Paid to Trade!!

With the market in the middle of the hour range , you get paid to trade by figuring out which side of the first hours range they will break it out off...for me I'm short from 60.25 but will be watching closely..this gap up has some power and the weekly pivot sits above///so may need to reverse...hourly high is at 63.25 and hourly low sits at 54.75...so this 59 is just about at the midpoint

wish I was smart enough to reverse but wasn't ...lol...so they didn't pay ME to trade that...it's the concept that's most important..now I'm trying shorts from 66 area to retest hour high but that's another thread

covered most at 62.75...but trying to hold runners for 59.25 and then if real lucky, new lows on the day. Real point is that you can be paid to trade by knowing when to trade for a breakout and also trading for the retest of a breakout....this post demonstrates a failed trade and a winner..Even though I lost by incorrectly trading for a breakout down of the first hour, the point is that they still broke out the hour range....65 even is final stop on those runners in case they try for new highs...

Does anyone have an ideas that feel give them an edge and get paid to trade.?

Edge: keep losses small & be patient

Good Point Pt_Emini...although I spend a lot of time posting about entries and targets the real edge is being able to structure losses effectively

I got the 59.25 and then got stopped out at 63.50.....just to keep it honest..

I recently received an email telling me that
" I am a loser and why do I bother posting ideas and things that nobody reads on this forum"...not sure why I am typing this here on this thread but my thoughts are this:

Anyone can think whatever they want of me I don't care. I know there are many who read all the fine posts here by the contributors of this forum. Just because this forum doesn't get the "participation" that some other forums get it doesn't diminish it's significance. I like the fact that there are hundreds of "hidden gems" to be found here. Those that take the time to read through them will be rewarded. I like the fact that this forum has a low threshold for "knuckleheads and abusive posters"

To me this forum is about quality!! For me posting my ideas and thoughts is a great "eye opener". As a discretionary trader, it forces me to think " aloud" about what it is that I am doing. So many things become habit over the years and second nature. Typing them in to the computer gives me a great return also. So I'll keep posting ...

Ok, so this is an edge for me. Posting ideas helps me get clarity. Calrity will help you work with your edges better...perhaps I'm selfish
Hopefully somebody else gets some value too..Ok nuff said

Goes to motive... why does someone post to a forum ?

The person that sent you that comment is assuming someone posts to a forum to be popular, build a reputation with the masses or to be crowd pleasing. In which case you would want to search out the largest & most active forum and wow the masses with your wisdom. In reality however, such forums suffer from a high noise to value ratio, not to mention the overabundance of trolls, snipers and other troublemakers. I personally have no interest in wasting my day arguing with 10 trolls about the most basic of trading concepts.

My motive is to share ideas and offer a bit of help where possible. I have no issue with doing so in a lower bandwidth environment which offers a more personalized experience.

I agree with everything you guys have said.

When faced with a problem, any type of problem, if you start explaining your dilemma to a third party then often the solution suddenly pops into your head.

By writing down your thoughts it forces you to organize them and that often opens the spring for new ideas and solidifies and compartementalizes your own thoughts.

Now you could easily put those thoughts into your own written or electronic notebook. However, I found that I rarely if ever, went back and read those notes.

The 3 big advantages that I get from writing my notes and thoughts in a forum is that (1) I think a bit more carefully about what I am trying to do because I am putting this in the public domain and want to be coherrent, (2) I receive questions and comments about my posts which provoke more thinking about the problem and often lead to a better solution, (3) I can easily find my notes again by coming to the forum and searching.

I agree with what is being said about the benefits of posting in a public venue. On that note I would like to ask your opinions on a matter of my own.

Ever since Uncle Ben spoke last week the market has been more volatile. This volatility has kept me out of the market due to the small Stop Loss I use. I trade the ES with a 1.25pt Stop. I look at multiple time frames but execute mainly off the 1 min. chart. Begining last week the volatility has been so high in this time frame that many of the 1 min candles move 1.25pts or more making the chance of a Stop out high thus I have remained out of the market.

I have several choices that I know of, but would welcome other suggestions as well. They are:

1. Increase my Stop Loss (not my favorite choice as I have spent alot of time refining my trading so that I could use a small Stop and have been successful with it.

2. Change markets to one that isn't so volatile (Bonds perhaps)

3. Change time frames (use tick charts instead)

4. Do nothing (wait for the market to normalize)

I would value any feedback or alternate suggestion anyone has to offer.

Thank You

Haven't posted in a while.......I might have something to add to myptofvu's previous post.......

I am going to try to match the responses to your questions above in order, hope it makes sense.....

1. I wouldn't increase a stop loss per se, I would try to learn how to scale, it can be a double edged sort, but in my experience it gives you a much better edge. I do not really know what you are going for, but it is easier, particulary when fading to identify an area of support or resistance and scale in rather then try to hit it dead on. Sometimes you could have made more money being "all in" other times you will make money on a trade where you would have been stopped out. I think this makes sense.......if not let me know.

2. Not all markets react the same way to support or resistance or "magic numbers" some trade to a level others like to over shoot a little. If you don't know the market, you may be at a disadvantage. Bonds are not really a good substitute to the ES, they have a much higher tick value and can be very volitle on news......they are a great market to trade, but you need to know a little about the market. You could try gold or beans I suppose, but you need to learn how they move.........

3. I have found finding areas to trade off longer term charts and executing on shorter term charts to work better in the ES then anything else.

4. You could be waiting a while.........I have seen the market go from very large ranges to very tight ranges over the last 7 years or so. Now the ranges have opened up again, but they are choppy as well. You need to learn to read the enviornment and adapt. Easier said then done, but it's the truth.

Other thoughts are to learn how markets move.....how does a partcular market act at support/resistance, how many points or ticks does it tend to retrace, what is the average swing between major highs and lows (of course a major high and low looks different depending on your time frame), does the market have "favorite numbers" evens and halfs are common in most markets, but how markets trade around them vary a great deal. If you are using indicators, you need to be on a longer term in my opinion, if you are trying to scalp off 1 minute or tick charts as you may have indicated, you really are just trying to find the areas where there is likely to be volitility and play off that........just trading off levels and price action seems to be the best solution for scalpers, if you are using indicators, you have to account for the lag, and I don't think this works on very short term charts.

Hope this helps.

to try to clarify the scaling point....based on what I perceive as support and resistance, I might at 1:20 EST with the market trading 91-91.25 ....I would try a short fade at 95.50 and either 96.50 or 96.75, looking for a point or so on the total postion......wouldn't be looking to be long again until it retests 84.50 down to 83.50..............I also think there is some resistance at 01-02, maybe as low as even 1500. Market could run though so you always have to be careful.

myptofvu - couple thoughts come to mind...

1. take a look at the NQ, $ / tick is a little less intense than the ES, limit order fills are a often easier in the NQ as well.

2. consider using a faster time frame chart, since your already at a 1 minute chart moving to either tick or volume charts will get rid of the long bar problem that plagues time based charts during times of high volatility. I like range bars because the bar size is fixed. Getting rid of the long bars on the chart should help you control your risk profile more directly.

3. if these don't help enough, you might consider index ETF's, such as the SPY and QQQQ. For example 1 ES contract = approx. 500 shares of the SPY, thus you can further control risk by reducing the number of ETF shares you trade. This goes well with pem's idea of scaling, since you could for example scale into (or out of) a position with as few as 100 shares of the ETF per entry (or exit) point.

I did not mean to make this a thread about me, but since I put numbers out there I will follow up, won't make a habit of it........market it 85.25 and rallied, I viewd this as minor support, in retrospect, I should have been in, but I really felt 84.50-83.50 was a better spot.....I wanted to sell a small position at 88.25, it it 88, sold off, so I skipped it on the next run......i liked the next stop at 90.25-91.......which ended up being a nice scalp short. I will not claim this as a successhere though since I am posting it late....

I will still by 84.50-83.50, assuming we trade lower from here.......I think you could also short this 91-92 area if it trades there, but I have already played my hand around this level.....still like the 95.50 to 96.50 area for a short scalp