BrianNC

Sim trading. Didn't get to the market until 10:30 or so. Decided to take a trade off the 466 tick instead of the 15 min as there wasn't anything really setting up on the 15min that I could see, but knew there would be some opportunities on the shorter time frame. Had a buy stop at 1066.25 one tick above the last swing high where the top ellipse is. I didn't have time to set a sell stop before the buy was triggered. I had a 2 and 3 point target on 2 contracts as you can see on the first chart. I am trying out an ATM strategy on the Ninja Trader to try and trade a runner is the reason for 2 contracts. You can see the targets and the sell stop I had at 2.5 points below the entry. The price hit my buy stop and pretty quickly went up to my first target and and misses it by 1 tick, comes back down and begins to make lower highs and lower lows. On the second chart you can see where I drew the down channel to show that. So I was starting to get concerned. About that time my wife came in and started talking about how it looked like it was going down now, gonna be a loser, etc., and reinforcing my thoughts, so I pulled my targets down to BE and got out at BE (I wouldn't have gotten out of the trade if she hadn't come in and done that. ) Of course right after I did that it shot up and hit my 2 point target as you can see on the 2nd chart. Told my wife what happened and she suggested she needed to stay out while I was trading since she knew she influenced me to get out at BE instead of hanging in the trade. I said that I agree with that. LOL. As an added note, I don't use the MA on the chart. I keep forgetting to take it off from my previous method of trading. Since I have been trading the price action only, I don't even notice it is there.

I wish I was that sick!

Sim trading. This is trade I entered last night at 3am and it hit my target at 6:41 while I was in bed. 15 minute chart. Ignore the trade on the left of the chart. That is the trade I did yesterday and already posted about. I had a buy stop set at 2 ticks above the previous high before the entry (ellipse) at 1049.25. I used 2 ticks just as more of a confirmation of the breakthrough than 1 tick. A consolidation had developed since yesterday. I didn't have a sell stop due to a lot of support from below and the overall picture (I erased some of my lines to make the trade clearer). I had a 2 point target (since right now that is all I am going for, a consistent 2 points) and it was just below the previous high from yesterday at the top line on the chart anyway. Anyone else trading S/R could tell me what a higher upside target would have been why? Thanks.

Just found this myself a couple of days ago and I am going to go through it thoroughly.

Sim trading. Here is a chart from yesterday and today. Not going to go into much explanation other than trading S/R. These trades are taken at breakouts of consolidation. I have found that if I don't document at the time of the trade, when I go back and look, I can't remember what time frame I used to take the trade, and can't see as clearly why I took it, although the reasons for it were sound at the time. So I will document starting tomorrow at the time of trade so I can remember and the charts will be more obvious. First chart is 15 min. with three trades, one loser and two winners. The objective on the first trade which was a loser was for a long run, but I was stopped out precisely at my stop, then it turned and made the move I was looking for. Second and third trade was for two points and 3.25 points respectively. Second trade, the entry and exit is on the same bar. Second trade today was at a breakout also for two points which was my target. I have a harder time determining upside targets than I do downside ones for some reason. The downside seems to be more obvious to me and I can manage the trade longer. Maybe someone can give me suggestions.

Could you elaborate on that bathrobe?

Looking forward to you coming back. This has been a great thread.

Sim trading. Here is a trade I took tonight. Trading off the 15 min, chart. In the first chart (ignore the first trade, that was my 2 pointer that I posted about Friday), price broke below the trend line/triangle I had drawn. I wasn't at the charts when it broke, but here a few bars after. So, I assumed a down move, and had a sell stop one tick below the previous low bar of 1032.50. If it broke that previous low 2 bars back before the trade triggered, I would get in. Trade was triggered and in at 1032.25. If you look at the second chart, my target was the previous low of 1023 back on 9/10 where I drew the ellipse. It looked like an obvious area of support to me. The trade went in my favor and went down to 1026.50 and pulled back for a couple of bars. When it started down again, I placed my stop 1 tick above that pullback at 1028.75. Price went down to 1025.50 (6.75 pts) then pulled back again. In the mean time I got a little agressive with my stop and lowered it to 1 tick above the bar prior to the low bar of my trade at 1027.75 where I was eventually stopped out for a 4.5 pt. profit. To be honest with you, I am not sure I could have held through all that with real money on the line. It was hard enough doing it sim trading. : ) Again, all comments, advice, critique, soundness of the decision, wrongness of the decision, etc., welcome. Would there have been a way to preserve a couple of those points I ended up giving back? I was setting my stop according to the 15 min, Could I have stopped more aggressively using a smaller chart? I'm kinda liking this 15 min. chart. The nature of the larger time frame seems to make for bigger targets than using a short term chart. You can see the big picture better.

It's not about trading like a dummy. That's not what the 'Dummies' books are about. It's about simplifying the explanation. And from some of the other posts on that forum, I am not the only one that thinks it sounds complicated at first reading.

I started reading in that forum. Is there a 'Wyckoff for Dummies' forum?

Sim trading. Here is another trade I took today in addition to the one in post #866 which I would still appreciate some feedback on. The trade in post #866 was taken off the 15 min, where this one was actually taken off the S/R showing on the 466 tick. I am just looking to scalp 1 or 2 points consistently, and make more money by adding contracts. I would like to stay in a trade longer term, but haven't learned what to look for to do that, and what targets I should be looking for when doing it. Three charts. One is the 15 min. which I used to see overall trend according to the advice I have been given here. One is the 466 tick which I used to make the trade and has the stops I used to get into the trade, and another 466 tick showing the entry and exit once the trade was over. On the 466 tick with the stops you can see I had the buy at one tick above 1037.50 where 5 candles had touched, and I had the sell stop one tick below 1035 where the last swing low was. It finally hit the buy, and I had my target set for 2 points which was hit after about an hour (I entered at 2:21 and the target was hit at 3:24) which ended up being just a point or so below the high of that run before the close. I had a 10 tick stop, not based on S/R. Just an arbitrary number I use. If someone would give me stop suggestions I would appreciate that too. I didn't use the RSI at the bottom in the trade. It's just my default chart setup and it was not referenced during the trading. I was actually going to take it off and forgot. Again, was this based on sound S/R decisions? Especially in light of just wanting a couple of points? Should I even have had a sell stop since the overall trend was up? My thinking was even a sell at the break of that low might produce a point or two. Thanks for your comments.

Sim Trading. Here is a trade I set up last night before I went to bed using S/R and price and longer term charts as per advice I had been given on some earlier posts about my trading. I actually took the trade off the 15 minute chart. You can see the channel I drew of what I considered a consolidation. The low of the channel was 1039.25 and the high was the previous swing high before I actually took that trade at 1041.75. I placed a buy stop one tick above that last high at 1042 and a sell stop at 1039 one tick below where I drew the support. My buy stop was triggered and I ended up taking 3 points. I am only looking to take 2 or 3 points out of a trade as I have not learned what I should use for targets to stay in the trade longer and how to manage that whole scenario of catching a larger run. Again the trade was triggered at 1042 and I got out at 1045. Don't be confused by the 'Entry' label at where I got out. It's due to not understanding the orders totally on the NT dome. I executed an ATM strategy to get out (not knowingly) so it shows it as an entry even though it was getting out of my two contacts on the trade. The first ellipse is showing the support and the second is where the trade was executed one tick above the previous swing high. So, opening this up to your critique again. I realize the trade was a winner in hindsight, but was it sound in execution, setup, etc? Or did it just work out through dumb luck? Thanks for your insight and suggestions.

Longer term as in what time frame?

Sim trading. If someone could help me out here I would appreciate it. This is my chart from this morning, trade right after the open if you can't see the time due to an ad. Basically sold as the market turned and when the other way. There was a downtrend established in my estimation, price had made lower highs and lower lows and come through the MAs and MAs pointing down. I was going to sell on the pullback to the blue MA which I did. Of course at that point it never looked back to the upside for a few hours. My chart is marked just like it was at the time of the trade. So a few of questions. 1. Should the divergence marked on the RSI and the support and small consolidation kept me out of the trade? We know how often divergence and support fails, but using a trading plan of buying on the pullbacks to the MA with the trend, should I absolutely have not taken this trade (I realize in hindsight I obviously shouldn't have, but think in real time). 2. Using just the info on my chart, would you have stayed out of the short due to consolidation and divergence, and then bought on the (a) break of the MA to the upside (b) break of the highs of the consolidation at 1025 © bought on the break of the trendline? Remember, don't read it in hindsight, but how you actually would have handled it in real time not knowing what was coming. 3. Using the way you trade, what am I missing on my chart in way of indicators or support/resistance, etc. that you would have used to stay out of the short/take the short and/or go long after the consolidation and when would you have ended up going long with what you use if in fact you would have?

Sim trading. Took the trade short at 999.50 and it came within 2 ticks of taking out my 2.5 point stop. Finally reversed and came within a tick of my profit target a few times. It tried to hit my target so many times and failed and the fact we were moving into major news at 10 that I moved my profit target from 2 points to 1 point and took 1 point profit at 998.5. You see a third contract where I was out at BE. That is a runner I was experimenting with. Bottom line, I took 1 point profit. You will see that before the news came out, it did go down and would have hit my 2 point profit target. I guess I should be more patient, but in light of the circumstances better safe than sorry.

You can also use Boot Camp and install Windows on a partition and just boot up into that for your trading.

Sim trading. Ignored the divergence and support marked on the chart on the first trade and paid for it by going short per my signal. Stopped out. Took the next long and got the 2 points I am looking for. But I use a 2.5 stop, so my loss was $50 more than my win, and I have programmed in $5 round turn commissions. So a net loss of $70 with the two contracts I was trading. Or how I look at it, net minus .5 points. My goal per day is 2 points regardless of number of contracts traded. Just looking to take 2 consistently.

I have traded live before, but it has been several years. And yes, the emotions ARE completely different. There are still some in sim trading, but nothing like the real thing. I still remember the first time I was sim trading many years ago and thinking 'what is the big deal?' I found out what the big deal was when I started trading live.

One question about this. In the sim for NT, the price has to trade through my limit by a tick to get filled. It won't fill if it just touches my limit order or the profit target. Is this pretty realistic for fills then when trading live? Is the sim realistic then with me getting filled?

I am sim trading, and my approach is to go for 2 points on the ES, and profit will be multiplied by the number of contracts traded. So a successful trade for me is getting the two points, and I go for them in the same trade. Real simple method. Trade with the trend on pullback to SMA, and take the first trade after the opening. I will post today's and yesterday's chart. I traded 4 out of 5 days last week, and got the 2 points on every trade. I will post those charts too if someone wants, otherwise I will just post yesterday's and today's. Today I outwitted myself as we tend to do. I have my limit order set to get in the market, and follow the SMA with it until the pullback hits my limit order, then it automatically sets my profit at 2 points and my stop at 2.5 points. Well right before it hit my order, I knew there was major news coming out at 10, so I canceled my order. Well, if I had stayed it it would have worked as it usually does. Instead, after the news, I put my order back in for the next pullback, and as happens, I ended up buying at the top of the market for the day. So I either should have stayed in, or not gotten in the trade after the news. I like to make that trade within the first 30 minutes of market open, and should have just stayed out for the day. I do use an RSI to look for divergence and eyeball S/R and draw lines at times looking for something that might keep me out of the trade, but other than that, trend and SMA. I know it's simple, but at least in the sim, working for me so far. In the chart for today, I put ellipses where I would have gotten in and out with my 2 points if I hadn't have canceled my order right before it filled. In the second chart from yesterday, I took the first trade, but let my emotions get in the way and went to get out at BE and pushed my stop up too far and got out for a small loss. It would have hit my target if I had been patient. Took the next signal and got the 2 points.

This has been a great thread. Where did everyone go? I would post, but I am only sim trading.

Your trades and how much you actually make are an inspiration to me. So you can continue to post your profit. Don't stop now. You say you had an INCREDIBLE day and then don't post the profit for the first time. You want to drive me nuts or something?

I knew there would be somebody that couldn't resist.

Does anyone know of a broker(s) that allow you to open an account with just the margin you need to trade whatever you are going to trade, and also has the free version of NinjaTrader with Zen Fire feed? I know Mirus has free NT with Zen Fire but you have to have a minimum of $2500 to open and account. Global allows you to open an account with just the minimum margin for whatever market you are trading, but they only have the paid version of NT and also no Zen Fire.

Glad to hear that. I have been Ninja sim trading for a few months now and getting close to going live.