Welcome Chris!
1. Average trades per day, week, or month?
On futures, 3-4 per day, roughly. Today I overtraded quite successfully for a bunch of 'base hits' (kind of hard not to scalp like crazy today on top of looking for planned trades) but normally 3-4 quality trades/day is the average I say.
2. Average time in trade?
Fairly quick ... I'd say 5-10mins. If I don't get the initial move I'm expecting in 1-2 minutes, though, I'll take whatever profits I'm at and reevaluate things or if I'm down I'll start looking for an exit at b/e or better (hopefully!) since obviously I didn't plan it right to begin with -- and besides, market hesitation scares me when I'm in a position that's just 'hovering' there on the chart. Murphy's Law will have me on the wrong side of the trade whenever that 'hover' turns into a 'pop' or 'drop' so I'll exit stage left and preserve capital when my instinct says so.
3. Market/Instrument do you trade?
ES and DAX (mostly ES)
4. What size stop losses do you use?
On the ES, 2pt mental, 3pt hard - but it's not automated. I also have a 6pt catastrophic stop on all ES trades in case computer crashes and the market reverses big on me as I reboot.
5. What indicators, time frames do you use?
With respect, because I'm sure you're sincerely trying to learn the Art of Trading and meeting likeminded folks, but I won't answer this question in any public detail. Not because I'm greedy or egotistical, but because after being on ET for the past 2 years, I've noticed this place has a bunch of folks whose sole purpose in life is to debase, attack, bitch, whine, and moan about what someone says they're using as 'their' trading setup. What I use works for me, my timeframe, trading goals, and risk tolerances, and that's all I care about. That said, it's not any one 'system' or 'indicator' that I use but rather is what I've found works for me as the result of lots of research, tons of chart-watching, and yes, newbie trading mistakes early on such as playing with different indicators, chart types, etc, etc, etc. What works for me may not work for you. I will say, though, my charts are VERY, VERY clean....I like the Keep It Simple approach.
That said, I do agree 100% with your notion of a trading "style" -- to me, "systems" tend to be rigid and inflexible (ie technical) but "styles" can include the "artistic" (ie nontechnical) aspects of trading that, at least for me, are more important and aligned with what, as I said, 'works' best for me and my personality.
Hope this helps some and kicks this thread off for ya!
