Topsteptrader

I agree. I was not able to find a trade setup in CL today, but was able to trade ES real money. Very good setup, so I should have added more contracts but did not. ES made me money did not see any setups on Thurs so did not trade since I woke up too late anyway. I did not have a losing day this week, but the problem with the combine is that you have to have a good streak with no losing days when you start it which is very hard. Good luck on your next combine.

austinp said:
... with two sessions left to go, it was a pass or fail situation for me. I needed both sessions profitable to hit 60% daily win rate and I needed +$499 (or greater) net gains to finish, of which about all of that had to be from ES in order to take that symbol positive. Further CL gains were of no use because I opted to trade ES for sake of high liquidity.

Wednesday day nine: I started out +$212.50 in ES and then tightening chop for the balance of that 6pt true-range session never let me get in the black again. Once I went red, it was a do or die situation to get black. A red day made it impossible to finish +60% daily win rate.

So with the arbitrary 10-day curfew, there was no time left on the clock to simply tread water and coast.

**

On the other hand, if that combine effort was open-ended for deadlines to meet requirements, I could have ceased trading that day and simply waited until Thursday. Which was highly tradable, as it turned out. Or waited until today. Or next week, or whenever.

See the difference? No deadline limit to perform = a relaxed approach. Does anyone think it's reasonable to assume that someday eventually I might have made it to at least +$1 net profit in ES and $3,000+ in CL at the pace established?

No deadline time limit to complete the requirements makes it cake for those who have a true trading edge. End of story :cool:
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oraclewizard77 said:
I agree. I was not able to find a trade setup in CL today, but was able to trade ES real money. Very good setup, so I should have added more contracts but did not. ES made me money did not see any setups on Thurs so did not trade since I woke up too late anyway.

I did not have a losing day this week, but the problem with the combine is that you have to have a good streak with no losing days when you start it which is very hard. Good luck on your next combine.
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thank you, and all the best to you as well. I'd like to see everyone succeed... why not? None of us are each other's competition in the least.

CL is the epitome` of breakout momentum trading, with others like Russell 2000 and Nat Gas similar but far less liquidity. The key to CL trading success is reading pivotal S/R zones and catch price bursts expanding out of contractions.

Mean-reversion tactics do not work well at all in CL, long term. You either get good at trading with directional strength bias or you get shredded by the market sooner than later. Once you can aptly read the pivotal zones in CL, you can stagger entry orders thru 10 - 15 - 20 cent spans and catch those inevitable surge moves with size while stops take no heat.

I've gotten so I never use a stop bigger than -10 cents and more often -5 cents on entry. The good trades never take any heat at all... they just blow thru and go. Today there were four of those sequences down. I rode the first one for +41 cents blended, and called it a day before 10am est.

ES common behavior is to pull back and fill constantly before moving off, while CL common behavior is to coil and chop around before taking off in directional explosions. Different mentality required for each, of the two I much prefer CL and its directional explosive nature.
 
austinp said:
... with two sessions left to go, it was a pass or fail situation for me.
So with the arbitrary 10-day curfew, there was no time left on the clock to simply tread water and coast.

**

On the other hand, if that combine effort was open-ended for deadlines to meet requirements, I could have ceased trading that day and simply waited until Thursday. Which was highly tradable, as it turned out. Or waited until today. Or next week, or whenever.
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I don't understand your urgency. You have 20 trading days to complete a 10 day combine, so there was no reason you couldn't pass on 1 or more days that weren't suitable.
 
palinuro said:
I don't understand your urgency. You have 20 trading days to complete a 10 day combine, so there was no reason you couldn't pass on 1 or more days that weren't suitable.
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How do you know what day is "suitable" until you are committed to it? Day nine started out +$212.50 and appeared perfectly fine. Then the ES commenced to wedging up inside a 3pt chop range for several hours. Only then is it apparent to be not suitable... but too late, 10-day limit mandates performance or bust.

See the difference? Once committed, there is no stop with a scratch day or small loss in that scenario, because profitable performance or busted combine was the only outcome. Unlimited deadline would permit ceasing after +$212.50 became $0 or -$200 or whatever, and commence another day without penalty.

No one can ever tell what any day is going to be like until (worthless) hindsight after the fact. When working a 10-day limit of performance, each time you start the clock, it counts against you in several ways.
 
onemoreshot said:
What does join date have anything to do with it. Please continue on with how awesome your sim trading is.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't you just the random commentator who stepped in here and proclaimed how awesome some traders must be who can kick ass in dead chop ES markets without "excuses"?

Are you one of those, or were you merely spouting the usual message board regurgitated rhetoric? Now here's your chance to post up any blotter of yours, cash or sim or whatever to give any hint that your input has merit. My guess is you have nothing to show at all other than meritless opinion based on fantasy and myths, but I'll be happy to see you prove me wrong.

If you have no positive input per the TST conversation in this thread OR you have no positive input to prove your stated case, what are you doing in here at all? There must be better places for you to waste your time elsewhere.
 
austinp said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't you just the random commentator who stepped in here and proclaimed how awesome some traders must be who can kick ass in dead chop ES markets without "excuses"?

Are you one of those, or were you merely spouting the usual message board regurgitated rhetoric? Now here's your chance to post up any blotter of yours, cash or sim or whatever to give any hint that your input has merit. My guess is you have nothing to show at all other than meritless opinion based on fantasy and myths, but I'll be happy to see you prove me wrong.

If you have no positive input per the TST conversation in this thread OR you have no positive input to prove your stated case, what are you doing in here at all? There must be better places for you to waste your time elsewhere.
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I kind of like wasting my time here. All of my points are valid, good traders don't complain about the market, they are too busy adapting and making money. I don't do blotters and I do have a number of positive broker statements but nothing outstanding that would knock your socks off. I trade and either make money or lose money, I don't complain when I lose money and blame the market like you. I would suggest your path will be difficult until you become a little less rigid in your thinking but your call mate.
 
onemoreshot said:
I trade and either make money or lose money, I don't complain when I lose money and blame the market like you. I would suggest your path will be difficult until you become a little less rigid in your thinking but your call mate.
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I didn't lose money... go back and tally up the totals there. Do you see where it reads $5,2501 there? The starting balance was $50,000 even.

Now let's lay out some actual facts. The trading world is in a multi-year contraction. Far fewer active traders in the market now than before. Trading volume is way down when it comes to individual traders. Even the founder of Interactive Brokers himself complained about extreme lulls in trading activity and blamed that (aka the market) for IB struggling with earnings. So me and Peter have that much in common, anyways.

Where did all those former traders go? Why are they gone? Why is the number of active individual traders at decade lows today? Didn't they want to adapt? Don't they want to "kill it" in today's stock market with VIX = 10 levels?

Now in my own personal case, I have no interest in trying to wrangle blood from stones when it comes to dead chop markets. I prefer to simply switch focus inside of active, moving markets instead. Such as crude oil which yielded $2,900+ in four sessions. And also CL yesterday, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf61XHvuZsM&list=UUblFKlkWF_-4-4lzgNlh0dA

Now why is that? Because I have personally NEVER seen any traders show the least bit of evidence, not even a sim blotter, that they can aptly trade dead-chop emini markets. Much like sasquatch and the loch ness monster, many people claim to see (or even be) successful "scalpers" but not one single instance of proof has ever been posted anywhere inside this site.

And my guess is, no one ever will.
 
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