I have a dream...
I will be able to trade and store stuff remotely and not have to bother with all this personal pc nonsense!
Think... no more upgrades, disk failures, software crashes ( well only the odd one naturally ),purchase of numerous gadgets for protection. No more purchase of anti sypware, virus protection - the installing and reinstalling and uninstalling of software. You just turn your workstation on and up it pops just as you left in. All upgrades handled by people who understand that you don't want to be bothered with all this stuf - you JUST WANT TO TRADE/WORK!
And then I woke up.
Still sorting out software installations, etc so unlikely to post until saturday now I think.
I will be able to trade and store stuff remotely and not have to bother with all this personal pc nonsense!
Think... no more upgrades, disk failures, software crashes ( well only the odd one naturally ),purchase of numerous gadgets for protection. No more purchase of anti sypware, virus protection - the installing and reinstalling and uninstalling of software. You just turn your workstation on and up it pops just as you left in. All upgrades handled by people who understand that you don't want to be bothered with all this stuf - you JUST WANT TO TRADE/WORK!
And then I woke up.
Still sorting out software installations, etc so unlikely to post until saturday now I think.
Hello again
June 9th
Ym -100
EMD 10
ER2 10
Dax 25
ESTX 10
SMI 10
Net -35 / 140
Back up and running again now. My spreadsheet is out of date on my laptop but last week was actually a great week.
Especially friday where we got hold of the big runs.
I will talk about my system failure to capture this trend in the next post however.
We are now back up to trading 4 contracts.
Yesterday was a very trying day for no profits. Annoying to take a small loss - it was perfectly feasible to get out with a breakeven day.
June 9th
Ym -100
EMD 10
ER2 10
Dax 25
ESTX 10
SMI 10
Net -35 / 140
Back up and running again now. My spreadsheet is out of date on my laptop but last week was actually a great week.
Especially friday where we got hold of the big runs.
I will talk about my system failure to capture this trend in the next post however.
We are now back up to trading 4 contracts.
Yesterday was a very trying day for no profits. Annoying to take a small loss - it was perfectly feasible to get out with a breakeven day.
Sometimes you fail
Here is the sequence of events with a Dax trade on June 6th.
The good news is that we got some profit. But we also left a lot on the table.
Had I been non discretionary about our rule based system we would have captured the whole lot
Here is the sequence of events with a Dax trade on June 6th.
The good news is that we got some profit. But we also left a lot on the table.
Had I been non discretionary about our rule based system we would have captured the whole lot
Attachments
It did for us
11-Jun-08
Ym 5
EMD 400
ER2 290
DAX (525)
ESTX(170)
SMI 10
Net 10 /40
Something happened early on in the European markets to trip our stops and get us out of a beautiful Short position. I think it was the BOE announcement but I don't have live news so I can't be sure.
The system missed out on some major money AGAIN today.
Fortunately the late moves got captured in the USA market but we do not want to miss moves like today so we have to lick our wounds.
11-Jun-08
Ym 5
EMD 400
ER2 290
DAX (525)
ESTX(170)
SMI 10
Net 10 /40
Something happened early on in the European markets to trip our stops and get us out of a beautiful Short position. I think it was the BOE announcement but I don't have live news so I can't be sure.
The system missed out on some major money AGAIN today.
Fortunately the late moves got captured in the USA market but we do not want to miss moves like today so we have to lick our wounds.
Attachments
Delays and frustrations and ER2 demise
Well I have been beset by all sorts of tech issues in the last 2 weeks. Hopefully they are now all sorted out.
I resorted at one stage to trading on my kids computer as both my desktop and the laptop had (different) problems.
Trading is a bit like property - its all about backup, backup, backup.
On which point I saw a very interesting widget the other day - a wireless always on internet that connected to the mobile telephone network - £15 per month.
I am currently changing my network provider anyway and trying to do a deal so I can get one of these as part of the package - hence when the house broadband goes down - I have laptop and separate internet connection. How cool is that
I appreciate the younger members of these blogs will think I run on steam but I am genuinely impressed.
It wasn't so long ago I traded off 1 CRT screen using a 28k dial up connection paying $100 per month for a "real time" feed. Oh and only requiring 256mb RAM ( are you listening Bill, Tradestation, et al??).
Today it is positively luxurious.
Enough - and on with the update on trading.
Because I was trading off someone else's computer and having all sorts of issues the trading was left to the basic plan with no interference.... and what do you know we made 3 new equity highs this week.
Next trade is with 5 contracts.
Some of you may know that this is the last quarter that the ER2 is available on Globex. It then moves over to ICE on NYBOT. (Tradestation sysmbol TF).
Obviously there will be some confusion and adjustment. At the moment there doesn't appear to be any liquidity there as the no of contracts traded is just under 7,000 but one assumes (hopes) that this will improve dramatically after the current expiration date. I have not so far traded the TF symbol but if anyone has please let me know.
More importantly closing and opening times are changing and it is thought that TF may well have a proxy settlement time of 1615 and a real settlement time of 1800 (EST). That should prove interesting in terms of price action around those times.
No charts today - still busy doing other stuff. But should be back to normal posting tomorrow.
Well I have been beset by all sorts of tech issues in the last 2 weeks. Hopefully they are now all sorted out.
I resorted at one stage to trading on my kids computer as both my desktop and the laptop had (different) problems.
Trading is a bit like property - its all about backup, backup, backup.
On which point I saw a very interesting widget the other day - a wireless always on internet that connected to the mobile telephone network - £15 per month.
I am currently changing my network provider anyway and trying to do a deal so I can get one of these as part of the package - hence when the house broadband goes down - I have laptop and separate internet connection. How cool is that
I appreciate the younger members of these blogs will think I run on steam but I am genuinely impressed.
It wasn't so long ago I traded off 1 CRT screen using a 28k dial up connection paying $100 per month for a "real time" feed. Oh and only requiring 256mb RAM ( are you listening Bill, Tradestation, et al??).
Today it is positively luxurious.
Enough - and on with the update on trading.
Because I was trading off someone else's computer and having all sorts of issues the trading was left to the basic plan with no interference.... and what do you know we made 3 new equity highs this week.
Next trade is with 5 contracts.
Some of you may know that this is the last quarter that the ER2 is available on Globex. It then moves over to ICE on NYBOT. (Tradestation sysmbol TF).
Obviously there will be some confusion and adjustment. At the moment there doesn't appear to be any liquidity there as the no of contracts traded is just under 7,000 but one assumes (hopes) that this will improve dramatically after the current expiration date. I have not so far traded the TF symbol but if anyone has please let me know.
More importantly closing and opening times are changing and it is thought that TF may well have a proxy settlement time of 1615 and a real settlement time of 1800 (EST). That should prove interesting in terms of price action around those times.
No charts today - still busy doing other stuff. But should be back to normal posting tomorrow.
A Great day
June 20
YM 145
EMD 20
ER2 240
DAX 3900
ESTX 740
SMI 850
Net 5,895 / 29,475
Another great day on the European indices.
The dax turned in a stellar performance after some dramatic news midday (European time). Well , I assume it was news.
This gave me the heads up not to play the open gap fade trade ( saved a fortune there) - so all in all a very productive day.
The ER2 (now TF symbol) worried us slightly in that we were down about $550 per contract at one stage and my get out finger was twitching but the main trend was down so we hung on and got out right near the low after it made fresh new lows for the day.
I had discretionairily stopped half my position after it went down about a point and then just couldn't get any further. I am not the world's best at tape reading but it tried and tried over about 6 minutes and just couldn't go down so I assumed it would at least take a breather.
I re entered a little early and took some heat but the profits reported here don't include the extra bunce I actually made. ( about 3 more points).
What is extra nice is that we were upgraded to 5 contracts 2 sessions ago so this really helps us leap over that small hurdle nicely.
Just to put things in context - today we made 150% of our original 20k equity in profits due entirely to position sizing. So we are now past the magic 100k figure - hurrah!
It is also our 4th new equity high of the week which is truly something. Drawdown's are just around the corner.
June 20
YM 145
EMD 20
ER2 240
DAX 3900
ESTX 740
SMI 850
Net 5,895 / 29,475
Another great day on the European indices.
The dax turned in a stellar performance after some dramatic news midday (European time). Well , I assume it was news.
This gave me the heads up not to play the open gap fade trade ( saved a fortune there) - so all in all a very productive day.
The ER2 (now TF symbol) worried us slightly in that we were down about $550 per contract at one stage and my get out finger was twitching but the main trend was down so we hung on and got out right near the low after it made fresh new lows for the day.
I had discretionairily stopped half my position after it went down about a point and then just couldn't get any further. I am not the world's best at tape reading but it tried and tried over about 6 minutes and just couldn't go down so I assumed it would at least take a breather.
I re entered a little early and took some heat but the profits reported here don't include the extra bunce I actually made. ( about 3 more points).
What is extra nice is that we were upgraded to 5 contracts 2 sessions ago so this really helps us leap over that small hurdle nicely.
Just to put things in context - today we made 150% of our original 20k equity in profits due entirely to position sizing. So we are now past the magic 100k figure - hurrah!
It is also our 4th new equity high of the week which is truly something. Drawdown's are just around the corner.
Attachments
Time Pressure
I am finding it increasingly difficult to manage all the requirements of day trading and completing this blog, You wouldn't think it would be difficult but somehow it is.
Henceforth I shall only be updating as and when I can rather than every day.
On Monday we started trading with 6 contracts and got hit with a big drawdown of 8,070 on the day.
This moved us back down to 5 contracts and yesterday we managed to return 4,000 to the portfolio and again move us back to trading 6 contracts.
It would have been a much better day had it not been for EMD (S&P midcap 400). Not only did we lose over $800 per contract but $100 of that was in slippage on the entry - a
full 10 ticks. This is one of the major problems of trading EMD although I have also had positive slippage at times. It is exceptionally irritating and demonstrates the liquidity
problem against contracts like the ES and ER2.
I am finding it increasingly difficult to manage all the requirements of day trading and completing this blog, You wouldn't think it would be difficult but somehow it is.
Henceforth I shall only be updating as and when I can rather than every day.
On Monday we started trading with 6 contracts and got hit with a big drawdown of 8,070 on the day.
This moved us back down to 5 contracts and yesterday we managed to return 4,000 to the portfolio and again move us back to trading 6 contracts.
It would have been a much better day had it not been for EMD (S&P midcap 400). Not only did we lose over $800 per contract but $100 of that was in slippage on the entry - a
full 10 ticks. This is one of the major problems of trading EMD although I have also had positive slippage at times. It is exceptionally irritating and demonstrates the liquidity
problem against contracts like the ES and ER2.
Attachments
Time passes by
Well time has flown by.
The recent increase in IB margin requirements has scuppered the money management on this system which is a shame.
Currently the table below shows what is required to trade a single contract on this portfolio. Bear in mind you would need at least 50% more than this to realistically trade (ie not have any margin calls as soon as something goes against you by a point) it has all gone a little Pete Tong (wrong).
the good news is the system is putting in a constant set of new equity highs. Currently equity WOULD have been 162,728 but this is with 7 contracts and clearly you cannot trade that no of contracts with that amount of equity.
Four options -
a) alter the position sizing to a much slower growth rate eg increase a contract every time you make 37,370
b) Play golf whilst the "volatility "subsides and Interactive Brokers get back to more sensible intraday margin requirements.
c) Increase your account equity as required - needs a fairy godmother or something like that.
d) Trade the underlying stocks - I have NOT checked it out this time but in the past I have found this can be quite productive. However it is far more commission intensive and much more difficult to keep a handle on.
Personally I am doing b) most of the time. US indices are still easily tradeable - it is really just the Dax that is so ridiculously priced - esp when you compare it to its stable mates the ESTX50 and The Swiss index (SMI).
The margin requirement for the dax allows for a 17% fall in the index currently - bear in mind this is intraday margins we are talking about here and in the last 5 years the biggest one day range has only been around 9% and that was not a gap. Next biggest is around 7% .
Margin 20-Jul
dax 15,052
estx 3,132
smi 6,433
er2 5,250
emd 4,000
ym 3,503
37,370
Well time has flown by.
The recent increase in IB margin requirements has scuppered the money management on this system which is a shame.
Currently the table below shows what is required to trade a single contract on this portfolio. Bear in mind you would need at least 50% more than this to realistically trade (ie not have any margin calls as soon as something goes against you by a point) it has all gone a little Pete Tong (wrong).
the good news is the system is putting in a constant set of new equity highs. Currently equity WOULD have been 162,728 but this is with 7 contracts and clearly you cannot trade that no of contracts with that amount of equity.
Four options -
a) alter the position sizing to a much slower growth rate eg increase a contract every time you make 37,370
b) Play golf whilst the "volatility "subsides and Interactive Brokers get back to more sensible intraday margin requirements.
c) Increase your account equity as required - needs a fairy godmother or something like that.
d) Trade the underlying stocks - I have NOT checked it out this time but in the past I have found this can be quite productive. However it is far more commission intensive and much more difficult to keep a handle on.
Personally I am doing b) most of the time. US indices are still easily tradeable - it is really just the Dax that is so ridiculously priced - esp when you compare it to its stable mates the ESTX50 and The Swiss index (SMI).
The margin requirement for the dax allows for a 17% fall in the index currently - bear in mind this is intraday margins we are talking about here and in the last 5 years the biggest one day range has only been around 9% and that was not a gap. Next biggest is around 7% .
Margin 20-Jul
dax 15,052
estx 3,132
smi 6,433
er2 5,250
emd 4,000
ym 3,503
37,370
donaldduke
Experienced member
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I dont trade DAX but from what i have read DAX futures trade at 25 EUR a point. And the IB margin is 15000 EUR
per contract.
15000/25 = 600 pts which is a 9% intra day move not 17%????
Yes, my mistake- I had taken the tick moves (2 per whole point) rather than a single Big point.
It's still a huge margin requirement whichever way you look at it!
per contract.
15000/25 = 600 pts which is a 9% intra day move not 17%????
Yes, my mistake
- I had taken the tick moves (2 per whole point) rather than a single Big point.It's still a huge margin requirement whichever way you look at it!
