Done after 1-minute today. 3 points x 5 contracts => 1 trade and done. These large gaps up can go both ways. Most of them usually have some retracement lower, but it's uncertain, so I decided it was not a day to press my luck. Probably done for the day. To be honest, if you have no experience day trading futures, I would think about it for a while before embracing upon this journey. Even consistently taking only 1 point per day is incredibly hard and something most who try won't be able to do. The only ones who will tell you differently are the snake oil sellers or fake gurus. I would have been much wealthier and happier if I just stuck with swing trading 10 years ago instead of pursuing day trading. Maybe my efforts will pay off now, but I'm not yet rich from day trading.
By the way - a big key to success in this game is knowing when to stay the hell out and learning not to trade if you're uncertain. Some people are afraid of pulling the trigger while others simply jump into the market without much thought at all. One can go a long way just by eliminating poor/impulsive trades. I'm still learning this lesson.
In other words, "don't quit your day job!" I have no intentions. I have a pretty good life. Since the pandemic my office is permanently in my home. I am customer facing, so my afternoons are filled with Zoom meetings and some face to face meetings. But the mornings are pretty much mine. My interest in day trading ES is purely from a hobby perspective. I recently opened a sim account with Ninjatrader brokerage. I have not yet place a live trade. If I ever place an actual day trade, I will start with the micro contract. I have already decided that if I sink (read: lose) more than $1K in this hobby, I'll be done with it. I do appreciate your honesty. In my eyes, the value of your opinion is increased by your humility.
Quality post man You got a solid trade plan and discipline 1:3RR has been very effective for me to get enough out of the market from each trade, regardless how high it goes after hitting my take profit.
+1 This is good stuff LF. Do you ever let any of your contracts run? For example you were running 5 here so maybe out @ 3 pts w/ 4c and let the 5th run with a B/E stop? Just curious. To me the scalps at higher leverage give you all you need - and my runners are just a bonus if they go.
I very much agree. As I see it the first hour and a half is the bread and butter. You should scalp with high degree of discipline.You should understand the risk(and chance ) in this kind of volatility. In the rest of the day try to catch the general direction of the market.For example if after hour and half nice support line with market moves up.. Maybe it worth to get involved. Switching perspective after around 90 minutes, from quick scalper to long intrady swing yieald good reault. Sometimes the scalp mearged with whole day direction. And this is BOOM
I do 9/1, 9 at makeable target and 1 for homerun, for myself only 1-2 homeruns occurs a week, that being said I average 50-60 trades for 345 minutes, so if I tried more for more longer profits would affect overall day. I do better in chop environment, really more of a grinder type experience. Actually average better in Crude Oil than ES, but ES volume is king...
This type of modification will have a big affect on results, and should be tested extensively. And if the results are positive it begs the question, why only 1 runner? Why not adjust the initial target for all 5? Oh wait, that's a different trade!
This leads back to the OP question. Adding to this, (when and when not), sometimes you need to exit before the Stop or the target. A lot of system are Win or Loss. But there, imo should be a "scratch" category. You eat the commissions, but if the premise has a time element, or an expected next move, or "should not happen" and it is not working out, scratch is a choice. BTW: eliminated 50% of the trades in the system and ended up 8 points, Wednesday (32 trades). Today Thursday at 8 trades and up 5 points. High water mark was at 7:00 or 30 minutes in. Still trading (14 trades) and treading water.... Next system change will be to filter another category of setups and continue the optimization.