Swing Trading For a Consistent Return

[Illini Trader]

I'm paying attention!

You may not recall it but a few years ago we were in a thread and you actually encouraged me to start a Journal and is a contributing reason for me to actually start this one. So far it has been fun even though not profitable yet.

On Retirement, I retired in 2002 and am almost 77 now. One of the reasons I took early retirement at age 58 was because I had a passion for investing ever since I took an investment class in my MBA program around 1970 and was fascinated with the potential of day trading.

I thought it would be easy, but little did I know in 2002 that the market grins and gets ready for a big feast when it sees people like me enter its halls of doom.

Over the years I have tried everything from PTD stocks, Futures, various Option Strategies, etc. I even had a automated program written for me by EMET to trade futures on Sierra Charts. (Didn't Work).

Perhaps my biggest success over the longest time period was selling Iron Condors (on the FANG stocks and similar ones with volatility) late on Thursday and taking advantage of the crush on Friday as the premium melts. It did make good money over all but there were days when the market went crazy on Friday to deliver some nasty "max losses". Not to mention the nervous willy brokers that closed me out on their own even though it was obvious the IC would expire worthless. This got to be too nerve racking for me as there is risk of a sudden late moves that puts you in an assignment position and you then have weekend risk in a large Amazon position that you did not want.

This is one reason why I am particularly interested in @caroy and his Journal for his Butterfly strategy that he puts on for Friday Expiration.

The Bottom Line for me is that I have never found my niche that I could just trade day after day with success. This Journal strategy is new for me as I can experiment with overnight stock trading -- (Something that I have not done before except when I was doing options on Oil, Gold, Bonds, and S&P)

So I may add funds and slip back into PDT in a couple of months but we will see how this goes first.

 

[deaddog]

On Retirement, I retired in 2002 and am almost 77 now. One of the reasons I took early retirement at age 58 was because I had a passion for investing ever since I took an investment class in my MBA program around 1970 and was fascinated with the potential of day trading.

I thought it would be easy, but little did I know in 2002 that the market grins and gets ready for a big feast when it sees people like me enter its halls of doom.

That sounds like my story. Watched my liquid net worth get reduced by 50% shortly after I took early retirement.

Tried day trading and futures but found I could make just as much swing trading. No pension to speak of, Canadian pension plan will keep me off the streets and the rest of my lifestyle is funded with trading profits.

Long only, mostly Canadian stocks, momentum stock strategy has worked very well for me.

 

[themickey]

A few years ago I attempted to fully automate futures trading on Sierrachart but it made me too nervous and was hugely time consuming coding, always another bug to sort out and IB was giving me issues besides the fact it disconnecting every 24 hours which is frustrating when on auto.
I only trade ASX stocks, the futures attempt only lasted about 3 years, atm sitting on maybe nearly 60 positions and approx 15 buy limit orders sitting waiting also.
I trade my own created system, every day I do the same thing, I have several algo windows open and just stick to the same routine day after day. I can go away all day and it makes no difference, when I get home if market is still open, I just continue as where I left off, mostly watching and checking information to confirm a prospective trade. Today bought two positions.

 

[themickey]

Today bought these two...

 

[Illini Trader]

A few years ago I attempted to fully automate futures trading on Sierrachart but it made me too nervous and was hugely time consuming coding, always another bug to sort out and IB was giving me issues besides the fact it disconnecting every 24 hours which is frustrating when on auto.
I only trade ASX stocks, the futures attempt only lasted about 3 years, atm sitting on maybe nearly 60 positions and approx 15 buy limit orders sitting waiting also.
I trade my own created system, every day I do the same thing, I have several algo windows open and just stick to the same routine day after day. I can go away all day and it makes no difference, when I get home if market is still open, I just continue as where I left off, mostly watching and checking information to confirm a prospective trade. Today bought two positions.

You have settled into a trading style that works for you and gives you both comfort and profits, the best of both worlds. Congrats.

 

[easymon1]

niche that I could just trade day after day with success.

The goal of trading may seem to be a "niche that I could just trade day after day with success."
A slight alteration to that aim makes it realistic to succeed in a longer term perspective where to accomplish that feat day after day has Never Been Demonstrated On The Planet to my knowledge. Some days you get the elevator. Some days you get the shaft. T'was ever thus.

Now then, What if a trader's day to day efforts are Summarized for P / L Only On A a Monthly Basis?
Amidst the day to day elevators and shafts, the trader's personal commitment and measurement of success related to executing his trading plan is smoothed to reveal the trend of how effective the system of math, or system of setups, or system of 'art' is in the environment as practiced by the individual operator.
Investors need to extend this idea to quarters, or even years...

Internalizing this sooner than later could be something that resonates with you.
Ok, enough of that...

Now, Under the hood of themickey's system is a mathematical model that has produced positive results, no small feat.
The two charts he posts are the tip of his system's iceberg and not limited and perhaps not even related to the obvious similarities that characterize the chart's underlying price action.
But still just a glance shows a couple of breakouts above prior swing highs.

Themickey plays his cards close to his vest, but you can bet that This is not his edge, lol. By the same token, bet that the breakouts will not deter him from following the trigger provided by the math.

This leads us back to that crash course on operating a snap-bang setup similar in substance, not timeframe, to the ones on the charts above. Where it leads - who knows.
The operator of this method has traded it for a good while and has a handle on what to expect by using it, and will pass that along. That is of value.
Want to hear it?
Here it goes...
Trading the Open Live Room: Monthly Membership ($29 Two-week trial then $197/month recurring)
Join Ken Calhoun for live-market training Mon-Fri 9am-10:30am ET. Membership includes live webinars. Trial = $29 for two weeks, auto-recurs at $197/month subscription (cancel anytime).
https://www.mcssl.com/SecureCart/Vi...792ddd676314355a1abeb86028b30d5&bhim=1&bhqs=1

 

[themickey]

The goal of trading may seem to be a "niche that I could just trade day after day with success."
A slight alteration to that aim makes it realistic to succeed in a longer term perspective where to accomplish that feat day after day has Never Been Demonstrated On The Planet to my knowledge. Some days you get the elevator. Some days you get the shaft. T'was ever thus.

Now then, What if a trader's day to day efforts are Summarized for P / L Only On A a Monthly Basis?
Amidst the day to day elevators and shafts, the trader's personal commitment and measurement of success related to executing his trading plan is smoothed to reveal the trend of how effective the system of math, or system of setups, or system of 'art' is in the environment as practiced by the individual operator.
Investors need to extend this idea to quarters, or even years...

Internalizing this sooner than later could be something that resonates with you.
Ok, enough of that...

Now, Under the hood of themickey's system is a mathematical model that has produced positive results, no small feat.
The two charts he posts are the tip of his system's iceberg and not limited and perhaps not even related to the obvious similarities that characterize the chart's underlying price action.
But still just a glance shows a couple of breakouts above prior swing highs.
View attachment 260730
Themickey plays his cards close to his vest, but you can bet that This is not his edge, lol. By the same token, bet that the breakouts will not deter him from following the trigger provided by the math.

This leads us back to that crash course on operating a snap-bang setup similar in substance, not timeframe, to the ones on the charts above. Where it leads - who knows.
The operator of this method has traded it for a good while and has a handle on what to expect by using it, and will pass that along. That is of value.
Want to hear it?
Here it goes...
Trading the Open Live Room: Monthly Membership ($29 Two-week trial then $197/month recurring)
Join Ken Calhoun for live-market training Mon-Fri 9am-10:30am ET. Membership includes live webinars. Trial = $29 for two weeks, auto-recurs at $197/month subscription (cancel anytime).
https://www.mcssl.com/SecureCart/Vi...792ddd676314355a1abeb86028b30d5&bhim=1&bhqs=1

The edge if it could be called that: Years of experience, accept heat, Trade small size, Diversify, Study very carefully your competitor (numerous fake signals behaviour), Study very carefully your target to eliminate falling for bs companies with their bs marketing / bs talk, Attempt to be hyper focused on your trading plan and targets, Go for quality setups and eliminate doubtful offerings, Ensure you are trading in a comfortable environment, Spend money to make money, Think smarter, don't work harder.
Accepting heat and not being shaken out is very important but not easy, therefore trading small size - don't get greedy.

 

[themickey]

Study very carefully your target to eliminate falling for bs companies with their bs marketing / bs talk....

There is a huge amount of this in the smaller cap companies, the smaller the more pure bs.
However small caps can pay big so there's a knack one must use to weed out bs.

 

[deaddog]

The edge if it could be called that:

Ask any trader that's been at it a while and he'll tell you to cut losses and let profits run.

Just like if you ask any fat guy the secret to weight loss he'll tell you to eat less and exercise more.

Simple but not easy.

 

[Illini Trader]

Well, End of Week 2. I closed out all my positions in the morning and actually at that point I was totally flat with a $.09 profit. W/L was 23-32 with a profit ratio (Ave Profit/Ave Loss) of 1.41. On my spreadsheet I show an adjustment to cash of -$3.94. That is a catch-all for all debits and credits that are not a result of a trade. Most of that figure is a dividend that I had to pay as I was short a stock at exactly the wrong time. It also includes "courtesy credits" that I assume is a fee rebate because at $.01 per trade they are actually overcharging me.

I was planning to go into the weekend flat because the market was just kind of spinning but between 12:00 and 12:30, I decided to give an idea a try.

I used the TOS scan feature and ran a scan for Hull Moving Average change of direction on the population of stocks in the Weekly Option List. I had several candidates and selected 5 to Short and 5 to go Long. I violated my 64 stock population but hey, I make the rules. Here are my Open Positions and Current Spreadsheet