take the day off. And so in that respect we are fortunate. What does all this mean. Well, put quite crudely, pissing around with your strategy is a luxury that you cannot afford. Think of the price as a part of your very self. Allow yourself to be drawn into the price and you will begin to know what it is about to do before it reveals its hand in the charts. regards f9
f9, My first post ever on any thread. The main reason is to let you know I greatly appreciate you and a very few others (Mandelbrotset, increasenow, austinp, all the regulars on ES Journal, etc...) for taking the time to help us that are still in the school of hard knocks, so to speak. The nuggets of info you guys are leaving on this thread are what has seemed to turn my trading down the right path. I look forward each day to see what barriers, hurdles, and stepping stones you help me get past. For the last ten years or so I have mostly let a firm manage a good chunk of my money at their discretion. The results had not been what I expected. Then lo and behold the Bear Stearns ordeal happens and a very big portion of my money vanished while all the time they were telling me "Just hang on, hang on, it will come back up, be patient, you're in this for the long haul...blah, blah, blah... " you know the story. Also during this ten year time period I've dabbled in trading myself and blown my account a time or two along the way. Anyway, I said all that to say this. I have decided to take the fragments of my money and try to trade with it myself only this time on more business-like terms. In other words to try to be successful. The reason why I started reading this thread is because the OP and I have one thing in common... we are using a small amount of capitol. What you guys have helped me to realize in a big way is that my main objectives right now are (1) capitol preservation so I can stay in the game and (2) trade discipline. Also, along the way you bring to light things that help give me an edge...referring to the "nuggets" I mentioned earlier. A big THANKS is in order for those. I'll tell ya IndexS if your strategy isn't giving you the results you need, and I say need because if your like me you haven't got much to lose to be able to stay in the game, scrap that method and try something else that works for you. Don't be stubborn about it either. The strategy that you are using might be a good strategy but it might not be the strategy for YOU. That's what everyone that trades has to do...find what works for THEM. Like Mandelbrotset posted a day or two ago, this is turning into one of the better threads. Look forward to reading more of everyone's posts. Thanks again guys and good trading, rc
Just a question guys. Intraday margin for the E's is $2250 per contract, and $3600+ for overnight maintenence....where do you trade with a $1,000? Just curious Don
Don - Most all of the futures brokers allow $500 margin for daytrading the CME e-minis. A minority, like Tradestation, do require $1K or higher. The amounts you mentioned are set by the exchanges, but as I understand it, the brokers can set lower amounts for daytrading based on their internal capital management.
I was going by Interactive Brokers, I called my guy there. Oh well, sounds a bit risky to me, but if you guys can make some money, go for it! All the best, Don
Took some stops early in the morning and the result was not good (down over 200). Then I stepped back, relaxed and decided to take only the setups with profit targets of 2 points minimum. I was able to come back to almost break even. Products traded: ES, ER2 Contracts: 28 Opening balance: 1025 Closing balance: 993 Net P/L: -32 Discipline: 4
Appreciate your honesty. But "down over 200" today? Literally, the thread is over, unless sth huge happens with your strategy overnight. No, don't get me wrong. I am preying and would be happy to see both your account and this thread survive, but this world is just so brutal.