brownsfan019

Let us know James what MarketZar says. The $50 fee is not a huge fee, but any discounts are helpful! Could be fun to have a TL day once a month or something at MZ. They hold contests regularly, but I know I would not be able to commit to something weekly. Once a month or quarter could work though.

CME at it again: CME Group in talks to buy Nymex for $11 bln http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUSN2845912620080128 NEW YORK, Jan 28 (Reuters) - CME Group Inc (CME.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is in preliminary discussions to buy Nymex Holdings Inc (NMX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) for roughly $11 billion, the companies said in a joint statement on Monday. Under the terms being discussed, CME, the parent of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, would pay Nymex shareholders $36 in cash and 0.1323 of a CME common share for each Nymex share owned. Based on CME's closing price on Friday, the preliminary offer values Nymex shares at roughly $119.22 each, an 11 percent premium to Nymex's closing share price on Friday. The companies said they have agreed a 30-day exclusive negotiating period, according to the statement. "Everyone expected a merger with someone at some point," said Tom Bentz, an analyst with BNP Paribas. Nymex shares were up 6 percent in early trading to $113.95, and CME Group shares were up 2 percent at $642.50. CME Group said the preliminary terms would see it maintain trading floors in the New York City area, according to the statement. Nymex would also repurchase 816 New York Mercantile Exchange memberships upon the deal's closing for a total price not to exceed $500 million, the statement said. (Reporting by Lilla Zuill, additional reporting by Janet McGurty, editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Steve Orlofsky) ---------------------------------------------------- While exciting to watch all that the CME is capable of, where exactly is this train headed? ..... Soon it will be CME vs. NYSE vs. Nasdaq. Everything else will be gobbled up sooner or later. The question is, is that a good or bad thing for the retail trader and investor? I love the CME and their platforms, but if they are the only game in town, they can easily dictate fee structure. Almost the definition of a monopoly, right?

Not sure where on the forum this belongs, but here it is. I was thinking this evening about what are different ways for the average trader to make money, outside of their personal trading. Of course, the obvious question is why. And my answer is, why not. My idea being that generating some additional income and/or building a track record is a good idea for most serious traders. Perhaps it's one or the other, or maybe both reasons. Anyways, I thought we could discuss different ways to either generate additional income and/or build an outside track record and the advantages/disadvantages of each. Being late, I've come up with 2 ideas thus far: Collective2 C2 being where you set up your own system and as a track record builds, subscribers can subscribe. ADVANTAGES: Can charge a healthy fee if consistently profitable, creates a track record. Good way to test, verify or build confidence in real-time or 'forward testing'. DISADVANTAGES: Requires dedication and work. MarketZar ADVANTAGES: Can earn money in a trading contest. Get to test your trading against others. Good way to test, verify or build confidence in real-time or 'forward testing'. DISADVANTAGES: Mainly just a contest type thing. Idea here is you are going for the $1500 1st place prize. I guess I wanted to start this thread to build some ideas and see where it goes. I know the seasoned traders will not see much value, but we've all been at the beginning at some point. Maybe the thread will help our new or 'broken in' traders with some additional ideas. I honestly don't know if I would want to do this myself to be perfectly honest, but C2 is an attractive option. Some systems there were charging $200+/mo. Doesn't sound like a ton, but even just 10 subscribers adds $2000/mo to your bottom line. I recall seeing a few at one point that were charging $500/mo. Point being that if you get a good system in place and if it doesn't interfere with your normal trading, an additional income source is right there. For me, it's about leveraging your time. If you can trade your normal thing and then also add in a C2 or something that pays your car payment, house payment, etc., then why not, right? I sometimes get way outside the box with my thinking, so I apologize if this is in way left field. If nothing else, maybe we could have a TL day at MarketZar and see where our little group ends up! Could be a fun thing to do. Maybe James could contact them and get us a group discount... Has anyone tried either of these or maybe some other website? Any feedback? Would anyone be interested in a MarketZar contest with TL?

Like I said, SnagIt is an option, esp if looking for an inexpensive way to do this. I posted a thread about a free version of SnagIt on the forum, but no idea if it still works.

http://www.nymex.com/QM_spec.aspx Depends on how much liquidity you are looking for. CL is by far the most liquid oil contract, but the QM is an option.

I'll 2nd Camtasia as well. Good program! You might be able to do it with SnagIt as well, which is less expensive than Camtasia.

Wow, this is unbelievable Ronin! When do you plan to open your hedge fund or CTA? Seriously. Assuming these are real trades, you should be trading millions in OPM by now.

The CME site has them listed somewhere, but the Euro (EC or 6E) has the most volume. I would probably stick with that one.

Interesting charts Abe. I guess the questions to ask yourself are: 1) Do I trade trending markets better over range bound markets? 2) Does FX actually trend as much as I think it does? In other words, have you done some serious, in-depth research or just cherry picking nice looking charts? 3) How do non-trending FX days compare to the indexes? I agree with the suggestion to trade the EC/6E on the CME. It's a currency based futures contract so you get the best of both worlds in my opinion. Not huge volume there, but again, I have to wonder how much is needed in the beginning.

Gene, You find yourself in a common dilemma of a new futures trader with a small account. In my opinion, there's not much you can do here. You either need to set a daily loss and profit target or not. Days when you are cooking, you'll want to trade all day. Days when you are not, you'll be happy for the loss in place. It's hard to say when to stop on a $10k account trading the YM. I would suggest you need to gear yourself up for some large account swings b/c with a goal of a 1.5% return per day, you have some work cut out for you trading 1 contract. Now, the other side of the coin is that if you want to make $150/day on the YM, you can trade 1 contract going for 30 pts or 2 contracts going for 15 or 3 going for 10, etc. etc. The point being that I think it's MUCH easier to get 10 points on 3 contracts vs. 30 pts on one. Just some food for thought. I realize you are 'risking' more in theory, but one could argue that you are actually risking more by trying to get 30 pts from 1 contract.

James, Thoughts on these daily hammers?

Ronin - if you don't want others participating in your thread, please ask James to only allow you to see and post in the journal. I've never seen someone so incredibly defensive when others ask questions. The fact is that your journal is almost too good to be true and I'm sure you can understand any questions or speculation. And after you claimed your 100 profit target was hit twice, when I clearly showed that it hadn't, I would wonder as well if you actually trade these calls or if it's just here for amusement. For example, on this long you did, there was no stop or profit set... I'm guessing we'll see an update that shows this trade made a ton of money, yet no one knows how the trade actually played out. Again, if you do not want questions or comments, please talk to James about making this a view only thread or something. Maybe a blog is more appropriate for what you are doing so you can moderate all the comments.

Tor - thanks for sharing! I'd love to see some charts for comparison purposes. Just wondering how some fx charts compare to the e-minis. I personally would like to see 5 minute charts. Or is there a good site to get past charts as well?

Good idea Mr Ed, will put it in my review! This might be a way around the patent thing. The only issue will be for traders that use limit and/or stop orders... For example, if you want to place a limit order to buy 5 ticks below current price, how could you do that? Or place a stop order once filled? Or a buy/sell stop to enter an order? What do you think?

Hey PP! Good to see you again! Very interesting post. Here's my question for you - what exactly do YOU use in deciding what lines to draw? What I mean is, you've pointed out there's a number of different methodologies to apply here - pivots, fibs, etc. etc. - and if you draw too many your chart is just littered with lines. So how do you filter what to do use and when? That was my biggest issue when using fixed lines as you've illustrated here. I tried pivots with MP numbers and some days they looked great and others there would be hardly any trades at all. OR after a big move day the numbers were so far apart that again, little to no trading took place the following day. Maybe that's simply a function of the system, but I could not get it to work no matter how hard I tried... I'd love to see more charts with exactly what numbers are being used and on multiple markets.

Abe, Allow me to play devil's advocate: 1) The e-mini's are virtually 24 hours as well. 2) That volume number is an interesting one. I wonder how much volume a small trader needs in order to be successful? 3) We could find charts showing less/more volatility at certain times. Personally, I thrive on volatility so that works for me but I can see what you are saying here. 4) Same with the e-mini's. YOU control the leverage being employed. 5) You may not hear about servers going down b/c there is no centralized place to trade forex! You are trading against the broker! It's all on the broker's servers! 6) I would agree here but I've also read how certain types of 'bucket shops' will go stop hunting and since there is no centralized price center, there's not much you can do if Company A shows price there even though Company B does not... And as you said, there is next to zero regulation here. That alone is enough for me to stay away. When there is no regulation, that only helps the BIG boys. Lack of regulation only hurts the small, retail trader. I'll be interested to see how your forex trading goes Abe but I would guess if you go through a 'stop hunting' time period or the spread being outrageous during econ news, you may reconsider. And make sure you do your homework on what broker to go through! Good luck Abe.

You may want the EC or 6E which is the Euro FX futures contract.

That is open for debate. If you lease a seat (or purchase one) and get your commissions under $3 round trip and focus on the ES, I think slippage is not an issue. So if going for 2-3 ticks = $25-$37.50 profit - $3 commission = $22 - $24.50 in profits each trade. Trade some decent size and all of a sudden there's a system that works. And you wouldn't need to trade 1000 contracts to hit a good income. Even so, I've been instructed by a number of brokers that you can hit the ES with 1000 contracts during regular volume times and be fine. Of course, the keys are what size are your losses and how often do you take a loss. But the numbers can work if used in a robust system.

Jwhite - any updates on this? Curious to hear from someone using it.

Don't know how that works James - I've seen chat rooms that broadcast it into the room, so I guess you can. I have no idea on the legality of it but it's being done to my knowledge. Been awhile since I was in the chat room circuit however.

It's a distraction in my opinion.

I guess the high probability part was a high probability of losing money. :embarassed:

Put that in your trading scrapbook James b/c not sure how often you will see that. Gotta love the free market that will stop a down move. Not sure we'll see an up move ever stopped.... wonder why... That's why shorting can get a bad rap in the regular media - they see this happen and then there's stories of shorts getting stuck and plowed over by the longs. It's just part of the game and something you rarely see.

I will offer a few suggestions when trading in markets that are more volatile - either decide to go for the bigger moves (b/c they will be there) or take a fixed profit and be happy. It's VERY easy right now to grab 2-3 on the ES all day. That works better for me, esp. on counter-trend trades. Here's a snapshot of my blotter from a few trades here this morning: What's the catch? A number of these trades moved for much more than the profit I took. A couple others however just got my profit and then retraced. For me, esp. in volatile times, taking a fixed profit and so far having a 100% win percentage is a good feeling and easy for me to do. So far today a total of 12 trades and ZERO losers. Keep in mind that rarely ever happens for me, esp. using counter-trend techniques as one of my strategies. And having trades hit my targets in under 1 minute is just incredible. Again, you have to be ready for those moves - levels were being passed on the ES easily. Also, take a look at the very, very light DOM: I took that snapshot at 12:13pm EST. While that is lunch time zones, having a dom that light is just not usually seen. It appears a lot was made/lost since 9:30am and there's a few still left to fight the fight. I personally seem to have bigger days when the DOM appears lighter. Maybe with less bot's out there it's easier for my profits to be taken out. Who knows.

I didn't delete anything smarty - it's right here - http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/103/futures-journal-log-2911-17.html#post28576 Not sure what you are talking about deleting of posts. It's right there. Just have to open your eyes. :missy: But, I guess time will tell if the 100 pt Ronin guarantee holds up or not. I see you also chose the 55.50 level, which oddly enough was the limit lock down level, yet your post was WAY after that fact... Odd... Anyone can play that game - the HOD of the day shortly after 11am will be 1324. Never mind that it's now 11:28. My point was that to call a 100 pt move FROM THE TIME YOU ACTUALLY CALLED IT was a bold prediction. I did not realize you were going back in time and calling it from the lock down level... It's so easy being a trader after the fact, isn't it?