Less then 40 min and DONE for the Day with $370 in profit!

#1

I put in about 37 minutes of trading this morning and am done for the day!

#2

Now I have to pretend to look busy so my wife doesn’t rope me into Christmas present wrapping… LOL

#3

Were you trading Nadex spreads?

#4

Futures contracts.

#5

All I’ve traded is Nadex…where & how do you trade futures? Is there a course/videos on it here at Apex?

#6

I trade futures through Ninjatrader brokerage. You could also do this with spreads and honestly that is where Darrell recommends people start anyway. This is an article Darrell posted on doing so and there is a ton of education in the forum on it Learn The Tricks To Trading Spreads Mirroring Futures

You can start here https://forum.apexinvesting.com/t/izone-sharpshooter-set-up-and-rules/4415

and then to apply it to spreads go here https://forum.apexinvesting.com/t/izone-sharpshooter-with-nadex-spreads/4573

This will prepare you better for trading futures, that is my humble opinion. Once you have this mastered and you still want to trade futures there is a wealth of information in the education section.

#7

Peter nice trades. Two questions. On 1st trade, I don’t see the swing low bar, followed by a retracement, then break swing bar. On 3rd trade, where did you have your stop? Seems like it would of been stopped if using the trend flip or MVP arrows as stop. Thanks, your charts are always helpful!

#8

Thank you Jeff :smile:

On the 1st trade the setup bar was an up close in a down trend, so I used that as my swing low, the very next bar closed down and the bar after was my entry point. Now I originally had my order in as a stop order so I actually got filled at a better price as it retraced on the entry bar. More of a sling than a swing.

On the third trade I believe I set my stop three ticks behind the MVP predictor or three ticks behind the trend flip whichever is closest and I left it there. I do not normally trail my stop on a swing trade unless I am using 1 contract for scalp and 1 for a runner, and I usually only do that if I miss the trend entry, otherwise I pretty much give it room to work. In this case, I moved both contracts to the same take profit target of 10 ticks since that would have put me well over my 5% goal for the day, and I left my stop where I initially set it. It’s something I have done as part of my risk management strategy and it seems to work ok for me. Having said that, when I do get hit, it really hurts, thankfully it isn’t often.

#9

@timelord914

Peter - these are good trades, though the first one is kind of “your style” :smile:
couple of questions…

  1. reg. risk mgmt strategy - what is the reasonable risk/reward ratio for these kind of swing trades?.. bcos usually we are looking for 10 to 15 ticks profit if it works out, but the risk is determined by the previous swing high or low, or trend flip or mvp whichever is closer. what if those risk $ is way more than the profit potential we are expecting out of this trade?.. say if the SL is 20 or 30 ticks away - would you still take the trade, for 10-15 tick profit?..

  2. reg your third trade - if you look at the big picture, it is in down trend… but you took loong entry in the bounce pullback?.. isnt it too risk?.. (infact it did attempted to go down resuming the prevailing downtrend before your TP)… and volume was also not high, nor increasing… so did you see something else that prompted that it is a reversal, rather than the pullback from the down trend?..

  3. do you take “ALL” entries which meet the izss trend and swing rules, in general, or do you have any specific rules that only on specific conditions you take them, otherwise skip even though it is a valid entry as per the system and rules?.. i understand its about “market reading”… but i see some ppl say “dont cherry pick your trades and you miss out some good ones which might have covered the looses etc”… and some say “you got to be picky… you dont have to take all the trades that comes on your way” like that… 'm really confused!!! :frowning:

bcos we can always show some good and bad trades, both exactly following rules of the system… so it is not about how to use the system and follow the rules… but “when to choose and when to skip an valid entry?”… is seems to be million dollar question for me now!.. any inupts/help would be much appreciated.

Others - if anybody has come across the above situation (#3) and if you have any tip, pls. share and that would be of great help.

Thanks, Vad

#10

Thanks @vpoonathan!

Great questions…

  1. Regarding risk mgmt, based on my observations with trading futures over the last several months, when scalping risk is generally going to be more than reward because you are going for quick moves. So to answer your question, yes, I would still take the trade for a 10 - 15 profit with a SL 20 -30 ticks away. I find that if I give the trade room to work and my analysis of what the chart is telling me is correct, I am right more often than I am not.

  2. with regard to your second question - you are correct, the predominant trend at that time had been down, but I also use a chart dashboard (like Marilyn talks about) with a 30 minute and a 10 minute chart to give me a bigger picture look in helping me in my decision making and what I saw at that point was an up trend that had began with the 4:50 am candle. With settlement, the green ice, the blue ice all within close proximity to each other, I told myself if it bounces up I’m going to enter on the next swing high breakout. Admittedly, I thought there would be more of a pullback before my entry and I had just placed my entry there to be ready to enter and got in much sooner than I was intending to, but I still believed in the trade and just let it play out. I didn’t think it was any more risky based on what the whole chart as well as my confirmation charts that I use were telling, not just the small portion of the chart that appears in the screen grab. To give you an idea of what I was seeing at that point I am attaching a screen grab of a 10 minute chart for that time period

  3. No I do not take all entries, for one I’m usually trading while I’m working my full time job so I miss a lot more than I take. I don’t really have any specific rules that determine which setups I take and which one’s I don’t, it is mostly which setups I actually catch. I agree with the “don’t try and cherry pick your trades” mentality because you could pick all the losers and get really messed up. I also look at this as it’s my business, my money so, I’m definitely going to apply my discretion and qualify each potential entry. For instance, I usually don’t take a setup within the first 10 minutes or so of the market open, I’ve been burned doing that and I make the personal choice to wait and let things settle down. I have missed nice trend entries because of it, but I have also missed some losses.

For me, my success to date has been about believing in my ability to trust the system and stick to it. I do add in a lot of style elements once I’m in the trade (i.e. multiple contracts, add on trades, trailing for more profit on a scalp, etc) but I stick to the rules for my entries and I always have an initial exit strategy win or lose.

I hope that was helpful, I always appreciate your questions because it gives me the opportunity to review my trades and reinforce what I have learned for myself. :smile:

Peter

#11

Thanks Peter!..