Keeping It Simple

candletrader · Jan 13, 2003

Quote from dbphoenix:

I'd be interested in knowing how scalpers did today. Unfortunately, nobody's keeping journals anymore.

--Db

I both trend trade and scalp (often simultaneously)... on a day like today, my trend trading strategy won hands down...

dbphoenix · Jan 13, 2003

Done in 90 minutes. Could the old days be coming back?

--Db

mojo59 · Jan 13, 2003

Quote from dbphoenix:

Done in 90 minutes. Could the old days be coming back?

--Db

Hope so Db. +12 here. Two nice days in a row.

jstormbo · Jan 13, 2003

did you play this morning as a fade? I didn't get a setup to short up at the highs but did get in a bit lower after some confirmation for a nice move. still short here but i've taken a nice partial and my stop is in the green.

dbphoenix · Jan 13, 2003

Quote from mojo59:

Hope so Db. +12 here. Two nice days in a row.

I meant to ask you: are you using the 5m for your stops and trendlines rather than the 3m, or are you using both?

--Db

dbphoenix · Jan 13, 2003

Quote from jstormbo:

did you play this morning as a fade? I didn't get a setup to short up at the highs but did get in a bit lower after some confirmation for a nice move. still short here but i've taken a nice partial and my stop is in the green.

Not right away. I had a short setup below the 0931 low, but the next move down didn't trip it. After that, I used the 0949 low because I thought the 0931 low had gotten stale. Therefore, I entered at 1095.0.

I thought that since the gap didn't fill on the first try, price might blow out the top at 1107.5. When it didn't, the drop below the opening low seemed like a lock.

--Db

mojo59 · Jan 13, 2003

Quote from dbphoenix:

Not right away. I had a short setup below the 0931 low, but the next move down didn't trip it. After that, I used the 0949 low because I thought the 0931 low had gotten stale. Therefore, I entered at 1095.0.

I thought that since the gap didn't fill on the first try, price might blow out the top at 1107.5. When it didn't, the drop below the opening low seemed like a lock.

--Db

I have been using the 5 min bars to draw the trend line usually and the 3 min bars for exit when target is reached. However, Friday I used the 5 min bar as we were so many points up I didn't want to get stopped out too early and it worked out about the same if I'd used the 3 min bar.

jstormbo · Jan 13, 2003

that's about what I did. trading es the times are different by a couple of minutes but I got short about the same time as you. I did some work over the weekend with some ideas on various retracement methods to manage entries on these type of days. Don't have anything concrete enough yet to discuss, really just trying to come up with a process for me that's more closely rule based. I just need a way to draw a line in the sand.

dbphoenix · Jan 13, 2003

Quote from mojo59:

I have been using the 5 min bars to draw the trend line usually and the 3 min bars for exit when target is reached. However, Friday I used the 5 min bar as we were so many points up I didn't want to get stopped out too early and it worked out about the same if I'd used the 3 min bar.

I used to maintain both charts as well, but I've found that backing up a bar on the 3m accomplishes much the same task as using the 5m, and I have one less chart in my array. By "backing up a bar", I mean that instead of trailing each 3m bar once the target is reached, I trail the bar just before the most recent bar. This gets you out pretty much where a 5m bar would.

--Db

Corallus · Jan 13, 2003

Quote from dbphoenix:

Done in 90 minutes. Could the old days be coming back?

--Db

I have to admit I became very frustrated last month. December was my worst month of the year in terms of drawdown and I didn't even trade the whole month. I took two weeks off to just sort of collect myself and fine-tune my trading skills by paper trading. So far in 2003, I have no complaints at all

The market has been very kind to us traders. Thank you, Market