johnnycakes78704

Stopped today at 11:33 after a 15 point gain today over 4 trades. If you paper traded and had similar results and then went live, what was the difference in your paper trading points vs real points? I've decided to start trading in January instead of waiting until late February/early March. I'll be researching platforms and going with real-time practice accounts for a few weeks on different platforms to see what I like then take the plunge. what numbers do you look at?

So this is what you'd be interested in? 2nd Resistance Point:1,245.42 1st Resistance Point: 1,239.83 Last Price: 1,234.00 1st Support Level: 1,223.83 2nd Support Level: 1,213.42 Volume 336,893 Open Interest 2,805,344 I closed my overnight position at 1234.25 and reopened at 1233.75, closed out at same viewing falling prices.

Then what do you trade on?

I get most of my news from overseas sources. What/where are your favorite places to get your news?

In an effort to learn a bit, I placed a trade based on the news that Brian Cowen's budget is set to pass. Bought 1 at 1223.75. I saw last week how positive news created a huge upswing in the pre-dawn hours so this is going to be a hold for me until tomorrow morning. I do see that volume has steadily increased about a hundred contracts every few minutes to as of this writing 60,470, so what would that tell the ES trader? Is it normal? Trying to scour for news, I checked in a few minutes later on the volume and it now at 62618. Price is up to 1224.75.

I have a friend who has shares of AIB who should have exited earlier today and rebuy or short depending on the results. For him, given their current standing, he'll be ok if he misses the immediate break upwards as he is a long term investor, so long as he pays attention and gets back into it.. However, if it falls, he'll be happy he took a 10% profit since opening the position and eliminating potential for loss. Just read an article stating that it is hinging on the two independents who will not abstain. If Cowen gets those two, he's got his budget. If he loses, there will be a general election in late December so some members of the opposition party have said they will abstain, instead choosing to attack in March, gain power, then default on the bailout loans.

Crazy busy at work today, was only able to get enough time in to scrape out 4.75 points over 6 trades due to limited exposure to marketplace and me not wanting to get stuck in a losing position time and again. I got stopped out early for a 1.5 point loss. Not bad considering the trading range today. Iris, I've run a successful business before so I understand all the aspects of it and expenses are certainly part of the daily P&L. I see that the Z contract is soon coming closed. Have you moved onto the March '11 contract yet?

What is a good stoppage in your opinion? 1 point? 2 points? I've got commissions built into the spreadsheet I'm using. What of slippage, how often does it affect your trades and what is the general amount of loss % for slippage?

Maybe ambitious is the wrong term and overall wrong question. More along the lines of...what am I missing, if anything? What are costs for items such as charting fee's? How often are your sells/cover's not at the mark you attempted? My rule for entry/exit is based on the news and trends, but as of yet are still largely undefined. This is the learning curve and still requires definition, although I quickly learned to make multiple trades based off shorter moves than trying to ride it out with hopes for gains at the end of the trading day. This morning I made a mistake and was stopped out for shorting at 1218.5, with the stop coming at 1220, with a trade based off euro's fall and other news. I am still learning the indicator intricacies though and just need to spend some time getting familiar with them. I've not looked into pivot points as of yet, but certainly will, thank you. I've traded various market conditions in stocks from 00/01 till 08 and was very happy with the results. My decisions are based off news and trends via volume. As far as flash drops, I did learn to always use stop's here as DCA is not as important at this stage due to the trading of just 1 contract per. I think I've conquered the fear and greed aspect of this from my previous market experience and I am disciplined in my approach. The capital I'll be risking is not a nest egg and can be lost with little to no concern. Yes, it would be a disappointment, but more along the lines of not winning instead of relying on it to be a singular source of income. Perhaps eventually, but once my account goes live in late Feb/early March, it'll just be to dip the toes in the proverbial waters, instead of just taking the temperature of it.

If you don't care to share your point takes per day or other identifying info I definitely understand, but please provide constructive criticism if you could please take some time out of your day. Thank you Today thus far I have been able to pull 12.75 points from the market. I am learning more and more with watching the markets and instead of going long, just taking an average of 2-3 points per trade per contract this week but with todays short trading range the average take is 1.75 points per trade. Is this normal? Is this a sound strategy? The excel sheet being used does have an in/out page and I'm documenting every in and out position, every short/cover, every detail or as much as possible anyways. I'm going to call it for this week, not get into pig mode and take a 12.75 point gain today, increasing the weekly total to 52 points over 21 trades and a paper gain of $2527 this week. For a beginner, is this good/bad/so-so/you suck?

Hi guys. I just started paper trading the /es and was wondering what the results I've gotten so far are normal and expected. A bit of background on me, I've been trading for myself from 2000-2008, becoming licensed with my 7 and 66 during the market crash, taking a job as an Investment Advisor in 09, leaving about a year ago as my wife lost her job and the savings I had from my trading quickly evaporated. I got a job not within the trading or investment world a year ago or so to ensure we could keep our lifestyle, but now I'm getting the bug again. I found out about the ES through this forum and it was recommended to me to start trading that about two years ago or so I think. Well, I was unsure of it as I'd never traded any futures before, sticking strictly to stocks. That has since changed over the past month and I've done alot of research and investigation to be sure I have an accurate grasp of its ins and out. I found an excel spreadsheet and signed up for a practice account. Currently, I'm limiting myself to 1 contract per trade so I gain the maximum experience and understand of the market before I go live. Before I commit capital to this, I have some questions and hopefully will get an answer. :missy: Would you care to share how many points or ticks per trade do you currently make? Do you have a count of how many points per contract per week you are positive? Do you usually finish up your gains early in the day? I see today has netted thus far an 18 point gain. Do you buy/sell consistently throughout the day or hold for a period of time? I started paper trading the week of Thanksgiving and over 2 days gained 4.75 points. More research over the weekend has increased my confidence and through that, I netted 39.25 points this week thus far with just two stop outs (at 1.5 point stops, is that too shallow of a stop?). A goal is to take away as close to 10 points per day as possible. Today is 9 so far and tomorrow I'd like to get at least 11.75 so as to hit the 50 point per week mark. Am I being reasonable in my goal? A search online for emini points per day indicates an average gain of 2 points per day per contract, 10 per week. Is that feasible? Am I missing something? Am I being too ambitious? thank you for your input.

Hello there! It's been a while since I've posted, but I've got a question and can hopefully get some informed opinions on my question. In 2008, after being in a new part of the country for just about a year, I landed a job at a pretty good firm, or so I thought. The firm did not provide a salary for new advisors but assured me that with the leads I'd generated during my training, that would provide a little bit of income. However, given the market crash(es), and my low natural market, I was unable to provide for my family, using up some of the resources I'd saved over the past 8 years of trading. I acquired my series 7 and 66, but had to leave the firm seeing as how I was bleeding money for potential client events/lunches/etc and would soon overreach myself to the detriment of my family. I left the firm towards the end of 09 and have spent the past year in a salary job out of the financial arena while restoring my savings, getting married, and saving to buy a new home. I'll soon be a position where I'll be able to enter the game again, but I'm on the fence as to what capacity. One idea I've been floating is to become an independent advisor, owning my own business. It wouldn't be the first time I've owned my own business and have done research into what it takes to open an RIA for trading/investing. This would allow me to keep my Series 7 and 66 active and not be a waste of money. I've been talking with people since leaving the business and positioning myself as the expert while not providing advice in any professional or personal capacity. Second is to go back to day/swing trading and use that as a method to remain in the traders world. Thirdly, I could take a job at another firm and again rely on their payment methods, etc. to be able to provide for me and my family. Is there an option I'm overlooking? What is your opinion? I'm personally leaning towards either opening my own RIA or not worry about retaining my licenses and just getting back into day/swing trading.

The Stig drives cars and is all that it is able to do. Computer use is purportedly not understood Haven't you seen the bit where the Stig was pulled out of the car with testing done and it just fell over? All it does is coach celeb drivers on the show and try to do fastest laps. That's what some say, anyways :rofl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VihIf1Fi-BM

Get a mac, no worry about viruses. Piratebay is okay but sometimes their search is a bit funky. I like mininova.org and isohunt. Oh, another site, tv-links.cc

Well, if you could walk before you picked up running again but can't after, I think that is a pretty clear cut problem. Use trails. I've had 4 incidents with cars within the past 3 months and none were fun times and just last week programmed my lawyers phone number into my cell as I might need it fairly soon. If you do not know the cycling laws where you are and are uncomfortable with the amount of traffic, certainly stick to the trails. Besides, trails have all the hills whereas in comparison, roads are mostly flat.

Biking, especially on hills, will certainly increase your cardio and help you get in better shape. And, depending on your foot placement on the pedal, will make your calves much stronger. So start pedaling, and do so with the balls of your feet and the toes.

Stop running. Seriously. Stop running and give your tendons a chance to heal up. How have you been taking care of your body after the run? Do you soak in a tub? After every long ride, I soak in a bath of sea salts, hinoki oil, along with various other oils and minerals. You MUST rest your body as much or more than you exercise it. It must have a chance to regrow the damaged tissue as with exercising, that is what you are doing. Tissue and cells are broken from stress and grow back stronger. As you are working with a shorter time span, you must accelerate that process as much as possible.

Another item that may help is a knee band or tendon strap http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002EQ3FA http://www.amazon.com/Knee-Pro-Tec-Patellar-Tendon-Strap/dp/B0009V7X78/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_k2a_3_txt?pf_rd_p=304485601&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-2&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0002EQ3FA&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1T2A3SD43W55JYAJ0HDX Knee stretches: http://www.comgri.com/ouch/knee3.html Did you time the run? How'd you do? I had some doughnuts in an department supervisor meeting yesterday morning and was hurtin' bad on my ride. Big no no

Yes, my fruits are precut except the banana. Get the big frozen packages, more cost effective. And yes, it is delicious. If you think you feel great now, wait until your body cleans itself out of all those toxins Complete with animated gifs http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/dumbbellexercises.html This site has better descriptions. http://www.building-muscle101.com/Dumbbell-Exercise-Illustrations.html

In my training, I have a homemade smoothie each morning for breakfast which is made up of soy milk, OJ, a banana, strawberries, blueberries, mangos, and natural honey. For lunch I have a salad with an oil based dressing instead of a cream based dressing. For dinner, it is usually a tomato based pasta with no cheeses or sushi rice, or pad thai. Before my night ride, I have another smoothie about 30 minutes before takeoff. Since altering my diet from just vegetarian to more of raw foodist diet, my body feels incredibly cleaner. The smoothies also provide great sources of fuel for my body. Can you time your runs? What is your pace and stride like? Do you do a cool down run? I don't think a gym would be that good and don't buy any expensive home gym equipment. IMHO, I'd just get two sets of dumbbells, a light and heavy (but heavier than you can lift now, for example, if you can curl 30lbs for 10 reps, get a set of 40's and 20's). Dumbbells are very versatile and you can do many more exercises than with just a regular home gym. And they are small so they don't take up much space I love to eat as well, but you must throttle back a bit and look at your diet as part of the fuel for your machine. I'm a larger guy at 220lbs, cutting down from my big weightlifting weight of 255lbs, in training for a sport dominated by 150lb guys or less. It is tough, but you can do it. Oh, also do sprints and jogs alternatively. Sprint 50 yards and jog 100 for about a mile or so (dependent on you)

The cardio required for biking is top notch. Fill those tires up then keep the rubber side down while doing hills for a few hours! There is a saying that if you can run 2 miles you can run 26 miles. 40 minutes is a fairly decent pace and while you would need to keep a 6 minute mile pace, you'd need to run each mile at a 6 minute pace. Also, there is something called the runners high. I get that around the 3.5 mile mark and then my pace picks up as the body settles into the rhythm. Find out how long it is until you reach that runners high. Always stretch, both before and after. And, hydrate often. Stop drinking caffeinated drinks and alcoholic drinks as those will dehydrate you. (Yes, I know it is hard to give up alcohol for some, but some sacrifices must be made for optimum performance). Also, what is your diet like? Fatty foods and lots of pasta? Trade that off for brown rice, salmon, or tuna with veggies. Sushi is an excellent replacement. Nigiri is another great replacement and probably preferred as it eliminates the not-as-healthy sauces. Oh, do squats as well to strengthen your thighs. The quadriceps is the largest muscle group in the body and when it is broken down, the body secretes naturally produced human growth hormone to make the muscles stronger. But with the quads, as it is so large, there is an abundance of HGH and your other muscles will benefit/grow. (I've been competing in extreme sports since I was 13 and served 5 years in the Marines. If you have questions on training routines, don't hesitate to shoot me a PM.)

Start biking I'm doing a 160 mile bike race in support of the Tour de Cure in May. Give that a shot.

james_gsx, is there a link to that article?

I've been watching BKR.A stock since it was ~$99,000. And yes, it is because I think I can get more value from a stock that is $5 than is $100. You are right though, price will not have any bearing on the investment value, but the growth potential may be better although it is on a case by case basis.

sorry about that :p The price is up to $19 this morning. Wachovia said this stock valuation will go to $30-$34 and another firm upped the target price from $20 to $26.