Determining when to Trade different Contract Sizes

[wiesman02]

Hey guys. I trade the YM. Some of you see me in the index futures chat room, some of you are following my journal, some of you don't know me at all......whatever the case, I'm still trading 1 contract.....relatively new to the game by some standards and starting to see a little consistancy in my efforts.

I'm at the point where its possible I'll be trading more than 1 contract in the near future (don't worry about when, i have been given good advice on when to do it)

When trading multiple contracts there's 2 ways of trading them

1) If you trade a Max of 4 contracts, trade 4 at once and scale out

2) Trade 1 or 2 to start, and scale in

I HOPE many of you do both, as different scenarios mean different set-ups and ways of trading them.

BUT, I'm wondering if some of you could give me some tips on when to execute these different strategies.

I know what I'm asking is strongly discretionary....based upon how good the entry is......but if there's some times I should and shouldn't do it, I'd love to here it.

Note: obviously i shouldn't max 'em out against a trend.....I'm primarily a trend trader, so that is not an issue.

 

[Barth Vader]

Hello Wiesman02

My son and I trade the YM exclusively, and we trade 4 contracts.

When we went from 2 to 4 it was to correct a problem we were encountering with exiting from our winners to soon. We thought that we would enter with 4, and shed two at the average range of a 5 min bar, and let the other two ride.

Since then, however, we enter with 4 and exit with 4, as our discipline with letting winners run has improved. Once a trade is 10-15 ticks in the money, we put a 2 point stop to cover commissions and exit only when a moving average scenario is touched. If we are stopped out early, we had the opportunity to trade on the markets' money. Seems to be working well.

Managing a winning hand IS the hardest part of trading , for me anyway.

I hope your trading is going well.