TradeQueen Daily Journal

I've gotten myself into something much deeper than I could of ever imagined.

While I've lost a ton, still I have no regrets for trying.

My goal set from this point forward is to slowly recoup my losses and continue to learn the tactics to gain advantages and become a successful day player.

The positive here is everyday I learn a wealth of information that can put me on track.

The immediate goal for tomorrow, Monday 5/9/11, is to minimize the surprises and find the better gains. Until then...

This can be a very frustrating business...but remember its a business....be cold and cruel....and profit driven. This is the greatest business ever invented....where else can you sell something before you bought it.

If ES scares you, try trading light quantities on SPY for a while until you feel comfortable....the S&P ETF....very liquid, same numbers as ES, very low power....but low pain on mistakes.....practice holding the trade until its profitable...overnight if needed....rarely are the best prices during a single day.

Buy low sell higher, its the only way to make money in this business.

As an FYI, the richest traders I know don't analyze squat, or look at charts, or run algos......they are just gamblers.....they go in big and wait until profit is reached.

The ES boys are going back to get those night jackals at 1373....so the long trade should be good for a little longer, but after that be careful.....we've come a long way from last year at ES 1000.

Originally posted by grednfer

This can be a very frustrating business...but remember its a business....be cold and cruel....and profit driven. This is the greatest business ever invented....where else can you sell something before you bought it.

If ES scares you, try trading light quantities on SPY for a while until you feel comfortable....the S&P ETF....very liquid, same numbers as ES, very low power....but low pain on mistakes.....practice holding the trade until its profitable...overnight if needed....rarely are the best prices during a single day.

Buy low sell higher, its the only way to make money in this business.

As an FYI, the richest traders I know don't analyze squat, or look at charts, or run algos......they are just gamblers.....they go in big and wait until profit is reached.

The ES boys are going back to get those night jackals at 1373....so the long trade should be good for a little longer, but after that be careful.....we've come a long way from last year at ES 1000.

Agreed. Mostly frustrating, although a great business indeed. I've never been so happy getting my $ss kicked. hmm why is that? joking... it's the one thing I do know.

If I could trouble you grednfer, could you elaborate a little more on your comments on the overnight traders.

I ask because there was a comment on another thread simular to yours, regarding the collaboration or possibly the lack of with the overnight traders.

I feel it may help me better understand market strategy to know the relationship between overnighters and the Regular hour group.. motives. Hope that makes sense.

Regardless if you can do this of not... I want to thank you for your feedback. I feel it's important to learn about the different characters or mindsets, in order to identify my own trade characteristics. Thanks for the ETF tip. Looks like I might die out here soon. If so... I'll definitely look into that. Thanks!

Originally posted by grednfer



Buy low sell higher, its the only way to make money in this business.

As an FYI, the richest traders I know don't analyze squat, or look at charts, or run algos......they are just gamblers.....they go in big and wait until profit is reached.

I love to play with numbers. It took me a day, but I'm getting a game plan. I personally need to learn strategy, for now. But I get what your saying. Thanks!

On the Overnight thing......
Most of the time....the best pricing occurs after hours...which is why trading only during the day trading hours is grossly sub-optimizied.

Pricing cycles which yeild highs and lows don't live on human clocks....they have clocks but its not necessarily during Market Open hours.
I only trade futures for this reason, cuz there is safety in sequential numbers and reduced GAP risk (pricing skipping over numbers).

I rarely trade manually, I use machines and those machines have embedded rules......No human can efficiently trade the system...we lack concentration, patience, discipline, and stamina.

The times I do trade manually its because of severely oversold conditions (3/17) or if I'm testing and its gets out of control.

One thing you may want to try is a technique we used to use trading manually and futures are good for this.

If you want to trade long or short.....use the forward contract....I think its U1 now.......and do your stopping (yuk) SHORT/LONG with the current contract...M1.....the current will be more liquid which is good for stop orders. They are perfect hedges for each other and one will offset the other.

To start with....put both trades on simultaeously (+/-).....and get used to the price movement and profit/loss movement. When both are on, you won't be making or losing money but you can see what would've happened. Practice resolve, which is important for manual traders.....and knowing how to spot weakness vs. momentum.

I know an oil trader who can put on a trade anytime.....ride it either way, pull or tilt one side and make money in both directions.

There are many opportunities in the market and you just need to find your "niche".

Its a tough market right now......very toppy. NQ has been in a 40 point range for a month.....and it has 30-35 point days.......


Good Luck

Hi grednfer; I have a question if you don't mind :

You said "I rarely trade manually, I use machines and those machines have embedded rules......No human can efficiently trade the system...we lack concentration, patience, discipline, and stamina."

Do the embedded rules react to a new high or low that is made, say in the RTH session, or do they wait for the close, and do they apply to the O/N session as well


TIA

Sorry for the above question TradeQueen ... Not trying to step on your thread ...

me casa, you casa

Red,
The software for this current project trades 24x7 but it computes the pivot values from the previous days close...thats how pivots are calc'd right?

I'm still observing behavior around the pivots cuz futures have different closes than stocks...but the math is close enough right now.

I think the point I was trying to make is that the best pricing comes after hours.....take the best ES short trades in May starting May 1.
7pm on the 1st, 2am on the 11th, and 1am last night. You either have to be a machine or live in EU to catch that stuff.

Its looking like sell in May and go away.....but all the indices seem to have a floor......I'd like to see that break....so we can get a nice correction going.

I thought of a past experience this evening. I'm not sure as to what triggered my brain to reach into the depth of my subconscious to recall this story, but nevertheless it came to me.

A few years back I coached a girls softball team. I've helped trained and have coached people of all ages over the years in different instances of course. I've always enjoyed training people, teaching, but reflecting back... I now hope I was good at it.

So, I was an assistant coach for this girls 8 and Under softball team. 7 & 8 year old girls will really surprise you on how well they can play sports. It's quite amazing.

I didn't realize it at that time, but I really didn't like the manager of this team - at all. Still don't! Anyway, he was trying to teach the girls how to perform a double play by throwing the ball to the kid covering second base and subsequently throwing the ball to first. 7 & 8 year old girls? First time players?

He'd hit the ball to a kid and yell "Turn two! Turn two!".
The kid threw it directly to 1st Base.
He'd say "I want you to turn two this time, turn two!" and he'd hit the ball to another girl. She threw it directly to 1st Base. This happened a third time and again, the kid threw it directly to 1st Base.

The manager became all unglued, near stomping "I said turn two, I want you to turn two!". The girls stood blank and I shouted from the sideline "Do you girls know what turn two means?".

The entire infield replied simultaneously... Noooooo! Problem solved. They were taught the process they just didn't know what the play was called. Even at 7 & 8 years old... girls can learn how to turn a double play.

Another side note. I think it's important to Acknowledge: A good person will have sincere intentions.

Wow, it's late. Softball practice in the morning. 13 & 14 year old girls. Yikes!

Now I'm getting waaay ahead of myself. I seen some light TODAY. Doesn't mean it's going to happen again tomorrow. This is the MAIN POINT of today's journal.

I will try to post my numbers BEFORE RTH trading actually starts. Think I'll put it in education for the time being.

I have a lot of new questions or rather... NOTE TO SELF's:

One... Just because I can look back and say WOW my pivots are on the mark. What will it do for me when I'm looking to it at the moment?

My guess is, it will just give me a better understanding of what can happen when the market reaches a particular level.

How will I know my marks are good, unless I can look back and see they were?

The experienced poster's here have very good understanding to where the market will be at the end of the day. As happy as I am today... I still can't see that.

Therefore, this is my next goal. Having a better understanding of Long term movement.

Would like to go back again and reread some of those old threads. I get a little something more each time. I'm just so exhausted.

Should I turn off talk radio? Late news messes with me.

Another thing to note was it seemed that the two pivot's I had and the R1 points all seemed accurate in the beginning of the day. Later in the day and the market started reaching S# levels, it seemed to get further off. (yeah, right after I finally bragged about it)

Still close though, just a bit further off. I need to look at other people's numbers to recognize consolidation areas.

Finally, I don't know if my personality is an issue on this form. Can you tell it's been a problem in the past?

Got to work on calming down. Plus I don't want to get to righteous, because the market will flip and break me.

Uhhh, gotta stand up now. good night.

The surprises will always be there, but the losses can always be minimalized by better risk management and even more prudent money management.