method

I noticed this today: This looks like a classic top patten, but on a large scale. I really haven't put much thought into this and was wondering if we could get a discussion going. If the market keeps falling I may be inclined to put out a short position based purely on technical grounds....but that is just me. Maybe there is more to the 'credit crunch' than what has already been uncovered.....

One trade I am happy with and another I'm disappointed with (the second one): I am going to try my best to look for a high reward:risk trade because at this rate I am going to get a margin call...

Two longs, two losses.

It's not really part of my plan (I don't have it clearly defined in my plan). It's just that looking at past trades the shorts had higher expectancy, so I try to do more. Also, I just find shorts easier to trade for some reason. The FESX seems to move quickly when it's weak.

A little short since my last post. I regret not going long after closing out the short; I was waiting forever for a correction that never really came....

First trade in more than a week, missed the entire up move in the markets. Looked for a short but it didn't work out, hitting my stop the next day. 2 points after that the market reversed......

Just a question. Do you guys use mechanical systems? Or do you use discretion in that you choose to take some signals and not others?

The last two trading days have been really rough. Initially I was in a trade that went with the trend, which showed a profit. But I exited the position prematurely. Then I put out a long (against the trend) which didn't work out. Today, just a few hours ago, I put on a long position at the open with the stop loss at yesterday's low. As the market edged closer to the stop, emotions kicked in and I closed out the position without waiting for the market to reach my stop. Then I went short, placing the stop at yesterday's high. Well guess what. The market promptly reversed, hitting my stop! After that I became a bit upset and decided to call it quits for the day. I lost $500 euros, which is at least a 10% loss on my total capital. I find recently I have been overtrading a bit. I need to find trades I can place with more conviction. To do that I need to be more patient. Anyway here's a SS: Focus on the last four trades, this SS contains some previous trades.....

Thanks for all the feedback. I am trading with the expectation of blowing my account, as I am a novice. In time I will learn the ins and outs of trading. Right now I just want to trade. I don't really do any backtesting, because most of my trades are discretionary in nature, although I probably should. The only form of backtesting I do is looking at past price movements and seeing how they respond to S&R, price movement before a trend develops etc. Anyway here is a screenshot showing my last few trades (and my current one). First trade is a short @ 2721, which doesn't work out. I close it on the next day. Second trade is a long @ 2728, which hits my target on the same day. Third trade is an erroneous one at the EOD, which I close immediately upon the next day's open. Fourth is a short @ 2721, which hits my target on the same day. Fifth is a long @ 2673, which I reverse a few minutes later at a tiny profit because the price didn't behave according to expectation. I'm still riding the short, as you can see on the chart. Depending on the opening price action tonight I will either cover or leave it to run, hitting my target hopefully which is at 2599. However I have a feeling it will be a buying day tomorrow if the shorts decide to cover. Happy trading

Another loss. Done about 3 days ago, on the FESXM0. Got close to my target and promptly reversed and hit my stop for a 20 tick loss. Probably shouldn't have gone against the trend.

Losing short on the FESX two days ago. One problem I've been facing since I started trading is not taking my winners when the market lets me. I get greedy and hope the market is going to go further my way. Usually the market reverses and hits my stop (I don't move my stops after I set them). However I just realised it's probably better and easier if I grind out relatively small winners and go for the jugular when I have a safety cushion to fall back on, or when I have extremely high conviction on a trade. Livermore said the way to truly earn big money is to ride your winners, i.e. sit on your winners but due to the choppiness of the equity markets and the difficulty in riding a meaningful trade I am forced to grind out smaller winners to build up/protect my capital. Here's hoping this new strategy will work. I'll go for a 1:1 profit/stop ratio on my trades. 30 min FESX Screenshot:

Here is my latest trade, a stoxx short on memorial day (I think it was, I don't live in the US): An overnight gap. I had my original target set at 2532 but then closed the trade after the tight red bar with large wicks, which indicated the market may be heading up. Needless to say the market briefly touched my original target then bounced back up.

I've decided to post up a trading log to instill some 'routine' into recording my trades. I have been watching and trading the markets for about 2 years now. I am currently a losing trader. Probably down about 2-3k euros. I hope to change that by the end of the year, scraping past at least BE. I have two accounts - one is a bucket shop account (CFD) with NZ$2000 at CMC Markets, and the other is a 5000 euro account at Velocity Futures. I usually trade the DAX with the CFD account and FESX with the proper account (due to leverage issues). However, I have recently ventured into commodities and FX - CL & 6E respectively. I'll post screenshots of my trades whenever I do any. Feel free to contribute!

Hi kuro, could you explain how to get the volume to show in NT charts?

Alrighty, I haven't been posting much because....I haven't been trading much! A month ago I opened an account at Velocity with a 10k deposit to trade EUREX futures but I'm not sure I'm fully ready yet. I don't really have a plan or strategy; I just trade from gut feeling by setting stops and letting winners run. It hasn't really been working for me. I've still got about 9.5k left. However I'm going to stop doing that for now and concentrate on doing small simulation trades on the DAX until I'm steadily profitable (at least $100 a day, on average). I will be doing this in the first two hours of the market open (8pm-10pm local time). I would trade the other futures markets but they open too late for me (2-3am). Here's a SS of tonight's action...... caught the downward move in small increments. profit/loss is in euros: Happy trading

No trades today. BF do you still trade the ZB? It looks like TL has become infatuated with CL as of late

Actually I usually am contrarian as well but coupled with overtrading it can lead to bad results. The thing is, I was unsure of putting on the trades because the market didn't look like it had reached a temporary bottom but I did it anyway because of fear of leaving money on the table. Do you scalp?

Going against the trend + overtrading = not good!

Put on a short on the DAX before US open but it reached my stop loss before crashing :crap::crap: The high was 7 ticks above my stop. Ended up with a $30 loss. I usually only trade once per day and they are usually overnight positions. Just to illustrate....The black is where I shorted, the blue lines were my stops. Hope the day went better for some of you :P

Caught a nice short near the opening in the DAX. 32 ticks

Traded like trash, missed the entire down move in the DAX, even though I had anticipated it. I kept waiting for the market to bounce back to short it, but it never did. Ended up placing a stupid long that got destroyed in 5 mins (I thought the market had fallen enough)

Ha thales, fair enough. I admit I do get a bit lazy when it comes to putting up screenshots. This is for 11th jan, haven't traded since: Basically, although looking at it from an intraday perspective I did OK, from a swing point of view I should have held the position because this is what it did over the next three days: The black lines indicate my short entry and exit.

Shorted the high of the DAX yesterday. Covered near the low. Will get screenshot up soon

Yeah it's CMC. What market/s do you trade? BTW no trade today