I had just a little time this evening, watched MNQ in the Asia session off and on. Spotted one trade when I was getting up to go to dinner, knew I didn't have time to babysit a trade so I scalped 20 ticks with two contracts. The move was a good one and would have made additional money if I had had the time to follow my stop on the second contract.


After dinner I watched some more, was tempted on a couple entries but decided to sit out. So 20 ticks, $10 for the evening. It's all good!

See you in the morning!

Today was the first time I can remember where I sat through most of a session and took no trades. Looking back, there were some opportunities for scalps but I'm still working on that part of my strategy. There were a couple of decent moves but it so happened that I had to run some errands and missed those.

On the good side, I am glad that my trading discipline has improved to the point where I did not find this frustrating, but took time to visit with others in the trade room about strategy and other stuff. Some of them were scalping, but some weren't trading either. It also gave me time to study this type of market and see where trades were possible and also see where I would get trapped.

Not a profitable day, not a losing day, but a productive day nonetheless.

Happy trading everyone!

Got to sit in on the Asia session for just a little while this evening and found one pullback to scalp. Took TP1 at +10 and TP2 at +16, 26 ticks total.


Was happy to at least get in one trade today. Short day for me tomorrow, work obligations will only allow me about an hour in the morning.

Good luck all!

Only had an hour to watch the markets this morning before heading out to work. Fortunately, about 5 minutes after the open MNQ offered a promising short setup so I took it. Got 10 ticks at TP1 and 57 ticks at TP2 for a total of 67 ticks.


I would LOVE to start every morning like that!

Hope everyone has a great day trading!

On the Asia session tonight, things were slow. I found one trade that my Trading Time Frame indicated was not a high probability, but my Lower Time Frame showed a high probability scalp. I should have paid attention to the TTF! After I entered price started down then quickly reversed and took out both contracts for a total of 42 tick loss.


I am still in positive territory for the day -- barely -- so I can live with it. Scalping is something I am still working on and obviously have more work to do!

See you back here tomorrow for the Friday wrap up.

An interesting end to the week even if it was not a profitable day.

I got to the computer late which threw me off just a bit. Then MNQ dropped dramatically out of the OR while I was still setting up charts, so I missed that move. More frustration. Fortunately, I did not chase, but as I watched the decline I figured I could scalp it on the way down. Took 3 little scalps, then the 4th one backed up and wiped out the profits of the first 3. Took two more trades and managed to finish that run up by just 4 ticks. More frustration.


As I sat there I recalled why, a year or so ago, that I determined that NQ (when I was trading minis) was not appropriate for me. It could get wildly Volatile, with single candles running 3 or 4 times my risk amount. Even if I was right on the direction and even the entry, it was hard to hold a trade unless I was willing to open my stop to 4 or 5 times my risk amount. I was not willing to do that. So I stuck pretty much with YM and ES. And, since I've been crawling my way back to consistency with the micros, MES had been my preferred vehicle. But, I participate in a trade room where the majority of the traders trade either NQ or MNQ, so I switched to MNQ and actually things have been working out just fine until today.

In my frustration, I switched over to MES and promptly lost two trades.


Now I was down for the day by $20.50 and took the time to assess my performance. I realized that the problem with MNQ had primarily been that I had not changed to a larger tick chart. I usually scale my charts to where I am getting a new bar about every 3-6 minutes during regular trading. I have been using a 1500 tick chart lately, but today demanded a 2000 tick chart minimum and I didn't stop to realize that I needed to change that. It left me making decisions far too quickly for my own good. Sometimes what's needed is a deep breath or two, maybe even a walk around the house and come sit back down. The markets will always be there and there will always be another trade day. I know all that, but need to remind myself on a regular basis.

So, not a stellar end to the week, but on the other hand the week as a total was just fine:


For the week I am in the black and showing a 66% win rate even with today's trades so I am pleased. I feel that my setups, indicators and charts are all correct for me at the moment and no changes are required there -- for now.

I hope everyone learned as much or more than I did this week whether you ended in the black or not.

I am going to spend the weekend finishing up a book on trading psychology by Rande Howell. It's been a good read so far.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Nice work for the week. One day is just one day, after all.

As to NQ/MNQ, I think that NQ and CL are the favorites for traders who look for action, and they certainly get it there.

They also tend to get their heads torn off on the wilder days. That doesn't mean you shouldn't trade there, but this is what I thought when I read about the other traders in the trade room preferring NQ. It may be a perfectly fine thing to trade, but it does seem to be the fave for action junkies.

Me, I just get scared every time I look at it, and go back to YM or even old ES and hide for a while.

Your mileage, of course, may vary, and it's up to you anyway, not me. Enjoy your weekend.

Bob.

bobwest 

Nice work for the week. One day is just one day, after all. As to NQ/MNQ, I think that NQ and CL are the favorites for traders who look for action, and they certainly get it there. They also tend to get their heads torn off on the wilder days. That doesn't mean you shouldn't trade there, but this is what I thought when I read about the other traders in the trade room preferring NQ. It may be a perfectly fine thing to trade, but it does seem to be the fave for action junkies. Me, I just get scared every time I look at it, and go back to YM or even old ES and hide for a while. Your mileage, of course, may vary, and it's up to you anyway, not me. Enjoy your weekend. Bob.

I didn't mention that when I was trading the minis, I was also trading CL. I actually found CL a bit calmer than NQ. But, while NQ is just nuts most of the time, CL will lull you into thinking you've got it all figured out, make a few good trades, and then someone in Saudi Arabia will have a stomach ache and CL goes berserk and takes all your money!

I appreciate the reply. Have a great weekend!

Well I stumbled out of the gate to start this week so I'll need some positive trading to end up in the black by Friday. Due to time constraints, I don't have any charts today but they weren't pretty anyway!

Last night I dipped into the Asia session briefly and took two losses on MES, ending down $27.50. Boo, hiss! I jumped the gun on my entries on both and paid the price.

This morning, as everyone knows, the markets were a bit challenging. I missed some trades, caught some scalps, but overall I missed the big moves and got chopped up. Part of the reason was because the volatility stopped me out even when I was correct on the trade and entry. I used to use an ATR indicator at the bottom of my charts to warn me when the market was simply too volatile for my trading style. Somewhere along the way I dropped that but it looks like I'll need to put that back on my desktop.

At one time this morning I had a maximum draw-down of over $88, which is horrendous in the micros. I managed to whittle it back down to a session loss of $23.25, so there was some relief. Overall, I am now down $50.75 to start the week so obviously I have work to do.

Hope everyone was a bit more successful than I was capturing today's opportunities!

NW Trader 

I used to use an ATR indicator at the bottom of my charts to warn me when the market was simply too volatile for my trading style. Somewhere along the way I dropped that but it looks like I'll need to put that back on my desktop.

I made an ATR that gives tick ATR instead of point ATR since I trade in ticks. You might find it useful

Download: ATR in Tick and USD This is a fork from Lizard's amaATR's 1.1 version and when installed will also be put into the Lizard folder as "atrTick". Essentially, I created this because ATR is such an important concept and the way the current indicators are built is to give a value … persontrepidation