brownsfan019

Hopefully someone out there on TL can help me w/ this one... In April 2009 I was involved in a minor car accident. Other party was at fault (young girl just got her license), they took all fault, their insurance paid, etc. Quick and easy. So I thought... My car insurance renewal from esurance came today w/ an increase of 45%! I called them and was told that b/c I have an accident on my OH BMV record, I was getting rated. Huh? I then call the BMV and was told that my record does say 'accident' but does not show who is at fault. And that's how they do it. I have to guess that this showed up at the BMV after the police report I filed after State Farm requested this when doing the claim. Anyone have any ideas here? Are there insurance companies that do not penalize you for being in an accident that was not your fault? In summary... I get hit Other party takes all blame/fault The total bill wasn't that much (around $1000) And now my insurance goes up 45% I shoulda just told the kid no biggie that you hit me, I'll pay for it myself b/c that is going to be cheaper over the next 3 years that this 'accident' is on my record... Any suggestions?

11-12-09: +$547.50 Better day. What a fun spike that ZS was! Hope dinero was able to catch that with me.

I'm good, but thanks. Point is that it is very possible to make money using stops. I would actually argue that those not using stops or mental stops are just begging for a 'trade' to turn into an 'investment'.

ANYONE TRADING OIL - INVENTORY IS AT 11AM EST TODAY Heads up in case you didn't notice the day and time change due to Vet's day.

Dae - I've toyed w/ range charts as well and on OEC's platform I didn't like how they printed at times. I never encountered what you are seeing here though. What happens there is let's say you have a 4 tick range and price is moving quickly and jumps more than 4 ticks. Well, it technically moved 4 ticks and you get a dash printed on the chart. So during quick moves (news) I found range charts useless. As for what you are seeing here, that is bizarre. Back when I was using TS and volume charts, similar things would occur after hitting refresh. Also useless in real-time. Try comparing to another platform and see if it's the range chart function itself or the platform you are using.

11-11-09: +$255 Not bad. Thanks to all the Veterans out there - past and present.

It depends on each market, but you were asking about the ES in your initial post - there I would say no more than 2 ticks. If it's during normal market conditions, very little slippage. If it's during news, all bets are off. For example, if you trade NFP and have a stop on during that, hang on. Now if you are trading at 11:30am on a Wed with zero news, I would say you'd see very little slippage.

The safe stops are market orders by far. Why? B/c then you are guaranteed an execution. Limit orders are dangerous b/c if you get caught into a big movement (news driven) you might be left in your position b/c your stop was not triggered. It's very possible and I do it every day. You can see the results in the p/l thread if you don't believe.

If you use more than 1 computer, then this is a very nice tool that simplifies your life. I have computers "around" and something like this just saves me from having a mouse here, there, maybe over there, etc. I guess it just depends on how many computers you are using to trade from - if more than 1, then I would check this out.

Good to see you back at it swans!!

11-10-09: +$116.25 Not much here today.

LINK If you use multiple computers, synergy is a very nice program. Instead of having 1 mouse and 1 keyboard per computer, you can have 1 mouse and 1 keyboard for all of them. Very useful. I have been following this and was not aware that the original developers stopped the projoect on sourceforge. It has been picked up by another group that is using google project hosting. Link above takes you to the google one.

Not sure I follow your comments exactly... Are you suggesting that range bound markets occur near the open or not? I didn't follow 100%.

IMO for whatever psychological reason, it's easy for traders to gravitate to the round numbers. You see this especially on stocks. Again, just an observation, maybe it can be used in conjunction w/ what you are doing.

Do you think it's coincidence that most of your lines are right at/near a round, even number? 1750 1740 1730 1700 I've often found round, even numbers can be great magnets. Just an observation.

11-9-09: -$220.63 Slower days are not my friend. Not so much b/c it was negative but that it could have been positive. I pulled the trigger on the ZF and CL which if I had left alone would have delivered a nice profit (esp CL). But b/c the day was slower and I was tired of watching, I hit flatten. That was not the brightest thing I've ever done. This would not have been a knock it out of the park day, but it would have been positive if those 2 trades were left alone.

The tax man is pretty easy to deal w/ if you are a losing trader. And it's not bad if a winning trader, but until you can make money consistently there's not much to discuss. So to clarify - are you a consistently profitable trader?

Step 1 is becoming consistently profitable. Are you at that point? If not, these other questions are of no use until you can trade making money.

I've said it before, but if you can find ONE reliable setup, that's all you need. After that, it's risk management. I trade one setup, on multiple markets. That's it. Simple and clean, but makes money. A perfect day for me is 1 trade per market and done. As soon as I get a winner on that market, that market is shut down. There are some days where my setup could work if trading all day, but that's too much work. Plus, there are plenty of days where it doesn't work all day. Here's my suggestion dinero - most markets move from their RTH open for about 1.5 hours or so. Most days this is the case. You want to participate when things are moving, not chopping around. If that's the case, try to focus on when things are more likely to be moving... That's why I shut it down by 12pm EST. I have no interest in trading during lunch or even after lunch. Markets can move later, but it's a coin flip if they will move. Think of it this way - why do markets move on the open and for a while after the open? 1) Overnight orders hitting the markets, esp on stocks. 2) Overnight news hitting the markets. 3) Econ news - big releases usually occur at 830am and 1000am EST. These add fuel to the markets. You don't see too many regular releases later in the day - FOMC is the main one that comes to mind; meanwhile every week there are releases in the morning. So pull up your charts, mark off where the open is each day and then look 2 hours in and see if anything grabs your attention. If you're doing this on OEC, you can use the time lines function so that the lines are automatically plotted (top right corner arrow thing << and then click time lines).

Always ways to make money going long when things look like they are in a down trend and vice versa. Just have to make sure to be nimble on your exits.

http://www.gapinc.com/giveandget/lls/ That link will take you to a coupon that you can print to get 30% off at Gap, Old Navy or Banana Republic from Nov 12 - Nov 15. You get 30% off and they donate 5% to the LLS. Can't beat that - you save money and help a great cause!

Wanna hear something funny/interesting? My trade was LONG the GCL.

Well done. That was the gimme I was talking about.

11-6-09: +$856.26 Good example of a day where most trades were taken. I missed a gimme on the ZS open, so perfection is still something I am working towards. Would have pushed over $1k/ct w/ that ZS trade. Good way to end the week though, so I'm happy. And done by 1035am EST, which makes me even more happy.

I will see about getting back to this over the weekend. I had to close my firefox and when I brought it back up, all my stuff on freestockcharts was gone - annotations, circles, etc. I'm not sure if that's b/c I did a ctl+alt+del shut down of it or if it doesn't save that stuff after you close firefox... I hope it's b/c I did an abrupt shutdown otherwise that won't work.