Swing Trading Futures

[karoshiman 10]

I'm currently looking for opportunities in both directions, btw.

 

 

Well, actually I did not... was biased towards short setups... :crap:

[karoshiman 10]

Long YM at 14,649. Pull-back and bounce-off support area.

[karoshiman 10]

Kicked out of long YM at 14,590 with a loss. That was quick... Might re-enter again later...

[karoshiman 10]

Trying another long in YM at 14,670. Price seems to have overcome the 14,610 to 14,660 confluence zone.

[karoshiman 10]

Stopped out of YM long at 14,603. Second failed long trade in YM in a row... Flipped here to short... Is the bull run over?

[karoshiman 10]

Covered short in YM at 14,512 with a profit.

[karoshiman 10]

Reason for my short covering: trend line (not the beginning confluence as shown in the chart; was just busy and couldn't post it earlier)

Edited April 17, 2013 by karoshiman

[karoshiman 10]

Short again in YM at 14,543. Upmove outside of overnight confluence zone seems to have failed.

[karoshiman 10]

Covered 50% of long in YM at 14,498 with a profit just to be on the safe side. Stop for remainder at 14,560.

[karoshiman 10]

Changed my mind... covered remaining 50% at 14,512 with a profit. Thought it gets down faster...

[karoshiman 10]

Long in YM at 14,464. Price bounced off from yesterday's low. ES making also new intraday highs.

[karoshiman 10]

Covered long in YM at 14,476 with a profit as I do not want to hold over the weekend.

[clmacdougall 11]

Perfect entry tonite at 14506. It's a double leg pullback captured within that clear upleg from 14361 to 14823. It just broke above a previous high after the 2nd downleg. 2 contract trade, target for first at 14698, and 2nd at 14823. Stop at 14402, just below 2nd leg low.

[karoshiman 10]

Perfect entry tonite at 14506. It's a double leg pullback captured within that clear upleg from 14361 to 14823. It just broke above a previous high after the 2nd downleg. 2 contract trade, target for first at 14698, and 2nd at 14823. Stop at 14402, just below 2nd leg low.

 

 

I liked this idea. It seems that many others liked the idea as well and acted also upon it... today's moves smell like a stop run...

[clmacdougall 11]

I liked this idea. It seems that many others liked the idea as well and acted also upon it... today's moves smell like a stop run...

 

Same trade is still on. New stop at 14393. Same entry as before, same targets. Such is the nature of the markets, no predicting, only preparing. One thing has changed, you are now with the strong longs if you are in this trade, all weak longs have been shaken off, watch for price to move up quickly!

[karoshiman 10]

Same trade is still on. New stop at 14393. Same entry as before, same targets. Such is the nature of the markets, no predicting, only preparing. One thing has changed, you are now with the strong longs if you are in this trade, all weak longs have been shaken off, watch for price to move up quickly!

 

 

Agree! Though, I like the chart of ES more than YM, as ES has already made new highs late in the session and YM couldn't. I wait until European session on Tuesday and see how price reacts...

[karoshiman 10]

Long in YM at 14,467. Wedge pattern in YM + same in ES but with a breakout + ES at upward TL (good entry point for long). Assumption: YM follows and we will see a breakout soon.

[karoshiman 10]

Covered YM long pos. at 14,642 with a profit.

[clmacdougall 11]

Covered YM long pos. at 14,642 with a profit.

 

Great job!! Told you it was going to move up quick!!

[karoshiman 10]

Short ES at 1573.50. Still overall bearish (see earlier comments). Looks like a downward trend line is being established here.

[clmacdougall 11]

Short ES at 1573.50. Still overall bearish (see earlier comments). Looks like a downward trend line is being established here.

 

Still sticking with my original call on this one, sorry but trendlines are too subjective an art to believe in or quantify in my opinion. 14698 then 14823.

The ES broke out of its downtrend above 1570.75, but nothing to lean on yet for a trade on the long side. Just my opinion.

[karoshiman 10]

Out of ES short at 1581 with a loss.

[karoshiman 10]

If someone is following this thread, he or she will have noticed that I have somewhat changed my trading style recently.

 

Whereas I began this thread as a "swing trading" journal and held positions for a few days to several weeks (the latter would be better characterized as "position trading"), I recently started to look at price movements taking between a few hours to 2-3 days and tried to benefit from these instead of holding positions for longer periods.

 

When I looked at my trades I've realized that my entries and exits were pretty poor. So I've started to try to figure out how to improve these. However, during this process I came to the conclusion, why not try to benefit from these shorter-term moves altogether (now you see, what a journal can be good for... ... assuming that my trading will be more successful in the future than in the last few months ). This might deserve the label "swing trading" also more than my former trading style.

 

Another change is that I now try to focus on one instrument only, whereas earlier I've looked for opportunities in various instruments. Although I think that there are opportunities in other futures markets as well, for me, equity index futures are the "easiest" when it comes to assessing potential movements within the next 1-3 days. Hence, I will focus on these for the time being.

 

The last trades in this regard were with the e-mini Dow, but I will start to trade ES as well (... and maybe focus on it completely).

 

Another change is that I post my account size, in order to provide some more information for anyone who is interested.

 

My current account size is 18,150$ but I plan to cash out a bit and reduce it to between 10,000$ and 12,000$, which is sufficient to trade 1 ES contract, in my opinion, at least for my holding periods / "typical" stops.

[karoshiman 10]

Summary of my last trade:

[karoshiman 10]

Still sticking with my original call on this one, sorry but trendlines are too subjective an art to believe in or quantify in my opinion. 14698 then 14823.

The ES broke out of its downtrend above 1570.75, but nothing to lean on yet for a trade on the long side. Just my opinion.

 

 

Congrats! First target hit