brownsfan019

I really don't want to hear my own voice. That would be kinda weird - like my future self telling my current self about a trade setup.

That part is easy in OEC trader. You just select the wav file you want when you create the alert.

I was looking to add a few more sound alerts to my OEC charts and thought I'd see what sounds others use on their charts. If you use audible alerts, what are they? Depending on the file format, you might be able to upload into this thread for others to use. Right now I've just got your standard windows beeps/sounds, but was looking to broaden that up a bit. Ideally I'd like an alert that says 'NQ in play' or something along those lines and then specify each individual market so when the alert goes off, it's not a general alert, it will alert me to the specific chart to reference. Anyone got any good wavs that they can share? Anyone know how to build custom wavs that sound good? Thanks!

Maybe you should get the party started w/ some stories that you've heard. Best way to get a thread going is to start it yourself.

As a daytrader, if you keep your risk parameters in check, I don't think a 'blow up' is necessary. You might bleed by a thousand cuts, but not a 'blow up'. I think you'll find blow ups occur: 1) Trading w/ too much leverage 2) Trading w/ over confidence 3) Long-term trades / trades that turn into 'investments' 4) Making huge concentrated trades (bets) From what I've read, the big blows up are some combo of those items and I can easily see it apply to the retail trader. When you can open a futures account for $5000 or less, trade with $500 margins or less, that is the recipe for a 'blow up' IF put into the wrong hands. Take that same scenario but give it to someone that understands the risks involved and how to manage those and I think the likelihood of a blow up decreases substantially.

Damn guys, wtf happened today around here?

Thales - nice to see some stock charts again! Were these stock plays gap up plays and buying above the high of the first 5 min bar?

Interesting post Pat, but unless you are automated and using your firm's indicators, there isn't much a person can do to take advantage of this information. I agree that many good movements/setups can occur while we are sleeping but personally I've found that looking back at trades that might have occurred if I was awake is not a good use of my time. Are you and your traders trading these setups via programming? Would be really nice to wake up to some nice profits while you were sleeping.

I believe you meant sell stop. If you put a sell limit below current price, you will get filled right away. I'm sure just a typo, but for any noob's reading that, it's important to know the difference.

10-14-09: -$249.38 not my day today apparently.

Interesting post Kiwi. I would say that you possibly found a way to minimize the drawdowns, which is obviously nice. The concern is whether or not that you found a blip that helped in hindsight or a true piece of the puzzle. From there it's incredibly difficult to know whether or not you have your grail until it's tested live in current conditions. If it performs well on the right-side of the chart for what you consider to be a good testing time, then you might have it. Personally, I've found that pushing my trading over to the consistently profitable side wasn't changing setups or finding more ways to trade different ways; rather, put in risk management rules that shut off the bad days/markets and keep me going in the good ones. IMO that's more powerful than constructing the trading plan. I honestly believe that just about any trading plan out there could make money if a good risk management policy was in place - whether that be take 1 trade and done, trade all day, only trade the AM session, etc. etc. I don't think of this talk as taboo or anything, quite the contrary actually... so much emphasis is placed on trade entries and exits, very little is discussed on ways to manage your risk and drawdowns. So much is placed on finding the perfect entry or exit and very little discussions about entering on a simple pattern and then using risk management techniques to maximize the gains and minimize the losses. In theory if one could find the right combo, you could apply it all over the place in a variety markets cranking out profits. One day that's where I hope to be at least... turn on the ATM and watch it print money. Well done and keep us posted. If you want to talk in further depth and would prefer it off the forum, feel free to PM me. I know there's a fine line between wanting help and offering help on a free forum vs. keeping the money makers to yourself.

Interesting post - I use 1 timeframe per market being traded. Guess I'm the minority.

1) Range = yes / sub-minute - yes, I have a 5 sec ES up chart currently. 2) No. 3) Yes - I have a ZN on top of an ES chart. 4) Daily has gotten better recently as I can pull up daily charts now, which was not possible in the past. Sorry that it looks like OEC won't meet your min requirements. Keep in mind you can take their data (which is free and there's a ton of live data available) and plug into MultiCharts and I think a few other charting platforms. Could save some data fee costs that way. ZN and ES on same chart: 5 Second ES Chart Daily ES Chart

If you think this forum is harsh, do not (I repeat DO NOT) venture to other forums... in particular elite trader...

10-13-09: +$415.62 Me + ZN today = Here's an important lesson on knowing the markets you trade -- today bonds have auctions and I think that's causing this thing to do nothing. This is a good example where if I had checked econoday closer I would have seen the auctions today. I glanced at it this morning but apparently it did not sink in. Got a good thing going on oil and grains in recent memory, so I hope that continues indefinitely.

And get a tax deduction!

One thing I noticed Brian on this chart - looks like your profit target was 73.50 and looks like price touched that. On the ES, you need to assume that price must trade through your level to ensure a fill. This is an issue with sim trading, but here's a quick workaround - whatever your real-life profit target would be, put it 1 tick above/below on simulation. For example: Your real money profit target here is 73.50 On simulation, put your profit target at 73.25 This will keep your profits in check with real-time trading on the ES. This is one disadvantage of the ES to other markets but personally I always want to assume worse case scenario when going live. Yes, you might get filled at 73.50 but that's a 50/50 shot at best. If price touches 73.25 (even for a split second) that means all 73.50's have traded through. Better to head this off now than when real money is on the line b/c you don't want to fool yourself into thinking you will always get that same fill on real production.

Rob - is this area of the forum ever going to evolve from more than 1 into thread? If not, maybe time to shut er down and just make it a single thread in the TA part of the forum. If you want the area to get any momentum, you'll need to be the one that starts it. I've learned that myself.

I warned the thread that taking this off topic will result in posts being deleted. MM wanted to test that theory.

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f30/how-post-chart-properly-805.html It's in the beginners forum.

Care to share some examples of this?

Good question (and good observation). My exits are dependent on the market movements and fluctuations. For example, if I was in that trade that BR took, here's what I see for an exit: I try not to be a hero and wait to see if those previous reaction levels will hold. I'm just looking to ride the wave to that level and out - I'll let others see if it will crack. Also, keep in mind that depending on what markets you are comparing my numbers to are not the same as the ES. Oil for example, I am typically looking for 20+ ticks which is very attainable on oil. 20 ticks on the ES = 5 pts and that's an ambitious profit target IMO. So the same amount of ticks is very attainable on 1 market but becomes a stretch on another. That's part of the reason I enjoy trading oil, gold and soybeans - when moving, they crush the movements you'll find on the ES. Of course the flip side is that you can trade size on the ES that you can't do on these markets.

You did not point out ANY hidden costs. Please explain. As I said, you get a 2 week trial and you can extend that out if you ask them. You SHOULD be testing the platform out BEFORE sending them money. There's no reason to be sending money when you don't even know if you like the platform... why would you do that? I don't understand your complaint here when the demo period is plenty generous and provides plenty of time to do what you are asking - see if you like the platform. You get 2 weeks right away and can get more if you request it. And if they say no, you can pay a whole 25 bucks for a month, which means for 25 bucks you can test it out for 6 weeks and that includes your data feed. As they say... you can't make everyone happy.

erie - the correlation I am referring to is the US indexes, which is what I noted. Since many trade the indexes, I am trying to point out a few markets that are not directly correlated to them. Are there times where things will be in correlation? Sure, of course. There was a time when oil moved up and the indexes moved down. It was almost perfect correlation, but that time has come and gone. Speaking in general day-trading terms, gold and oil do not have a correlation to the US indexes consistently.