Anyone scalping the FTSE Futures??

[MartinC-J]

Paint drying. That's my next job. I've cleaned the oven. Inspected the grease build up in the pump station (Yuk!) and watered my trees.

A crap morning for price action and I scraped £485 on the sim with lots of indispline and some cheating, hence the healthy total. The first 2 hours it reluctantly formed an ascending triangle, then a downsloping channel back to the low of the day and now it's sat in the middle sulking 'cos no-one wants to play with it. We've established some levels though, at 5305, 5330 and 5350, which is useful. When the market sold off last 2 weeks, it shot through any levels it did have and gave the market no clear levels for any move back up.

I am expecting the markets to retest the lows again in the next few weeks. The question is will it bounce off 5400, 5500 or 5600. I would be surprised to see it make it back up to 5600, but that is the clearest level above that should provide a lot of resistance.

 

[Splitlink]

Paint drying. That's my next job. I've cleaned the oven. Inspected the grease build up in the pump station (Yuk!) and watered my trees.

A crap morning for price action and I scraped £485 on the sim with lots of indispline and some cheating, hence the healthy total. The first 2 hours it reluctantly formed an ascending triangle, then a downsloping channel back to the low of the day and now it's sat in the middle sulking 'cos no-one wants to play with it. We've established some levels though, at 5305, 5330 and 5350, which is useful. When the market sold off last 2 weeks, it shot through any levels it did have and gave the market no clear levels for any move back up.

I am expecting the markets to retest the lows again in the next few weeks. The question is will it bounce off 5400, 5500 or 5600. I would be surprised to see it make it back up to 5600, but that is the clearest level above that should provide a lot of resistance.

Watering trees is beginning to get to be an expensive hobby. Do you have many?

I had a short on both the Euro/pound and the FTSE, today. I don't often do more than one at a time but figured that my account could stand it. In the end, I found that one was taking the profits of the other and closed the Footsie trade. It should have been the other way around. I made a profit but would have more with Footsie.

Anyone else have problems trading with two instruments? I guess I'm getting old, but I'm better off with one.

 

[MartinC-J]

I've grown some Indian Bean Trees from seed (Catalpa Bignoniodes) and haven't figured out what to do with them yet. I only have room for one or two and I have five on the go. They grow as big as an oak tree, and I only have a smallish garden!

Trading two instruments is difficult to juggle. I have traded the FTSE and cable at the same time, but ideally you should just focus on or tother. There are times when you would think the FTSE and the £ are linked, but according to Tom Hougaard, they are not correlated. I find I am better off trading Sterling when the price action on the FTSE is mincy, but I read the FTSE much better than the £ at the moment.

 

[Splitlink]

I've grown some Indian Bean Trees from seed (Catalpa Bignoniodes) and haven't figured out what to do with them yet. I only have room for one or two and I have five on the go. They grow as big as an oak tree, and I only have a smallish garden!

Trading two instruments is difficult to juggle. I have traded the FTSE and cable at the same time, but ideally you should just focus on or tother. There are times when you would think the FTSE and the £ are linked, but according to Tom Hougaard, they are not correlated. I find I am better off trading Sterling when the price action on the FTSE is mincy, but I read the FTSE much better than the £ at the moment.

Yes, I think that Footsie has more going for it, in trading terms, than the pound, too, but it took me a few hours this morning to learn it! Never mind, one is never too old to learn! I figure that, by having two instruments open, I made half of what I would have done if I had chosen the less profitable of the two in the first place!

I hope that you have your bean trees in large pots, so that you can sell them easily. It is very satisfactory watching plants grow from seed. I like hydrangeas and get a kick out of separating them by just cutting them, with some of the root, and watching them take off.

 

[MartinC-J]

Amazingly the FTSE futures have closed at 5383 tonight. I think that is the high for now, and may be a distant memory if the German GDP data at 7am tomorrow comes in worse than the 0.5% expected. But to be honest, if it comes in at anything less than 1%, I think the markets will sell off anyway.

 

[dc2000]

5402 is still my entry I realy would like it on a spike but I dont mind a first half hour pump n dump

 

[MartinC-J]

Well that GDP number was a big surprise. I didn't think the German economy had slowed down so much. But even though it gapped down 87 points, it didn't capitulate and sell off big time. In fact it inly sold off an additional 30 pts before reversing back up to where it opened at. Then at 8:30 it went into what I call wicks and tails, which is usually a sign to stay out, unless you know how to trade them. By 8:40am, it was clear this is wicks and tails on the 5 min chart. You can trade them with 1 tick entries on the 1 min chart on reversals, but with quick targets.

DC - you may still get your pump and dump. It depends where it goes after 10am. My guess is down, but I better to wait and see and trade accordingly. I did go short the ES at 1198.0 at 9:30pm last night, it did look like it had been walked up, and would most likely drop in globex hours.

 

[dc2000]

entry not given but still remains in play I could have had 374 in the overnight but didnt take it currently have a small short @5307 looking for 5207 will place a stop order 5305 as Im not watching it, I will look for a long entry at some point as the 5402 is still in play

 

[MartinC-J]

I am yet to understand what is going on behind the scenes as the FTSE approaches the cash close at 4:30pm. Yes, I understand that the Futures price has to match up with the underlying cash price, within reason. But a rise of 24 points at 4:29pm, when the price action has been relatively sluggish for the last 30 minutes does not make sense. It seems to be a common recent occurrence this forcing new highs into the cash close. At 4:30pm, it touched 5352 which was the price at 7am when the German GDP data came out.

I was still long the move from 5312.5 at 16:22:13, as it looked like it was going to try and force it again. I would just like to know why it is doing it? And why does it always seem to happen around 4:30pm? It's like the US is waiting for europe to close.

 

[dc2000]

It's like the US is waiting for europe to close.

thats what is happening. the FTSE has produced a buy signal the DOW hasnt yet so the FTSE needs to tread water whilst traders over the pond position themselves.

the DOW intraday can do whatever it wants so long as the FTSE futures come back by the end of the session. Large players who are long FTSE dont want their counterparts greatly affecting their positions

 

[dc2000]

also end of day can be a sell if you dont want to hold over or a buy hold over this was what we had today I know the price has dropped after market buyer have gone home whats the betting we gap higher in the morning and thats where the money will be

 

[dc2000]

Now thats interesting the DOW signaling a three day buy target 11565

 

[dc2000]

currently long on the DOW 389 and will be short the FTSE @402 tomorrow there should be another entry for the DOW @400

 

[Alexios]

Hi everyone!
New to these depths of the blue sea.
Been trading from this year. Had investments in aim stocks, some loss, some very good short term profit. Thought will try day trading or few day trading aim stocks on good results. Tricky, but managed to catch two of them on the up. Others got spiked, funds where melting every day, still melting though. Traded cfds as well, few big oilies- ups and downs.
Last week transfered funds into sb account. Main plays ftse, dow, gold.
Yesterday did like 27 trades on ftse, thought will give scalping a go, after 6hours my £100 became £678. Not a bad one. I guess I was in control of myself, no greed, no overtrade, few points and I did it. Very easy- played candles, mainly long fat ones with doji for reversal, they proved to be my best shot. Looking at general trend as well, 20,50,100MA, chart with different time ticks, 1min when in open. Today woke up. Felt it's a no trade day straight away, as charts was funny, but picked up first 5 profit ones in a row on ftse. £2,5,10,20,50pp, size matters. Went short on reversal, lost.
Basicly, need to learn loads of things, consider everyday trading as income.

 

[Successful_Trader]

FTSE is going good right now and for U.S. traders it's better to trade in terms of volatility than compared to EUREX because of the whole imbroglio there with the bailouts... luckily the UK is one step behind mainland Europe in this sovereign debt crisis quagmire.

 

[Dick Lexic]

Hi everyone!
New to these depths of the blue sea.
Been trading from this year. Had investments in aim stocks, some loss, some very good short term profit. Thought will try day trading or few day trading aim stocks on good results. Tricky, but managed to catch two of them on the up. Others got spiked, funds where melting every day, still melting though. Traded cfds as well, few big oilies- ups and downs.
Last week transfered funds into sb account. Main plays ftse, dow, gold.
Yesterday did like 27 trades on ftse, thought will give scalping a go, after 6hours my £100 became £678. Not a bad one. I guess I was in control of myself, no greed, no overtrade, few points and I did it. Very easy- played candles, mainly long fat ones with doji for reversal, they proved to be my best shot. Looking at general trend as well, 20,50,100MA, chart with different time ticks, 1min when in open. Today woke up. Felt it's a no trade day straight away, as charts was funny, but picked up first 5 profit ones in a row on ftse. £2,5,10,20,50pp, size matters. Went short on reversal, lost.
Basicly, need to learn loads of things, consider everyday trading as income.

Fuc* sake ....go take a valium!

 

[dc2000]

no gap play so long on the FTSE also 302 target 402

 

[dc2000]

Alexios you have melting funds and you are trading @£50per?

 

[MartinC-J]

Well done Dick. Stick to the £2 per point until you've worked out your strategy for each market structure. Don't double up on losing trades, you can get wiped out doing that. Be disciplined and if in doubt don't take a trade that looks marginal. There's always another bus along soon.

 

[MartinC-J]

I've just typed up my trading observations for the first hour of todays trading, and maybe it gives an idea of the thought process involved in my trades. It was worth 30pts profit to me. If anything I tend to close winners too early, and that is on my practise list to improve upon. Hopefully the text is not too small to read, and that it makes some sense. Most of my entries are on stop orders, and usually on 1 tick breaks of prior candle highs or lows. I used to wait for it to break by 2 pts (4 ticks) but early in the session, that seems to be overly cautious.