StevenSJC

Reading one of the posts just above I can say with 100% certainty guaranteed failure will come if you used those preset fixed targets - above it says 2 points and 4 points. That's a recipe for assured disaster. If I've learned anything in the years of trading futures it's never to use a fixed target and stop. It doesn't work. I remember back in the earlier 2000s my typical target on the S&P was 8 points on a daytrade. Can you imagine that now? And that was multiple times a day opportunity. Make sure you figure out a way that has you adjusting your target/stops with market range/volatility.

I trade FDAX on a daily basis in the US session. European market hours don't work for me -wish they did but have found ways to have it be quite effective in US. I have found that starting trade at 10am EST instead of the US open at 9:30am EST I do far better. Why? Not sure - that's just my results telling me so. I give it 2 hours from there - but quite after 1 win and positive results. I keep going if first trade doesn't win. Maximum trades I'll take is 3 however - so I end 1-0, 2-1, 1-2 or 0-3. Obviously I'm pulling for 1-0 or 2-1 and thankfully hit that most days - of course not all. I like to use range bars. Those are my favorites. However, you need to take a percentage of the daily ATR to come up with the right size range bar -- this way you keep your system dynamic as trading ranges expand and contract. Not sure I'm ready to give away my exact percentage but that's what I do. For tick bars I would use 233 Tick - that would be my choice if I couldn't trade range bars. On big news days -- when there is a "red rated" report in the US at 10am EST I wait a minimum of 2 minutes up to 5 minutes - once trade looks like it's orderly I go -- this filters out some sucker punches right at the release. Like others have mentioned you need to be capitalized for this market -- $25,000 probably my minimum suggestion if you want to keep that risk to 2% or less. I use Ninjatrader to place my orders through Interactive Brokers. I use Tradestation for their charting since it's just what I'm used to but if I wasn't lazy I would get used to Ninja charting but old habits die hard. As for EuroStoxx never found it as good for me. Good trading....

No question Traders Lab is by far the best forum out there. Serious talk from serious traders and not all the fluff and promo posts you see elsewhere. Sure we all disagree but if I'm going to argue with anyone about trading or strategy there is no peer but here. Congrats on the 100K+!

I personally think many people dramatically underestimate the costs of mistakes and slippage. So much effort goes into shopping commissions and saving a buck or two here and there but the real profit killer is slippage many times. I realize not in all markets but there are some markets, especially in heightened volatility that slip considerably. Case in point, Crude Oil - used to be (and not long ago we're talking a couple of months) that a buy stop would slip zero or 1 tick - now it is commonplace for my orders to slip 5 to 10 ticks. So imagine if you are going for 0.18 and you are slipping a third to a half of your target. Even if you win 70%+ of the time, not easily done even in a perfect world you'll get wiped out in slippage alone. Then of course there are errors -- from speed of entry -- meaning you miss your entry or you read it wrong or a host of other bumbling issues that happens when you really are trading in real-time. That's why I find that on paper a system/strategy might be yielding you something but you better be prepared for slip and errors to do its best to wipe out that advantage and then some. The good news is you can improve your ability, use better tools, etc... and reduce errors and slippage can be handled to some degree with smarter order entry types once you identify the need.

Cobra is right - I think they did some rebranding but same company.

Yes very bizarre comments I must say. It's as if I offended somebodies child I'm just saying, make the case why traders who come into the emini futures world should trade the ES. Besides the fact that everyone seems to do it - and the rooms/signal services all seem to cater to it - because that's where the crowd goes. I think if I can get someone to read this who is just starting out to NOT jump head over heels into the ES first it's worth the battering I'm sure I will take. Regardless, still waiting to hear why the ES is factually superior to other choices.

I know it's probably sacrilege around here to insult the vaunted S&P e-mini but I'm willing to bet it blows up more traders than any futures market. More than any market I would bet outside of forex which typically pulls in the lowest common denominator (read: get rich quick crowd) There was a really good article in this months S&C magazine that continues to demonstrate this point. The S&P e-mini is hard to trade. You are competing against mega institutions and volume. It's very difficult at times to get a fill unless price moves through your price. It is quite subjective because your system might hit target but you won't so what do you do? I find it creates all kinds of questions and those freakin 0.25 ticks are ridiculous. I'm sure it's great for others but those type of ticks (instead of 0.10) are not great for us traders. The magazine article made the point that sure, the S&P e-mini has great volumes. Incredible volumes. You could easily execute 50 contracts. Which makes me laugh since 98% of traders out there will be lucky to get to 2 contracts. It's like people wanting to make sure that the tax rates at the highest bracket are low because someday they'll be there. Yeah right. Who cares if this market can execute 50 contracts in a heartbeat. You'll never do it. More important is the chart that showed Average Yearly Tick Movement across all the major index futures. Lowest rank? The S&P e-mini vs. the Dow, Nasdaq, Russell small and mid-cap. When you factor in dollar value so average annual dollar movement the Russell e-Mini easily comes out on top? Lagging way behind? The S&P e-mini. If more people would start trading the Russell vs. the S&P I guarantee failure rates while high, would be lower. Trying to jump in and trade amongst the big boys in a market that really doesn't have great range, that forces a lot of subjectivity due to the 0.25 ticks, doesn't lead in any major category but volume which you'll never need or use to me is a just a lure for trading suckers. I know the best of the best here on TL will disagree. And I'm not saying it cannot be traded successfully but if more traders getting going would not chase the crowd in the S&P you'd stand a much better chance.

I've always been a fan of Custom Trading Solutions. I won't give a URL here since I don't want to appear promotional (promise no affiliation!) but years back I used to use "off the shelf" systems from the usual assortment of characters - Dell, HP, etc... always ended up with serious issues. Switched to these and haven't looked back. Just find them much more stable and better tuned to the needs of a trader.

Agree on Silver though the intraday volatility/trading range is what really makes it so much more tradeable than years past. It's one thing to have a larger overall percentage gain, but it's also the behavior intraday which I never would have considered a few years ago. Now with the much higher prices (throw Gold in there as well) it becomes highly tradeable for a daytrader.

I'm surpised the lifespan is 5 years of a retiree in Florida. I don't buy it. Have you ever seen them drive there?

Thanks for the replies so far -- I have been looking at the AUDUSD of late -- on some slower charts like a 4 hour it seems to plot quite well. When I speed up the charting timeframe I don't like it as much but that 4H could be a sweet spot at least for me. GBPJPY was mentioned above - I used to LOVE that pair and then it abandoned me. I've been tentative trying to renew my love affair with it - perhaps I'll take another look.

Have you ever seen Vegas even in the deepest recession of our times on a weekend? That's why.

Without question it's doable. The best thing about trading and the futures is you can scale up with contract size - without working any harder. Not many businesses you can scale without adding a lot of additional effort. The flipside is to get to the point of making a living is going to take quite a while since that first move from being able to successfully trade 1 contract, and get to the point where you earn your way to the right to trade two is by far the toughest. I believe it takes multiple contracts to really make it so just be prepared for that 1 to 2 being the longest road. After that it gets easier.

I would have to agree with above. LOVE my Tradestation. Couldn't live without it. But, don't trade there (sorry TS) -- you want a good place to trade FX -- see one of those Oanda ads you see on this site. Hard to beat those guys to me one of the most responsible brokers out there and fair. Regardless, I still pay my monthly TS fee since I love the charting if not the trading.

I haven't read this entire thread but a lot of the good stuff early on. I don't think there's any question that most traders will not succeed. But I would never let that stop me. When I went to school, most of the rest of the kids there got worse grades than me -- a few got better. Same goes for college, and then into my career. I've seen plenty of people do poorly in any endeavor - not just trading. To me we MUST have losers for the rest of us to do well. If it was so easy everyone would be doing it right? Is it our fault that so many are just ultra lazy and expect money and profits to be handed to them? They blame the brokers, the services, the courses, whatever when in reality you'd get a lot further if you took responsibility and blame yourself for your losses. I truly feel if some is willing to work harder than they ever expected, stay incredibly stubborn in their desire, and forget looking at this as get rich quick it really doesn't ultimately have to end in failure. It just will for most.

Curious what everyone else thinks in forex as far as markets worth trading -- I love the EURUSD so don't get me wrong but I've actually found that opportunity awaits in places the crowd isn't looking. Case in point - I've had some real nice success trading the EURCAD recently -- typically more of a swing trade - either same day looking for 25 - 50 pips or if I'm swing trading tends to be 75 - 150 pips. Of course I don't nail it everytime but that market moves reliably. USDJPY for example used to be a favorite, then it stunk, and now in recent months I've had a great time with it. So my question is what other markets are you all uncovering or does this crowd just focus on the EURUSD & GBPUSD?

What might be interesting as well are just some simple tips on anxiety/stress relief that someone could deploy immediately. Meditation is great but like any art probably takes a bit to do right and master. There must be some things/excercise/breathing one can do in the heat of the trading battle to remain calm....

I used to sit in on a signal service where the guy calling the trades was on one. He said the key for him was to always maintain a pace where it was brisk, but never out of breath or breathing heavily. That always helped him maintain control. Thought it might wreak havoc on the coffee drinking.

The secret for me is realizing that I start trading early -- therefore I'm going to be starving by mid morning so I make sure to have some reasonable food onhand and nearby to snack on. Otherwise I'll never make it to lunch and if I do you can bet I'll go overboard since I'd be so damn hungry. Same with afternoon -- a couple of times I reach for a healthy snack and I get to dinner much easier. Drinking water is great as well but I'll admit I limit it in the morning since I'm concerned my bathroom breaks will occur right when a good trade arises.....now maybe I need a laptop in the bathroom but that's another topic.

I'm in! Can you do us a favor and send some reminders as we get close to April so I can be sure to get that demo account running. Oanda is great so should be fun. I look forward to winning

A few that are on my list -- are actually many already mentioned -- amazing how we all have very similar influences. I tried to think of some more that for better or worse influenced me. Jeff Cooper (where has he gone?) Hit and Run Trading -- I never really made any money from it but it was one of the first books to make me realize that you can trade with systems/rules and not from the gut. Larry McMillan "Options as a Strategic Investment" - - back in the early days I was all about the options. And, sadly there was a book I cannot remember the title. I remember there was a guy at his desk with some trees or something in the background maybe in an office. It was about daytrading I believe the S&P eminis and it used keltner channels for sure. Just can't remember - was soft cover fairly thick -- if anyone that rings a bell with let me know the name. It was basically about making a living with the eminis. And like others have mentioned of course Market Wizards. Gets you through dark times.

Hello - welcome to the board. Great place for traders. I think if you click this: http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/profile.php?do=editoptions You'll be able to scroll down and change your time zone.

Question....with the support of several platforms such as Ninja, Sierra, etc... was curious which platform you've seen has been the most popular choice. Maybe even breaking that down by forex traders and futures traders. Could be a difference I'd imagine - -though I'm assuming you'd mostly speak to the futures crowd. I've used both platforms, and only demoed MC so have my opinion but curious what you see.

Here's my guesstimate for the quarterly close: Dow 12,492 SPX 1,361 NDX 2,892 Remain bullish at this time. I think this will be a solid year overall not without its hiccups but what year isn't. So, I have to assume we'll still have some momentum left for a push up sometime Q1.

For me I'd say taking a look at all my tools, brokers, systems, etc...I may have gotten a little complacent in 2011. I notice for example Oanda advertising here now, a broker I have been meaning to try for half of forever but have been too lazy. I know there are some better timeframes I should look at, and update some of my trading rules but again I was just a little too complacent in 2010 -- doing fine but I would lament not taking a little time out and really reviewing all aspects of my trading business. I figure I could bang that out in one or two days and then enjoy the benefits the rest of the year. So Monday and Tuesday are the days. No more Mr. Lazy.