TimRacette

Tradestation is pretty good as JB said. I use thinkorswim and they have a platform called Prodigio. Another option is a program like Tickit, also based out of Chicago. There's also a site called 'CurrenSee' that essentially uses the hedge fund model, kind of hard to explain, but might be worth looking into.

Ya I also use a Tick chart. In essence instead of the bars being formed after X amount of time has passed they form after X amount of trades have taken place. When the bars for quickly volume is high, when they form slowly, volume is low. I prefer them to time based charts. Daily, 15-min and 512 tick are what I use most.

I think the value in candlesticks comes from turning the data into a visual representation of traders sentiment which you can then assess at a glance. One thing to try are Heikin Ashi candlestick charts. With these charts you aren't concerned with the pattern of each candle, rather the direction of the trend because Heikin Ashi take into account the prior days bar with each new candle's open starting from the midpoint of the prior candle. Check it out, see if you like it.

I think you're misinterpreting me. If I'm looking at a 15-min candle, I don't place any weight on the formation until the candle is closed. If it's 13-minutes in and is a big body bearish candle it could rally and close as a hammer, see what I'm saying.

My view is a sim account is to work out the methodology, a live account is to work out the emotions.

My opinion is that you cannot interpret the candle until it is full closed. A 15-min candle for instance can be 1 or 2 minutes away from closing in a big body bearish candle and then rally to form a hammer. Wouldn't you agree?

From my experience the highest first target getting hit % is on the Euro Futures (6E) at +4pips. Just over 75%. I use an 8 pip stop and in essence am entering just after a 15-min pullback in a trend. Hard to completely visualize with words, but since the 6E moves so fast and has such large ranges it makes for great reward to risk ratios. For instance a 3:1 r/r ratio puts a target at 24 pips, a very small move for the 6E.

Hey Bluehorse, perhaps I should have painted a better picture for when I'm using trailstops etc. I've always been comfortable talking about my strategy and the specifics. For instance on the 6E I look to enter once a 15-min level shows participation (buyers or sellers stepping in) I use an 8 pip stop. With 6cts for example I take 2 off at +4, move my stop to -4 and then trail my stop on the remaining 4 cts under the prior swing high/low until I'm taken out. I've found the +4/-4 method to work extremely well on the Euro as it cuts down my risk on the trade. Those +4s get hit close to 85% of the time (basing this off my live trade #s). Thanks for the comments.

If you're having trouble deciding whether scale in, scale out, or going all in all out, I think first question to ask is "do the #s make sense?" A Quick Story With a Fellow Trader I was having a conversation this week with a fellow trader and we were talking about the feasibility of a strategy that risks 2 to make 1. That is, your reward is less than your risk. While I was somewhat intrigued, the first thing that I thought of was the challenge of overcoming a draw down, or string of losers. As an independent trader, I feel the edge lies in the ability to get in and out of the markets 'unnoticed.' Riding a trend or the meat of the move is the way I approach the markets. So that lead our discussion to risk/reward, what do the #s say? Does Scalping Work? While scalping (a few ticks/pips) can be a profitable strategy for big firms with co-located servers, it's not my method of choice. Holding out for a big profit target, well that allows for 1 winner to make up for a bunch of small losers, but waiting for that home run can be tiresome, and when the opportunity presents itself, it can be advantageous to want to take a small profit to "lock in gains." (Yes, you can go broke taking a profit). What About Trail Stops? That brings me to the trail stop approach, entering a position an incrementally tightening your stop as the trade works in your favor. I find this works well if you can have the self-control to not tighten the stop too quickly at the onset of the trade. Waiting for the trade to get away from your entry price before tightening, and then not trailing too closely. So What Should a 1 Contract Trader Do? From my experience when trading a 1 lot, and having to go all in all out, setting a profit target 3-4 x your stop size and trailing your stop to that target is extremely effective. When increasing to 3 contracts then the options for scaling begin to factor in. I prefer to take a small profit (scalp) on 1 contract, set a target of 3x my stop price on the 2nd contract, and trail the third contract until I am taken out. This reduces the risk at the onset of the trade, as a high percentage of trades (whether they work to a bigger profit target out or not) tend to give at least a small bounce. I use this same method for larger lot size as well, small profit target, 3:1 profit target, trail stop. Everyone enjoy their weekend, and thanks in advance for everyones comments and thoughts. How do you scale out of your position? (if at all)

My input would be two specific books, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre and Pit Bull by Martin "Buzzy" Schwartz. Both are great reads. Btw, I'm also out in Phoenix, well Scottsdale, great place to be this time of you. I use COX Internet. -Tim

I trade smaller on Monday and Friday, a lot of times Monday is a gap and go day so there may only be one entry into the trend. Tues-Thurs is when a lot of the money is made during the week.

Ya JS if you're in Chicago you should hit up the Thinkorswim headquarters, they got a pretty cool office setup there.

Couldn't agree more. There's so much that swing trading teaches you when it comes to designing a system and being able to follow it exclusively. Plus, it's a great alternative to sitting in from of the screen all day and can be integrated much easier into your current lifestyle, that is, if you work a job.

Hey JS, are you referring to Shaowtrader (Peter Reznicek). Super great guy and fantastic trader. I learned a lot about market internals from him over the years.

raul- if you're setup through a router or firewall that could be the problem. You are able to go into screen saver > power settings and modify for energy efficiency vs performance, but that shouldn't effect your Internet connection.

Blue, I agree with small contracts scalping is absolutely not the way to go, that's not what I was eluding too, but if you have 2 contracts with the ability to take one off at a profit target of say 2:1 or 3:1 and trail the remaining contract the gains can really add up. If you're trading say a 5 lot on the 6E and take 1 contract off at +4 moving your stop to -4, you significantly reduce your risk on the position. This small first target will have a much higher percentage of getting hit than your larger target and in the long run the reduced risk positions help reduce losses.

For about a year and a half I would chart market profile excel, manually. It was a fantastic exercise and really helped me understand the market structure of the S&P500. When it comes down to making money though, I found the 6E to have much greater risk/reward ratios. The ES is great, because it's technical, it just chops you up sometime, stopping you out and then reversing. Tim

Hey slick, do you use market profile exclusively on EUR/USD? I've used it on the S&P, but not the currencies.

In a fast trending market trailing the prior bar works well for an exit strategy. Al Brooks uses a similar method. I really like a break of the high of low bar in an uptrend and low of high bar in a downtrend, I use it a lot on the daily charts for individual stocks, then I just trail my stop below or above the prior day's bar.

The DOM is great, but I agree it's not the be all end all. With so many large firms trading huge size scalping for only a few pips, reading the tape, DOM, or Level 2 is important, but for the at home trader looking to make a few points or handful of pips make sure to put your effort into executing your order entry's the same way each and every time. Thats what I feel the value is. One other thing, it's very very very difficult to trade a 1 lot, reason being that you have to time your exits perfectly. You either hold for the big winner, or take small winners over again and die a slow death. Even just going to a 2 lot allows you to scale out and take profit at multiple points, very valuable and increases profits.

I use a similar strategy to sr100. I also use a basic low of high bar break and high of low bar break to signal shorts and longs. (i.e. we pullback in an uptrend I wait for the high of the lowest bar to break before entering long, vice versa for shorts).

That's not always the case and is an important topic when choosing futures broker. Some brokers rest your orders on the exchange servers, other brokers rest them on their servers, even more, some orders are held on your own computer only. There is latency (or lag) between the order being filled, thus the result for slippage. I realize the title is corny, and a lot of people think the topic is to basic, but it's an area often overlooked. If you receive slippage often on markets like the Emini S&P or Euro, I'd talk with your broker.

johnnyh, didn't mean to offend anyone, sorry man. Predictor, FIFO does occur, but it's not as big of a deal with small size.

Haha, fair enough 'Dude' to each his own. I prefer mine inserted with a slice of herb butter with some grilled bacon and onions. Buffalo meat is ideal!