Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
Funny you say this because I've been finding the same observation. The fast moving instruments (cl, gc, fdax) move with a lot of pull backs back through s/r making an entry on breakout tough to manage especially with any sort of trailing or discretionary moving stop when momentum builds up. It's still possible, just rare. Russell 2000 moves a little more continuous in one direction on break outs but I don't know if that's because it's in some sort of seasonal cycle. I continue to watch all of them to be versatile.
R.I.P. Joseph Bach (Itchymoku), 1987-2018.
Please visit this thread for more information.
It's been some time since I posted last time. We have moved to Santa Cruz de Tenerife for 3 months to survive the winter which is horrible back there at home, and try living in Spain and see how we like it. So it took me out from trading for a week as I were setting things up, getting internet access and things, organized VPS server. But I did trade demo for a while.
Eventually I have skimmed down on my trading tools going back to bare minimum to reduce demand on internet throughput and I wasn't using all things anyway.
Effectively I have started to trade live only last week. I did so far 4 trades during 4 days in FDAX.
First trade I took immediately went against me running level's stops, I did chicken out and moved take profit to entry, reasoning if it comes back I will get out. It did come back, took me out for zero and then run to my planned target. It was a classic stop run reversal and I should have held.
My second trade was bit late, into lunch time. Market already made a trend leg up, it was fast and I did not enter on break out entries. It did come to the high with force and entry looked good, but was bit premature. It fell back against me and held there for quite some time nearly stopping me out few time. Then some bulls came in, made a run up, at some point bringing me up to 20 tick profit. I failed to act, expecting a sustained break. But it turned to be a stop run. I was waiting on a retest of entry and some reaction but it fell like a rock and stopped me out for -15 ticks.
Yesterday we had some movement in European session but much wasn't expected due to lack of US flows. I managed to get an excellent entry, but got out thinking on another run down. Exit was bit too late, I should have gotten out on a stall of an impulse up and then re-entered at a better price once it stops moving down. But I did not act on a second part. Ended up with +8 ticks but trade eventually gave whole target of 60.
Today was a quite touch start. It managed some sort of a down move but with a lot of buying back effectively turning it into a volatile range. I stood out of market just watching. After hours of waiting and end of a lunch time, it managed to come back to the upper range level and printed a breakout pattern, consolidating there. I took a trade, it only went 3 ticks against me but it stood there for a while unable to break it. I was thinking of getting out as it was getting too long of no action. But then it broke up, took out yesterday high. Then it started to pullback and I acted fast getting out. It did ended up being a stop run reversal. Then it gave another setup, short now, but I wasn't keen on taking shorts plus US session was nearing. This second possible trade could be the best trade of the day.
Weekly roundup
It's been a productive and bit emotional week. I have finally gone live last Friday and ended a day with a loss of 15 ticks, done one trade. (190) euros from my live account.
This week had slow Monday being a Presidents day in US, but DAX was trading even if rather slow. I did one trade.
Took a fast catch of a flying knife at the good confirmed level on expected stop run past earlier lows. My mistake was scalping my way out for just 8 ticks and not re-entering on another test. It was a trade of the day I failed to exercise properly.
Tuesday gave some more buzz.
However, I also did one trade only.
Wednesday was a day of disappointment. I have realized I took Monday and Tuesday trades on demo, rather than on a real account. I have got frustrated and started to doubt myself and took no trades.
I can back strong on Thursday, reinforced and reinvigorated.
I took 39 ticks home in two trades, 550 euro into my real account.
Friday was good and bad too.
My first trade was just excellent, 3 ticks draw-down and a run was good for 140 ticks. But I screwed it badly. Again. And not retaken. Again. I protected the trade too fast and got stopped out for +1 tick in 30 seconds. Then I spent 20 ticks trying to catch up onto a long. Second trade was a cheap attempt that failed, it was ok. Third trade was a dumb one. And last trade was a mistake on my part. I knew it was an expiration day but did not realize DAX options expire at 1 PM CET time, so it got hit by the liquidation of long position collected by option sellers protecting the low the gave me the first great trade I failed to collect on.
Gave back 19 ticks or 237 euros. Still finish week positive and my total balance is about +50 euros.
However I have learned a lot and will dedicated a special post to it.
Check out my blog for the screenshots and follow ups.
Aaaaah time's flying fast. Markets change a lot. We - get older.
I am back afresh ready to continue my postings and self-analysis perhaps (not really LOL), and ideas how to improve.
It's been tough half year for me, not blown any accounts (screw you those who wished I did), but nevertheless experienced all sorts of style drifts and emotions you can find in any book. Psychology is no 1 problem for me, but it is not helping that market is really flipping through different characters every week. We are at ATH and summer is out there so no wonder. But good time to concentrate on following the plan and hardening the discipline.
I do have a new style of trading, down to the core it is still the same - momentum following, but now due to not so gracious markets like back in autumn and first quarter of the year, it's on a shorter scale, smaller risk and targets, and new edge with timing signalling. But end in end it is still following the momentum and trying to get on for an impulse ride.
I will start posting charts tomorrow, I will be musing in my new trading log book, I will review the whole day of price action and will post a very short summary and 1-2 action points.
So welcome back @xelaar, good to have you back here on futures.io (formerly BMT) !
"If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much." - Jim Rohn
Just keep going and going, keep learning and don't be afraid to dump your method and start from scratch if your method doesn't suite current market conditions.
I'm a DAX trader to, most of the time your better off playing chop/range these days as you say it's kinda slow ( not today ), then hoping to be on the right side of a nice breakout cause there too fast for me.
Just a little bit of a hint into how I trade DAX nowadays.
I did miss few trades, there would be a runner in that first impulse and a couple of good trades too. I have several issues to fight, focus on a right direction, take ALL trades system gives.
I plan to again run a combine simulation for 10 days, take all trades stricktly by the plan and judge results afterwards. Market is tough, so no big problem not to trade live for a couple of weeks more, but if I manage to stay afloat by taking all planned trades in these markets - then I will have a good confidence in my system and my execution of it to move back to live trading.
a. Plot levels from 30 minutes
b. Trading channel Donchian channel set for 20 minutes period
c. Trade direction in the direction of the last impulse
d. Impulse filter at least 3 strong bars in the same direction without strong bars in the other direction between them
e. Entry types pullbacks and breakouts
f. Entry locations for the pullbacks the other side of the DC, which followed price action (price did not race back to the other side, creating opposing impulse), under EMA 8 for shorts, above EMA 8 for longs
g. Entry locations for breakouts either continuation of the move expecting a new impulse, consolidating on DC and pushing it, or, in case last impulse reversed the previous move, a consolidation between EMA 8 and EMA 21, pushing one side in the direction of the last impulse
1. Do not trade until volume is less than 90% than 8 weeks average
2. Do not trade until there is an impulse present
3. Do not trade if there is more than 30 minutes expired since the close of the last strong bar
4. Ignore any inside bar as signals for entry or exit if they dont compliment previous local hi or low in the direction of the last impulse (i.e. disregard reversing signals on inside bars)
I. Risk 2 contracts by 2.5 pts risk each, 5 pts per trade
II. Target 1st contract 5 pts, second contract 15 pts
III. Trade exit opposite signal, large pin bar in the direction of a trade, new strong level, EMA + Hi/Lo, VWAP+EMA, WVAP+Hi/Lo
IV. Allow 2 trades per impulse, i.e. stop trading after 2 losses per impulse, wait for a new impulse
V. Stop trading for a day after 3x2 losing trades, i.e. 6 losses totaling to 30 pts (plus slippage and commissions)
X. Entry signal proprietary, enter with a limit after the signal bar closed, to be filled on pullback