Terry_I

Here's a straight answer ; ) Times given are Chicago times. CME Globex Friday, Dec 23: Regular Close for all products. Sunday, Dec 25: All products are Closed for trading. Monday, Dec 26: All products are closed for trade date of Dec 26. NYMEX/COMEX Products through Globex regular open for trading for trade date of Dec 27 at 5:00 pm. Late reopen for all other Globex products on Tuesday Dec 27 for trade date of Dec 27. Tuesday, Dec 27: CME Globex EQUITY INDEX open at 5:00 am for trade date Dec 27. CME Globex FOREIGN EXCHANGE and Financial Products open at 5:00 am for trade date Dec 27. CBOT Agricultural Products through Globex open at 9:30 am. Regular close for all products. ICE Friday, Dec 23: ICE Soft regular closed. ICE U.S. Dollar Index regular close. Russell EQUITY INDEX Products close at 3:15 am. Sunday, Dec 25: All products are Closed for trading. Monday, Dec 26: All products are closed for trade date of Dec 26. Tuesday, Dec 27: ICE U.S. Dollar Index Late open at 5:00 am for trade date Dec 27. Russell EQUITY INDEX Products Late open at 5:00 am for trade date Dec 27. ICE Soft products Late open at 6:30 am for trade date Dec 27. Regular close for all products. EUREX Friday, Dec 23: Regular close for all products. Monday, Dec 26: All products are closed for trade date of Dec 26. Tuesday, Dec 27: Regular trade hours

Hey Kyle Here's a couple ideas to cure the overtrading. It cost me untold thousands to learn these simple things :-) 1. Look at your account statement, and see how much in commissions you are paying....*don't feed the broker*!...starve 'em! 2. Like Torero says...there are truly only 2 or 3 "trades of the day", ...and they usually happen in the first two hours. I found that my worst days of overtrading happened when I got upside down in the morning, lets say 400 bucks, and commited to spending all day if necessary to get "even" or up. Big mistake. More often than not, I'd go deeper...maybe x2....battle my way back flat with a zillion trades, exhausted and with a $400 tab for the day to the broker anyway. "Exciting day", yeah..but a waste of time...I coulda taken my hit and turned of the computer and gone and did the real world, you know? The time after the first two hours and the last hour and a half, I call "The Swamp" and have trained myself not to go there...it's generally a twitchy, sticky, violent and unpredictable place....sometimes there are nice moves....but if you miss them...so what? The percentages show mid day to be the chop-chop zone....bad odds as a rule. So now I have a very strict rule of 2 or three trades a day, tops. I have my daily target for the morning..I use 1-3 trades to achieve it...I will happily let it run beyond my daily goal, but I won't give it up on a deeper retracement or more trades. i can't emphasise enuf how many days I 've made say 800 bucks on my first trade or two...and said to myself,"ooh...that was slick..lets see if we can do it again"...and ended up losing half...then all...then going under...yadayadayada...OR..after a 30 trade day....that night saying, "if I'd only held onto my first trade, and quit after that....so..now I physically turn off the computer upon hitting target. I likewise turn off the computer if it's past 2 hrs...if I miss 3 in a row, or lose the equivalent of my daily target. "Him who fight and run away, live to fight another day" ;-) 3. Forget about scalping...you've gotta be really really good...aware and fast and have the reflexes of a teenager! Brokers love scalpers, but I've watched over 100 traders trade, and only a few were really succesful at scalping. Kinda zaps your nervous system too. Become familiar with the Average True Range (daily) of the vehicle you are trading..know your support and resistance levels....your fib levels and extensions...and you will develop an awareness of where the things' likely to move during the morning. Ask questions...how much on avg. does this puppy run? Retrace? Find an intraday indicator that follows the big move(s) of the morning...all this will help you develop a plan outside of trading hours. Trying to plan on the fly leads to overtrading. Much easier to follow your instructions that you made when the market was closed, right? "Plan your trade, trade your plan" Ex: I trade the Q's...right now they average almost $.60 range a day...and will often move a buck and a half intraday within that range. i just want $.20 of that swing. More is gravy...but I get that 20 cents..I protect it..and my finger is poised to shut down the computer....'cause I've learned not to be greedy, not to try and make up for bad trades..and 20 cents a day adds up nicely overtime. I routinely miss 40-75 cent moves...but I've learned to say, "so what?" It's gonna happen again tomorrow, and the next day..etc., and I'll work on holding longer. 4. Cut your size in half, 2/3 even.. loosen your stops a little, forget about dollars, money.. and think points. Try and rack up a consistent number of points every day. In the long run, this will help your headset as your account grows and your size gets larger and dollar amounts change. With a wider stop...you can develop a "zone" that you have agreed to yourself that you are willing to enter, and you won't feel like you are chasing the issue. 5. Resist the urge to trade counter-trend. It's a biggie. Better to bail on the bounce...and wait 5 minutes or 25 for the retracement...which gives you relaxed time to wait for the setup/good re-entry....think "stalking". Or let go (lock-in) half your position...ride out the retracement and re-enter with your fresh ammo. 6. Keep hard physical stops until you get some really high percentage trading under your belt. If your size is small and your stop is fat..it's a tremendous psycholgical relief, and you can really focus on price action without abundant worry/anxiety. Once you learn the price action, you will learn to see when you are wrong, and there is no reason to risk your whole stop. I use mental stops because I have absolutely zero issue with taking a loss quickly...and again...this simple ability cost many thousands :-) ...also....my broker charges 40 bucks for the luxury of having a physical stop in place...and thats 4x my normal trade fee...so I only use it when I go to the bathroom...make a cup of coffee...or there's a lightning storm coming or some worry about internet connectivity. 7.. Lastly...play this game until you get 70% accuracy. It was a tremendous eyeopener for me...there are many valuable trading parallels. Camper-Strike, Counter-Strike AWP free flash game. counter strike sniper game. AWP Maps. By BarraxWorld I have an addictive personality around everything I do...always have and always will...you have to be honest with yourself about if you have the innate personality traits to trade effectively and consistantly...and Discipline is Numero Uno. (Ichiban??) Overtrading was my biggest stumbling block, and steering away from it was like turning a freighter on the open seas. But once I learned to trade to live vs. live to trade...and I stowed the AK-47, and got into sniper mode "1 shot 1 kill"...everyting be fine :-) Again...try to trade just the first 1.5-2hrs..and turn off the computer...take satisfaction that you are done for the day before most people are thru their first coffee break! Stay all day...odds are you'll overtrade and your eyesight will worsen. Hope this ramble helps! ...and James...r.e stops..I usually check the pivot tests for the last 10 days to see how far on average or the most the issue ran by the pivot before reversing, and I'm a tick above that, fwiw

Hey James...hope this as good as place as any to ask.....when you are identifying clusters...are they simply monthly, weekly, daily, updated accordingly, or do you keep dailies for a week, weeklies for a month...monthlies for a year to get "mega" clusters over time? Thanks..