brownsfan019

deanz - IMO there is so much that could possibly move/manipulate an individual stock. Some ideas that come to mind: 1) News - planned and unplanned 2) Company press releases 3) Abnormal option volume 4) Rumors I don't think futures markets can move an individual stock directly, but there's some correlation when watching the ES and watching a stock that makes up the S&P. I haven't done much with individual stocks in awhile, but I've been following with interest Tim's blog where he basically just focuses on finding stocks that have been / are trying to be manipulated. I've never traded any of his picks or ideas, but the premise behind it is interesting to me. It's an interesting niche to see these low priced stocks being flat out manipulated in many different ways by insiders.

I trade the day like any else, but I'm usually done by 12pm EST for the day, so not sure if that counts as trading the FOMC part. But in the end, if this one day that doesn't happen that much hurts your trading, stay out. Take the family, girlfriend, dog, whatever out for a treat that day and don't look back.

Not sure what stocks you are referring to, but spreads are tiny (if any) on most issues. And any decent liquid future will have the bid/ask. Question - how many withdrawals have you done and how often do you do them? I ask b/c I had a trading friend awhile back put together a decent little scalper type thing and the broker 'allowed' him to run it briefly before shutting it down. Why? B/c he was winning and taking their money. If you're losing, the FX brokers can be very kind to you. If you're a winning trader though, they can literally just turn your account off and say go elsewhere. As you said, it is safer in futures where you get the same bang for your buck as you do in FX but you also get regulations & brokers that only make money on commissions, not by trading against you. To me, it doesn't add up - you're going to send your $ to some firm, they hold it, they get to produce the quotes, they see your trades, know where your stops are, they can move prices around and they can easily be on the other side of your trade. Sounds like a perfect setup on their side.

1) If you think your broker is in business for free and doesn't charge 'commissions' I suggest reading up some more on this market. The FX marketers have done a marvelous job of creating this 'no commission' tagline and it seems to work. Maybe there aren't commissions, it's called spreads. lol. 2) It's not often I find someone wanting LESS regulation. Well, there's nothing less regulated as FX that's for sure. It has practically ZERO regulation.... I wish you luck should you have issues w/ your broker and need to call someone. As for PDT, it does not exist in futures. So I'm still not seeing ANY advantage of FX over futures. You can trade with $5k (or smaller), no PDT, massive leverage, no uptick rule and regulation all wrapped up into one.

I'll say this on runners - they've NEVER worked for me. I'm all-in or all-out. That's just what works for me.

Grey1 - do you have examples w/ screenshots that you can share of this on a chart?

Maybe since it's 3 years old Tams and all the changes James has made something got lost in the shuffle... Better question is how does one find a 3 yr old post? Who has the time for that?

Symbols needed: ES, NQ, ZN, Euro, QM FESX, FGBL

Alright, I've been clicking around the cme site and while I think they do try to provide info, it's so scattered that unless you know where something is, you can click all over. So hopefully someone will know the answer to this - is there a site, preferably CME, that provides the high, low and close of previous days? Unfortunately can only get a week or so from OEC, so was looking to backfill that when necessary. Thanks for the help.

Like I said, it's a mental game I play w/ myself regularly - the 'what if' game... What if I stayed in all day and just MOC'd. the trade. Then the next day - good thing I got out when I did! Got a few ideas working here, but it's all rudimentary at this point. In the end, my gut says that to just keep doing what I am doing and be happy. Thanks for the feedback everyone. While the exit holy grail probably doesn't exist, sometimes I need to get a thread like this going to reinforce what I've been doing is not half bad.

1) You can make money in stocks, futures, options or forex in up or down markets. All markets go up or down and money can be made in all of them. Stocks are no different. 2) If you think 400:1 leverage is a reason TO trade there as a new person, I hope you keep your account size small to begin with. Here's a few reasons to NOT trade forex: 1) 400:1 leverage is available 2) Since quotes are not centrally located, you may find different quotes at different brokers 3) Spreads can widen quite far during news announcements 4) Forex is not a centrally regulated market - your broker can take the opposite side of your trade If you want leverage AND a regulated market, then futures is the choice. Key there being that you'd like to be trading where regulators exist.

Other possible 2 tests?

To me, that 3rd one did resemble a 2 test. Price was tested at the identical level 2 times, in between the 2 tests there was a push up.

RE #3: Would you agree that there was a '2 test', meaning price did test the exact same price level twice after a push off in between? If so, would that qualify as a book '2 test' or not? Just trying to see if I am missing something there. Is that b/c this threads recent focus on the ES may have taken you away from other, easier trades? Or b/c it's Friday? Or...

Thales - questions on a chart, just put them directly on the screenshot. thanks

Unfortunately, most of schooling is like that - memorize what you need for the next test and move on. As for college, I went to a smaller school so it seemed more personal and not nearly as rushed as you presented here. If it's a large school where you are just a number, maybe consider spending a day at a small college and see if there's a difference.

If I'm using a larger timeframe, always been a fan of hammers to get long and inverted hammers to get short (or whatever you want to call them). I understand the psychology behind them.

Ant - I agree w/ what you said. And it is much easier said than done.

Update: I downloaded a firmware update, which also had me reset the router to factory settings. So now the router has the latest firmware update and it did a complete reboot. Running good so far, but we'll see. If this doesn't do the trick, going to order a new one.

Thales, Couple questions on trade execution. I apologize if this was answered previously. 1) When entering a trade, do you have a buy stop or sell stop sitting just above the level after a 2nd retest occurred or do you wait for price to break above and then enter? 2) Would you consider shorting at the areas I highlighted in yellow? Or only shorting new lows and buying new highs? 3) How do you define a retest - price must touch previous level exactly, price must come w/in X ticks of previous level or price can break previous level by X ticks? In other words, how stringent are you in looking at the 2nd retest high or low compared to the previous level?

Nice charts Thales - clean, crisp, easy to understand - which is not easy to find in an indicator, software driven business we operate in. Thales continues to post great stuff and he should get some HOF (Hall of Fame) status or something. :applaud:

Interesting chart/idea ochie. I do not use MP in my trading, but the idea behind it could be something to work with even if using some MA. From there it would be a matter of measuring the move in comparison to the MA to signify take your profit and go or let this one run a bit. This is what I was talking in terms of sparking ideas. Your post hit home b/c it's an idea that I can see and understand right away. Probably from my times of using MA's as the holy grail during my infancy in trading.

Tams - just looking for some ideas, maybe something will spark an idea on my end. I'm not averse to indicators, but prefer to have 'cleaner' charts. To each his own though. Interesting ant - pictures are worth a thousand words!

Was it wrong or just a losing trade? No system will provide 100% winners.

I'm sure I've mentioned this here before, but the hardest part for me as a trader is seeing a trade move substantially in your favor AFTER you've already exited. Today on the ZN was a great example. I literally shorted near the HOD, exited for my standard profit and then proceeded to watch it plummet. I would prefer to not turn this into a 'that's the game' philosophical discussion, but rather a discussion on how you measure the strength of a move once you are in a trade (if you do at all). Just curious to hear what others might be watching when in a trade to see if it's time to exit the trade or maintain a position. Ideas I've tried/used/contemplated previously but was not confident in the results at the time: Indicators that attempt to measure strength, velocity, etc. Volume Pit noise The ideal situation of course being when you can recognize when to be nimble and exit trades based on your predefined parameters or when you can just let it run for a bit more than normal. Also - I won't chastise anyone if they discuss a favorite indicator of theirs. I know it's taboo around here to discuss the evil, after-the-fact indicators, but you are safe here.