making money in futures

I am scalping ER2 for 3-4 ticks sometimes 50- 70 times a day. Don't use stops. Get in and out with limit orders and often get out for less then target if it does not act well. When I am wrong it sometimes gets away from me but I recover fairly quickly. I also have quite a few scratch trades. All in all at the end of the day I probably end up with one tick per roundturn net after commissions but it adds up nicely.

I used to fade the market regardless of the trend but now I only fade exhaustion points and hang on a little longer with winners on trades with the VST trend. When the AD is one sided the surprises are usually in that direction.

Lately I am training myself to sometimes follow rather ten fade price movement. This is counterintuitive for me but I have made progress.

My best trading is in the morning(specially the fifteen minutes after the day session opening, the more chaotic the better) and I usually make my goal before noon and quit before I start giving it back. If the day starts negative it can take me the whole day to get back into the black. After 3:30 ET I try not to trade because the market often has a rithm I don't get.

I trade ones and two's and don't intend to step it up for the foreseeable future.

I am profitable doing this almost every day but I often blow the money on pet position trades. I am working on cutting that out. It is very liberating to go out jogging after a good morning's work and not have any positions to think about.
 
Quote from atticus:

The choice to scalp for fixed-targets is typically driven by the lack of a closed-system -- good entries and no dynamic exits. Hence the 2 handle target.

You'll believe you're banking a positive expectancy, but there is no guarantee your stops won't be obliterated. This forces you to extend duration, ride losers and cut winners.
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Your's are the remarks of a professional.

Fixed in an electronic match has another imbedded anti-edge. Your covers will never be "better" but you stops can be infinitely worse.....
 
Patience and a fixed stop is the key. A trailing stop works best. You have to be able to handle some losses as well...it's all part of the game.

What you need is to find a strategy for the market which works greater than half the time. It's as simple as that.

I found one that worked through historical price data. Sure enough it worked live as well. I went 8/8 and 3/3 in a two day streak. I believe I racked up 6 points total in scalps.


Then after the weekend I left that strategy due to conflicting schedules (couldn't be around the computer as often as I was) and then blew the account out. I also neglected using fixed stops and that's what did a lot of the damage.
 
Quote from athlonmank8:

A trailing stop works best.
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I disagree. A trail stop has never worked for me after many variations. It's not the best in my opinion. It may work well for you, but saying it's the best is just another opinion.
 
Quote from Pa(b)st Prime:

Your's are the remarks of a professional.

Fixed in an electronic match has another imbedded anti-edge. Your covers will never be "better" but you stops can be infinitely worse.....
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Short but excellent post. (Not surprisingly almost never gets discussed.) I am ashamed it took me such a long time to figure this one out!:D
 
I just want to add that wide stop doesn't mean big loss, it just means giving a market time to really prove you wrong and at the same time giving you an opportunity to exit relatively efficiently given market condition. Even with occasional big loss you end up with more money in a long run.
There is a difference between "worst case scenario cutoff point" and "average loss" after series of trades.
 
Hello Coolweb,

You seem to show more enthusiasm for making money than collecting points. ( very rare)
You seem to want to reduce ES trading to momo rather than trend ( rarer still)

Depending upon where your entries and exits are positioned (ie fading the action), then the world is your oyster.

You are in serious danger of making real money.

Set your T&S to say >99 and see how it interfaces with your entries and exits.
If you are in front of the wave then our next beer is on you.

regards
f9
 
Quote from brownsfan019:

I disagree. A trail stop has never worked for me after many variations. It's not the best in my opinion. It may work well for you, but saying it's the best is just another opinion.
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You're right, I shouldn't have used the word best but it's a good strategy.

Trailing stop will lets you protect profit and ride profit at the same time. Stops based on new highs are what i'm referring to. Not percentage, etc.

Price point sets new high, stop moves to bottom of previous close.

Then set a target price and whichever is reached first is your exit point.


Curious though. What do you use as a stop?
 
Quote from athlonmank8:

You're right, I shouldn't have used the word best but it's a good strategy.

Trailing stop will lets you protect profit and ride profit at the same time. Stops based on new highs are what i'm referring to. Not percentage, etc.

Price point sets new high, stop moves to bottom of previous close.

Then set a target price and whichever is reached first is your exit point.


Curious though. What do you use as a stop?
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A margin call :D
 
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