Scalping e-minis

[Captain Future]

Aphie,

I traded the es only on a simulated account like you and because i heard a lot of people saying that this is the hardest and most difficult market to trade i just thought, ok, lets try something new and think like an old pit trader with size. I used a similar strategy to yours (?) and averaged down and reversed technical analysis (betting on fades and false breakouts). This worked incredibly well. I took profits when i had a few ticks and added contracts sometimes when i was down a bit. When I was really wrong and this was no chop anymore i stopped the full position and reversed. BUT I had no system and I played only a few days! So I still think this is a difficult market, but a potentially very profitable one

 

[aphexcoil]

Captain,

Very true!

I am going to share a graph with you on my thoughts about today and what I was thinking at each point. I don't necessarily believe it is a difficult market to trade compared to stocks. In my opinion, stocks are much harder to get a handle on -- but index movements are much more "predictable" (fades, pullbacks, directional trends).

Here is what I was seeing today ...

 

[Whamo]

Aphie,

Why are you "paper" trading w/ 10 contracts when you will only be real trading w/ $5k? You're much better off trading exactly like you will trade w/ real money.

Whamo

 

[aphexcoil]

I will have to be conservative at first and only trade signals that allow me to pick up a point here or there. I won't be able to do any position scaling until I get my account to a point where I can trade more than one contract at a time.

I'll be happy with +1 ES point a day starting out. Asking anything more from the market as a newbie is crazy. After a month or two, if it is working out well for me, I'll start scaling with two contracts.

aphie

 

[PuffyGums]

As someone else said, you'll be happy not to lose 2 ES points a day. Then you'll be really happy just to break even.

 

[egotraitor]

Originally posted by aphexcoil
I will have to be conservative at first and only trade signals that allow me to pick up a point here or there. I won't be able to do any position scaling until I get my account to a point where I can trade more than one contract at a time.

I'll be happy with +1 ES point a day starting out. Asking anything more from the market as a newbie is crazy. After a month or two, if it is working out well for me, I'll start scaling with two contracts.

aphie

LOFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[aphexcoil]

egotraiter,

First of all, it is "ROFL" -- as in "rolling on the floor laughing."

Secondly, what's so funny?

aphie

 

[Elysium]

What is it that makes the switch from paper to real trading so difficult?

Is it something internal (fear of losing real money, not doing exactly the same as you did on paper, ...) or is it more of an external reason (hard to get filled at price, slippage, spread, ...)

Of course it's a bit of both, but on a scale of 0-10 (0 being 100 % internal and 10 being 100 % external) what number do you pick?

 

[egotraitor]

Originally posted by aphexcoil
egotraiter,

First of all, it is "ROFL" -- as in "rolling on the floor laughing."

Secondly, what's so funny?

aphie

It is laughing out fucking loud!

Alphie, newbie or not the market owes you nothing. One tick, two ticks. Cmon. Just make the trades and see where your chips lie. Maybe you will "average" 20pts ES a month. But from your yapping, you sound VERY immature!



You can't tell till you bet. Pat Hearne

 

[aphexcoil]

I am the one talking about methods and how to trade -- you're the one making stupid one word responses to people's posts. So, again, who is immature here?

aphie