[jonbig04]

Originally Posted by atto »

Re-read Phantom's rules #1 and #2. Get out when you're not proved right, not when you're proved wrong.

That makes a lot of sense..but I'm confused on how to apply it. For example, should I have gotten out at 10:35? It took me a couple minute to be proved right..so I guess what I'm asking is how long to we wait to be proved right?

[atto]

Originally Posted by jonbig04 »

That makes a lot of sense..but I'm confused on how to apply it. For example, should I have gotten out at 10:35? It took me a couple minute to be proved right..so I guess what I'm asking is how long to we wait to be proved right?

That takes screen time, to be honest. It's also based on what kinds of moves you're targeting. However, let me give you an example: If you're trading a breakout, you need to see both price and volume confirming. If price is just slowly messing around, even in your direction, it's not really "breaking", is it? If you don't see new volume helping it out, do you think it has gas to keep moving?

Don't be afraid to get out for a couple ticks, and wait for what you want. I frequently enter a breakout, exit for a couple ticks, price pulls back to old res (now support), and I re-enter. Net to net, risking less and gaining a few free ticks.

[jonbig04]

Originally Posted by atto »

That takes screen time, to be honest. It's also based on what kinds of moves you're targeting. However, let me give you an example: If you're trading a breakout, you need to see both price and volume confirming. If price is just slowly messing around, even in your direction, it's not really "breaking", is it? If you don't see new volume helping it out, do you think it has gas to keep moving?

Don't be afraid to get out for a couple ticks, and wait for what you want. I frequently enter a breakout, exit for a couple ticks, price pulls back to old res (now support), and I re-enter. Net to net, risking less and gaining a few free ticks.

I see what you mean. From what I was seeing today, price was messing around a bit, but declining volume told me that that demand was declining. The break happened just a few seconds later.

I like what you said about getting out for a few ticks and coming back in. That would have been the best move for me today as i would have made a few extra and been out for the slight up move at 10:38. I have considered doing that before. Now I will try to put it into action. Thanks again for the advice.

[jonbig04]

EDIT: declining volume in the context of all the other price/volume action*

[jonbig04]

So it looks like I've racked up around $330 in commissions so far. Ouch.

Depending on how many contracts I was trading, that takes a decent or insanely large chunk of profit.

Here's the break down depending on contracts traded minus commish:

Profit for week 1

Trading 1 contract= $80
Trading 2 contracts= $479
Trading 3 contracts= $910
Trading 4 contracts=$1,325
Trading 5 contracts=$1,740

This isn't entirely accurate as there are of course multiple tiers of commish costs, but it just to give me an idea.


Either way from now on my trading will be further limited to 10 trades per day...another great lesson learned from fake money trading.

This also gets me thinking about how many contracts I should trade whenever I do go live....only 1 is very expensive on a commission per tic basis.

I also need to find out what ninja costs per month, anyone happen to know of the top of their head?

Hope you all are having a fun week end. I will be at home with NQ charts...

[atto]

Originally Posted by jonbig04 »

This also gets me thinking about how many contracts I should trade whenever I do go live....only 1 is very expensive on a commission per tic basis.

If I'm understanding you right, it's per contract, so it's all the same (and from your trading style, all "expensive").

Originally Posted by jonbig04 »

I also need to find out what ninja costs per month, anyone happen to know of the top of their head?

$50-$60/month, depending on how much you prepay. You can also buy a lifetime license. Don't plan on using the Dynamic DOM unless you want to pay more, as well.

Also, do you use limit or market orders? If you use limit orders, you may not always get filled. If you use market orders, there *will* be slippage you probably aren't considering.

Originally Posted by jonbig04 »

So it looks like I've racked up around $330 in commissions so far. Ouch.

Depending on how many contracts I was trading, that takes a decent or insanely large chunk of profit.

It means that you have to either:

A. find a decent broker with decent commission rates for the NQ
B. adjust your profit target to compensate for commission
C. or just grin and bear it as commish and fees are just a part of the game

One thing I like about OEC is that if you are a client they can load up your demo with your commission rates so that your testing will more closely approximate real-world testing, slippage notwithstanding.

[jonbig04]

Originally Posted by atto »

If I'm understanding you right, it's per contract, so it's all the same (and from your trading style, all "expensive").
$50-$60/month, depending on how much you prepay. You can also buy a lifetime license. Don't plan on using the Dynamic DOM unless you want to pay more, as well.

Also, do you use limit or market orders? If you use limit orders, you may not always get filled. If you use market orders, there *will* be slippage you probably aren't considering.

Hmmm now I'm confused. The commish rates I looked at were per round turn. I assumed that meant that the costs were $4.30 per round turn if you trade 1, or 10 contracts....did I miss that up? Is it PER contract?


In sim I've been using limit orders. It seems to me that if you use limit you may not get filled, and if you use market there will be slippage. I suppose its up to me to decide the lesser of the two evils for my particular trading...