Thanks Kuntviction! I actually have a lower post/day ratio than you, get back to backtesting your demo account chock full of useless indicators.
Kon: 1) Ignore other people's comments on having too many indicators. I have 10 to 15 indicators overlaid on my charts at any given time. They don't care to see the indicators, that's okay. What's important is what works for you. 2) Gap: From my experience gaps are to be faded (I only trade a few stocks like AAPL and GS) only about 80% of the time. (Which is more than the majority of the times). The key is you need to look at the OVERALL pattern to decide if you should fade the gap that morning. And be very careful: e.g. if you fade a gap up and it moves strongly against you, don't try to be a hero and average down (shorting). Go with the flow. Look at the 1-min and 5-min charts on the same stock and consider the price moves in the previous sessions, see if a stock has taken out a support/resistance level before deciding if you should fade a gap. 3) First hour of trading. The first hour is golden. But it is not for beginners. The issue is on most of the days you will see reversals, sometimes more than 2 reversals, in the morning. If your trading approach is only to long the breakout or short the breakdown, it is easy to get caught. If you know only to long the breakout (nothing wrong with that), it will be like playing tennis only with forehand and only when the ball hits the center of the court.
Your welcome Turdo. Now leave my thread and ET for another 3 months before you feel the ever growing desire to come back because you have nothing else better to do. Cheers.
Kon, I will not tell u how to trade the indicators, everyone sees everything differently. What no one here ever talks about are precise risk management metrics. Risk 1-2 percent of your account on each trade. This will allow u to loosen up your stops so they can be properly placed. I assume u already know all the basic patterns on a chart. Most players have their stops too tight. When u get right, pyramid, pyramid, pyramid! You have to be aggressive when u get a trend. Specifically pyramid until that loss of of one percent becomes 50% of margin based on the initial stop. You have to push it hard if your gonna get that big money. If while pyramiding, the trade goes against, take break even, or two percent. If the trade goes immediately against you, 1-10% max! The key..........risk. Caveat Emptor, all trading advice is bullshit.
no. -- the the above poster, yes thats exactly right. Each indicator on the charts has a important, and unique purpose that addresses every issue of trade management such as stops, targets, entries, scale in/ out points, etc... The reason I have so many is because TWO of them are to confirm trades...I could probably do without them, but the results would be quite different I'm sure.
Indicators are like fashion. The trading community are always flipping between trading methods that are currently 'in vogue'. Ive been around for a while. There used to be endless threads about all the best indicators and settings. Nowadays you'll see that every thread is all about naked charts and 'price action'. Its the current 'in' thing. Next year, every other thread will probably be about 'cycles'. Indicators will have a resurgance too. In summary, do what works for you.
Agree. Thinkorswim has so many indicators to choose from, one could spend their whole life doing nothing but back-testing all the different combinations lol. I trade pa too, but having two trading methods is nice for when market conditions change, or when you want to trade other markets, and/or time frames.
+1 WLP had good movement, atleast comparatively: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2692983#post2692983