brownsfan019

4-29-09 In the end, profitable day but missed some opportunities. Lack of focus today was the primary issue here apparently for me. I went in assuming that I might have a slower day due to FOMC, but in hindsight, there were plenty of more trades that I could have taken. Just goes to show that is you go into a day w/ a mindset, you might miss some blatantly obvious setups. Note on the 6E trade - holy sh*t did I take some slippage on that trade. I went to get short on a sell stop that was not triggered until the 8:30am news (I was hoping to get filled before). In the process of having my sell stop issued when my price level was hit, I took a slippage of at least 10 ticks on that one. Not happy there but the options were: 1) leave trade on and accept it 2) let it go. I went w/ #1. The trade that I missed I was talking about JK was on the ZB. Really not happy that I missed an excellent short b/c I had checked out for the day. :doh:

4-28-09 follow up: While I am happy w/ the end result P/L for today, I missed a couple trades that would have almost doubled the end result which is very frustrating for me. My goal of this thread for me personally was to work the plan and today I came up short. I missed a ZB trade and that first QM trade should have ended in +$200 or so. Those 2 would have added at least $500 into the end result. So the plan is working, but the end user is still working on working the plan properly.

Robert - post WHATEVER your heart desires, whether that be real or sim. No one here cares and if they say something, I will just boot their ass outta here. So, welcome to the thread and look forward to seeing your daily blotters.

Contrary to the 'indicators are bad' phenomena that has swept through TL, I would say find what works for you and then work it. Each indicator has a strength/weakness. You need to know what those are and how to maximize the strength and minimize the weakness. Examples: MOVING AVERAGES = great in a trend, can get beat up in non-trends OSCILLATORS (such as MACD) = can work well in non-trend, can try to catch a falling knife in a trend TREND FOLLOWERS (such as Trix) = very nice in trend, not so great in non-trend FIXED LINES (such as pivots, fibs) = can provide timely support/resistance, can also provide levels that in hindsight were meaningless There is a common them here though... whether or not you are in a trending market. Sounds easy enough to say, but identifying that in real-time takes a lot of practice and screen time. So while having a screen of 40 indicators is repeatedly redundant, you can use them and you can make money using them. In it's purest sense of form, it'd be great to pull up a 1 or 5 minute chart and just know instinctively when to buy and when to sell, but that's difficult, esp for a new person. When you are new, having something that can give that added confidence is needed. Here's the catch w/ indicators though .... if you play w/ them and test out all different settings and such, you may never stop testing and playing. There are so many indicators out there that it's rather amazing. My suggestion would be to find a trending one and non-trending one and see if you can get them to work w/ each other. There's also been mention of confluence and that can be pretty powerful IMO. Confluence meaning when multiple things are saying the same thing - whether that's a mix of indicators, fixed lines, time frames, etc. etc.

OX is buying up what they can. I think the purchase of OEC was a great pickup for them. Not sure about optionetics though. I guess if they want to be able to offer educational services as well, good buy for them.

I agree Sun. It's his opinion and nothing more. There are so many ways to trade it's not even funny. In his eyes, candles work. Others would say they are a farce. In the end, requires the end user to put in the time and work to get it done.

4-27-09 Boring Monday here. 4-28-09 That's more like it.

4-24-09 Not a good Fri for me, but back at it next week.

21 vs 20 will be a minimal difference, but to each his own.

4-23-09 Saved by a wheat trade today. If I can contain the losing days to something like this, the account will survive. I know what it looks like on winning days, I just have to contain the losing ones.

Open Ecry will be getting into the equity side of things soon, but not sure when.

Mars - I am looking at the candlesticks when price enters my target area. Would prefer to see bullish candles when going long and vice versa. It's not a deal breaker though if I feel the risk/reward is worth the entry, even if the candle formations might not be 100% on my side. The zones I look to enter at are where I feel volume is going to step in. If my timing is on, I can get on just before a volume surge can come through. It works a good chunk of the time, but obviously not all the time. I am prone to the fakeout like everyone else. IMO the easiest trades are the ones where you go into profit rather quickly. I know - duh! But getting into the trade before that occurs is a little more tricky. Basically my view on this is to look at your charts - current and past - and see where volume comes in and if you can find some patterns. Depending on the markets you are watching, could be time of day, certain days of the week, when certain econ reports are announced, etc. etc. While there are many variables, if you put the puzzle together, you might find some similarities of when your markets move. Nothing is bullet proof, but you don't need to be bullet proof. You just need a reliable analysis that repeats itself. I strongly recommend watching multiple markets and zeroing in on the better setups. When you are just watching one market, you are stuck there - good or bad. I know many around here focus on the ES or NQ, but there's plenty of times when that is like watching paint dry; meanwhile other markets are moving.

BR - First, thanks. It's been working well on bonds for some time now. As for the setup, I'm trying to cut back on the amount of entries so I'm much more particular on my entries now. While I will reference a mov. average or 2, they are not necessarily the prime/only trigger being used. In other words, I am not just looking for pullbacks to the MA. I think there is some possibility for that on bonds, but my focus now is getting in the AM and when there's momentum (or at least when I think there will be momentum coming). Often times by the time you get your pullback, that momentum is over. So to answer your question, the MA is not a primary trigger for me, but is referenced on the charts. At the minimum, I'll glance where a few are, but sometimes I need to pull the trigger before it officially might pullback b/c of what I am really looking to exploit. With that said, there are some great posts in the candlestick corner about these methods and bearbull had some very good posts on the matter. I also posted an article from Bigalow, who is a candlestick guy that uses MA's as well. If I was trading all day, I would most definitely be using these more; but I'm not doing that anymore. I'm taking a birds eye view of about 10 or so markets and just lay there waiting until price gets to my entry zone. Once price gets there, I zoom into that chart and look for an optimal entry price and logical stop/profit targets. Then I put the trade on and do my best to let it go... easier said than done. Basically the plan is be done trading by Noon EST, if not sooner. I watch a nice block of markets and only enter what I consider to be my best setup. When the trade triggers, I go in hard and look to push it. At this point in my career, it's about the $ - meaning that I am looking to make $500-$1000/contract traded per day. If that goal is hit, it's a good day and then it's time to shut the screens down and do other stuff. One day I might actually put all these ideas and things into a book. I've often thought that if I had a ghost writer help me put all my ideas into a cohesive, readable format, that I could help some traders out there, esp those new to trading. I think the current trading books out there are good, but too many sugar coat this thing. I'd love to write a real life, in your face book... maybe some day...

4-22-09 Overall a good day. That ZB stop out really pissed me off though. I was short (which in hindsight was the right side) but my stop was picked off before retreating down again. I was able to get back on that short train, but P/L really should have been better. I wasn't mad about the stop placement, just one of those things where it went up just enough to grab me.

Also get a divorce attny on speed dial. The last thing I would ever suggest is keeping your significant other in the dark. She's as much into this as you are as far as I am concerned. Very poor advice IMO. :thumbs down:

There's so many ways to say the same thing, which boils down to - you need to find a trading system that works for you (mentally & fiscally). That includes entries, stops and profit target(s).

I agree - get those entries better refined and then stops/profit targets will follow.

Hal - I don't know how you trade, but that seems like a lot of trading going on there. Maybe take a step back and try to find more optimal places to enter.

I like that Tams. Well said. And that's what is so hard about trading - you need to find a system that works, that works for you, and makes money. Not an easy task. I had an interesting conversation w/ a poker buddy recently that wanted my opinion of buying Sirius around 12 cents. After I explained that I don't do much w/ stocks anymore, I started to ask questions like - what price would you sell it at? Why? How much you trying to make here? etc. etc. At the time he said he was looking for it to get back into the dollars per share. Currently it's at 42 cents a share and he's talking about dumping it all to take some profit. My point is that when there's no real money on the line, it's easy to talk in abstracts but when real money is on the line, your attitude can and does change. When I explained to him that you need to be right when you buy AND sell, the lightbulb clicked. He's not sure what to do - cash out with a nice % gain or hold on and see... That's my long way of saying that trading is hard b/c you need to be right twice - when you enter and when you exit.

Come on, be serious now. :rofl: Do those guys even trade?

4-21-09 Decent day, 2 trades and 2 winners. What is frustrating though was the QM trade - I had my profit set at +$300 and hit the flatten button a very small retracement in hindsight. ZB had a nice trade in the morning that hit the profit target fairly easily.

Lesson #1: There is no shortcut to becoming a trader that can regularly take money from the markets. Lesson #2: You won't find what you are looking for on the internet for a couple thousand bucks here and there. Lesson #3: This business requires YEARS before you MIGHT master it. If you really want to become a trader, now is the time to start your learning process. This process will take years to master and even then, no guarantees that you will find what you are looking for. It will take at least 2-3 years IMO before the lightbulb even comes on. It's not easy and that's b/c those that do make it can make a very comfortable living. If it was easy, everyone would be a daytrader. Start with some general books and see what grabs your attention. I attached a PDF of books that I would recommend to have in your library. From there, TL has some great stuff all over the place: Candlestick Corner Wyckoff Internals Market Profile From there, you can get an idea of some ways to trade and then see what fits your personality. Amazon.com trading book reco's (tiny url's).pdf

Get this when going to my pm's: PS Apologize is spelled wrong.

I agree Frank. If they have equities, then I think that data may become available. Every time I asked previously, the response was that data is not at the CME, so they could not offer. Now, you would think that data would be available at some point. Looks like Options Xpress may have gotten a good deal on buying out OEC. They must have seen the value in the software and then it's just a matter of opening it up to more instruments to trade.

Welcome to the the thread rem! Please post screenshots so we don't have to open a word doc to view the blotter. You can use a software like SnagIt (what I highly recommend) or can do it w/ print screen and paint that is already in Windows. From there, just upload the pic as you did w/ your word doc - just save a a jpeg, png, etc.