Diary of a swing spread better

[Vaco]

long order has been hit @ 11145 chart to follow when i get home after the close.

 

[Vaco]

What can i say, the market did excatly what i didn,t want it to do, closed more or less where it opened.

end result Be even on the short and stopped out on the long for a 50 pt hit.

 

[Vaco]

New pivots in today,

R2---11349

R1---11221

PP---11026

S1---10898

S2---10703

I've placed a long at 11041 and a short at 11206.

I'm also gonna try a step change to my system. I am going to try and avoid holding overnight, especially when i'm in a profitable position as i've noticed it tends to go against me the next day more times then not.

Chris i know your your away at the moment but will somebody else pls post i'm starting to get lonely and bored of seeing my avatar. :cheesy:

 

[barjon]

mornin' elefteros

just so you don't feel too lonely

when you say that the price tends to go against you the next day do you mean initially or in respect of the whole day's action?

good trading

jon

 

[Splitlink]

New pivots in today,

R2---11349

R1---11221

PP---11026

S1---10898

S2---10703

I've placed a long at 11041 and a short at 11206.

I'm also gonna try a step change to my system. I am going to try and avoid holding overnight, especially when i'm in a profitable position as i've noticed it tends to go against me the next day more times then not.

Chris i know your your away at the moment but will somebody else pls post i'm starting to get lonely and bored of seeing my avatar. :cheesy:

That chart on 2340 was a nice, clear, uncluttered one. I got the reasoning of your entry straight away. You still operate the same method, do you? That is. select the entry point the previous evening, after work and put an order on?

I try to work the same way with my LSE shares: select the previous night and then use an hourly chart for entry the next morning but, I must say, not all of the shares have such a nice chart as yours.

I can see how using an index to trade does away with the hunting for shares, which is time consuming.

Regards Split

 

[Vaco]

mornin' elefteros

just so you don't feel too lonely

when you say that the price tends to go against you the next day do you mean initially or in respect of the whole day's action?

good trading

jon

its a bit of a catch 22 for me barjon,

say i'm long for example i'm in profit at the end of the day by by anything between 50 and 150 i want to give the market a chance to continue and sometimes it does without any retracement and i add another 100 to the tally woohoo perfect but i also want to protect profits so stop is brought to 25 points from close obviously if this is hit it will either continue south or move back up.

My decision to try closing at eod is not proved to be more profitable long turn but it suits my personality as i avoid the pain of seeing my dipping whre as the missed potential does not show.

Its also a double hit holding overnight if i'm long and get stopped out the next day as i've lost the 25 pts plus paid interest on my position for holding overnight.

 

[Phil Mibbutz]

Commisserations on yesterday eve's lousy timing, Elefteros. Just wondering; do you normally put stops 50 pts away. Seems like a long way to me... Was this figure arrived at through experimentation?

 

[Vaco]

That chart on 2340 was a nice, clear, uncluttered one. I got the reasoning of your entry straight away. You still operate the same method, do you? That is. select the entry point the previous evening, after work and put an order on?

I try to work the same way with my LSE shares: select the previous night and then use an hourly chart for entry the next morning but, I must say, not all of the shares have such a nice chart as yours.

I can see how using an index to trade does away with the hunting for shares, which is time consuming.

Regards Split

yes split still place orders after work, its also my stop has to be so far, I'm not home so i cant reenter after being stopped out.

As for the charts i believe too many indicaters just make me more indecisive which leads me to not taking trades when i should so i just try to keep it simple.

 

[Vaco]

Commisserations on yesterday eve's lousy timing, Elefteros. Just wondering; do you normally put stops 50 pts away. Seems like a long way to me... Was this figure arrived at through experimentation?

partly answered this in my previous post but i'll add a little more detail,

personaly i'd be happier with 100 pt stop but my risk reward ratio would go out the window,

if you look at the dow over a long time frame taking out the big mega move days most of the time it rises or falls about 60 - 100 pts.

the idea of trading the pivot points is that your looking for a retracement from the top or bottom of a normal range. However I've missed some profitable trades by the reversal occuring just short of the pivot point so i place orders abot 15 pts before the pivot point, this means that my stop is 35 points after the pivot ideally it would be 60 as this is the point at which i feel the trade is no longer valid but again a 75 pt stop loss skews up my r/r ratio.

as i'm not at home when the pivot point is hit i cant use confirmation signals of any kind to confirm entry and place stops based on what the markets done, so i just put on my armour and try to catch the top/bottom of the move.

If i were at home my strategy would certainly be tweeked to reduce loss size.

 

[Phil Mibbutz]

Yep, that's the problem here, too. If you can't sit watching the screen, there's huge loss potential on the Dow and the risk/reward ratio gets silly.

 

[Vaco]

Yep, that's the problem here, too. If you can't sit watching the screen, there's huge loss potential on the Dow and the risk/reward ratio gets silly.

Its still tradeble though a 2:1 ratio with good entry can be very lucrative if your winning percentage is over 60%

 

[Vaco]

Yesterday produced no entries for me, however today the short just below R1 has been hit ( c chart) will post another over the weekend to show end reuslt, currently i'm in the red

 

[chindl]

I'm back, but not trading now, flight was delayed so only got back home at 7-30.
doesn't look like I've missed much to be honest...

 

[Vaco]

Still in the trade, still in the red.

R1 (11221) proved to be very close to the top of the day which was at 11241, monday should c the start of a retracement as weve had 5 very strong days, however i wouldn't write off a move to 113549 which is where R2 is.

I will probably bring move my stop to 11225 along with an order to go long but it depends what the market does out of hours.

 

[Splitlink]

Still in the trade, still in the red.

R1 (11221) proved to be very close to the top of the day which was at 11241, monday should c the start of a retracement as weve had 5 very strong days, however i wouldn't write off a move to 113549 which is where R2 is.

I will probably bring move my stop to 11225 along with an order to go long but it depends what the market does out of hours.

Hi Elefteros,

As Phil just said, 50 points is a long way for a stop but I know that DJ trading needs those kind of distances. It needs watching, though. As a purely friendly observation and not wanting to interfere in your trading style, wouldn't LSE shares be a better place to be, taking into consideration your working hours, etc? I can't trade anything after 1330 hours because of my working day- anything after that has to be on limit orders and stops so I pick them out before bed and then try to get in during the next morning.

What would concern me is that distance between your R1 at 11221 and R2 at 11349. That is a distance of 128 points. Would you explain to me, please, your reason for using R1 as an entry when you say that it could go to R2?

By the way, have you seen the thread "Evening trading US shares"? It's on the Equities-Us stocks forum.

Regards Split

 

[Vaco]

Hi Splitl,

Please speak freely your comments are not seen as interfering if anything they are welcome as it keeps me on my toes

I trade teh dow instead of the ftse as i generally work 8-5 which means i would completely miss the uk trading day where as i am can observe and move stops on the dow ready for the evening.

As for the pivots, if i only traded R2 and S2 then i would have far fewer trades with possiblt a better win/loss ratio however i would be missing out on a lot of action in between which does not suit my personality.

I c the pivot points as stalling points for the market.

Using the current price as an example the ideal trade would be for the dow to hit R1 then drop back down to pp.

Yesterday this did not happen dow reached the R1 but did not fall back too much and kept testing resistance in that area throughout the session,

Decision time, the more times it hits R1 the more likely it will break through to R2 which is why i say it is looking like a strong possibility, so do i

a. tighten the stop, then wait for it to get to R2 to go short again or

b. as above but trade the break out to R2.

Lastly i'd like to add a word on stops, my average trade lasts one day an average day bars range is 100 pts so a 50 pt stop is acceptable.

take a look at your own trades, first how long does your average trade last then whats the average range in that time frame, is your stop more or less points then the ave range.

The further the stoploss the better the win/loss ratio but the risk/reward suffers as a consequence.

Its a question of taste, do u prefer to be stopped out little and often or less and more.

I dont thing theres a right or wrong answer,

As long as we dont lose our capital and make a little profit we're part of the 10% rather then the 90%.

How many pts we make is a little like how big my car/house/manhood is, we like to be looked up to by those around us.

 

[Splitlink]

Hi Splitl,

.take a look at your own trades, first how long does your average trade last then whats the average range in that time frame, is your stop more or less points then the ave range.

I don't like losses over 12 points and, if I like the share's prospects but think the logical stop is too far I lower the stake per point. This can be exasperating, resulting in some losses and mediocre gains but suddenly there comes along a couple of excellent ones that do wonders to my account.[/QUOTE]

How many pts we make is a little like how big my car/house/manhood is, we like to be looked up to by those around us.

Keep it dark! They're after your money. Before you know where you are they'll be taking you around Harrods.

Split

 

[Vaco]

12 pt stop loss, wow thats tight, but then if it works for you thats great.

with my current strategy i dont think i could go any tighter then 30 pt initial stop loss.

 

[Splitlink]

12 pt stop loss, wow thats tight, but then if it works for you thats great.

with my current strategy i dont think i could go any tighter then 30 pt initial stop loss.

It can be done with LSE shares although there are lots of volatile ones that require more distance.

Split

 

[Vaco]

long order placed at 11226, which would give me a 20 pt loss on current short.

have a good day all