Russell EMini

[Tiobingo 10]

Any Russell eMini traders finding success day trading the Russell these days? It was tough going for me a few months ago but it seems to have really come alive lately. I'm curious how traders are doing with it. What timeframes, objectives, etc. I like the 377 tick chart with my strategy.

[wrbtrader 10]

Any Russell eMini traders finding success day trading the Russell these days? It was tough going for me a few months ago but it seems to have really come alive lately. I'm curious how traders are doing with it. What timeframes, objectives, etc. I like the 377 tick chart with my strategy.

 

ICE Russell 2000 Emini TF is sensitive to volatility. Thus, that "come alive lately" you saw is due to key changes in volatility.

 

Time frames - 1min, 2min, 3min, 5min and 15min on a multiple monitor setup.

 

Objectives - Every day is different especially when volatility changes

[tjnoon 10]

Yes wrbtrader. I follow the vix every day and noticed a huge surge right around the time that the Russell began to open up. I use it to help me determine the time frame that I will apply my strategy to. Like Tiobingo, I like tick charts, range bars and volume bars more than time bars. I do watch time bars and sometimes they even perform better than the tick charts I use, but I prefer a dynamic chart that also adjusts to market conditions.

[cuttshot 11]

I have traded the TF off and on for the past few years. I have a love hate relationship with this market. I find that when I trade it I need to be on top of my game when it comes to jey level adjustments/stop management. When it's on there isn't a better market out there. When it starts to chop it can be difficult to handle (look at the first few months of 2010).

 

I also like using range charts on the TF. Currently I am trading the 5 range chart (.50). I'm able to get done with most sessions within the first hour of trading. I target 10 or 15 ticks depending on the type of setup it is (I track 2 types of setups). Like tiobingo said it has really come alive lately.

[tjnoon 10]

My Russell trading today ended flat. I've seen some fomc days where the Russell was on fire, with many consecutive winners. Today, I would have ended positive but I don't trade 10 minutes around big news events and, needless to say, the winner that would have made the difference happened during the New Home Sales report. I ended up with - .1 today and was content to quit with that. Two of my trades ticked me out at breakeven, one was a partial loss and the other a full winner. Trailing stops had no potential this morning, that's for sure.

[cuttshot 11]

It's always a tough call on Fed day. I didn't trade it this morning myself due to the Fed and the rebalance going on this week. My system did make it through decent with 3 wins and 2 losses for a positive 9 ticks of profit.

 

I wasn't expecting much out of the Fed release this afternoon and boy was that the case. Almost a non event in the afternoon trading. Still could see a selloff going into the close but so far a very choppy day.

[markl67 10]

I just went live (real cash) a couple weeks ago with the TF using a volume bar breakout strategy which I backtested to Jan 4th with a 70% win ratio. The trouble is to achieve that win ratio, my risk/reward is 1:1, sometimes slightly negative and when the losers occur they are "large" which shakes my confidence to be honest. This strategy calls for basically putting on the trade and walking away which I think is best for my personality as I tend to micro-manage, but when the losers occur I say to myself "damn it, if I had been watching I could have managed this better" bla bla....

 

Not to ramble on or hi-jack the thread, but I'm interested if others have tried this "walk away" approach...?

[MadMarketScientist 11]

Great conversation on a favorite market. Thanks to the posters on this one.

 

TF used to be a personal favorite as well, when it changed from the CME to ICE it lost a lot of its luster to me -- but that really seems to be changing and the volume has seemed to return as has the volatility.

 

I always liked the speed of execution on this market as well. And reasonable margins. I think it's a better market for many than something like the ES which I find trickier to trade despite the volumes.

 

As to your post, markl67, I do like the set and walk away approach - of course strategy dependent. The key there is can you make your rules virtually mechanical? If you can, and you have a set of rules, then you can do that. Where I think this walk away falls apart is when you really don't have that -- it is subjective or has a lot of conditionals.

 

However, if you can get it nailed down to the specifics, I find psychologically it's much easier to trade NOT watching every tick then watching it. I've tried many times to have the monitor on and avoid it -- but it's virtually impossible. Instead, I personally sometimes turn off the monitor with the charts, and keep doing my other work on the other monitor or I know I'll just flick back to view the chart a 1,000 times in a few minutes

 

The key though is having those exact rules, and not beating yourself up over what "coulda/shoulda" if you would have been micro-managing....

[wrbtrader 10]

It really depends on the type of trade one is. Putting on a swing trade (overnight holds) or position trades (several weeks)...yeah...a walk away monitoring of a trade is ok. However, for day trading purposes...I can't imagine nor met anyone that was consistently profitable on the Russell Emini TF futures doing walk away as the primary approach as a day trader.

 

Thus, I myself as a day trader only do walk aways whenever I swing trade or position trade but rarely ever for day trades. Remember now, we're talking about the Russell Emini TF which is a volatile trading instrument. Yet, I do understand if a day trade position has moved strongly in our favor (big profits) and the day looks like it's going to be a trend day...yeah...set the trail stop and walk away but that's a rare type of day trade. I've done such only a few times this year but only after the position had gone in my favor more than +7 points and when I felt the trading day may continue developing into a trend day without any deep pullbacks.

 

Simply, walk away from a day trade position has never been a goal in my trading plan nor do I believe such can be consistently applied profitably a part of day trading. In fact, if a day trader is strongly considering "walk away from a day trade position"...that's a day trader that will better spend his/her time and energy in learning how to manage the discipline, stress, emotions of a day trade.

[cuttshot 11]

I love the idea of a walk away approach but I'm going to agree with wrbtrader the russell is not a good market to try it on. This market can move on a dime (especially rencently) and you can miss things very quickly. If you have a detailed trade plan that you can stay committed to then it should be an issue to track the trade. If the trade plan has been proven to put the odds in your favor then it shouldn't be a problem watching the screen and staying disciplined to the rules. It just seems to me walking away from a TF chart would make it difficult to make stop adjustments and all other money management decisions. Not to mention I'm sure you would miss new setups that come on. My plan calls for looking for 2 wins and a positive result or the first 90 minutes of the session whichever comes first. I don't typically find it difficult to stay focused for that amound of time.

 

This is assuming you are talking about a daytrading approach. With swing trading it is totally different. I will only look at my swing charts a couple of times a day. I feel just fine walking away from these.

[markl67 10]

Thanks for the responses. I got a private message from someone telling me to avoid putting on an OSO type trade making the stop public as that could ruin a good strategy. I guess insinuating that stops are intentionally "run"...and, to be honest the "consperacy theory" part of my brain has thought that could be true. Opinions on that...do you think stops are intentionally run?

[WorldTrader 10]

Mark,

On Forex with some low end brokers I would say they might stop hunt. Otherwise, no. Each broker logs time and sales and if a there are a lot of buyers or sellers and they happen to be at your level then so be it. I always use OCO orders, so that I can move the target or stop as I need to and they protect you from stray orders. If you do think that the market did not hit your stop, call your broker and have him show you time and sales.

I have several data feeds, so I can compare price action and to be honest. I have not seen that, so use them!

[er2wizard 10]

Gotta Love The TF with it's predictability.

[er2wizard 10]

[er2wizard 10]

If you notice in my charts above I get in on the pivots. I use a 5 tick hard stop always. The bars I enter on are called head and shoulders with the spike being the head, which have little room for error. Timing is the essential factor. I can say from my experience trading 10 contracts that I have not experienced a bias to take me out just because I was at that price with a stop.

[MadMarketScientist 11]

Would agree on this. I don't think you will see your particular sop hunted. Instead there could be traders guessing where stops could be hiding but your particular order is not in their sights.

 

 

 

If you notice in my charts above I get in on the pivots. I use a 5 tick hard stop always. The bars I enter on are called head and shoulders with the spike being the head, which have little room for error. Timing is the essential factor. I can say from my experience trading 10 contracts that I have not experienced a bias to take me out just because I was at that price with a stop.

[AmCan1 10]

My broker (Tradestation) told me that the OCO orders aren't actually sent to the market until the price gets close to your levels. So it wouldn't really be possible for someone to intentionally try to hit your stops since they wouldn't actually be in the market yet. The drawback to that approach though, is that when your order is placed, you will be near the back of the line. To avoid that, you'd have to place unattached orders and manage the bracket manually, by yourself. You would get your order in the cue sooner that way. Always a double edged sword with every trade decision it would seem.