The Evolution of an E-mini Trader
- Thread starter Huios
- Start date
I have a date with my wife tonight and am meeting her in an hour. I will post my trades and comments tommorrow. Everyone have a great weekend, and if any of you are in the Raleigh, NC area, we are having a trading meeting this Sunday at 1:00.
Just show up!!!
Directions are here: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=6011
Just show up!!!
Directions are here: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=6011
Gap down opening, uptrend to close the gap, as expected. I actually thought today would be an up day overall. Lower high after gap closed, and I almost traded it but was still thinking up trend.
Got to learn not to think, just trade!!!!!
Trade 1 - another small pop up, shorted. Had a 2 point gain but the market reversed and got out with a scratch.
Market kept rising, then hesitated...
Trade 2 - shorted this larger pop up. Dropped a little, and went up to my entry price. Exited with another scratch. If I would have stayed in, probably would have exited several minutes later when it popped up again.
Missed a shorting opportunity on this pop at 11:10. Dropped a quick 5 pts from there. Caught some of those 5 points with ...
Trade 3 - shorted on a hesitation, not really a pop up. Didn't want to let the profit get away, and got out with a +1 pt.
Here are the shoulda, coulda, woulda's.... holding on to trades 2 and 3 would have led to large gains.
Got busy doing other things and didn't trade any more this morning, thought it would be basically a range bound market during lunch, which it was, and then the rally would start after the Chicago boys got back from lunch. And I was gonna be ready for them.
heh heh heh...
Got to learn not to think, just trade!!!!!
Trade 1 - another small pop up, shorted. Had a 2 point gain but the market reversed and got out with a scratch.
Market kept rising, then hesitated...
Trade 2 - shorted this larger pop up. Dropped a little, and went up to my entry price. Exited with another scratch. If I would have stayed in, probably would have exited several minutes later when it popped up again.
Missed a shorting opportunity on this pop at 11:10. Dropped a quick 5 pts from there. Caught some of those 5 points with ...
Trade 3 - shorted on a hesitation, not really a pop up. Didn't want to let the profit get away, and got out with a +1 pt.
Here are the shoulda, coulda, woulda's.... holding on to trades 2 and 3 would have led to large gains.
Got busy doing other things and didn't trade any more this morning, thought it would be basically a range bound market during lunch, which it was, and then the rally would start after the Chicago boys got back from lunch. And I was gonna be ready for them.
heh heh heh...
Trade 4 - Shorted a rally at 1:48. Had a profit but watched it retrace. Now remember, if I would have held on to my last two trades a little longer, I would have been raking in the big bucks. Major Chaninga's. Ended up riding this to a 2.5 point loss, and to make matters worse, basically bought back my short on the high tick of the retracement. I hate when I do that. At least this time I laughed at myself, instead of getting ticked.
Trade 5 - shorted the other side of my 2.5 loss, and made back .75 of a point. Should have held on longer, and would have made back all of it plus.
So why is it that when I hold on, I should have gotten out, and when I get out, I should have held on. I know, my exits suck (excuse my French). More on exits later.
Trade 6 - Market making HL's. Is this the rally I've been waiting for all day!!!!! Bought the higher low, and held on for a 2 pt gain.
Sharp selloff right after (believe it was news driven). Too busy patting myself on the back to make money.
Trade 7 - shorted a small popup in the decline, but there was a larger pop waiting for me. Loss of .75. If I would have held on...
7 trades, 3 winners, 2 losers, 2 scratch
Net for the day: -8.6
Net for the week: -59.50
Net for the month: +68.8
Trade 5 - shorted the other side of my 2.5 loss, and made back .75 of a point. Should have held on longer, and would have made back all of it plus.
So why is it that when I hold on, I should have gotten out, and when I get out, I should have held on. I know, my exits suck (excuse my French). More on exits later.
Trade 6 - Market making HL's. Is this the rally I've been waiting for all day!!!!! Bought the higher low, and held on for a 2 pt gain.
Sharp selloff right after (believe it was news driven). Too busy patting myself on the back to make money.
Trade 7 - shorted a small popup in the decline, but there was a larger pop waiting for me. Loss of .75. If I would have held on...
7 trades, 3 winners, 2 losers, 2 scratch
Net for the day: -8.6
Net for the week: -59.50
Net for the month: +68.8
Huios,
Can I ask how knowing what the intraday travel range does to help with your trading the next day. I understand that the range from high to low gives you an average of what range the market travels over any day which could help in defining a target area. But I don't follow how knowing the total travel range helps. Can you enlighten me please?
Thanks
Can I ask how knowing what the intraday travel range does to help with your trading the next day. I understand that the range from high to low gives you an average of what range the market travels over any day which could help in defining a target area. But I don't follow how knowing the total travel range helps. Can you enlighten me please?
Thanks
Actually, I should have spoken up sooner about this one...I understand that Huios likes the idea of gauging his trading against the total range between pivots or whatever the actual measurement is, but I think this is a bit of overkill...The idea that one can capture a fixed percentage of this range is also a bit too ambitious UNLESS you are trading on bigger time frames...After all, how practical is it to measure the range of the market between two pivots if/when a trader has a scalper's risk tolerance...One buy program alone combined with an institution getting sloppy on their entries can move the market 2-3 handles, well outside the risk parameters of scalpers...
On the other hand, a person who is trading the swings and trading on a time frame greater than the standard 1-3-5 minute time frame is going to absorb that noise and going to have some potentially larger drawdowns, but is also in position to capture some of these bigger swings...I think it all comes back to how you absorb the noise...A scalper is looking to capitalize on it, minimize exposure to time and price and to partial out as quickly as possible...From what I can tell Huios is trading out of positions almost the second they run against them, therefore the intra-day range might not be such a good measure...The greater the range, the more probability that the micro time frames are swinging higher as well...At that point, it becomes a bit of chance and luck that each entry will hit 2 pts of profit before it hits 2 pts stop against the entry...
On the other hand, a person who is trading the swings and trading on a time frame greater than the standard 1-3-5 minute time frame is going to absorb that noise and going to have some potentially larger drawdowns, but is also in position to capture some of these bigger swings...I think it all comes back to how you absorb the noise...A scalper is looking to capitalize on it, minimize exposure to time and price and to partial out as quickly as possible...From what I can tell Huios is trading out of positions almost the second they run against them, therefore the intra-day range might not be such a good measure...The greater the range, the more probability that the micro time frames are swinging higher as well...At that point, it becomes a bit of chance and luck that each entry will hit 2 pts of profit before it hits 2 pts stop against the entry...
Huios,
I thought I might be able to help you out. First of all I found your journal impressive. It takes guts to do what you're doing in a forum. I noticed everyone has been polite and helpful in their responses to you which made me wonder whether critiques are welcome in this post. After all it IS your journal and you are sharing your experiences.
Anyway, I use AdvancedGet with esignal also and I trade eminis. Despite your discipline I noticed you are not achieving multiple R trades very often. I completed Tharp's Peak Performance course and read the Phantom's ebook so I know how you feel about the rules. However, when I looked at your buys and sells on the charts it seemed you would have a huge improvement if you defined your entry and exit rules and followed them at all times. By taking trades with reward:risk of 2 or more you could hit the multiple R trades. I think you should trade a bit less and spend more time learning new setups. Don't get me wrong, I don't think setups are the most important parts of a system but without knowledge of many of them you won't be able to take action when whatever scenario the market gives you comes along. Does this make sense? I only say this because you didn't catch any large trends just mini scalps. If you can accept what I mean you will realize your style does not enable you to catch the real money making moves.
Lastly, I understood the Phantom's "being wrong" rule as not so strict that you should cut your loss if your position goes negative but rather to get out if the view you initially had becomes negated. Big difference there! You seem so set on keeping your stops tight because you think you're wrong that you have ended up getting shaken out only to see the market go in the direction you were in.
Hope this helps.
I thought I might be able to help you out. First of all I found your journal impressive. It takes guts to do what you're doing in a forum. I noticed everyone has been polite and helpful in their responses to you which made me wonder whether critiques are welcome in this post. After all it IS your journal and you are sharing your experiences.
Anyway, I use AdvancedGet with esignal also and I trade eminis. Despite your discipline I noticed you are not achieving multiple R trades very often. I completed Tharp's Peak Performance course and read the Phantom's ebook so I know how you feel about the rules. However, when I looked at your buys and sells on the charts it seemed you would have a huge improvement if you defined your entry and exit rules and followed them at all times. By taking trades with reward:risk of 2 or more you could hit the multiple R trades. I think you should trade a bit less and spend more time learning new setups. Don't get me wrong, I don't think setups are the most important parts of a system but without knowledge of many of them you won't be able to take action when whatever scenario the market gives you comes along. Does this make sense? I only say this because you didn't catch any large trends just mini scalps. If you can accept what I mean you will realize your style does not enable you to catch the real money making moves.
Lastly, I understood the Phantom's "being wrong" rule as not so strict that you should cut your loss if your position goes negative but rather to get out if the view you initially had becomes negated. Big difference there! You seem so set on keeping your stops tight because you think you're wrong that you have ended up getting shaken out only to see the market go in the direction you were in.
Hope this helps.