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So who is familiar with filing 1099-B for trading stocks? Thus far I have found that brokers send you the 1099-B form and it only lists your sales, leaving it up to you to match them with the appropriate buys and report each trade on a separate 1099-B (talk about horrible when dealing with hundreds of trades). This isn't easy. I feel like I did alright for the matching part, but I know I have to have made a mistake with some of the "wash sales" -- which seem to be losses excluded from deduction because you bought the same amount within 30 days. Now I know every sale that my broker reported to the IRS has been accounted for, but say I did make a small mistake on the wash sales...how strict is the IRS on a mistake? I just don't want my refund to be held up due to a stupid minute mistake. Anyway, I think this should be the last time I have to deal with equities taxes. What a mess. Futures 60/40 sounds like the way to go. Let me know if anyone else has a better method to reported the sales (and matching the buys) for equities. Thanks. -- Bill

On the minute bar that I sold, price hit 1201.25 and fell shortly after. That is why I took the 1200 trade (after the rejection at 1201.25) with 1201.75 stop. That way, in the case that I were wrong and it would break 1201.50, I'd lose little.

My 2 trades today. They were the right trades, I just want to make sure I placed them for the right reason. (1st red dot): sold 1200 since we couldn't break that last swing high at 1201.50 and volume was much lower. Closing that position was done by trailing it a point, but I closed 1194.50 when I noticed we were starting to get shaky around the swing long. (2nd red dot): sold 1200 again since we have another test of the 1201.50 and again lower volume. It almost hit my stop at 1201.75 (missed by one tick! lucky...) then I again trailed by about a point and a half. Wasn't hard to do the entire way down and then I closed 1180.50 at the sign of strength. Thoughts? Suggestions? -- Bill

Okay. Problem Solved. I did call them and a guy explained that generally the automation stops are within the platform then sent as soon as they are triggered. Fortunately they also have the option to send the order initially to the market (as opposed to "hanging out in the platform"). Diablo, This is what you were talking about with Ninja. If anyone else has ever had this issue with TradeStation: 1. Right click on your chart 2. "Format strategies" 3. Click "Properties for All..." 4. Click "Automation" tab 5. Near the bottom, make sure that "Send strategy generated orders directly to the TradeStation Order Execution Network" Thanks for the suggestion, Diablo. -- Bill

Platform: Tradestation 8.4 Alright guys, I have a system and for every trade I make, this automated system sets up a trailing stop loss for a certain amount. Now I notice that the stop loss isn't "put out there" and I don't see it in the order bar, matrix, etc., until it actually hits its mark. In any case, it works great. Now the actual question is: What do I do if I lose my internet connection? Since the stop doesn't seem to be in the books and if the platform gets disconnected, I assume that my order would stay open with no stop loss. In other words: uh oh. Are there any ways to prevent this from happening (i.e. a permanent stop loss for an amount no matter what the trade, an "if disconnected do this" option...) or am I wrong and the order is already placed, just not viewed in the matrix or the top order bar? I just need some sort of security and I'm sure others have come across this issue. You have to be ready for any outcome, right? Let me know what you guys think. -- Bill

This might work fine as long as a transaction tax isn't put into place. You'll get destroyed with commissions and tax. Otherwise, good stuff. Either way, it seems you are winning much more than losing, so apparently you're making the right calls and reading the market. Good luck.

Well, in the past week I could have made two trades become monsters, but I was stopped out with my small stop. On the other hand I also watched three trades that became disasters, but luckily I was stopped out. Think about this Jon: your buddy makes $5*6 ticks ($30) per win and wins 80% of the time you say. Lets go with a sample of 100 trades. He makes 80 wins (x $30) = $2400, but loses 20 trades (x $100) = $2000. Net $400 gain. So, this is better than negative or break-even, but what happens when his calls become poor say 20 times in a row. Now he's down $2000 and his comeback is going to be $30 per win, not guaranteeing that he will win every trade from here on out. Imagine looking at an excel spreadsheet of your trades seeing win ($30) win ($30) win ($30) loss ($100) win ($30) loss ($100). One step forward, three steps back? If you are a trader that makes great calls and wins 90% of the time, then why even have a huge stop like that? The giant stop is "bad call" forgiveness, but do you really want to be continually rewarded for bad trades when soon enough your bad trades will kill your account? In conclusion: is he trading or is he gambling?

Yes. Having the same issue at the moment. - Bill

Hey guys, I've been reading a lot of the VSA theories, as well as Wyckoff's theories, and noticed most of the posts here pertain to trades with longer duration than say a day trader would be used to. I understand that the principles work in any time frame, but I'm having a bit of trouble applying them to such quick volatile movements such as today's last hour. Check out my chart of the YM. Problems with my analysis (I played observer today): 1. If I were to go short in that session, I would have sold at ~8400 with the double top on the stochastics (first top marked #1) and granted I would have snatched a really quick, small profit. I can't, by reading volume, understand any way to predict the following upthrust and how to know when to short that (the second top marked #1). On that bar, it hit a resistance line set in place at 12:54pm est. Now if I were to trade that, I would have definitely covered at the next bottom, five bars later and then definitely had gotten shaken out to missed the big drop. Not to mention that stoch were crossing back over. 2. This bottom seems straight forward. It hits a previous support, the volume decreased getting there, and the stoch were oversold. Again, though, I would have been shaken out with a small profit after the next five bars. 3. How do you predict/play this waterfall of bars? Some insight into what I'm doing here: I do like the stochastic to be on my side, but it seems that by doing so I can miss moves such as #3, especially when I try to keep 5 min on my side. It generally takes too long and I miss a lot. Since I am live, I can watch when volume spikes and which way price moves as it happens: does anyone have any advice on what to look for (hope that doesn't sound too entertaining)? I also have the trading matrix beside my charts. Sorry, this post was longer than I anticipated. Thanks for any insight. -- Bill

A system like that seems like its going to work say 4 times out of 7 and then that one time a reversal happens, you won't get a chance to stop out and you'll get hammered. Plus it's eliminating actual trading skill when you abide by a system like that to make your trades. In other words, it won't make you any better of a trader. It'll probably make you worse...

Ironically, I'm paying for my college courses at the moment, but spending more time obsessively researching futures trading strategies. Thankfully, I'll do fine in the classes, but just wanted to point that out. Dedication to trading...

Well that's convincing enough for me. I'll check out AMP, which is ampfutures.com I presume. Thanks. - Bill

Alright, so I did some more research. Thanks for the link, brownsfan. The videos helped a lot. So my plan of attack is to keep Tradestation for equities, thus having it for charting futures. Now, Zoso, you recommend a dedicated futures broker. I came across some names via the Ninjatrader site and the TradingTech site: Alaron, Penson, and so many more. With that in mind, who would you propose is my best bet?

Hey all, Another new person to the futures market. Anyways I have been trading equities with TradeStation and I was thinking about opening a futures account with them. I read over a lot of futures tutorials and other info; I just need to review some of the basics: Is Tradestation a good choice as far as commissions and platform? What is meant by price per side and price per contract? I know in equities a contract is generally 100 shares of a stock. How is this in futures? Can you daytrade futures? Are the daytrading rules for futures the same as equities (i.e. $25,000 acct. minimum)? What are the general hours of trading for futures? (i.e. I notice crude oil is changing as long as a market is open anywhere in the world) Any info will be appreciated. - Bill