Hey folks. This is my first post. I discovered this website a couple of weeks ago, delighted to finally find some in depth insight on all kinds of trading. Finally mustered the courage to begin asking some pressing questions.
Quick background: Iâve been trading futures for 3 years, yet it has been only in the past six months that Iâve been only trading the indexes. Iâve also been trading stocks since 1995. I work fulltime, so my trading hours for short term trading are from 6:30-8:30pm PST and after 7:30pm PST. During the day, while at work I also place position trades, based on my night charting study, reading and 3-5 day view of the market.
In the mornings, I look for NQ trades, while at night I trade the HSI. I use Interactive and Bracket Trader to place these trades. I try to capture 3 point moves on NQ, mostly morning gap reversal trades, and 12 points on HSI. Iâve done okay on these trades, though I could do better. I place stops either just above/below a key level or at a set amount of points and do not trail.
Itâs the position trades where I need the most help. Because of firewall issues, I trade through 5perside.comâs cumbersome browser based trading platform, so I canât really get in and out like Iâd like to.
I typically try to call the next multi% swing in the NQs with a 2% trailing stop. The x% trailing stop method has worked well for me over the years in stock tradingâwhere I use 10% as xâbut has been not so good in NQs. Most of my profitable trades, even on the long side, have turned into small losses.
So my question for the position AND daytraders is what methods should I be using? Unfortunately, I am now beginning to conclude that the % trail or ATR trail techniques that I learned for stocks and commodities, donât work for the NQs or QQQs. And I canât find a lot of literature specifically about index trading that cover this topic.
I am thinking that I should either widen my trailing stop on position trades to, say 4% or 5% or 3-4 daily ATRs, or not trail at all. Perhaps I should adjust my stop to breakeven as soon as I get âxâ points of profit. I donât know.
Any help appreciated. Sorry for the long message. Thanks.
Quick background: Iâve been trading futures for 3 years, yet it has been only in the past six months that Iâve been only trading the indexes. Iâve also been trading stocks since 1995. I work fulltime, so my trading hours for short term trading are from 6:30-8:30pm PST and after 7:30pm PST. During the day, while at work I also place position trades, based on my night charting study, reading and 3-5 day view of the market.
In the mornings, I look for NQ trades, while at night I trade the HSI. I use Interactive and Bracket Trader to place these trades. I try to capture 3 point moves on NQ, mostly morning gap reversal trades, and 12 points on HSI. Iâve done okay on these trades, though I could do better. I place stops either just above/below a key level or at a set amount of points and do not trail.
Itâs the position trades where I need the most help. Because of firewall issues, I trade through 5perside.comâs cumbersome browser based trading platform, so I canât really get in and out like Iâd like to.
I typically try to call the next multi% swing in the NQs with a 2% trailing stop. The x% trailing stop method has worked well for me over the years in stock tradingâwhere I use 10% as xâbut has been not so good in NQs. Most of my profitable trades, even on the long side, have turned into small losses.
So my question for the position AND daytraders is what methods should I be using? Unfortunately, I am now beginning to conclude that the % trail or ATR trail techniques that I learned for stocks and commodities, donât work for the NQs or QQQs. And I canât find a lot of literature specifically about index trading that cover this topic.
I am thinking that I should either widen my trailing stop on position trades to, say 4% or 5% or 3-4 daily ATRs, or not trail at all. Perhaps I should adjust my stop to breakeven as soon as I get âxâ points of profit. I donât know.
Any help appreciated. Sorry for the long message. Thanks.
