Phil Mibbutz

Mine was 670, but I might have to nudge that up 690-700!

Out for a wimpish +5.

What a ridiculous looking Dow chart! Short 623, 600 limit, so it'll probably go to 650 now.

Thanks, Foale, but surely you realise that I'm committed to posting only losing trades on TL. :o

I know that you're trading with a proper futures broker, but with spread betting 12-15pt is really the tightest initial stop you can use on their contrived 'Dow Cash' markets. Having said that, as I've been doing dismally on indices recently. The only good news for me today was going long on Brent crude at 127 and being 350 pips up now, with 250 locked in, a trade placed after about a minute squinting at a chart!

Nothing magical, but I reckon all the big round numbers tend to have more psychological significance, and 12500 had been a pivotal or 'congestion' area before. If I'd been watching the 1m chart live I might also have been encouraged by a pin bar and volume spike. With hindsight, I'm sure I could have drawn some lines that would provide all sorts of confirmation, too, but isn't that always the case! btw. Im curious that you seem to be using 10pt stops recently. Is this a permanent plan, or does it depend on circumstances?

Amazing how often you can be right when it doesn't matter!

Since we all decamped to TL I seem completely unable to get anything right. Do you think T2W put a curse on us?

As predicted! -12. Bounce from 500, probably, but I won't be trying again today.

Now long at 537, 560 target, which will probably be the kiss of death and cause an immediate drop.

Good one, FW. Although I managed to post that I planned to short at 570, which would have been one of my few profitable ideas recently, I wasn't able to place a trade.:doh:

A -10 loser. but will try again if it gets to 570-ish.

Short 540.

After 15m of chop, I lose 9pt.

And the double top, I hope, Postman. Short 551.

...A'hem... Well, maybe a bit, so short at 480.

Closed for +15, and I don't care how many points I'm leaving sur la table.

Slightly delayed post (is TL working properly today?) of long 450, but no wide stop this time. Out if fall looks like continuing, and 15-20pt will do nicely.

... But now out at b/e. Old habits die hard.

Wish I'd waited a bit longer, but still hanging in, thanks to this week's wider stop strategy!

Short 504, 480 limit.

... But how long will it stay down?

Going long at around 450 earlier on has worked well so far. Hoping for it to hit 500 or so before going down.

20-30pt usually seems to work best for me, FW, but after a losing spell when the Dow was going up for no obvious reason, recently I've been so paranoid about minimising losses that I've trailed stops too tightly. Still, the overall result for last week was still a (small) gain, so I should really be pleased!

Closed for +5. Edit: 490 target hit perfectly, so yet another premature exit. Resolution for next week is to use wider stops.