to those that bought the spike today

[resinate]

Quote from Quah:

.....As nitro noted above, maybe it's possible to take advantage of these emini spikes by trading QQQ's or SPY's instead. I assume those are not nearly as easy to bust, but I don't know that.

Is that the case?

I don't think qqq or spy are any safer in the these situations

A few years ago I traded SPY all day long. I was part of plenty of busted trades, especially on the ECNs. I don't remember details but I know that I successfully initiated busts on both Island and instinet for relatively small trades.

By the way, #1 trader/ego/GG, you are dreaming if you think you could have traded today smoothly. You would be lucky if your quotes were perfectly keeping up let alone order entry within the proper few seconds.

 

[Scientist]

Gordon Gekko again?
Remember, I gave you some advice not long ago (when you went broke) as to what to do next?

Take this from me, my friend: Unsubscribe to your datafeed for a while, watch the markets with delayed quotes, do your intraday-analysis at the end of the day and papertrade what you consider as good opportunities. Be 110% honest with yourself, meaning you should assume to always buy at least at the ask and sell at the bid, the more slippage & commissions you account for, the better. And read 2-3m of good trading books, not "Beginners guide to Day Trading...", "Pristine Book XYZ", get into some Tony Oz, Barry Rudd etc, read the Market Wizards, take in Steve Nison's books, Daryl Guppy and Chritopher Tate are also great authors on money management and discipline, just to name a few. There are many more, study the ET reviews... Get anything you can get hold of.

Do this for 2+ years and get a job to make some capital. Work hard. Close your IB account for now, and when you've got some capital, start trading 10-20 share-lots during the best hours. If you get better, get up to 50, and finally 100 shares. Don't give up your job, though. Not until you're consistently profitable. If market hours interfere with your work time, try to do multiple jobs, diversify! And don't forget to do the nightshift at McDonalds as well...

And stay away from futures, dummy. You might as well go to Vegas.
Since you can't even trade, I have no idea how you're gonna trade an issue without leading indicators. Besides, your losses will drain you. Even the tightest stop-losses on 1 ES contract won't let you lose less than $50 on a single trade. Forget it.

As you know, I trade Naz stocks as well as index futures all over the world. If you have any questions that your books can't answer, you can always ask me or other ET members here. But make sure you do a search so you don't annoy ET's with old questions. Besides, it saves you time.


Regarding buying that spike, Gekko - You're full of this stuff. You should focus on learning how to trade, rather than how to catch falling knives. The market may just have continued to the crash of the century ... And you would have been, well, deep in the manure...

Personally, I didn't buy that spike, but I covered a short I initiated at 10:13 (3-min bullish reversal bar), which was intended to be a trail-scalp, but became more than that. I made a weekly profit within a day. This is one of the things you live for as a trader, you see. Those special days. However, scalping futures is not safe unless you've got a good scalping platform, like TraderGuardPlatinum+ or NinjaTrader (IB Api).

I wouldn't have dreamt of buying that spike - I repeat don't catch falling knives that's a fool's play. Anybody who does / did, should stop trading and go bungee-jumping or something and then consult a professional counsellor as to where you want to go.

Gekko, you might be able to benefit from this in another, say, 3-5 years time. If you're good enough. Till then - don't trade. Good Luck to You, Fellow Brother.


Yours Sincerely,
~The Scientist

 

[kernan]

Quote from Gordon Gekko:


well i guess i do then. whenever i see price move that fast, i always check to see if there's news. i had also checked an economic calendar before the open and i knew there wasn't anything at 10:30 EST.

i saw price tanking and the tv was already on with the remote right next to me. fox news was on, saw nothing happening. pressed 1 button on the remote to check cnbc, nothing going on. i already had the charts up and was sitting at my computer. it took me about 10 seconds to check the news. the down move lasted minutes. there was plenty of time, especially if you were prepared.

and as i said, the point of this thread is to prepare for when it happens again. i'm not at all saying everyone should play the spikes. i just wanted to look into it, read what other people did today, and consider what is possible.

And you made how much?

 

[kernan]

Quote from Scientist:

Gordon Gekko again?
Remember, I gave you some advice not long ago (when you went broke) as to what to do next?

Take this from me, my friend: Unsubscribe to your datafeed for a while, watch the markets with delayed quotes, do your intraday-analysis at the end of the day and papertrade what you consider as good opportunities. Be 110% honest with yourself, meaning you should assume to always buy at least at the ask and sell at the bid, the more slippage & commissions you account for, the better. And read 2-3m of good trading books, not "Beginners guide to Day Trading...", "Pristine Book XYZ", get into some Tony Oz, Barry Rudd etc, read the Market Wizards, take in Steve Nison's books, Daryl Guppy and Chritopher Tate are also great authors on money management and discipline, just to name a few. There are many more, study the ET reviews... Get anything you can get hold of.

Do this for 2+ years and get a job to make some capital. Work hard. Close your IB account for now, and when you've got some capital, start trading 10-20 share-lots during the best hours. If you get better, get up to 50, and finally 100 shares. Don't give up your job, though. Not until you're consistently profitable. If market hours interfere with your work time, try to do multiple jobs, diversify! And don't forget to do the nightshift at McDonalds as well...

And stay away from futures, dummy. You might as well go to Vegas.
Since you can't even trade, I have no idea how you're gonna trade an issue without leading indicators. Besides, your losses will drain you. Even the tightest stop-losses on 1 ES contract won't let you lose less than $50 on a single trade. Forget it.

As you know, I trade Naz stocks as well as index futures all over the world. If you have any questions that your books can't answer, you can always ask me or other ET members here. But make sure you do a search so you don't annoy ET's with old questions. Besides, it saves you time.


Regarding buying that spike, Gekko - You're full of this stuff. You should focus on learning how to trade, rather than how to catch falling knives. The market may just have continued to the crash of the century ... And you would have been, well, deep in the manure...

Personally, I didn't buy that spike, but I covered a short I initiated at 10:13 (3-min bullish reversal bar), which was intended to be a trail-scalp, but became more than that. I made a weekly profit within a day. This is one of the things you live for as a trader, you see. Those special days. However, scalping futures is not safe unless you've got a good scalping platform, like TraderGuardPlatinum+ or NinjaTrader (IB Api).

I wouldn't have dreamt of buying that spike - I repeat don't catch falling knives that's a fool's play. Anybody who does / did, should stop trading and go bungee-jumping or something and then consult a professional counsellor as to where you want to go.

Gekko, you might be able to benefit from this in another, say, 3-5 years time. If you're good enough. Till then - don't trade. Good Luck to You, Fellow Brother.


Yours Sincerely,
~The Scientist

Excellent post Scientist, but he already proved in that other thread that he was unwilling to listen to great advice. In fact, he proved that all he wanted was people to encourage him to sell his car and continue trading at all costs.

 

[Scientist]

Quote from Gordon Gekko:


whenever i see price move that fast, i always check to see if there's news. i had also checked an economic calendar before the open and i knew there wasn't anything at 10:30 EST.

i saw price tanking and the tv was already on with the remote right next to me. fox news was on, saw nothing happening. pressed 1 button on the remote to check cnbc, nothing going on. i already had the charts up and was sitting at my computer. it took me about 10 seconds to check the news. the down move lasted minutes. there was plenty of time, especially if you were prepared.

Take your fingers off the remote while trading. Especially the Fox channel. Do that after work. Switch your TV set off while trading.
Remember : You're (theoretically) working. TV is just distraction when you should be focusing on learning.

Like many professional traders, I am an advocate of having no TV in my trading office. I see no point. By the time you get the news, they've already happened. The news are already in the charts, my friend.

I have a realtime (online) trading newswire I'm subscribed to, and I check its ticker from time to time, or if price goes wild. It's a lot faster than TV - And it doesn't annoy you. You're in control.


Just my 5 Cents...

~Scientist

 

[Scientist]

Quote from Girlpower:

I remember sitting in front of my machine that day trading FTSE as it went into meltdown suddenly and without warning. I learned a lesson about meltdown that day i.e. not to try and buy into a bounce. 600 points on YM with no pause on the way looked awfully similar for a short while...

Natalie

You traded the FTSE on 9/11 ???

WOW!

Besides many other reasons why I prefer the short side, this is one: The market can always crash and make you wealthy. It seldom goes the other way... Space Shuttles or Index Futures - Things just fall down faster than they go up...

Well I'm glad I was short yesterday...

Sincerely,
~Scientist

 

[Scientist]

Quote from kernan:

Excellent post Scientist, but he already proved in that other thread that he was unwilling to listen to great advice. In fact, he proved that all he wanted was people to encourage him to sell his car and continue trading at all costs.

Sad but true, Kerman. But I tend to believe that it's never good to give up on people. Everybody has, deep down, a chance to achieve excellence. Many of today's most excellent people have started from right there - deep down! That's why I posted this reply.

Besides, I think his nickname says enough about him - He's a dreamer that idealizes an already idealized image of a "Hollywood Day Trader", instead of finding his own identity.

Also, as you can read, I don't encourage him to continue at all, at least for now. And if he does, I personally don't mind, since he'll contribute to the growth of my trading account in the meantime.

You see, the trading world is like the Serengeti - It's a tough, hot, dry environment, and the Lions depend on stalking herds of Zebras for the weakest ones that are a little too far away from the strong, directional herd.

Trading is precisely like that. Well this boy certainly is not a Lion, but a Zebra, and on top of that a very weak one.

This doesn't mean we have to condemn him (except for his silly posts), since we as lions depend on the Zebras in order to survive. No Zebras, no Lions... Appreciate it, it's the way it is.


Yours Sincerely,
~The Scientist

 

[kernan]

Quote from Scientist:


Sad but true, Kerman. But I tend to believe that it's never good to give up on people. Everybody has, deep down, a chance to achieve excellence. Many of today's most excellent people have started from right there - deep down! That's why I posted this reply.

Besides, I think his nickname says enough about him - He's a dreamer that idealizes an already idealized image of a "Hollywood Day Trader", instead of finding his own identity.

Also, as you can read, I don't encourage him to continue at all, at least for now. And if he does, I personally don't mind, since he'll contribute to the growth of my trading account in the meantime.

You see, the trading world is like the Serengeti - It's a tough, hot, dry environment, and the Lions depend on stalking herds of Zebras for the weakest ones that are a little too far away from the strong, directional herd.

Trading is precisely like that. Well this boy certainly is not a Lion, but a Zebra, and on top of that a very weak one.

This doesn't mean we have to condemn him (except for his silly posts), since we as lions depend on the Zebras in order to survive. No Zebras, no Lions... Appreciate it, it's the way it is.


Yours Sincerely,
~The Scientist

You are wise beyond your years. Have a good 4th of July.

 

[Girlpower]

Quote from Scientist:


You traded the FTSE on 9/11 ???

WOW!

Besides many other reasons why I prefer the short side, this is one: The market can always crash and make you wealthy. It seldom goes the other way... Space Shuttles or Index Futures - Things just fall down faster than they go up...

Well I'm glad I was short yesterday...

Sincerely,
~Scientist

Yeah. I'd been trading it all day, (I'm in the UK) and it had set itself up for a quick short anyway, I was looking for the exit ahead of the NY open, and wham! - 200 points straight off the price in almost no time at all.

Like yesterday I just sat there stunned thinking OMG WHY?

Like yesterday I hit sendclose button and went to find out why...

Catching that faloing knife would have hurt a lot. (the proceeds btw - went to the 9/11 fund. I couldn't in all conscience profit from that...)

Natalie

 

[Kicking]

It's strange this thread attracts so many replies. Is it the old fantasy of easy money? The only sound way to make money on such spike is being short and lucky. I remember the time when a plane hit a building in Italy and everybody was paranoid. The market dropped like yesterday then retraced more than50% only to fall lower and very fast when some Italian mimister said he thought it was a terrorist attack. you could not know what was going on. I was trading ES at the time and the 1 min bars were like 3 point range! I didn't trade.