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My strategy for trading /ES is support/resistance using a paid subscription to provide support and resistance zones of the day.
I am still developing my strategy for /CL (crude oil). I am probably going to put in a full year trading on demand before I go live.
I am "wary" of the so called guru's. My thought is why would they waste their time teaching newbies if they were profitable?
I have a few basic indicators I am testing including the CCI, Williams%r, MACD and the slow stochastic. I have a bollinger up on the chart. What I have been doing is trying to catch swing moves on a short term basis using the 133 tick chart. I use the previous swing high or low as my target and keep my stop .10 away from the price. As the price moves I adjust my stop if the trade is going my way. If there is an indication I am on the wrong side I get out immediately.
I think price action is the most useful "indicator" of them all.
I am still developing my strategy for /CL (crude oil). I am probably going to put in a full year trading on demand before I go live.
I am "wary" of the so called guru's. My thought is why would they waste their time teaching newbies if they were profitable?
I have a few basic indicators I am testing including the CCI, Williams%r, MACD and the slow stochastic. I have a bollinger up on the chart. What I have been doing is trying to catch swing moves on a short term basis using the 133 tick chart. I use the previous swing high or low as my target and keep my stop .10 away from the price. As the price moves I adjust my stop if the trade is going my way. If there is an indication I am on the wrong side I get out immediately.
I think price action is the most useful "indicator" of them all.
My plan is simple price action and support and resistance.
I look for support and resistance via the price actions. I don't use indicators. Just the 3 and 5 min charts for entry. Once I enter the trade, I set 2pt stop loss ($100 for the /ES). I only trade one contract. Once I am +3pts ($150) on the trade, I instantly move my stop to breakeven, removing all risk for from the trade. Now is trade management phase. My profit is $200 (4pts), I set sell limit at 4pts above entry and simply wait.
That't it. yes, I could be leaving more money on the table, but I once I accomplish $3000, I will proceed to 2 contracts. Then the plan will still be 2pt stop loss (-$200), and take 1st contract off at +3pts (150), move stop on 2nd contract to break-even and then management that one contract for hopefully higher points. This should increase my weekly profit.
My plan is simple price action and support and resistance.
I look for support and resistance via the price actions. I don't use indicators. Just the 3 and 5 min charts for entry. Once I enter the trade, I set 2pt stop loss ($100 for the /ES). I only trade one contract. Once I am +3pts ($150) on the trade, I instantly move my stop to breakeven, removing all risk for from the trade. Now is trade management phase. My profit is $200 (4pts), I set sell limit at 4pts above entry and simply wait.
That't it. yes, I could be leaving more money on the table, but I once I accomplish $3000, I will proceed to 2 contracts. Then the plan will still be 2pt stop loss (-$200), and take 1st contract off at +3pts (150), move stop on 2nd contract to break-even and then management that one contract for hopefully higher points. This should increase my weekly profit.
That's basically it.
From my research so far you are on the right path, most futures traders do not use many (if any) technical indicators but rely on moving averages, support & resistance and price action. Right now I am experimenting with momentum indicators as they seem to help me understand to depth of a move. One issue I have is tape reading but I'm sure with enough hours I will get better.
I traded two full days over the past three days and was up by over 700 dollars each day. I am 100% sure it was dumb luck. I was over trading and trying to catch more of the moves than I should have.
I have to start fine tuning my entry/exits and work on my trade management.
Since no one has answered this question, I'll try.
Mainly because most, if not all, future contracts are on indices or commodities or currencies or a benchmark, I believe, and not on individual stocks or bonds, so it is impossible or extremely difficult or unusual as a common investor to have in your personal inventory the underlying asset, and settlement is for the most part dollar netting anyway.
It is possible, I suppose, to have, say, $10,000 in cash and trade just one contract worth $10,000. But you would make profits, if any, very slowly, probably at the same rate as, say, a dividend-paying stock, and it probably wouldn't be worth the commission and other expenses, while individual speculators go into futures on margin with the idea of making high profits relatively quickly with little money down, so to speak.
In contrast, for example, I use the equity options market to position and reposition my portfolio and to enhance yield, writing only puts covered by cash and calls covered by actual shares in inventory. But even that is only worth the trouble with a portfolio worth at least $100,000, I would say, actually invested and/or available for investment in actual cash: some online brokerages charge expenses based on balances and other factors other than per-trade basis, using complicated algorithms, and they can be quite low.
In contrast, with a leveraged futures account you can trade, say, $100,000 worth of contracts with only $10,000 invested (some leverage ratios can be even higher than 10x, I believe) and more than cover per-trade expenses if you hit it big ... or lose everything in a day on one volatile swing ...
1) I decided that TD Ameritrade wasn't the right broker and that the platform they provide for futures is limited. Also the data feed is slower than others.
2) I started using Ninja Trader.
3) I determined technical indicators are useless for intraday futures.
4) I have been using tape reading/expanded DOM to trade off of and using the chart only to identify trends, support/resistance.
5) I decided that unless I can pass top step traders trading combine I will not commit any capital to trading.
1) I decided that TD Ameritrade wasn't the right broker and that the platform they provide for futures is limited. Also the data feed is slower than others.
2) I started using Ninja Trader.
3) I determined technical indicators are useless for intraday futures.
4) I have been using tape reading/expanded DOM to trade off of and using the chart only to identify trends, support/resistance.
5) I decided that unless I can pass top step traders trading combine I will not commit any capital to trading.
I've been trading over 30 years in futures. people who "scalp" trade always lose in the end. Only people successful are the ones putting on trades following a trend with momentum. Example- weather this last winter was predicted to be stressful for natural gas and crops. Buy natural gas and grains/ softs. Or as war tensions in countries with large energy exports this tension drives risk into the energy markets and they increase.
Or miners of silver will not "mine" for silver under $11 per oz. Therefore as price nears this term you have a price floor which would be a great time to invest in.
I've used 5 wave theory, Fibonacci retracements, etc..... They are interesting but do not work nearly as well as the focus on supply and demand data to make trades.
I've been trading over 30 years in futures. people who "scalp" trade always lose in the end. Only people successful are the ones putting on trades following a trend with momentum. Example- weather this last winter was predicted to be stressful for natural gas and crops. Buy natural gas and grains/ softs. Or as war tensions in countries with large energy exports this tension drives risk into the energy markets and they increase.
Or miners of silver will not "mine" for silver under $11 per oz. Therefore as price nears this term you have a price floor which would be a great time to invest in.
I've used 5 wave theory, Fibonacci retracements, etc..... They are interesting but do not work nearly as well as the focus on supply and demand data to make trades.
I've been trading over 30 years in futures. people who "scalp" trade always lose in the end. Only people successful are the ones putting on trades following a trend with momentum.
I've been trading a long time, too. I don't agree that scalpers always lose in the end. Some of the best traders that I know scalp--people who've been trading 20-30 years. It's not for everyone. But the ones who are good at it make excellent money.
1) I decided that TD Ameritrade wasn't the right broker and that the platform they provide for futures is limited. Also the data feed is slower than others.
2) I started using Ninja Trader.
3) I determined technical indicators are useless for intraday futures.
4) I have been using tape reading/expanded DOM to trade off of and using the chart only to identify trends, support/resistance.
5) I decided that unless I can pass top step traders trading combine I will not commit any capital to trading.
Had also tried the TD Amertitrade (TOS) platform. Stopped after a few weeks, as I wasn't comfortable with it. Switched to NT and have been using it for about 1.5 years now.
Are you also trading full-time?
Scalp traders are successful, if they understand the long term trend. Most get destroyed because they are to busy looking at the micro move. The macro adjustments will happen. And they make the big money. Just look at PTJ, Soros, Druckenmiller, Neighderhoffer..
I believe you could do a mix of both. But either way its greed. I think having one big trade a year over a massive event works. If you can accept the risk on an asymmetric bet.
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