brownsfan019

10-29-09: +$683.13 Today was a day where it was so easy... wish every morning was like this. I kinda screwed it up good on the ZS though. First, I was trading the old contract; then I moved to the new one and got out of a good long b/c I was trying to preserve the daily profits. There was no reason to exit the trade other than I liked how $700 looked. And then I hit the button too quickly and didn't get the $700. :doh: Also - trading 2 contracts on the ZF. The $ per tick is smaller, so beefing that up a little to get that profit in line w/ the other markets more.

I updated the original post but wanted to give an example here showing how the volume can split when rollover is near. When rollover is near on the grains and the volume is split, you should anticipate smaller moves b/c there is literally some people trading the old and some the new and there isn't as much power behind the pushes. Today's example: That is taken from my quote window on OEC trader and the last column is total volume for the day. As you can see, the volume is basically 50/50 at this point. As a direct result, we are seeing this type of price movement: So plan accordingly when you see volume split. Do not expect huge, quick movements as you see when there is just 1 contract being traded.

Anytime. I've used OEC for awhile now and while there's a ton of great stuff buried in this program, a lot of it is hidden or hard to find. Post any other questions you have in this part of the forum and I'll do my best to answer them.

You will want to use the Orders Setup Menu:

I am the same way - my stop sizes on each trade fluctuate with entry vs. S/R level I am playing. Sometimes it's 5 ticks and sometimes it's 15. Ideally it's on the lower end when I can, but that's not always possible.

We are our own worst enemy... And I understand your concern. It's funny how the human brain works - when we are in a losing streak, very easy to jump ship and give up; when we are winning, we wonder if it's a fluke or will it continue. My only suggestion is to do some backtesting (even manually) if possible. If not, then you have to watch your results like a hawk and track them closely. Build a database or excel sheet to track them and create a chart of your trading and track it. Would you buy your trading or fade it? Something else that comes to mind is simply increasing your size when you are winning and decreasing when you are losing - similar to a blackjack strategy. When you know the deck is stacked in your favor, put on a larger positions; when you aren't sure, minimize your risk as much as possible.

Jon - from a risk management perspective, have you looked at or tested how many bullets to fire before you just shut it down? For example, I will take 3-4 trades per market and that's about it. If I can't get in sync w/ the market after 4 trades, I'm obviously wrong that day. It's purely a risk management technique, nothing to do with the trade setup. I know my setups work when combined with some risk filters. This is also a reason why I do not exclusively focus on 1 market and 1 market only. If I'm not feeling it in market 1, I have plenty of others to pick up the slack. Just an observation b/c I've been where you've been on this recent chart - while in hindsight it looks like your level is a good level, it's easy to buy/sell/buy/sell repeat process till you just get tossed around.

Not sure I follow exactly what you are looking for. I turn all the grid lines off, so I might not be the best person to answer this particular question. What I do is turn all grid lines off (makes it cleaner in my eyes) and then will just draw lines where my profit/stop will be and these are attached to actual tick levels on that particular chart. From there you can tell the line to display current value, text or current value and text.

Forrest - I don't think intraday futures trading requires large stops depending on how you enter and how you manage your trades. I typically will risk 1 to make 2 on my trades (if not more) but it also depends on how you time your trades. For example, looking at your NQ chart, here's what I see: So yes, if you wait for the break or have a sell stop considerably below, you probably would need a healthy sized stop there. If you enter on a test of your R level, then your risk is rather small compared to the profit potential (in this example at least). From there it's just a matter of backtesting your S/R levels to see if they react like this most of the time. Nothing will nail reversal perfectly but if you can keep your risk in check, keep your profits at least twice as big as your losses and find a reliable place to be entering these trades, you don't need huge stops.

BR - if that doesn't work (not sure why) here's a quick workaround: 1) Upload png to TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting 2) Highlight code in the box that says "IMG Code for Forums & Message Boards" 3) Paste here 4) Done That's actually what I do on most other forums since many don't host pics on their servers.

I'm glad that someone is reading those posts I put up about 'different' markets. I don't know that you need more info on grains - I mean, when they move, they move. Either you are w/ the move or not. As for what causes moves and how to expect them, it's no different than the indexes - sometimes certain econ news moves them and other times it doesn't, sometimes outside forces will move them and other times not. I think you get the idea. Don't get caught up in trying to find website or books dedicated to trading the grains specifically b/c I don't think you'll find much. IMO here's what you need to know about grains trading: 1) These are truly pit traded contracts so when they open @ 1030am, get ready to make your move. Unlike just about any other contract out there, these things thrive on the pit open and orders flow in immediately @ 1030am. I don't think I've found ONE day where they didn't move on the open. Not one. Now compare that to the indexes, oil or gold -- plenty of days where they don't do anything on the open (like today on oil where I got chopped around). 2) While some would say the liquidity isn't the greatest, it's fine for daytrading. Personally, I've found the most success on the ZS contract. As you've seen, when it decides it's moving, it moves. 3) You should have your profits booked by 1230pm and shut it down. There are days where it will have an afternoon move, but it's very common for it to slow down once all the positions have been booked. 4) From there it's a matter of working a trading methodology. That just takes screen time, practice and more practice. One thing I did forget to mention - when rollover is near, the movements can slow down on the grains as the volume could be split over 2 contracts. When that happens you may not see as large moves as you might be expecting.

You're lucky that James takes all suggestions into consideration, incl changing something that is not broken. If moving your big, heavy mouse to the top right corner of the screen is asking too much, then you decide if it's worth your time to spend about 2.3 seconds doing that.

I can see BR now... Nicely done today!!!

10-28-09: +$257.19 Couldn't quite get in sync w/ oil today as I went 1/4 there today. The good news is that even batting 25% there was a minimal loss. That just comes from risk management and getting good returns on your winners. That's part of the reason why I don't put as much in winning % as I once did. If your winners can outpace your losers enough, the win % does not have to be huge.

Top right corner - unread posts. Click that.

Here's what I got so far for anyone interested: x1 (original - low volume) - sound level taken directly from the website, word/symbol said 1 time x1 (higher volume) - sound level turned up, said 1 time x2 (higher volume) - sound level turned up, said 2 times I was thinking of adding some sounds and stuff to them but I think that will just get in the way for what I need. I need these to go off, get my attention and tell me what market to be looking at. I also need them to fire off fairly quickly b/c it's very possible for multiple alerts to go off simultaneously. Each zip file has 26 files, which are used on the markets that I trade. Some are symbols, some are the actual words. I'm happy w/ all them except oil. I could not figure out a way to craft the word oil in a way that sounded more natural. If anyone can come up with a better way to phonetically spell oil, please let me know. Using this site: AT&T Labs Text-to-Speech: Demo x1 (original - low volume).zip x1 (higher volume).zip X2 (higher volume).zip

Sounds good, looking forward to reading about the ideas.

That is what I ended up using as ochie suggested on the first page.

Not bad at all... little easier on the eyes if nothing else. Try out what you got and let me know what you think. That chart you posted just looks so much cleaner and easier on the eyes IMO. Worth a shot to see if it helps, even if just a little bit.

I agree - it's nice when others can offer help and not be so abrupt to belittle them.

Once again, you fail to see how your posting can help others. Maybe not learn to trade a specific method (that's the easy part) but learn how a successful trader manages trades, what kind of results are possible and that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. But we seem to mix like water and oil so this doesn't surprise me. Take care Grey1 and if you are going to post these ideas here on TL, I'm looking forward to reading about these ideas you mention.

Good point forrest. Start with a blank slate (literally) and put slowly add back a few things.

Just don't hide from it hunny. We are here to help and you'd be amazed how it feels just putting it down for others to see. Yeah, losses hurt (money + ego) but IMO this will accelerate your learning curve.

Glad I am not alone. Good to see you back BR. Now get back to work and show us how it's done please.

Gabe - I know others have suggested this, but since you might be open to new ideas, humor me and try this: 1) Set background color to an off white / eggshell white 2) Press the delete key on those moving averages 3) Set up candles to green 4) Set down candles to red Just try it out. Your screenshots are so damn hard to see what's even going on there, I can just imagine what it's like trading from in real-time. Black backgrounds cause a lot of stress on your eyes.