10 Days With TopStepTrader

[austinp]

Mav, in the past CL used to oscillate and range thru several wide swings per day, more days than not. It was consistently the most ranging symbol in methodical fashion, albeit wild in its own way.

but as of last fall sometime, the average price behavior changed. Rather than directional oscillations and swings or trends, it consistently chopped thru tight ranges most or all of the pit sessions except for abrupt algo spikes and slams.

this isn't something new to CL traders... guys on the desks in Chicago to home-based traders that used to catch 50 and 100 cent trades more days than not now sit thru hours of range-chop inside pit sessions

meanwhile, stock market ranges have opened up to very tradable daily measures. As I said before, all markets and symbols have their strengths and weaknesses. I simply got tired of trying to fill four CL ccontracts thru three hours of chop, take several stops for scratch or small loss in the process and then get filled on two or one (or none) CL contracts hours later when price finally makes the expected move in algo-explode fashion

 

[taclander]

Oh boy I guess I'll get another pm from Magna, but did you meet the goals from the past trial or not? What is different today? I think those are the questions Maverick is asking. Please don't ask why I am not doing a trial, the questions are, did you pass the last trial you said you were committing to, and are you going to respond to the current trial you are claiming to be a part of?
Come September I am thinking it maybe a worthwhile waste of time as I am pretty much full time then, and to think someone will pay me extra is a great idea. Am I going to do things different than what I do, NO.

 

[Maverick74]

Quote from austinp:

Look at that chart though and tell me you "really" want to trade ES. You know this is how it trades 90% of the time. Sure, the range opened up because we corrected 7%. That's over and done with. Back to the usual slop now.

 

[atticus]

Quote from taclander:

Oh boy I guess I'll get another pm from Magna, but did you meet the goals from the past trial or not? What is different today? I think those are the questions Maverick is asking. Please don't ask why I am not doing a trial, the questions are, did you pass the last trial you said you were committing to, and are you going to respond to the current trial you are claiming to be a part of?
Come September I am thinking it maybe a worthwhile waste of time as I am pretty much full time then, and to think someone will pay me extra is a great idea. Am I going to do things different than what I do, NO.

You're back, dipshit?

Why you're not doing the trial? You couldn't pass gas successfully.

 

[austinp]

Quote from taclander:

Oh boy I guess I'll get another pm from Magna, but did you meet the goals from the past trial or not? What is different today?

I thought I answered that, but must be not. The answer is "no" I did not meet the goals for past combines based on CL in whole or part. The reasons for that are overlapped. Part of it is split focus on trading cash alongside sim. Part of it is trading two symbols across two different platforms (MT4 and NT) which means juggling four domes.

And part of it was simply a lack of discipline demanded for sim equal to cash. None of those reasons stand on their own... just all added up. Hence the purpose of this project inside this public journal here. For entertainment and hopefully some education on the viewer end, for a measure of accountable commitment on my end. Symbiotic relationship here

 

[austinp]

Quote from Maverick74:

Look at that chart though and tell me you "really" want to trade ES. You know this is how it trades 90% of the time. Sure, the range opened up because we corrected 7%. That's over and done with. Back to the usual slop now.

Well, that may very well be the case. No one knows anything about the future for sure. But if I'm going to trade anything in multiple size, it's going to be ES. Otherwise I'll stick with a couple of CL or TF contracts and that's that

 

[atticus]

Quote from austinp:

Well, that may very well be the case. No one knows anything about the future for sure. But if I'm going to trade anything in multiple size, it's going to be ES. Otherwise I'll stick with a couple of CL or TF contracts and that's that

Good luck with the combine.

 

[austinp]

Quote from atticus:

Good luck with the combine.

thank you, "Risk"

luck always plays a part... but I have to do my parts well enough for luck to prevail <grin>

 

[austinp]

Mav (et el)

by no means am I disparaging CL for trading potential: I'm simply not interested in trading 20 - 40 contracts of that thru days like this... I cannot keep losses small enough when it chops hard.

as noted before: my goal is to qualify for a funded account and trade that gradually up to whatever size limits there are over the course of time. I'm not interested in a personal challenge or something like that... at the end of this effort, if there is the award of a funded account for task aptly completed, then I want to trade that with size without low market-based limits of executions.

 

[austinp]

this completes my time here today... have some office tasks to complete and then gone from screens until tomorrow morning. Nine days left (or more) to work with... same modus every day. Sit - watch - wait for measured moves, manage the trades, keep losses small and contained, quit while sufficiently ahead.

have a great evening