Spydertrader's Jack Hershey Futures Trading Journal

[Ezzy]

Ivo,

You can't use the Sqz/Str for a few bars after the open. The futures and cash have to "sync" first. The YM has already been moving by the time the INDU opens. It can take 5 - 20 minutes for them to catch up and settle into a stable spread. That's why you see Jack mention waiting for the bar 4 break out.

After sync is when you want to set your offset. So don't read anything into it right after the open.

Regards - EZ

Quote from ivob:

I have a question for the more experienced traders (Mak? Bundle? Anyone else?)

Did you notice the very strong stretch signal (I saw -10) about a minute after the opening and do you think this was a clear indication with respect to where the market was going after that? I lack the experience but I assume this stretch value and the fact that I was seeing an FTT being formed in carryover channel means the intermediate traders would have gone short immediately or not? The stretch value is an indication for the strength of the move afterwards after all.

regards,
Ivo

 

[WGTrader]

Quote from Ezzy:

Ivo,

You can't use the Sqz/Str for a few bars after the open. The futures and cash have to "sync" first. The YM has already been moving by the time the INDU opens. It can take 5 - 20 minutes for them to catch up and settle into a stable spread. That's why you see Jack mention waiting for the bar 4 break out.

After sync is when you want to set your offset. So don't read anything into it right after the open.

Regards - EZ

I noticed this today how the first 10 minutes or so the YM and INDU have to sync. I've attached a worksheet of my 1-minute YM and INDU data starting about 10 minutes before the market open and the calculated FV offset. I think it's a good illustration of this sync process. It also shows that Str/Squ doesn't mean much at the market open.

I look forward to experimenting with calculating the offset RT. Perhaps a lookback average of the last 15 or 30 minutes might work. Any ideas?

 

[mephistoII]

Quote from optionpro007:


snip ... I will do this until I get it done.

Pretty much my take on it!! We've read it numerous times - DO the Work.

I would think most have seen enough evidence by now to believe the rest will surely follow. Keep in mind that we're only beginners

 

[koamana]

For anyone still having problems setting up a chart for S/S in QCharts, here is a possible solution. Attached is a small workspace for QC 5.1 with the necessary stuff. One could open it, save the Layouts on their machine and then open them in their workspace.

 

[Bearbelly]

Would any of you guys be interested in setting up a chat room where we could compare notes during the day?

 

[bdolnik]

Quote from bundlemaker:

First, I followed Spyder's suggestion to NOT annotate an FTT UNTIL the bar AFTER the bar I thought was an FTT closed. I did this for a good week or so. It quickly became painful to wait that long, but it sure cured my earliness.

Bundlemaker I've seen you say this before, does this mean that you don't enter the trade until you wait for the next bar and annotate the ftt? Or are you still trading the beginners method entering at the point 3?

Thanks for the channel video, it helped a lot.

Bryan

 

[bundlemaker]

Quote from bdolnik:

Bundlemaker I've seen you say this before, does this mean that you don't enter the trade until you wait for the next bar and annotate the ftt? Or are you still trading the beginners method entering at the point 3?

Thanks for the channel video, it helped a lot.

Bryan

Spyder suggested this as a learning tool to me. When I did it, I wasn't even paper trading at the time. Personally, I get real nervous the further from the best possible entry I get in (whether with real $$$ or otherwise) so I like to enter or annotate as close to actual FTT as possible. By the time I was paper trading again I didn't need to wait as long as this excersise requires. It's merely a temporary process to get one on track.

One other helpful hint from Spyder was this: upon entry, imagine that you entered at to the tick at the extreme of the FTT. In other words, the best possible entry. Focus on that point instead of your actual entry. This tends to help one to stop worrying about every tick back and forth. So much of my resolution problem was related to trying to make sense of every tick of movement.

Glad you found the video useful.

 

[Optionpro007]

Quote from bundlemaker:

Spyder suggested this as a learning tool to me. When I did it, I wasn't even paper trading at the time. Personally, I get real nervous the further from the best possible entry I get in (whether with real $$$ or otherwise) so I like to enter or annotate as close to actual FTT as possible. By the time I was paper trading again I didn't need to wait as long as this excersise requires. It's merely a temporary process to get one on track.

One other helpful hint from Spyder was this: upon entry, imagine that you entered at to the tick at the extreme of the FTT. In other words, the best possible entry. Focus on that point instead of your actual entry. This tends to help one to stop worrying about every tick back and forth. So much of my resolution problem was related to trying to make sense of every tick of movement.

Glad you found the video useful.

Precisely the same words he used with me that I didn't follow.

Brains sometimes have a hard time following simple orders.

Thanks for refreshing the instructions.

 

[ivob]

Quote from bundlemaker:

Spyder suggested this as a learning tool to me. When I did it, I wasn't even paper trading at the time. Personally, I get real nervous the further from the best possible entry I get in (whether with real $$$ or otherwise) so I like to enter or annotate as close to actual FTT as possible. By the time I was paper trading again I didn't need to wait as long as this excersise requires. It's merely a temporary process to get one on track.

One other helpful hint from Spyder was this: upon entry, imagine that you entered at to the tick at the extreme of the FTT. In other words, the best possible entry. Focus on that point instead of your actual entry. This tends to help one to stop worrying about every tick back and forth. So much of my resolution problem was related to trying to make sense of every tick of movement.

Glad you found the video useful.

I also find it hard to enter further from best possible entry but I really think entering at FTT is for intermediate traders.

First of all you need to know if it's an FTT or not. You may be taken out by the next bar, the next one think okay now it must be an FTT, etc.

Furthermore normally you need to sit through a retrace from point 2 to point 3 and it's not sure that our point 1 (the FTT) will hold. Psychologically it's hard to give away these points and very tempting to get out somewhere between point 1 and 2 with a point or so profit.

I do think however that stretch/squeeze provides more clarity at FTT's.

regards,
Ivo

 

[nkhoi]

snap shot on ym lead es, watch the sync cusor line