ES: How many setups do you trade? Trading only the open?

Georgii

Georgii

Hi all,

At the moment I've decided to focus just on ES (I've learned YM and NQ don't provide much diversification, maybe just a slightly cleaner setup here or there). I've developed two reversal setups, but my problem is I want to trade just the first two hours of the day and get really damned good at it. I know there are people out there who do that, and focus on just one instrument or family of instruments (like the dollar pairs in FX).

My goal was to get in an average of 2 opportunities a day off a five minute chart. My research is showing me that given the ideas I'm working on, if I only take proper setups using all-in, all-out, I'm going to be very limited, e.g. averaging maybe 2 proper setups a week or less depending on market conditions.

I'm curious how many setups those traders who focus on ES have, which provide them with enough opportunities to make money. Obviously the more setups you know and study, the more you can do, but also the less specialized you are in each setup.

Thanks for all friendly advice in advance...
 
Georgii said:
Hi all,

At the moment I've decided to focus just on ES (I've learned YM and NQ don't provide much diversification, maybe just a slightly cleaner setup here or there). I've developed two reversal setups, but my problem is I want to trade just the first two hours of the day and get really damned good at it. I know there are people out there who do that, and focus on just one instrument or family of instruments (like the dollar pairs in FX).

My goal was to get in an average of 2 opportunities a day off a five minute chart. My research is showing me that given the ideas I'm working on, if I only take proper setups using all-in, all-out, I'm going to be very limited, e.g. averaging maybe 2 proper setups a week or less depending on market conditions.

I'm curious how many setups those traders who focus on ES have, which provide them with enough opportunities to make money. Obviously the more setups you know and study, the more you can do, but also the less specialized you are in each setup.

Thanks for all friendly advice in advance...
More...
Hi,

IMHO, it depends on the traders. Some fellow members claimed that one was enough:

This is a trend-following setup:
http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?threads/free-es-trading-strategy-that-works.162375/

This is a counter-trend setup:
http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?threads/emini-divergence-journal.20761/

Good luck.
 
Assuming you responsibly take your small stops and you apropriately let your winners run you got much better chances making it with instruments with a higher ATR ie Stocks.

If you failed with NQ/YM low chance you will succeed with ES, it's the same just slightly different attributes.
 
The issue I'm having is that ideally speaking I'd like to trade the first two hours only. To do that, it's appearing like I'll have to develop multiple price action setups (possibly 7-10 based on what my initial reseach is showing me), because clearly some days the market is ranging, others it is trending, and then there are several subsets to how it ranges and trends.

Having just two setups, based on my initial testing, isn't going to get me two trades a day on average like I'm aiming for, so I'm trying to get an idea of how many setups people use on average in order to get enough opportunities. I regularly hear of people who appear to be profitable being able to get multiple opportunities on average per day in stock index futures, in the area of 5-10 (by opportunities I mean complete all in-all out sequences). My question is, how many setups do you have to develop to get that far? I just want to be sure I'm giving myself a reasonable target.
 
Everyone should trade the way that makes them money. No need to stray when you're consistent!

My intention was not to hijack this thread. Just trying to give some peeps an easy way to get moving in the right direction with their trading.

This works great for me, especially during the first two hours and the last two hours of the day. The middle of the day is generally choppy and best to ignore. It's pretty much the only pattern I day trade with the es. I try to only focus on one day trading pattern, so I'm not thinking about too much. Keeping it very simple.
 
DonKee, I'm curious, do you have sub-categories of your setup or do you look at each trade in the exact same way? Also, what are the longest stretches you have where you haven't got any signal that you would take?
 
Georgii said:
Hi all,

At the moment I've decided to focus just on ES (I've learned YM and NQ don't provide much diversification, maybe just a slightly cleaner setup here or there). I've developed two reversal setups, but my problem is I want to trade just the first two hours of the day and get really damned good at it. I know there are people out there who do that, and focus on just one instrument or family of instruments (like the dollar pairs in FX).

My goal was to get in an average of 2 opportunities a day off a five minute chart. My research is showing me that given the ideas I'm working on, if I only take proper setups using all-in, all-out, I'm going to be very limited, e.g. averaging maybe 2 proper setups a week or less depending on market conditions.

I'm curious how many setups those traders who focus on ES have, which provide them with enough opportunities to make money. Obviously the more setups you know and study, the more you can do, but also the less specialized you are in each setup.

Thanks for all friendly advice in advance...
More...

Hi Georgii

I am one of those people you mentioned who only focus on first 2 hours of New york opening. I only trade ES at that time.

I do all in and all out trades with just one setup.

Targeting 3 ticks per entry with 3 ticks stop.

Frankly, I do not understand people especially when they are daytrading, how they can focus on multiple setups.

Just focusing on a chart is already an arduous task, I don't want to make it harder by thinking of different setups.

I usually trade around 20 ~ 30 times during very volatile session usually happens after big news an hour before market opening

Trading about 10 times during non-volatile ranging days.

In my opinion, letting winners run don't make sense since I am not quite sure when to take profit.

I like the limited Risk and limited Reward.

Therefore, for me I would increase number of contracts trading for more profits.

This is just a way I do, hopefully it helps.
 
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