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Well, I absolutely needed any semblance of a normal, average range ES session today. So far the low is 1958+ and high of 66+ with 100% sideways wedge-chop all the way. That washes out any chance of finishing net-profitable today and/or securing the token $500 ES needed to prevail. Deadest...

When I'm trading 5-lots, many of those "trades" are 1-contract in, 1-contract in, 3-in or 2-in and 3-in scaled entries as price moves in favor directionally. Sometimes in the chop, I'll probe several 1-in and scratch them out as price chops sideways. Each event is counted as a "trade". So for...

CL: four sessions P&L = $2,937 net ES: eight sessions P&L = (456) net ---------------------------------------- total combined net = +$2,501 This stretch has included the most godawful dead ES sessions in several years. Three of eight had decent movement and range, five of eight sucked...

Today we expected range expansion out of the ultra-dead congestion of yesterday. And so it came to pass. Just missed a 2-lot CL long from 103.45 and then again 103.58 which both scratched out par stops before the early spike-ramp to session highs. Caught enough of the reversal swing back down to...

Monday 7/07 was the 7th day of combine trading efforts. And I emphasize the term “efforts” because it was one of those uber-dead range sessions again. Total S&P futures span was less than eight points overall, and about all of it was sideways chop. Crude oil made one abrupt slam selloff...

funny how a 14pt pedestrian range has us all feeling like the market made some kind of monumental move. We've been staring at 3-tick hourly chop zones for so long, it's blinding. Looking forward to 20pt, 30pt and 40pt ES-session ranges ahead to come. Mostly on the downside when that happens :)

... but most important of all, it is today's CM-RoadMap 233-value down. As we've profiled here countless times, the 233 levels off the pit-session 5min open range (for ANY market and ANY symbol, btw) are hit with +/- 90% daily frequency, on average. If 1,000 different ES traders applied that...

I don't use a stop larger than -8 cents (ticks) at the most and commonly use -5 cent (tick) stops for CL trades. If those stops won't hold, chances are -20 or -30 won't either. If the entry is correct, CL trades usually take no heat at all. For the trades that stop, it's far easier to erase...

In any event, six days of combine efforts leaves me with a 50% daily win rate, +$1,700 left to reach minimum profit target and of that we need +$1,100 in the ES. Or in other words, a +5 point swing in the ES on a five-lot and we're good there. A few more dollars in the ES and/or CL on top of...

So then yesterday while I sat staring at the screens, watching ES chop yet another 3-tick dead range for an hour, I said to myself "f(orget) this singular ES attempt. Let's dial up those CL charts and see if we can find any signs of life elsewhere than stocks" By that time I'd missed some of...

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to give a one-hour presentation inside the TST intraday chatroom. It seems like the information given there was well received, had a lot of positive feedback from the members there. I was given a free combine as a courtesy and appreciate the nice gesture...

eur, gbp, chf = usd pairs all offered +30 ~ +40 pip moves this morning. Straight, stair-stepped methodical. Monday it might be the jpy pairs turn. When emini trading sucks, it never pays to fight it. Step aside, invest your time working someplace else. Simple :)

intraday trading is totally dependent on the factors stated. Nobody on earth with zero exceptions makes consistent gains purely intraday during dead-vol periods where price chops <10 point ranges. Triple-witch weeks always suck to begin with, on top of post FOMC drivel and VIX levels at...

four years ago when VIX was 30+ the daily price range for ES was 20 - 40+ index points. A 4-tick move was common inside of 1-min price bars. You could feasibly target and capture several (aka multiple) +8 index-point profit trades... many more days than not. Nobody in their right mind...

Well, it sounds to me like you are doing it wrong. My initial stop on a EURUSD trade is -10 pips. When the stop is hit on a losing trade, I am out -10 pips. Generally speaking, the market went -15 or -20 or -50 the other direction far more often than just exactly -12 from my fill before it...

When I go to McDonalds without a free coupon for big macs, the sandwich costs me $5 or so. That's what I pay in cash to eat a big mac. The exchange of my cash for that sandwich cost me something of material importance, i.e. cash. The definition of "payment" and "cost" When I go to McDonalds...

#1: the concept of synthetics is apparently over your head right now. So enough about that straddle stuff. I don't do it or advocate it anyways, but the guys who understand already get it and everyone else simply does not. #2: I trade eight different pairs of FX, the spread varies from <2 to...

all of those contracts will experience slippage on actual fills... to my knowledge, TOS sim is not that realistic unless they changed its structure from years past. so if/when you go live, it becomes a breakeven to slow-bleed loss process in reality. Most "profitable" systems that the...

First of all, what JC evidently wrote in his book was a synthetic options straddle. Using FX as a fixed-loss instrument with no possibility of margin call in essence makes it akin to an options play. Secondly, google "option straddles" and educate yourself about the topic. Third, you are...

Go back and read the post again... slowly this time. See where I wrote: ... your $3,000 short account is now $0 while your $3,000 long account is $6,000 because price went +2 ticks far enough to wash the bid/ask spread. What part of that states $6,000 profit? You can assume some of the...