Bonjour, mon ami!

Comment ca va aujourd'hui? Was it the gap trade that made you 5.25 points in the ES?

What do you think about the gap trade?

Regards,
TT

Cunparis,

I see this a lot in all the forums and traders that I have met. They are really really good and learn to dance with a specific investment, then they try to 'deworsify' into something else that requires a little different skill set.

ForexFactory.com is a great example to me of people who are there to build friendships, build EGO, more than make money.

Do anyone of them make money? Many of the threads are about systems and when I skip to the end (I always start at the last post) I see the majority of them (all of them?) never work out.

Excellent post. Scalping dax & crude was kind of a happy accident. I was interested in scalping ES & The Bund. So I was researching some scalpers and I saw a video of a guy scalping the dax. I noticed what he was doing and so I tried it out and it worked right off the bat. So I tried it on crude and it worked. I did that on sim for 3 days and it was unbelieveable how well it worked.

However the reason it worked was more of a coincidence IMHO. The market was balanced last week. The past 3 days have been more of a challenge. And I wasn't looking for a challenge.

So I hope that answers your question. Sometimes I wait 30-60 minutes for a setup on ES/Bund (I trade them the same) and my thinking was I could scalp dax/crude. But it's not that easy. What makes me successful on ES is my feel for it and the fact I study the context quite seriously (knowing all S/R levels for example). I can't do that on Crude & Dax, I don't have time.

Please don't think it was for a challenge or ego or anything like that. I just thought I found something easy. I was a bit naïf. So I think you're right, because dax/crude takes my attention away from bund/es. so when bund/es are trading I'll focus on them.

I need to start increasing my size and building consistency. That's the most important thing right now. I can't keep trading 1-2 lots forever. Time to take it up a notch.

So what does that leave? Price, volume, & the DOM.

So to answer your question, if I had it to do all over again I would do it totally differently. I'd start by watching the DOM only (no charts) for months. As long as it took. And then I'd add charts only for support & context. Instead I went the other way. Pulling my hair out wondering why things didn't work as expected when in fact the answer was right there before my eyes.

So to summarize, the only thing I believe in is what's happening right now. Is the market balanced or not? Is the current price getting accepted as fair? If not, in which way is it moving. I look in the past to see what was accepted or rejected to give me an idea of what I may find in the future. that's it in a nutshell.

Hello,

Enjoying reading your journal and also your blog.
Above you mention about watching DOM only for months. But I presume you have to know what to look for, otherwise you could be watching and not "seeing" what you are supposed to see ? So would a person have to have some guidance on this, in terms of the essential nuts and bolts. Wondering if you have any views on this and on where to get such guidance if required ?

Also is the DOM 'easier' on some instruments ? e.g. would it be easier on slower markets ? Is the ES tougher to read than say the Bund etc.

Look forward to your views.

Thanks.

I saw a video of a guy scalping the dax.

I'd be interested to see it, would you mind posting the link?

Great questions. The No BS Day Trading ebook & video will give you an idea of what to look for, but my experience is it never happens exactly as he describes. However reading that will give you an idea of what to look for. Basically you have to constantly be looking at how the bids & offers are changing along with price, and what is traded where and are the bids & offers pulled or trading? It's quite demanding really and a couple hours is enough. There's a lot of other stuff and after you see if for a while you just "know" if a bid is real or fake, if it's about to get pulled, etc. After watching it for a while you start to develop your intuition. I've been using the DOM for exits for a year now, but was using bar charts for entries.

It may not be clear from my posts so let me summarize: For ES & Bund I use my charts to determine where I'd like to enter trades. When price gets there, I look at the DOM to find a good low-risk spot to enter and then I manage the trade on the DOM. This will be the subject of my next blog post. So for ES & Bund I'm not watching only the DOM. In between trades I watch the DOM to study it and learn it and if I can I scalp for 1 pt. Today's trades were just scalps off the DOM but I was watching the charts to see the balance area & the high & low. The guys who trade DOM only have to remember the highs & lows, I find it easier to look at a chart. But there is a big difference between looking at a chart to see where price is in relation to where it was, and using a chart to enter on a bar pattern or a higher high etc. The latter I do not do any more.

It's definitely easier in slower markets. The no bs guy recommends treasuries. Since I already trade ES & Bund I just study the DOM on those. ES goes pretty quick. I spent a few weeks watching ZN and it's easier & slower but also boring. Euro moves too fast and crude & dax are way too fast to learn. So I'd recommend ZN or ES for US hours and Bund or Stoxx for European hours.