Spydertrader's Jack Hershey Futures Trading Journal

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Quote from ramora:

Well done WG! Are you using stops? Any stop recommendations? Thank you,
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ramora,

I generally don't use stops, but I do use limit orders to get in and out of trades. For example, when I see an FTT forming and my tapes/channels are drawn, I can get a feel for the range within the bar. Often I'll place an order using limit orders to optimize my entry (or exit). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This may not be textbook Hershey/Spyder, but I find it works for me. The other thing I will do is when I see an FTT forming and I'm pretty confident about it and the signals are strong, I may buy two contracts instead of one.

I actually hope I'm not forming any bad habits here, but my only goal (obviously) is to "bank coin!"
 
Quote from optionpro007:

Thanks WG !!

I think that if we are to trade from the chart directly, then it is imperative to move to a TOS style platform. (I am not sure if IB has that feature) Wonder what Jack or Spyder and the others think about this. Thanks for the heads up.

...

:)
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yes, IB has that too.
 
WGT, awesome just awesome man, especially the 10:48-11:39 trade, holding thru the entire congestion! I might have a heart failure right there :D
 
Quote from WGTrader:

OP,

FWIW - I don't use esignal so I can't speak to that, but I use thinkorswim as my charting and trading platform. It does not support custom indicators (such as Str/Squ) so I use Excel for this. You've probably seen my charts, so you can see it does a decent job of annotations, and I like the fact that my charting and trading platform is completely integrated. I can buy and sell directly from a click within the chart. It also supports RT quotes which I bring into my Excel models using DDE. The best part of the TOS platform is it's price (FREE:D )

As far as color coding the annotations, I believe the consensus is green for up (forest) channels and red for down (forest) channels. I use yellow for lateral channels and light gray for tapes and less significant pt 3 channels. I'm not sure if there is a "standard." If there is, I'd like to know too.

WRT your last point, I believe that one can be profitable with the ES using just channels, PV, and the YM. These other tools are additional icing, but I think Jack mentioned that one should continue to practice with all the tools. IMHO, the best thing one can do is annotate their ES and YM charts with accurate gaussians (at least the best they know how) every day, day-in and day-out, then layer in the other tools as they become available and you learn how to use them. I have been sim trading and consistently making money for almost a month now using just channels, PV and the YM, but I'm still holding off trading real money. I want to make sure I just haven't been lucky! :p
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one rule of thumb with sims: make sure the market has traded THROUGH your price.

e.g. if you bid at 1471.00, you can consider your order filled if it has traded at 1469.75. But if the market has just touched your price, some sims will notify you that you are "filled", but in real life you might not.
 
Quote from Tums:

one rule of thumb with sims: make sure the market has traded THROUGH your price.

e.g. if you bid at 1471.00, you can consider your order filled if it has traded at 1469.75. But if the market has just touched your price, some sims will notify you that you are "filled", but in real life you might not.
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Tums,

You bring up a good point. My real-money experience with TOS has been with option trades which are nearly always limit orders and I haven't noticed this problem. However, I don't know what it will be like when I start trading futs. I suppose I'll quickly find out when I start for real! :p
 
Quote from optionpro007:

WG, could you tell us, what did you use to go long at 10:48am. Was it based on the YM upside break or ES volume?

tia.
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OP,

Here was my thinking at the 10:48 trade. The Pt 3 (Forest Level) channel had been established at the 10:25 bar. I actually entered a long position at 10:36 and held it until 10:44 when I sold it and collected 2 points. (I don’t recall exactly why I got out here… things must have appeared murky to me at that point, but I should have stayed in). At 10:48 I entered a long position again because of the breakout of the rather wide lateral channel on the ES at the 10:40 bar. Also my Gaussians were saying that we had nicely increasing black volume which said continuation. So we enter a lateral channel on decreasing red volume and we stayed within the forest level channel. This again said continuation (hold through the flaws). After a breakout of the lateral channel at the 11:30 bar, the Gaussians are showing increasing black volume which says keep holding. Then by 11:39 I was anticipating an FTT, we were well above the 20SMA, I was sitting on some profits, so I exited the position (don’t be greedy I say!). The FTT that I was anticipating did come (the 11:50 bar) and I did go short at 11:49 and 11:50 which I held until 12:28 when I closed out those trades. The volume had dropped off dramatically starting around noon, so I didn’t see any point in remaining in the trade. I took a couple of points and went and had lunch. Hope this description helps.
 
Quote from WGTrader:

OP,

Here was my thinking at the 10:48 trade. The Pt 3 (Forest Level) channel had been established at the 10:25 bar. I actually entered a long position at 10:36 and held it until 10:44 when I sold it and collected 2 points. (I don’t recall exactly why I got out here… things must have appeared murky to me at that point, but I should have stayed in). At 10:48 I entered a long position again because of the breakout of the rather wide lateral channel on the ES at the 10:40 bar. Also my Gaussians were saying that we had nicely increasing black volume which said continuation. So we enter a lateral channel on decreasing red volume and we stayed within the forest level channel. This again said continuation (hold through the flaws). After a breakout of the lateral channel at the 11:30 bar, the Gaussians are showing increasing black volume which says keep holding. Then by 11:39 I was anticipating an FTT, we were well above the 20SMA, I was sitting on some profits, so I exited the position (don’t be greedy I say!). The FTT that I was anticipating did come (the 11:50 bar) and I did go short at 11:49 and 11:50 which I held until 12:28 when I closed out those trades. The volume had dropped off dramatically starting around noon, so I didn’t see any point in remaining in the trade. I took a couple of points and went and had lunch. Hope this description helps.
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Yes it did. =)

The reason I asked is because I was short at the bottom of the 10:45 bar. If I would have been out of the market at the time it would have been easier to see that the correct position was long at that time. Live and learn.

Thanks again and good trading to ya...!
 
My chart for the morning.

Trading was not bad but I was clueless for a while around 11:30. I was expecting a point 3 down after the breakout but instead we got increasing black.

regards,
Ivo
 

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