brownsfan019

Is that gross or net?

Maybe I am just too slow on the mouse click.

Perfect!!! So many features available here that I have never looked at.

BF - if price is just TOUCHED on the ES and then retreats, there's no way every one in the queue gets filled. That's hopefully obvious. And that's my point - if price just TOUCHES the level you want in/out there is no guarantee that you will be filled. Example - price touches 74.25 for 10 seconds and then retraces away from it. VERY few actually get filled at 74.25, meanwhile there are many in the queue that do not get filled. Once price TRADES THROUGH your level, then you are going to get filled and that's the point here.

James, As much as I frequent TL, I really do not need or want emails about threads that have updates. I know there is a way to turn this off, but was wondering if there's a way to just have the notification thing set to a default to 'do not subscribe'? Thanks!

Robo, I do not trade stocks anymore, but here are the 2 main ways that stock traders go about their trading day: 1) Focus on a specific group every day, each day and learn them inside and out. 2) Use a screener to find ones that are moving that day and trade them. Something like biggest % gainers/losers, volume, etc. This is one advantage to trading futures - you can focus on one or a very small amount of instruments vs. going into the stock universe and seeing what you can find. Good luck and welcome aboard.

That's really it. If you have a $50,000 account trading 20+ contracts and the swings will give you a heart attack, then you cannot do that. I know that I have X amount of cash over in the bank or wherever earning some interest and ready to go if need be. Others may not like seeing their P&L and statements swing 10% or more daily based on the $ in the account.

One piece of advice in Denver - AVOID the Denver Broncos. A terrible NFL franchise. :rofl: Oh yeah, gsx likes this game called hockey too but the rest of the US is not quite sure what he's talking about. :o

I have a few observations... take it for what it's worth. 1) Holy cow you are trading... Wow. Your broker must love you. 2) Until you realize that you cannot and will not catch every single move or every single day, you'll always be chasing this dream. #1 - if I am reading the chart correctly, that is a ton of trading going on for a new person. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I'm sure you realize that commission costs will eat away at profits at that pace. #2 - It took me awhile to come to peace w/ the FACT that there is no possible way that you can be in every single move of every single day. I too wanted to be in when the big move came. Problem was that you have to take trades left and right to be there. My suggestion at this point would be to start crafting more precise entries, unless being a scalper is what you are setting out to do.

It is about speed of entry; however w/ the ES being as thick as it is, getting multiple lots filled can be an issue. It comes down to how quick you are in line and how many ct's are being traded. I've had plenty of partial fills but the only time I can get a full boat filled is to have price either stay at my price for a bit and/or tick up/down from where I want in. No idea what the wave and impulse stuff is, so we'll just leave it at that.

Stops are the other part of the equation. I'm not interested in trying to catch the trending day move when we know how little the market actually trends. I think that is a big myth that few can actually make money at. If the market trends maybe 1 day a week (if that), I'm not interested in trying to catch that one move once a week. Today is a great example - setting new highs currently yet we had a push up, then down and now back up... If one is to try to catch the 'move' I wonder how many could hold their longs through that nice downmove and/or how many shorts are still holding short assuming the downmove is coming back? My point is that while it sounds great to say catch the occasional trend day but 1) it happens so few times and 2) you still have to be on the right side of it. For my personal trading, I have run the #'s over and over and over again and while it's fun to catch that 10+ pt move, it just doesn't happen that often to make it worth my time or effort. For the 1 time you do catch that monster move, there are 10+ times that it doesn't happen. So while I may not make as much on the few trending days as others, I'm more than happy to make consistent profits most days by taking reliable setups with achievable profit targets.

And actually fs that brings up another topic but we'll discuss briefly here... if you find a profit target(s) that works for you, it's inevitable that a day here and there will test your faith in that setup. Currently I am just popping trades for +2 and out. Today that equates to SIX ES POINTS 'LEFT ON THE TABLE'. Most might start to panic or just say - let's take 1.75 or 1.5 going forward. For me, I know more often than not, that +2 is very achievable. Today is a day where that faith in my +2 is being tested. And this does happen from time-to-time. So easy to say take 1 tick less on all these trades, but if I were to go back and run the #'s, I KNOW that would take THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS from my account. Yes, today was a testing day. No doubt. IMO if you let the market shake your faith that easily b/c of 1 day, you'll constantly be chasing yesterday's results.

Yes, OEC has MIT orders however I am not using them in my current profit targets. Just one of those days where one more tick down and 3 trades turn into +6 vs. +3 ticks. Just part of the game, I am used to it by now.

I have found that new traders to the ES sometimes don't understand one really important characteristic of this market, esp. when compared to the YM, NQ or ER2 - and that is more often than not, price must TRADE THROUGH the level you are looking to get a fill to assume you will get filled. This concept is incredibly important, esp. to backtesters, that new people to the ES do not always grasp right away. In other words, whether backtesting or trading on a simulator, always assume that price must TRADE THROUGH the level you want to enter/exit to get a fill. Example: say you want to short with a limit order at 1275.50. More often than not, to get that fill, price will have to touch 1275.75. There are times where you might get filled / partial fill depending on where in line you are, but I've found that many new traders to the ES (and not necessarily new to trading) have a hard time w/ this when coming from the YM, NQ or ER2. The reason is simply the volume that is traded on the ES is much thicker than the other markets so it is harder to get a limit fill if it does not trade through. I mention this today b/c I've literally had 3 trades today TOUCH my profit target, not fill and then retrace back. Frustrating to say the least, but hopefully my frustration will help someone here. My suggestion to those on a simulator is to put your profit target(s) one tick out from where you really want to exit and same with backtesters. Whenever I switch over to the OEC demo and set a profit target, I have my targets set at 1 tick greater than what I would be doing in real-time so that I get a real-time type fill. THERE IS NO POINT IN FOOLING YOURSELF OR PLAYING GAMES WITH YOUR MIND. NEVER ASSUME YOU GOT A FILL ON THE ES IF IT DID NOT TRADE THROUGH.

What a 'good ratio' is for one trader may not be the same for another. In other words, how much leverage one employs is at the discretion of the trader and their tolerance for risk. For example - I personally see no reason to carry an excessive amount of cash in a non-interest bearing futures account. Some brokers will pay an interest on $100k+ (usually only if you ask) and that interest is nothing to get excited about. Point being, for me I carry 'enough' cash in my trading accounts to trade the amount of contracts I want to trade and sustain any intermediate drawdowns. B/c of that, my leverage in terms of contracts traded for the account size would seem high at first glance. In the grand scheme of things the leverage employed is low but I just keep excess cash in accounts that can at least earn something vs. sitting there doing nothing.

If you are 100% 'fly by the seat of your pants' it would be rather difficult to backtest.

Thanks Eiger, that was good. I finally got to talk to the main vet of Patches as he was on vacation last week. He said a few things that stuck w/ me and has helped since 1 week ago of losing Patch... He said a good 95% of dogs out there don't get the care they need. Patch was one of the 5% that did. (and plenty of credit card bills to prove that! LOL). He said by living till almost 14 yrs old, she lived to her life expectancy, if not more. Even as humans we can only hope for such a long, fun filled life. We had a good talk as he has cared for her since day 1 but was unfortunately out of town last week. But those 2 things hit home as we were talking.

That's a big step 156. If you find that you cannot mentally handle a 'winning' trade turning into a 'loser' then I HIGHLY recommend you have set profit targets that are realistic and achievable.

Exactly. Long only = bull market. Therefore, if not in bull market but if this provides long signals, will have hard time making money. So once a bull market is identified, then I would consider use of something like this.

I think it could work very well in a bull market. I'd love to see how it reacts in a bear / sideways market.

It really is. Prior to OEC getting their charting to the point that I could use it, I was using MC in this fashion.

NO. Unless your methodology calls for this, the answer is no. As you mentioned above, if you get too aggressive w/ that stop, it's a recipe for a losing trade. Probably b/c exiting a position is an art, not a science. I don't trade much longer term anymore actually. But as you saw in your trade, you have a decision to make - either try to catch the move (hit the homerun) or set those target(s) (hit the singles) as discussed over here.

No doubt that MC is a great piece of software. It is good for TS to have a strong competitor as it should hopefully force TS to catch up as well. A brand new 'MC' would be very interesting to see. If they improved on a few things, they could really blow TS and others out of the water. Now there's a great business model - a solid, trader-friendly charting platform.

Read first post, use google to find product.

156 - as you will learn and have seen, just coming up with possible entries is one very small part of the equation. Many new traders don't fully get that until they've traded awhile. IMO exits are MORE IMPORTANT than entries. As for how to exit and when, have fun. There are some threads around the depths of TL that discuss this very topic, you just have to search around for them. Here's what you need to know right now - you will NEVER have a perfect exit ALL the time. You will NEVER catch every big move and then catch every small move. You WILL have trades that 'you got out too early' or 'got out way too late'. In the end, you have to decide what's best for you and your mentality. What I mean is, some like to try to catch that giant move and are willing to have some small losses/gains to get there. Others (like me) like to take a profit out of every trade if possible. It's like baseball - you can swing for the fences and strike out most times but also hit that big one or you can hit singles and doubles all day long but never hit the big one. A hybrid would be to scale out, but again, that takes a lot of work as well to see what works for you. While getting some contracts out at +X pts and letting some run looks great, it can also be detrimental over the long haul as well. For example, I personally have found that just taking regular profits each trade is just easier on me in so many aspects - mentally, emotionally, and monetarily. I often 'get out too soon' but I also book regular profits during the day. And it works for me. I go into each trade shooting for a specific target and done. And then repeat the process. Others will say you want to stay in the big winners. Neither is right as it depends on the individual trader and I stress - it's not JUST about the $$ here. The mental part of exits can literally drive you nuts, so see what works best for you mentally and then work from there. It's easy to say let 'em ride but when real $$ is on the line and you are in the face of a retracement back into your entry level... it won't be so easy to just 'let it ride'.