Diary of a swing spread better

[Slapshot]

Good day all in all,

Some good moves on the Dax, and, combined with entry +/-10 instead of the usual +/-20, result was quite good. Missed the first couple of hours due to being back and at work and having to do some of that

After the gap up things soon headed south but sitting above the 100ema, by mid morning a clear R/S switch. This was the clue to not going short at 12:20,PD on the RSI and a good opportunity to go long, the safer entry came about 13:50ish with triple top (lowering highs) signalling the exit for +25.

15:53 Short, price falling through the support line, Dow was heading in the same direction. Closed out for +40. Will post the Dow chart later, but basically a down day with the price sitting below the 100ema nearly all the way.

have a good night

 

[Splitlink]

Bad bad bad day - Overtraded after nearly hitting my desired daily points total. Mary Shellys' novels have nothing on this - I have the snapshots and will post a post mortem report tomorrow, but not good after quite a bright start. Gonna watch the second half of the game now and try and shake off this fever.
I had an itchy left hand this morning

The thread reminds me of the scene in the "Battle of Britain" where the Luftwaffe pilots sit gloomily around a decimated dinner table after a day of heavy losses.. Yesterday, I was complaining at the pages of posts that I did not have time to read.

I bought AVZ for 466.9, yesterday and was stopped out at 466.8 this afternoon

I'm pleased with my loss containment exercise, although I am not making money.

Split

 

[chindl]

Hi Chris,

Do you know why you overtraded? Were you trying to chase those last few points?

S

In a word - yes. In a tad more detail for the day, I exited my first trade too early with just ten points and swiftly missed that massive move to the bottom mid morning. Mistakes like that are the better ones, the ones in which you wish you had taken more from the market than you actually did. My second trade was text book, this was just before the football. A good 18 points gained on that one.

Then the last 45 mins I went berserk and lost the plot. I normally trade this with great reservation and pick only set ups that are extremely high percentage. Instead I overtraded and this resulted in me making a number of mistakes which, quite frankly, I am utterly disgusted with myself for and it has also left me extremely embarrassed. I went fishing near the bottom and got bitten by some barracuda and when it did the quick swing to 60 I bought at a loss and took a trade expecting a strong close. Naturally, none of this is in the plan and I got my fingers burned. On top of all this, it was actually compounded by a mistake which cost me some 22 points in a fast moving market, bought to exit with a loss instead of selling. I can live with a mistake like that, what I cannot live with is the manner in which the two other trades were entered into.

I did not trade the plan, and I think that is all there is to be said... We all have to pay for a lesson sometime, this was my June fee hopefully fully paid up. Up to that last hour I had grown a small account some 20% in less than three weeks, it's now at 12%. Enough said.

Not too sure I can grumble though, even if it is a big loss in my eyes, it is only the second day in three weeks that I have not come out positive from this strategy. That is the positive aspect for me to take out and I must now start from fresh and keep my mind free of issues, no chasing today for instance.

Good to have you back Slaps, nice time off?

Finally, on another note, you all need to watch Fins at the moment. I have twice had to get trades reinstated after they closed them erroneously. They failed to roll a crude contract at expiry last time out, despite it being on auto roll over and they also spiked me out of corn on Monday, despite the price not even trading within $5 of their price spike and me being on a market order. They were quick to apologise and reinstated both immediately, but it may suggest they have minor teeething problems with their system.

Chris

 

[chindl]

Good day all in all,

Some good moves on the Dax, and, combined with entry +/-10 instead of the usual +/-20, result was quite good. Missed the first couple of hours due to being back and at work and having to do some of that

After the gap up things soon headed south but sitting above the 100ema, by mid morning a clear R/S switch. This was the clue to not going short at 12:20,PD on the RSI and a good opportunity to go long, the safer entry came about 13:50ish with triple top (lowering highs) signalling the exit for +25.

15:53 Short, price falling through the support line, Dow was heading in the same direction. Closed out for +40. Will post the Dow chart later, but basically a down day with the price sitting below the 100ema nearly all the way.

have a good night

Another great post slaps, well done on your success.
Chris

 

[chindl]

Pivots taken from the price on the close at ADVFN.
Chris

 

[barjon]

................I did not trade the plan, and I think that is all there is to be said.........

mornin' chris

Ah, the dreaded itchy fingers I scratch my itch by having a small "play" account which I use for all off-plan trades. No surprise that I need to keep topping it up, but it does protect my main account from damage.

good trading

jon

 

[chindl]

mornin' chris

Ah, the dreaded itchy fingers I scratch my itch by having a small "play" account which I use for all off-plan trades. No surprise that I need to keep topping it up, but it does protect my main account from damage.

good trading

jon

Aye - luckily this is my play account. No excuses though, very much lesson learned. It's the first time I have reacted that way in about a year, here's to it not happening again for another decade!!!

From Geocities - An itchy right hand means money coming and an itchy left hand means that money is slipping away. Some say that rubbing the itchy left hand on wood and wishing for money will break the spell of losing.

If only I'd known, I'd have run out into the garden at 8pm and all would have been well..........

Chris

 

[hungvir]

Bad bad bad day - Overtraded after nearly hitting my desired daily points total. Mary Shellys' novels have nothing on this - I have the snapshots and will post a post mortem report tomorrow, but not good after quite a bright start. Gonna watch the second half of the game now and try and shake off this fever.
I had an itchy left hand this morning

Chris,

I know there're bad days but haven't seen 'bad bad bad days' Don't over-dramatised it mate Another good day is coming

I watched the match yesterday and did not trade. But I liked the way it fell. As long as it behaved in that manner, there would always be money to be made. And the French was amazing. I hope England will beat Portugal in that manner. The three goals will come from Rooney, Gerrard and Beckham (yet again) Will I bet?! May be

Cheers,

Hung

 

[hungvir]

Good day all in all,

Some good moves on the Dax, and, combined with entry +/-10 instead of the usual +/-20, result was quite good. Missed the first couple of hours due to being back and at work and having to do some of that

After the gap up things soon headed south but sitting above the 100ema, by mid morning a clear R/S switch. This was the clue to not going short at 12:20,PD on the RSI and a good opportunity to go long, the safer entry came about 13:50ish with triple top (lowering highs) signalling the exit for +25.

15:53 Short, price falling through the support line, Dow was heading in the same direction. Closed out for +40. Will post the Dow chart later, but basically a down day with the price sitting below the 100ema nearly all the way.

have a good night

Fantastic trades, Slaps! Especially the short one. Anything more than 40 is gorgeous

Have a good day!

Hung

 

[hungvir]

The thread reminds me of the scene in the "Battle of Britain" where the Luftwaffe pilots sit gloomily around a decimated dinner table after a day of heavy losses.. Yesterday, I was complaining at the pages of posts that I did not have time to read.

I bought AVZ for 466.9, yesterday and was stopped out at 466.8 this afternoon

I'm pleased with my loss containment exercise, although I am not making money.

Split

Split,

I was very tempted to trade yesterday but successfully resisted it And it was for the first time in a very long time I did not bring a trading book with me on the way to work. I read the Lonely Planet's Thailand instead.

But I did look at the DOW's chart afterwards and saw some truly good opportunities to make a few points. It's amazing the see the same sort of price behaviours being repeated over and over again.

Good trading,

Hung

 

[Slapshot]

As promised the Dow chart from yesterday.

Sticking to the rules is harder said than done sometimes and having sticky fingers as mentioned by Barjon is something that's caused me no end of problems.

When the rules do get "stuck" to though things usually go in your favour as today proved.

Early bear flag formed on the first hour mark and the drop soon followed. Safe entry at 11015, exit could have been at 10950 area with PD showing on the RSI - which I did. However the price failed to get anymore than +5 over the 100ema and further downside was possible to 10925 where a much stronger RSI & CCI PD signal appeared.

Last entry of the day coming on the failed H&S for a quick 10-15

A total of 70 points taken with around 120 available to the braver souls trading off the PD etc

 

[Slapshot]

Nothing special to report on the Dax this morning.

Early short entry of the failure to breach the 100ema, since then a rock solid support line at 5440, exit for +6.

 

[Slapshot]

In a word - yes. In a tad more detail for the day, I exited my first trade too early with just ten points and swiftly missed that massive move to the bottom mid morning. Mistakes like that are the better ones, the ones in which you wish you had taken more from the market than you actually did. My second trade was text book, this was just before the football. A good 18 points gained on that one.

Then the last 45 mins I went berserk and lost the plot. I normally trade this with great reservation and pick only set ups that are extremely high percentage. Instead I overtraded and this resulted in me making a number of mistakes which, quite frankly, I am utterly disgusted with myself for and it has also left me extremely embarrassed. I went fishing near the bottom and got bitten by some barracuda and when it did the quick swing to 60 I bought at a loss and took a trade expecting a strong close. Naturally, none of this is in the plan and I got my fingers burned. On top of all this, it was actually compounded by a mistake which cost me some 22 points in a fast moving market, bought to exit with a loss instead of selling. I can live with a mistake like that, what I cannot live with is the manner in which the two other trades were entered into.

I did not trade the plan, and I think that is all there is to be said... We all have to pay for a lesson sometime, this was my June fee hopefully fully paid up. Up to that last hour I had grown a small account some 20% in less than three weeks, it's now at 12%. Enough said.

Not too sure I can grumble though, even if it is a big loss in my eyes, it is only the second day in three weeks that I have not come out positive from this strategy. That is the positive aspect for me to take out and I must now start from fresh and keep my mind free of issues, no chasing today for instance.

Good to have you back Slaps, nice time off?

Finally, on another note, you all need to watch Fins at the moment. I have twice had to get trades reinstated after they closed them erroneously. They failed to roll a crude contract at expiry last time out, despite it being on auto roll over and they also spiked me out of corn on Monday, despite the price not even trading within $5 of their price spike and me being on a market order. They were quick to apologise and reinstated both immediately, but it may suggest they have minor teeething problems with their system.

Chris

Good to be back thanks m8, last week was difficult to keep away from the PC and resist trading, but th memories of the previous weeks difficulites and the fact the missus very kindly bought me some new games for the xbox kept me quiet

I've had days like you had yesterday more times than I can remember, I really have to discipline myself to walk away now before it starts to get expensive. I've found myself trying to convince myself that the market will turn in my favour and 99% of the time it doesn't and the losses mount up. You've had three great weeks with some great trades, that doesn't disappear overnight and will be back

I don't use Fins anymore, I use IG although I did open a Worldspreads account but the reports haven't been great on that front. The spreads are quite big on IG but their platform it quite stable and I haven't had any spikes that usually appear on CMC or even Fins now.

Cheers

 

[chindl]

although I did open a Worldspreads account but the reports haven't been great on that front.

Cheers

Trade small and you'll be fine, trust me. Keep it £2 and under and you shouldn't have problems. The spread is fantastic and long may it continue, if they're serious then they will keep this. Of course, the disadvantage is no charts, so I use ADVFN cash which is not ideal, but it's doing the job at the moment. If they were to have chart the Wall would stop it getting through, so it's the better that they don't really. I will live with this, as long as I'm in the driving seat of course.

I have a few accounts accross all the bookies, but only seem to use WS and Fins at the moment. Market Orders on Fins is good for my EOD intermediate term trading and WS is good for practice in the day at the moment.

I hope to be in a position within the year to be able to give serious thought to FuturesBetting, as I have been hearing good reviews.

Speak later.

Chris

 

[hungvir]

Thanks for the charts, Slaps! I am quite suprised that you had problems with Fins. It's so far so good for me. They do close me out at two or three points below my stop/limit order level but I would expect this from the bookies.

But with all the issues we've been having, big spreads, skewed prices and system problems, I think the sooner we can afford to trade the market direct, the better. But it won't happen soon for me though. I am still not willing to risk the amount required to trade the real market.

Good trading,

Hung

 

[hungvir]

A unreported trade

There was one trade that was missing from my frantic Friday's tally. I placed stop sell order with Fins at below Thursday's low with stop loss 10 points above and profit taking at 30 points below. Did not work on Friday but would have worked wonderfully yesterday when I did not place a single trade.

And the strategy would have worked with most if not all inside days since the correction started.

 

[Slapshot]

Thanks for the charts, Slaps! I am quite suprised that you had problems with Fins. It's so far so good for me. They do close me out at two or three points below my stop/limit order level but I would expect this from the bookies.

But with all the issues we've been having, big spreads, skewed prices and system problems, I think the sooner we can afford to trade the market direct, the better. But it won't happen soon for me though. I am still not willing to risk the amount required to trade the real market.

Good trading,

Hung

Hi Hung,

I didn't have any problems with Fins per se, it was more to do with issues connecting to the platform at work, IG seems to work fine, admittedly I haven't tried WS yet, something for this week.

The skewed prices issue will always be around spreadbetting, it's the nature of the beast. It was one of the reasons I started using SierraChart and mytrack, I think it's about £20 a month or something. I trade off what that chart is telling me and try to avoid looking at the S/B price. This approach isn't good for scalping though, but I don't trade that way.

I've been looking at opening an account with IB, but like you I'm not prepared to risk that much yet.

Nice move up on the Dax just

 

[hungvir]

Nice trade, Slaps! I could see two points where you could have trailed your stops. I hope you did.

Good luck!

Hung

 

[Slapshot]

I'm still in it Hung. There was a triple top on the RSI which had I been at my desk would have been my exit, as it is it's still heading up, stop always 10 points behind the 100ema unless an exit pattern emerges

 

[hungvir]

By the way, the house next to mine has been on sale for a good few months while my friend's one has been on the market since before last Chrismas.

And a report from money.cnn.com also talked about houses just sitting there in the US. With personal debt and equity release have been at record level for a while, this slowdown in house sales is not a good sign.