ES Trend Following

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I don't understand why you held through Monday and then reversed yesterday since ES didn't take out Monday's low. Did you move your stop up and get stopped out or did you set a profit target?

I thought that in trend following, when going long, you buy when prices are going up and sell only when you are stopped out. I thought trend following doesn't use profit targets since you aren't trying to "predict" when a trend will end.
 
Former support perfectly acted as resistance (one hour time frame). Adjusted the stop to the recent peak at 1217.25 because I figure that this ought to hold for my trade to succeed. Still short. I'm observing a new support area at 1200 that bulls try to defend with all they have to offer.
 
Quote from Bombardier:

2% up, 2% down, 2% up, now 2% down. This is explosive stuff. Trade trends, adamm2. Don't scalp or go against it. With your 2 contracts you can easily beat me.
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You have done so well recently, why not move up to two? With our methods very close to the same, I think you can move to at least 2 maybe three.. You're sitting at around 23k +....

We are trading one of the deepest market in the world, take advantage of that!

PS - I'm still working on coding your system. Like trading, I'm still learning... but I can see clearly with a couple of user defined inputs, it should be pretty easy to make a program that can flag your trades even though it's subjective.
 
Believe me, Adam, I have often considered to upgrade and will most likely do that when I feel ready. Right now, I am comfortable with 1 contract and do not want to mess up with revenge trading, fearful trading, you name it. I find it extremely important to trade the size that I am comfortable with. This will ultimately decide whether you will be profitable as a trader or not. Even if people claim that they are fine with futures, deep inside they are actually not. Why would traders place tight stops and scalp in the first place? It's because they cannot handle its size and feel the heat as soon as a trade goes against them a few hundred dollars. Capabilities of objective judgment are lost in such financially threatening situations. I originally tested my strategy with CFDs that are unfortunately not available in the US. CFDs work just like futures with all their benefits (no day trading limits, leverage, scalability, around the clock trading) but at a fraction of their size, namely 1/50 for the S&P 500. It made a big difference emotionally and trading 5 CFDs in the beginning was a smooth ride because I couldn't care less if a trade failed. This comfort is precisely what a trader needs to feel (both professional and beginner). "Sell to the sleeping point." Then trading will be significantly easier and performance improves because you stop doing those stupid mistakes that you would do with a leverage that blows your account anytime a trade fails. The market will be here tomorrow, and the ES will hopefully exist throughout my entire lifetime. Hence, there is no rush to get greedy because the market will be offering enough opportunities going forward.

I appreciate that you work on automating my strategy. Let's discuss it in more detail at the next opportunity!
 
Quote from 5talents:

I don't understand why you held through Monday and then reversed yesterday since ES didn't take out Monday's low. Did you move your stop up and get stopped out or did you set a profit target?

I thought that in trend following, when going long, you buy when prices are going up and sell only when you are stopped out. I thought trend following doesn't use profit targets since you aren't trying to "predict" when a trend will end.
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5talents, my thoughts were explained in my posts at the time. There was no reason for me to short on Monday because no significant low broke. However, the market formed a new horizontal support line yesterday, which subsequently broke. Hence I took this short trade because a new entry opportunity was presented to the opposite direction. If the market was really bullish, it would have taken intermediary support areas to push higher. Instead we broke it and bears were selling off at former support today. I did not move the stop or had any profit target. You are perfectly right that I do not engage in predictions, hence you will not hear from me where I see the market going the next day or week, because no one knows anyway. Perhaps I'm wrong with my short, but I can only judge and decide based on what I see. Currently we are simply ranging 40 points up and down, and so far I have not seen compelling evidence to go long again.
 
Bombardier, Like your style and the journal. How long have you been trading?

I know guys who trade exactly like this using a 59 tick chart in /CL catching nice moves everyday. Only thing different is they scale in pyramid style 3-2-1 unit approach adding to the position as it moves in their favor.

I personally like using the 1 hour+to keep emotions in check .



Cheers and Good Trading to you.
 
Many thanks, Zr1Trader. I've been actively trading since 2007, the first two years were a tedious phase of trial and error before I gradually figured it out. But all the while I knew that trend following is what fits me most. The final stages were about being disciplined, having patience to not get shaken out of every position due to fear. To do that, I tell myself to let the stop order work for me and only trade what I see (not what I expect would happen because it oftentimes does not). This is why having a stop at an objectively significant area is of decisive importance. The 1H helps immensely in that, indeed.

With the ES, I haven't had much success adding to a profitable position. Usually the moment I increased back then trading CFDs, the market was already in the late stage of a trend and turned around. Happened frequently, so I stopped doing it however promising a new entry may look like. The moment to increase size is when putting in a new position. I do not what to impose any trading style on someone who is already profitable, especially as I'm not familiar with the CL. It could be very different characteristically.
 
Sadly, bears could not make their case and my short position was a failure, it stopped out at 1217.25 for a loss of $287.50.

Total profit since beginning: $12,875
 
Quote from mctrader:

Bombardier, are you attempting to get into a long position, since the resistance at 1215 was broken?
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The market turned clearly bullish again (or has always been since Oct 4) so nothing speaks against being long. Trading the breakout would have been a good entry. Yes, I will try to buy somewhere soon.
 
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