Techniques for Day Trading the ES, NQ, YM, MES, MNQ, and MYM

The Blue Hawk turns you upside down 5 times plus all the twists and turns. A rough ride. The screaming starts early on! Here I am with my some of grandkids in 4th and 5th car from the left waving. As we are starting the roller coast ride. Full of confidence but also apprehension. Kinda like trading when one is starting the trading adventure! The confidence seems to dissipate rather quickly!

View attachment 261855

Take some flying lessons, and ask for deep power-off stall training early on. Then you will feel the roller-coasters are kid's play. No problemo.
 
@ON …Checked it out and the jane roberts stuff is new age malarky. Wouldn’t touch it with a 100 foot pole.

A bit of a paradox since you enjoy the fictions of the former guy.

The Seth material is informationally dense, and can be summed up as ‘you create your own reality.’

Not in the fictional, ‘fake it til you make it’ way. More like whatever you focus upon expands.
Someone putting in their 10k hrs of screen time would be a demonstration of that principle in a more mainstream context.
 
Paradigm Shift by Yvan Byeajee and other works of his did a lot to open my understanding of the mind and how it can affect our trading….MUCH MORE THAN WHAT WE THINK! LOL…..along with reading about concepts of mindfulness from other authors. Check out Yvan on amazon. I think he has combined some of his books into one. You might can still find them separate.

A couple of years ago, you mentioned him, all of his works are short easy enjoyable reads. Thank you for the recommendation.
 
Price Action:

1) PA is static as in charts that have already been drawn. And it is dynamic, i.e. charts yet to be drawn and how they are being drawn. In the latter what is important is the “how” they were drawn. The former serves to glean visual ideas for possible strategies and tactics and is the extent of possible backtesting on PA. The latter highlights the principle of flexibility and adaptability.

2) It is nigh impossible to code PA.

3) It is nigh impossible to backtest PA other than the visual backtest as mentioned above. See ….the “dynamic” throws the monkey wrench into the test. Every time.

4) PA consist of principles to be learned about price movement. Concepts about price movement.

5) Setups are a sort of tactical mechanisms for entry and exits including SL’s to be deployed within PA principles. But they are uncertain, and needs be, by nature. Because they are employed in uncertain PA. Everybody is looking for the elusive certainty tgat simp,y cannot be found. The gurus harp and harp..”sure fire system…backtest 5 years…easy $$$…buy now..but wait…if you buy within the next 10 minutes…bonus # 1 bonus #2 are yours, absolutely free! Don’t miss this once in a lifetime offer! Hurry! Call that number on your screen! Now!

As much as traders long for certainty (if I do this then this will happen) and guiding rules carved in stone, it is a fleeting goal NEVER to be fully obtained. That is right I said NEVER.

6) PA is a fog we “learn” to navigate in. We do not know whence the fog came nor how long it will last, nor how thick it will be. We can only watch the “dynamic” as it unfolds and adjust our navigation upon what is happening.

7) Why is PA a fog? Why can it not be backtested? Why can’t it not be boiled down to concrete rules for entry..exits..and SL’s? Because of the innumerable variables inherent therein.

8) PA ALWAYS draws breakouts, ranges, channels, trends, pullbacks, wedges, triangles, flags…etc. and other patterns.

9) Every chart will have any number patterns or combination of patterns of number (8) above.

10) BUT NOT ALL ….BO’s are the same, dynamically, as they are happening. Not all ranges are the same. Not all PB’s are the same. Not all wedges..triangles..flags…etc are dynamically the same. Not all SL’s can be the same nor work the same because of the dynamics of “how” PA by it’s nature, tends to be. Coding PA is nigh impossible. Certainty in PA is virtually impossible. Trying to backtest PA is unachievable…and a waste of precious time and energies. IMO a cursory visual glance of a static chart can serve as a guideline to the extent of possible backtesting that can be done on PA. That is a sort of visual backtesting. For the purpose of gleaning “possible”, workable setups. But there are just too many variables. There is entirely much fog for backtesting of PA to be a feasible activity? Too much uncertainty. Too many players. Therefore:

11) The best we can do is glean and learn how to respond in the dynamic as things are happening.

12) As concerns watching a single market or several: much of that concept depends on what kind of trader one is. For instance, as a scalper of 1 to 8 points in the ES I see plenty of trades to be taken; everyday. Nary a day goes by that one has to set on their haunches waiting. Not if one has a toolbox of tactical setups to deploy as the dynamic is unfolding. Do I use a screwdriver right now in this market? Do I use the vice grips? Do I use an open end wrench? Do I use a skill saw? A chain saw? A saws all? Do I average down? Is the dynamic indicating scaling in on a losing position is a probable good tactic, given the context of static PA even as the dynamic is unfolding. Does the dynamic imply that scaling into a winning position to be a decent scenario (as employing such a tactic can fail as often as it can succeed) as doing so can even work against a trader? Looking at the static (the chart already drawn for the session) and the dynamic (how it is being drawn) where do I place my SL? Do I move my SL’s or leave it? I know…I know..the gurus say never move it. Never average down…always scale into winning positions. Press the trade! (whatever that means…LOL) ….incessant echo’s thru the trading universe, never to be quieted.

13) IMO IT IS MUCH MORE BENEFICIAL to spend one’s energy and time developing tools to employ as the markets unfolds dynamically. I will often change my mind and on a dime, exit and turn, doubling up in the opposite direction, because of the dynamics taking place at the moment. Yes, I will employ tactics and strategies based in a large part upon static charts, using those as mechanisms to spot possible setups, entries, exits and SL’s but the dynamic…the “how” that price is being made and the “how” the chart is being drawn is of upmost importance to me. As to whether I will “stay the course” or change my mind even doing the opposite, or perhaps moving PT’s…SL’s…or just plain getting flat and waiting for more info.

I DO NOT BELIEVE IN NOISE IN THE MARKETS NOR DO I BELIEVE I CAN BOX THE MARKET IN WITH A SET OF RULES, OR PLANS. I believe there is a reason for every movement whether it be 1 tick or 100 ticks. That doesn’t mean I can always know the reason but by correlating the static with the dynamic I have a better chance at deciphering what is happening, the why, and the probabilities of the direction for the next scalpable move. I believe I must have several tools at my disposal and the skills to use them. I believe I must be flexible to change on a dime and employ a different tool, and lay one aside, even if only for the moment. Such is the modus operandi of a scalper.

PS …most don’t define scalping as 1 to 8 points like I do on normal days and 1 to 12 points on more volatile days but that too is a matter of opinion!

Great list of concepts. Algo traders might take issue with 2,3.
 
just discovered this thread... Looks really good.
Volpiri, is most of what you discuss, in regards to methodology, setups, tactics from Al Brooks ?
Asking because your ideas resonate with me. If they are also Al Brooks , I'll get into his books.

The idea of averaging into positions both with the trend (leveraging) and also averaging into a position as the mkt goes against you.... is intriguing.
I can see how averaging down into a position can help to give a high ratio of wins to loses...AND/BUT.... the times it does not work ,I'd think the losses would be large.

In your post #105 u averaged down into 40 contracts suffering $13,000 in drawdown before getting out at a profit of $11,000ish....... jeepers creepers, I thought, rather u than me..!

I'm thinking that one must be "playing at a high level" to be able to do this .
So easy to make a mistake...which that post was talking about..

Anyway... Love this thread.... many tks.

Save yourself headache, heartache and time - get his video courses. The concepts are simple enough, the main benefit is his repetition and applying the concepts in different contexts. The reflection of his mental process is one of the main benefits although there are critics whom dislike the uncertainty.
 
Take some flying lessons, and ask for deep power-off stall training early on. Then you will feel the roller-coasters are kid's play. No problemo.
Many many years ago I was young. Working at a grocery store. Had an ambition….learn to fly. Took flight training but ran out of $$$ before making it the the “stall stage”. But later I did help pilot a Cessna from Texas to Honduras years and years ago. Engine went dead somewhere over the Caribbean and I was piloting the plane. We got her cranked again. No stalling. I must of blocked the experience out of my mind but my brother assured me that it did happen. He was on the flight with us. The owner had modified the engine to run off regular car gasoline. It was a tail dragger. We would land on grass strips …go to a gas station with gas cans, fill them up, and take them back to the plane.

It was quite a trip. A bit scary when we landed in Belize and the Brits still had soldiers guarding the air strip with anti aircraft guns that spin and follow you as you fly. It was also quite alarming when a Harriet jet flew over us as we were sitting awaiting takeoff (if I remember correctly) then suddenly stopped mid-air a few yards in front of us hovering in the air as if it was gonna blow us to smithereens.
 
Many many years ago I was young. Working at a grocery store. Had an ambition….learn to fly. Took flight training but ran out of $$$ before making it the the “stall stage”. But later I did help pilot a Cessna from Texas to Honduras years and years ago. Engine went dead somewhere over the Caribbean and I was piloting the plane. We got her cranked again. No stalling. I must of blocked the experience out of my mind but my brother assured me that it did happen. He was on the flight with us. The owner had modified the engine to run off regular car gasoline. It was a tail dragger. We would land on grass strips …go to a gas station with gas cans, fill them up, and take them back to the plane.

It was quite a trip. A bit scary when we landed in Belize and the Brits still had soldiers guarding the air strip with anti aircraft guns that spin and follow you as you fly. It was also quite alarming when a Harriet jet flew over us as we were sitting awaiting takeoff (if I remember correctly) then suddenly stopped mid-air a few yards in front of us hovering in the air as if it was gonna blow us to smithereens.

It's not the same thing as being at 8000 feet in a bug smasher, pull way up to go almost vertical, and then kill the engine. You then fall into a harrowing spiral dive, and have to restart the engine and pull out of stall. You experience that, you will never fear roller-coasters again. In fact, you will enjoy them. Trust me on that. :-)

(I am typing this to get your reticence/fear of roller-coasters out of your head. You are missing so much great fun by avoiding them. :-( )
 
July 10:02 a.m.

Don’t know if you guys are watching and trading this sideways chop in the ES or in Mes. Alot of money can be made fading the edges. It has been sideways since about 5 a.m. Fertile ground for 1 to 5 points over and over again until there is a successful BO of the range. At that point tactics change. Add trading a little size and lots of money can be made.

General rules:

1) The range width or height must be at least 3 times the size of a min scalp (min scalp is 1 point)

2) Average bar 3 time the size of a min scalp (visual glance suffices)

3) Must have 20 bars in sideways motion to start (really aggressive traders can start at 12 to 15

4) I start buying in bottom 1/4 and averaging down as it moves against me or shorting in top 1/4 and averaging in with more.

5) If I get caught in a SUCCESSFUL (key word here is successful as there can be many failed BO attempts) BO south or north especially with an averaged down position I exit immediately double up in size and go in the opposite direction.

Things to keep in mind:

A) Most BO’s attempts of an established range (i.e. 20 bars) fail within 5 bars and price goes back into the range.

B) I am trading this over and over as long as the range last.

C) A successful BO occurs when a bar breaks out of the range and the low of the next bar holds above or below the BO point (depending if a BO south or north). Another thing is give it 5 bars to see if it retraces back into the range. Finally, another sign is of a successful BO is trend resumes after any PB’s.

D) I try to take profits when all averaged down positions are in the money. Even if the first entry is barely in the money by a tick or two.

E) If the dynamics appear that price won’t make it to the first entry being profitable then I will take what I can get even if I lose on my first or second entry and make money on my later entries.

F) Once I see a successful BO I figure there will likely be second leg up or down after any PB so, that is why I double up after exiting with a loss. In roughly half the distance I make back my loss and soon back in the money playing that second leg.

G) I will often add to my doubled up position on PB during the second move up.
 
Back
Top