Freddie

Ahhh! Gotcha now. I thought you were talking about a fixed point stop of say 20 points from entry. Good ideas for me to think about. Thanks.

Brownsfan, Not using fixed stops but placing them below pivot lows for longs and above pivot highs for shorts. Yes, entry could be improved as I'm waiting for confirmation which may be causing me to enter a bit too late. thx,

Hi, I trade YM on 5 minute timeframe and have found that when I enter trades and look to place my stop below the recent pivot low for longs that it is in the 30 - 40 YM points away from my entry. This I find to be too large. This may all be a function of my entry signal but was just wondering what most people use as a normal stop loss range in points on their entry for 5 minute or other timeframes. I may switcht to a lower timeframe if that means smaller risk on entry. I would really appreciate any comments. thx, Freddie

"last quarter is left to run and I have 3 or 4 exit criteria to look for" Keymoo, I use a very similar system with my trading of YM. I'm using 5 min charts so set my targets a bit higher and I'm only trading 2 contracts. 15 pt stop, moved to BE+1 once first target hit. Target 1 is 20 pts, Target 2 is based on 3 exit criteria for the running contract. I use pivots, a 50 pt trailing stop in case market really takes off and get volatile then I'm not using just the pivots for exit, and trendline break is my third sell signal. I draw tighter and tighter trendlines which then tightens the exit. Seems to work for me.

Anyone using ADX and Directional movement as an indicator for trading YM? Successes or failures appreciated. On the side, anyone read Charles Schaap's book ADXcellence? thx, Fred

Soultrader, I've only read the second book. Did the first book have more detail on his trading system / development of a trading system? I think the logic is there but can't seem to get the system to work in the long haul via backtesting. Fred

Thanks guys for your feedback. So I assume none of you are using his pivot moving average crossover indicator, etc. explained in his second book and thus not using any of the systems (or variations) described in the second book. Fred

Anyone familiar with his book and trading methods? Are the methods profitable? thx, Freddie

Soultrader, Have you read his second book yet and if so do you have an comments? Just wondering how useful his techniques are and if you use any of them in your trading? His website also has some CD, DVD courses along with live training sessions so if his stuff is good I may look into some of his other teaching material. thx,

Soultrader, Concerning John Person's book, did you find it beneficial and are you using any of his indicators or systems that the book discusses? thx,

If you follow the TTM strategies as in JC's book then they are not going to work or you've got to have the ability to take 100 pt YM losses hear and there. I backtest the strategy, look at where I can modify to improve my results and reduce the "burning hoop" factor and the forward test it in real time on a demo account that I have. Seems to help and also allows me to get a good feel for each strategy, the gut check needed in each one and what variation is returns I should expect so that I don't end up jumping my auto stops/ targets. thx,

Thx Cooter, No I'm not following them blindly but looking at their systems, doing my due diligence and backtesting and forward testing them and modifying them to suit me.

Notouch, I never noticed that but I did notice and tried to question JC on the stop loss system that he uses. You basically need to do better than 2 to 1 in terms of winners ( and that's hitting all targets) to losers to just break even. JC, likes to uses 1/2 at +5, 1/4 at +10 and 1/4 +20 with 20 pt stop. You loose once and on 4 contract your down 80 pts. You need to win the next 2 at 5,5,10,20 or 40 pts total for each trade to just breakeven. I find that hard myself to get this type of return. Are you an active trader and if so what would you suggest is a good way to get your % winners up? I've been live paper trading (I know the pitfalls of this form) to get a feel for my software, the enty points and taking profits at least for now. Once I feel confident I'll go live and hopefully not have my profits drop too much at that point. thx,

I know a lot of you follow John Carter and Hubert at Trade the Markets. com. I've tried the 2 week trial but really is not long enough to determine, in particular, the benefit of the live trading room. During that 2 week period I was just trying to get familiar with some of their trading systems and how they use them and did not pay as much attention the the benefit of the live trading room. I'd love to hear any comments on the live trading room, it's benefits and drawbacks or why you like to use it or not use it. Secondly, I did find a lot of the videos on the website and the discussion forum useful. It does appear to me that the systems that JC and HS use are not written in stone and that they tend to follow / modify continually and use a lot of discretion in when to take the trades. Just trying to figure out if it is worth signing up for the live trading room and newsletters. Given that I'm only trading 1 or 2 contracts at a time, can I really benefit / get my money back on the $400 or so of monthly cost? thx in advance for your help, comments and feedback, Freddie

There are a couple of different pivot point calculations that can be used and some people only use the cash session while others use the whole session (for instance, YM form 7:15 pm to 5 pm EST). Can anyone tell me what is used most in the pits both in terms of calculations (be that standard or woodie pivots or other) and what time frame the data is taken from? In some cases the pivots are pretty close and in other cases not close at all (20+ points difference). thanks for your help, Fred

Thx but I don't have that option in build 867.4 of TWS.

Anyone know if IB, Interactive Brokers, has a continuous YM contract? If currently trading the March YM, when is it most advisable to switch over to the June YM contract? thx, Freddie

Just an update. Ninja Trader and IB have problems. NT reports improper volume with IB data feed. NT support cannot solve the problem and has suggested esignal data as an option.

Thanks everyone. I'll take a look at some of these.

It has just come to my attention from NT support that the charting portion and T&S portion of their software registers incorrect volume on the charts due to duplication of T&S values. They cannot do anything to fix it. I like using IB but I need a good charting software and execution program and don't really want to pay extra for data as IB supplies all that I need. Can anyone recommend a good software package that can replace NT's complete package and that is compatable with IB? thx, Fred

Just taking a look at this indicator and am trying to backtest it in Amibroker. Do you know of a version for Amibroker? Most of it is pretty straight forward; just not sure about the momentum portion and how it is handled. thx, Ed

Thanks everyone for your help. I've been working with Ninja Trader the past few days and it seems to be more than enough for what I need and I still get to keep using IB for my broker. Isn't Infinity AT very similar to Ninja Trader? I've heard that IB has better execution times than Tradestation and lower fees so it's not hard to recoup the $50 per month Ninja Trader fees with a little extra slippage and fees. Tradestation is good but I also think IB and Ninja Trader could be almost as good in terms of software and maybe a bit better in terms of execution. Anybody want to jump in on this? Only problem with IB and NT are only 1 year of historical data from IB. Should be ok for most backtests but I'd like to also be able to do backtests in other market conditions. Anyone know of a good place to get historical futures data? thx again. Ed

FLX, Can't open a brokerage account with them from Canada plus I'm happy with IB right now thus the $250 per month fee.

Hi all, Just in the process of finishing up John Carter's book and am thinking of moving over to trading e-mini futures both intraday and swing trading; mostly intraday to start. I will be using Interactive Brokers (IB) as it is the best discount broker here in Canada. I'd like to find a software package like Tradestation that will work with IB as it looks like tradestation can backtest, has charting software, automated order entry and exit, etc. all that I need along with historical data. The only problem with TS is that for me it's $250 per month (A bit steep for starting out) and I cannot open an account with them as from what I remember a few years ago when setting up my IB account, Canadians are not allowed to open US trading accounts with US firms and that is why IB opened a branch in Canada. So it's either pay $250 per month or look for alternate solutions. Anyone have any suggestions? I was thinking Ninjatrader for order management and charting, maybe Amibroker or Wealth lab for backtesting, still need a good source of historical data for e-mini futures. thx for your help

Anyone using Tradestation Brokerage from Canada? My understanding is that Canadians are not allowed to open accounts with US brokerages. Is that the case? thx, Ed