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What can SniperDayTrading do for you?

Friday, March 27th, 2009

Today is Friday March 27th and I had another smooth day trading the S&P.

I had an interesting day today, in that I did not start trading the size that I wanted to, because I did not see great price action at the time I started trading. I put my first trade on at 8:12 am West Coast time, but it was not good enough for me to put the size on, so I waited. I did make a few nice trades and had a few small losses, working my equity up to around $1,000 in a little over 30 minutes.

I decided to take a break and do some teaching with a student of mine and came back later, after the market had a chance to change up its price action with a few new reads. At around 11:56 am, I put on a trade with 5+5 contracts, for a total of 10, at the same price of 813.75, and rode that up for 5 solid points of gain. I did not scale out of the trade, but just rode it up for all that it gave me.

The trade lasted only about 6 minutes.  That trade added $2,500 dollars to the $ 1,000 that I already had, for a nice add on trade, taking me to $3,500 for the day. Once prices got over 815.50, there were other forces from higher time frame charts working to push the market higher. If you look back at your charts to that time, you may see what I am talking about.

As far as the broad market is concerned, the Index’s are still in a solid uptrend on the daily, with some overhead resistance on the Dow coming in a little over 8,000. There was very little pull back on the way up, which tells me that when the market does stop, there will be a nice reactionary move back down to the middle. In order for this uptrend to stay intact, the Dow will have to stay above 7,700 and the S&P above 813 on the cash, which is only a few points below where we currently are.

That is how I currently see it – you might view it differently. The maximum I see for the S&P is in the 840 range, before we see a pull back, but since we are very close to support right now, the 813 needs to hold on the cash market.

Below are some questions from someone interested in my method.  I have answered all of these questions before, but I will do it again for everyone’s benefit.

I watch your videos on your blog and have some questions.Do you always use a trend-line break of some sort for entries? 

Are the entries orders stop or limit orders and where are they placed?

I see reference to 5 tick stops. Doesn’t onessuccess rate have to be quite high when targeting 3-4 ticks with a 5 tick stop?

Do you offer any training beyond the blog videos?

Answer to #1 &2  ) I almost always look for some sort of trend line break to enter a trade. It may be that a pattern is developing, like a triangle or any other pattern. Upon the break or at a back fill point, you can enter the trade. I do occasionally enter on a buy stop, but that is not very often. So the limit order is what I most often use. By using limit orders, I have missed trades by not getting filled, but that does not bother me too much because I only need to wait for the next trade. If I extend myself too much by placing buy stop orders or sell stop orders to get into a trade, I sometimes need to take the trade farther to get filled, and expose myself to greater risk by getting stopped out. Most of the orders I place, I quickly move my stop up to 4 ticks, but when I do place a buy stop entry order or sell stop entry order,  that is when I find I need the extra tick, so as not to get stopped out on a back fill of the original break out. It is not the same every time and would greatly depend on current price action.

Answer to #3 )  I use 4 and 5 tick stops almost always, rarely anything more. I see where you might be concerned with such a small stop – not many people can trade with their stop being this small. There are a few keys to being successful at this business. One is good timing. I have a set number of conditions that need to be present before an order should be placed. When those conditions are present, there is usually an 80% chance that I will hit 1 point of profit. My ultimate trading goal is to hit 2-3 points profit per day, every day. You only need to make 2 or 3 of these trades to make that happen. If you see a bigger potential of a move, you can scale out of your trade at, say, 1 point for the first half and something higher, like 2 points, just like I did yesterday. If I see a much larger potential, which does not always happen, I will elect to stay with the trade and have it give me whatever is in it, as with today’s trade of 5 points. It really all just depends on price action. That is why it takes time to learn the market ins and outs. There is no quick and easy way to master all that the market can throw at you in a short period of time. It can take years. But on the other hand, for someone who is satisfied with a daily income of 2 to 3 points profit, you can simplify the process a great deal.

Yes, you will miss big moves and yes, you could have made a lot more on certain trades, but if your goal is to make MONEY, then new traders need to be realistic in what they can expect from the markets.

If I place a trade and I only get the small move of 3 ticks on that trade, I would initially have my stop no more than a 4 tick stop. If the trade moves in my favor by 2 ticks, I move my stop to 3 ticks, and then maybe to 2 ticks, until I get filled. I am riding my small stop up with the move in my direction and hitting my small target 80+ percent of the time with a 3 tick fill. If you do the math, it comes out very nicely. In just a couple of trades, you are done.

Two trades for 1 point and 1 trade for 3/4 point, trading say only 4 contracts, will almost always give you $500 dollars in less than 30 minutes. That comes to $1,000 dollars an hour. Who makes that kind of money these days? The key is that you keep your personal struggle to get your daily goal to a minimum and then come back tomorrow to do it again.

As I wrote in my blog a couple of days ago, it can be difficult for traders to be able to identify which trades are going to run and which ones are only good for 1 or 2 points. The best way to handle that is to just trade everything for 1 or 2 points max. This will give you the opportunity to keep your focus on correct timing and not over thinking and analyzing for the big 3 or 4 to one profit ratio trade.

Answer #4) I can discuss with individuals interested in personal mentoring, one on one. I will see what your trading level is and go from there. It can be that my trading method does not work for everyone because of past trading habits that they may not be able to change. It will depend on the individual and how teachable they are. For some people it might be like putting a round peg in a square hole, and my style of trading does not match their personality.

But if you come with an open mind and want to learn what it is that I know, I would bet that I can help you become profitable. I can spend personal screen time going over my method so that you understand how it works and what it is that we look for in a trade setup. If you have Trade Station, I can set your screen up with everything I use to trade. If you are using Ninja Trader, then I can also set your screen up to very closely match my settings on Trade Station. Both are excellent platforms for trading the S&P. You will have access to my trading room for 2-3 months, where you will hear and see me put my trades on. I would want you to learn and not only follow my trades so I will have you understanding why I am looking to take each trade. Very important. We all need to think for ourselves. This is what will make good traders for the long term.

I have a trader that I am currently working with, and in this last week  he is hitting over 80 percent on all of his trades, targeting for only one point. He is posting profit of about $1,000 dollars a day. He is getting it. There is still more work to do for him, but he is working hard on mastering his timing. He does better at long trades than short, but I am working with him to help him see where the correct timing is for those short trades. His concern is not looking for the monster trade of 5-10 points, but just cranking out 1 point trades with 4 contracts. What more could anyone ask for.

http://www.screencast.com/t/DgRVunye              Today’s equity chart

Have a great weekend!   Vince

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Nice screen shot of 233 tick/ Thursday Feb, 19th

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

This is Thursday February 19th, and today I have a nice screen shot on the  233 tick chart.

This screen shot today is the last hour of today’s trading and points out some nice potential trades. I have one of those trades taken for 2 & 1/2 points to add to this mornings gains. My percentage W/L is a little off the last two days, but I still have excellent profit for both days. Many of the losses that I took, could have been avoided but it happens some time. If I am able to come out of a minimal draw down and post solid gains for the session, that is always a victory. That being said, I still know I should have done better. For many people, this may be the sounds of someone who just lost a good deal for the last two days. On the contrary, I was able to pull out more than double daily goal yesterday and over 4 times daily goal for today. You may be saying, what is my problem with profit like that. Well, I have come to expect a certain level of performance and when I don’t reach that, I need to adjust myself to make sure that I am doing what it takes to get the high level of results I have come to expect. I like to keep the struggle to a minimum, that is why I many times only trade for 2 net points. My fight is over, and it is a good  feeling to get through another day posting positive gains. The people following me are also posting some nice positive gains and that’s great. There is no delays in my screen sharing and my conference line is dead on real time with SKYPE.

I will post an update on the daily tomorrow. In brief, we have turned negative for now on the daily and as of this moment, the trend is down and it is not looking good. The Dow is right at a 6 year low and flirting with a new big breakdown. It still has a chance, but today’s action in the last hour sold off to close at the lower end of the day’s range, that  is not a good sign. Tomorrow I will post the sentiment numbers, Bull/Bear.

That is it for now, wishing everyone well.

Vince

http://www.screencast.com/t/kP31DqMIKY       233 tick chart and 1 afternoon trade

http://www.screencast.com/t/EpOcd2RYuO4     A few of today’s trades

http://www.screencast.com/t/vpgFLDzsQZ        Today’s equity graph / 4 times daily goal

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Day 7 training video

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

http://www.screencast.com/t/v0dlnRWdO            Day # 7 Sample training

http://www.screencast.com/t/9c3KXNjaU                Today’s equity graph

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Big Day on Wall Street & Day 6 training

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

Today is Tuesday February 17th, and we had a big day on wall street.

I don’t think the investment community likes the bail out plan because it more closely resembles a big government spending binge.  The way I understand it, there is going to have to be more and more of this spending in future years, to the tune of 2.5 Trillion or more dollars, wow, that is a lot of money. Look for inflation to be a big problem later in the year. They won’t be able to raise that much money without raising taxes and or printing it (money).  It is going to pull a lot of available cash away from the private sector, meaning people with businesses are going to have to pay more to capture some of the financing that they need.  Interest rates will go up for sure and so will inflation. Right now we are in a deflationary environment, but that is going to change later this year, you wait and see. I don’t think this is good for the economy and the market with wall street agreeing. The S&P sold off about 4 & 1/2 percent and today broke that all important support that I have talked about. Not a good development for long term money. The market is always going to foretell what is happening in the economy 6-9 months in the future. So lets still hope we get a reversal.

As far as indicators go, the daily did turn negative today. I don’t rely on indicators, but it is a little helpful at times for the person who is still learning how to read price action. The only glimmer of hope that I see, is a possible fake out. Many times the previous low (pivot) gets taken out by only a slight margin and that is enough to get shorts and people who have been hanging in there to throw in the towel. When that happens a fast reversal can happen. Right now, there is no way of know what the next move is, but by reading  current price action will we know if it is going to continue to break down. I would say be alert tomorrow and look for a possible reversal, but don’t have too strong a bias, just be aware that a reversal can happen, and  ”READ PRICE ACTION”. That is the only way you will know what’s going on.

As traders, that is easy to figure out. Don’t anticipate much, just read. I can not state that strong enough. The times that you have too strong an opinion about market direction, to the point that you become blinded from what is actually happening, is the times that you will not do so well. You can not force you will on the market, it does not care what you think. Its job is to take you “OUT”. So, take it easy and wait for high probability set ups.

Today’s day trading went well. I picked up my daily goal in about 20 minutes or so in the morning. I started out with +1 point but only got filled on 1 contract, not 5. Then had -1 point , +1 point, +1/2 point, +3 ticks, and then +1 point. I have the trades posted below. I did come back for another round a little later after taking a break. The equity graph shows all the trades net profit. I had 14 trades, with 12 gains and 2 losses. The market was really flowing nicely. I will show tomorrow some more trades in the 233 tick. If anyone is trying to trade and follow on there own, I would recommend that you do it in the 233 tick right now. Unless you know how to weed through the possible false signals in the 100 tick, you should be following the 233 tick for now. I will explain more in tomorrow post.

Lastly, when watching the training, you may want to scroll down to the bottom and go to the right side, there you will see a button that looks like a screen.  If you click on that, you will make the screen full size, it may be easier to view. I wish everyone who is follow me a great evening.

Vince

 

http://www.screencast.com/t/NgwtnTFbUO       Day #6 Training

http://www.screencast.com/t/BK9pKrXAos      Today’s equity graph

 http://www.screencast.com/t/oSpzKsaqESr         Some of today’s trades

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Recap of the Week & extra training video

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

Well, its Saturday February 14th and I want to give you a little update of daily price action on the S&P.

I have also a small recap of potential trades in the 233 tick for Friday, as well as the ones I did take, but now showing you in the 233. I trade off of the 100 tick but I have been looking  at the 233 recently with my normal screen shots of the 400 tick and 1600 tick. The 1600 tick is about the equivalent of a 3 minute bar. 

 In the first video below, I am going over the cash S&P market in the “Daily” and then in a 5 minute bar chart. Towards the end of that video, I am showing a screen shot of the 1600 tick and I would recommend that you pause the video so you can get a better look at the signals and what I am looking at.

I don’t trade in the 1600 but use it for reference only at this time. A person can trade that time frame and do well. You will usually have to allow for a bigger stop, but you can work around that a little by using smaller time frames to find you a low risk area to enter. Once you are comfortably aboard, you can ride it up for some large profits. To trade this time frame, I would say you are going to be trading quite a bit longer, 2-3 hours minimum and possibly all day. You will need to wait for the trades to set up and then to move in your direction. This all takes time. It requires patience and a lot of discipline, but for the person who does not want to take small profits, it is an alternative. So be sure and stop the video and take a closer look. I did not have much time left at the end of that video, so it fades away pretty fast.

In the second video, I am showing the 233 tick chart. This is the largest time frame I can use and still stick to a 4 or 5 tick stop. I have been doing the training series on this time frame so you can see what Friday morning’s trading looks like and the first of my daily trading goals. When I placed my orders, I was in the 100 tick chart but used the 233 as a reference.

In this second video, mid point, is a small caption of a screen shot in my website. This is showing only the first part of three parts and points out what is possible to accomplish after 16 weeks of patience, discipline, focus and the ability to control greed and fear. Some people will not be able to follow the plan because emotionally they may not be ready to receive that much money in their life. If you are one of the “Others”, then I suggest that you start training your mind to do just that. This plan is slow enough to truly be possible and it is fast enough to get you going exactly in the direction you want to go. 

On the surface, some people may not think that 2 points is enough to make a lot of money and may question my method. But if you see the power of doing the same thing over and over again, you may just become a believer.

You may have remembered me saying that trading is about probabilities and patterns. If you establish a pattern of booking 2 points a day after commission, and be sure that you do it every day, then you are on your way. If you fall behind, you can make it up on another day with  greater gains.

It has been said that if someone does the same thing for 21 days, he or she has established a habit. Now, who wants to get started with forming that habit?  After the 4 week mark which is 20 trading days, you are starting on $2,500 for that week. If you left it merely at that rate, you would be making $10,000 for the month. But I say, if you made it that far, why not go on from there to 8 weeks, 12 weeks, 16 weeks. You will see, midpoint on the second video, the chart showing you how to gradually move your contract size up by one each week and what it can do for you. I believe, if some do not think that it is possible, it will never happen for them. They won’t let it. But to the other individual, who sees the vision of what could be, then he has everything to gain.

Just ask yourself this one question, “Do You Believe it is possible?” If your answer is yes, then take steps towards bringing yourself  to your desired outcome.  I decided a long time ago that I was going to just such a place. It is not even a question for me. The only question I have these days are how many people am I taking with me? What a journey. 

Trading to me, offers a  perfect solution to have time freedom and the money to go with it. But time freedom for me is on top. With time, you have choices and those choices can include whatever you want it to be, based on your values and what is important to you. I know what it is for me. Maybe ask yourself, what is it for you? I have said this before, but it bears repeating.

Above, I was talking about probabilities and patterns. I discussed patterns first and now a quick comment about probabilities.

The odds of me getting my 2 points goes up greatly when I only need to capture my daily goal of two points. The longer I trade, the possibility exists that I could come into trouble. I believe the markets are true and consistent. It would be me that could have a problem. That being said, it is going to be easier to attain a goal of 2 points vs a goal of 10 points.

You see, the best way to keep large sums of money is to make it a little slower and consistently. This will allow you to adjust yourself and prepare your mind to build on your foundation.  It is such a relief to get what you came for in the markets and do it again the next day with confidence. 

That is what I myself am building as I write to my readers. I know, I do trade for more than two points, but that is not always  the case. If I feel the rhythm of the markets I will continue to add to my gains. I don’t like to trade for more than 1 hour at a time. I know what can happen after a person gets tired. You can make mistakes and draw down your account. This would be trading in the 100 tick, taking 10-15 trades for an hour. If you continue at that pace, 20-30 trades for 2 hours, 30 to 45 trades for 3 hours, it can be done and I have done it, but you need to be on your game. I have seen my concentration drop off at these levels and it would be perfectly normal and understandable.

So, I find it best to be as sharp as I can to take it no longer than 1 hour at a time. I have picked up 10 to 15 points many times during a good hour of trading. The idea is I only need 2 points plus for the day to keep me going forward towards my yearly master plan of trading 5o contracts for 2 points net per day.  That is $2,500 per point x 2 points or $5,000 for the day. At the end of one year your risk for putting on a trade like this is about 1/2% against your account of  $500,000. 

When you compare that to how you started out, possibly risking 2 or 3 % on your first trades, depending on what you started with, your risk is steadily going down and actually becomes nonexistent to a point, because you have been taking cash out of the market all along the way. Along the course of that year you were able to take $ 260,000 in cash.

So, now you can see clearly what 2 points per day can do for you.  High probability trades combined with excellent timing will take you there.

If you want to get to this point of picking up 2 points a day and do it every day, then send me an email message and we can talk.

http://www.screencast.com/t/6dOoi7FJ6Nx   Daily S&P, 5 min S&P, & 1600 tick chart

http://www.screencast.com/t/Q17C1Web6       Friday’s 233 tick &  ”What 2 pt day can do”

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Day 5 Training video / Market Averages holding on

Friday, February 13th, 2009

It is Friday February 13th, and day five of my small video training series.

Hope everyone is enjoying the sample training series. I have gotten positive feedback so far, so I know it has been a help for some. Please feel free to comment.

The market is holding on by the skin of its teeth, hugging the bottom support line we have talked about for so long. Yesterday’s reversal was good, but there wasn’t any follow through in today’s trading. It is still technically positive in the daily chart, but we will need some follow through here pretty soon.

I did check the sentiment numbers and they went negative by an additional 3%, which is good for the bull argument. A reading at 35% or below is considered a bullish signal and we were at 35 and went down to 32. This figure is a weekly poll taken to identify the number of professional stock market newsletter writers who are either bullish or bearish ( up or down). They give their opinions each week and it is tracked and recorded. Other groups take that information and post their results, having somewhat turned it into a market timing tool.

The funny thing about it is that they don’t take the advice, they trade in the opposite direction of the writers  and profit from the standard herd mentality that exists on the street. I have been following these numbers since the early 80’s and found them to be very accurate. It is not fool proof, nothing is, these guys could get it right one of these days, so be careful. I still think there is a bounce in the cards coming but we shall see. I will post a chart of the S&P cash to show you where we are over the weekend.

My day trading went well today, posting 3 gains in the early morning, picking up my daily goal in about 20 minutes. I remember them as +1 point, +1 point, and +1/2 point.  I was only trading for 1/2 point on the last trade because I just wanted to cover commission cost. I was just fine with doing that, even if I could have gotten more, which I could have as I remember. I want to try and stay in control, knowing that I only needed a little more to get my goal. If I had taken a stop on the trade, I would have had to stay trading and that means more exposure to the market.

This is a very conservative approach. I am trying to exercise mental discipline in my trading to show that I can get what I want out of the trading day. I believe that if I want to take 6 or even 10 points out of the market each day, that I could do that as well, but I would have to work at it a bit harder and stay a while longer. I have definitely done that before and it’s ok, but I need to be prepared for it and plan it. Today, I did come back and picked up another daily goal in the afternoon. That was the plan. I treated it just like a new day and did what I always do, pick off a few trades to add to this mornings gains. A nice way to go into the weekend.

Below, I have the training video as well as the screen shots of today’s trades. I will post more on the current events on Wall Street this weekend, so check back . I wish all the readers of my blog a most excellent weekend.

Vince

http://www.screencast.com/t/CUArEYcq              Day #5 sample training video

http://www.screencast.com/t/1vYMwyRObtE     This moring’s equity chart

http://www.screencast.com/t/Bdtv2315l               This mornings trades

http://www.screencast.com/t/bftPp4q5M             This afternoons add on equity chart

http://www.screencast.com/t/ODI2×97z               This afternnons trades

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Day four of sample training & What a reversal today!

Friday, February 13th, 2009

Today is Thursday, February 12 and it is day four of my sample training series.

I hope everyone is enjoying it. This series is the trading activity of just one day which you can see presents many trading opportunities to capture your daily goal.  If any one has questions, please feel free to email me.

Today’s market looks like a giant “W” formation. That is how it started off, straight down, then back up a little over half way, and then straight down again, only to shoot straight up in the last 50 minutes of trading to close at the high for the day.

As I said many times before, today’s market needed to stay above the support it was resting on and when it was broken early in the morning by over 200 Dow points, it was not looking good. Although, as I watched the market action this morning, I was somewhat anticipating a reversal before the end of the day was over. I did not have a chance to see the final push back up, but it was impressive.

If a person wanted to trade what I call “Pyramiding”, you could have added 12 orders, each with its own new buy point and stop. You just keep moving up your old stop to match the new stop from the new orders. In a strong directional move like the last hour of today, you could have cleaned up. Keep in mind, you would have to have this strategy planned out well ahead of time, so you are ready with your plan of action.

I have done this in the past, but I don’t do it that often. My current strategy is to make money a little slower and build my contract base up over time. This is a more conservative approach, but I am not totally against putting a trade on like this occasionally. If an opportunity comes up in the future, I will take it and explain in more detail the order process. When the move is finished you may have added to your position 10 times.

As an example, if you were only trading one contract you may finish the move an hour later selling 10 contracts. Each add on order is treated as a separate order and should stand on its own merit, meeting your standard buying conditions with your normal stop parameters. You do not take on any additional risk as long as the move is in the right direction and you keep moving all of your stops up.  This is called scalling in.

What I do many times is what is called scalling out.  But this is a totally different strategy for different market conditions and should be a part of your overall plan of action. Currently it is not part of mine, but it may appeal to others who like this type of trading. Not every pyramiding endeavor is going to be met with 10 add on’s but maybe 3 or 4 would be a little more normal in the context of a large run of say 8 to 10 S&P points. Today’s last hour run was good for about 28 points, that is a lot, let me tell you. 

Today’s trading went well, as I was able to catch my daily goal plus in about 45 minutes. It took a little longer than most days, but that is fine. The more time you actually spend in the market brings additional risk. If I were to count the actual time I spend in the market, it is going to be very low – the total time in the trade, not the time in between trades.

Tomorrow, I will check it and post what it is. Again, this is one more thing I need to keep in mind. For me, I know anything can happen, especially these days so we need to stay on our toes. More tomorrow, have a great evening!

Vince

http://www.screencast.com/t/O4ua9O8kP          Day 4 of sample training series

http://www.screencast.com/t/GiTPwKjiDL          Today’s trades taken

http://www.screencast.com/t/FOIYZ2SUV         Today’s equity chart

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Day three of sample training & Posting steady profits

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

Today is day three of my small training video series started on Monday this week.

There are nine parts to this in total and I will continue to post them until finished. The idea is to give you some insight into how a person can take money out of the market each day. I have not had any problem posting positive results every day I am trading the S&P 500 E-Mini futures. It is possible for you to do this as well.

If anyone is interested in learning more and wants to be mentored through this process all you need to do is send me an email message and I will be ready to show you more closely how this process can work for you. I now have more time to devoted to this process and will be able to respond to your emails more timely. My plan is to continue posting my results as well as my screen shots of my trades to show you that it can be done. In addition, with time you will see that the trade timing is consistent and duplicatable. There is no substitute for understanding price action and how to maneuver through those waters, but with my semi-custom timing indicator, it is a nice tool to help ensure that you are on the right side of the trade as seen in my videos and postings.

Anyone interested in seeing me trade live, send me an email and I will patch you into my trading screen. It only takes a couple of minutes. If you want to hear me as well, I can connect you into my room through SKYPE. You can download that program through my website to listen and if you want to talk and ask questions in between trades you will need a headset. A microphone can be bought at Walmart or similar store for about $15. The relay of information from my computor to yours is in real time, no delay. I try and get the calls out with enough time for you to place your orders.  I am usually only trading for a few points with my partners to reach a daily goal of 2 to 3 points for them. Sometimes I come back and trade a little more myself  but it just depends.

In today’s market action, it was good to see the market hold but it is a little scary as it flirts with the current support off the bottom end of the range. The market sentiment numbers have come out as of yesterday and I will update them as I am able to get the information in tomorrow’s post.

My day trading today went quick lasting only 15 minutes before I picked up my daily goal. I have it posted below, but as I remember it was +3 ticks, +3 ticks, +3 ticks and +2 ticks, for a total of 2 & 3/4 points. Take a look as I have a screen shot of my trades below. I have not been trading that much lately, but that is ok. I will be increasing my contract size in the next day or two, so my profit will start going up while I still only need to trade for 2-3 points.

I wish everyone the best.  Vince

http://www.screencast.com/t/gKGSolGl                  Part 3 of sample training video

http://www.screencast.com/t/jPWhWDmn             Today’s equity chart

http://www.screencast.com/t/Y0qFdpVy               Screen Shot of Today’s trades

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Day two / Sample Training

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

Today is day two of a small sample training video I have put together.

Take advantage of the training and see how and why I do what I do. It is pretty straight forward and fairly easy to follow. It is only a small sample of what you could learn here. Trading is about support and resistance combined with probabilities and pattern recognition. You need to learn how to read the charts, naked. By that I mean price action alone should be enough in and of itself to make your buy and sell decisions. My method will work in any time frame like I have said previously. It can be applied to daily stock charts as well as commodities, forex currencies and for sure the S&P 500 E-Mini’s. It takes time to be able to understand so many other factors, but having a basic understanding of where price break entries are at, is the first key. Knowing where is your lowest risk point in any trade and knowing exactly where you are going to get out is imperative. I never put a trade on without having a stop in place at the same time. At times I trade without a target, but never without a stop. Having the right timing is what will make or break you. This all goes with knowing how to trade, understanding pivot points, price rejection, chart formations, breakouts, retracements and how to play each of them, will take time, but the rewards can be beyond your dreams for the dedicated.

It was a big day on the street today. The market did not like what the treasury secretary had to say about the financial mess. One thing I heard was, that there was not many specifics, what can you expect, looks like I see a pattern here. You could trade off of that pattern and that is what the street did today and decided to sell, sell and sell some more, minus 4 to 5 % for the market. It took us down to bounce off of the lower end of the range ,(purple support line I have drawn and spoke of before). I might add, if we break down from here, it could be lights out. That line has been hit about 7 or 8 times now. There is going to be a lot of sellers on the other side of that, I can assure you of that. Lets all hope it holds, for everyone sake.  I think sooner or later, it is going to break and we are going to go down several thousand more points on the Dow, but I hope it is not now. It is just a loose opinion that I have and not one that I hold onto tightly. The weekly chart tried to go positive this week, but was meet with what I call price rejection. Trend is still in tack for now, but tomorrow is going to be key, it needs to hold.

Today’s trading was fairly quick, about 20 minutes to reach my daily goal and that was good enough for me. Trades posted below. Have a great day!   Vince

http://www.screencast.com/t/TfnwXw0zEsU           Today’s equity chart

http://www.screencast.com/t/nvcf6ZTr                      Todays Trades

http://www.screencast.com/t/i2ZoV6Wk                   Sample  Training day #2

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Training series / First in a nine part series

Monday, February 9th, 2009

Hello, this post is for Monday, February 9 th, 2009 and today I will begin a 9 part sample training series on how to trade the S&P 500 E-Mini Futures for daily profit.

I know some of you missed Saturday’s training with conflicting schedules, but I have decided to give out some of my material to the readers of this blog. The information is, I feel, very valuable to the person who is trying to find a method that has the ability to take money out of the market every day.

All traders are different, in that you may find a group of traders who all use the same method, but they all use different entries and get different results. That being said, you can train yourself to react in a consistent fashion when you have repeatable patterns presented to you. The main idea is to walk away with a modest profit and do it again the next day and so on. It is a very attainable goal if you know what to do.

The first thing anyone who aspires to become a successful day trader is you need to know how to trade. That may sound a little simplistic, but you would be surprised at how many people do not trade with a plan but by the seat of their pants. I don’t mean to offend anyone out there who is able to trade this way, but whatever feels good or looks good usually does not produce consistent results.

There are so few people who are able to be successful at this. In a way, I guess that’s good because the returns would not be as large as they can be for some. For the person who makes a million dollars a year, the odds drop way down. One of the reasons for that is most people are not able to 1) trade profitably and consistently;  2) they cannot overcome the mental aspect of trading . You first need to know how, then you need to work on yourself in ways you may have never thought about before. Sounds like a lot of work and it is. Nothing worth while is ever easy, cheap and without cost.

Have you ever thought of the main reason for your trading pursuits?  One of the many benefits I find rewarding about living a trader’s lifestyle is you have the ability to make your own hours. For me, that is a high on my priority list. Not having to work for someone else is without a doubt high in the ranking. You know, the money is not as important for me as it may be for others, because I don’t need so much to meet my daily needs. The time freedom is probably the most valuable to me. The money just affords the opportunity to take advantage of that benefit. The answer to the question above is going to be different for everyone, but it is a good question, so maybe give it some thought.

This business is not for everyone and I will be the first one to tell you that. You need to have a desire and/or a passion to pursue this seriously because you will be going up against professional traders worldwide. You cannot take a casual approach and expect to consistently come out on top.  

Back to the training series. I have part one of a nine part series posted below. These are only 5 minute clips and they will continue the next day where I left off. The nine parts will last a total of 45 minutes and this represents just one complete trading day. I have moved up my chart to a 233 tick chart from what I usually trade, 100 tick.  I look at 3 different time frames during the day and make my final trading decision in the 100 tick. When you trade a higher time frame chart, two things happen. You usually need to account for a bigger stop, so your target needs to be higher as well to account for that, and the second thing is you have fewer trade setups.

The smallest time frame for me is the 100 tick as I have said and this is basically a scalping method by definition (taking small profits of a few ticks to a few points). I find that, it would be advantageous for someone to trade a separate account for a different style. Like trading for larger point runs based on the appropriate trade setup. With this style, I do like to gradually scale out of trades when I see nice chart patterns present themselves. Maybe taking off the first part at 1 to 2 points, then the second at 2 to 3 points and the rest, let it go to where ever the market says get out, that is easy to identify with my method.

I might add, there is another way I have handled nice trade setups and that is, I would identify the next biggest time frame up from the 100 (I usually go up in incriments of 4, for me that would be the 400 tick chart). When I see a nice pattern in the 400, that I know in the past has produced nice movement, I look to the 100 tick and go long with a standard order, lets just say 3 contracts. I will add another 3 at a new break out with my new stop in place and move up my old stop to the second add on spot. I will add again at a new break out treating it as a separate order with its own separate stop.  In a 10 point run you may be able to add 4 or 5 times safely without any additional risk other than your first order. Basically, I am pyramiding my position for maximum return without the risk. You stay within the larger trend which is pushing you higher and add in the smaller time frame for maximum return. You can do that if you are able to recognize patterns and be ready with your plan in place. Keep that in mind when you view the short video’s.

You can see the patterns more easily in a larger time frame. That is why I have gone up to the 233 tick chart. It does not matter the time frame, everything is always the same. There are a lot of ways to trade and no one can say that my way is the best way, because it may be the best way for you but different for others. I would say, I do like the 233 tick chart and I have traded it before. It is the maximum time frame I can go and still keep a small 5 tick stop, so it is a very good alternative to the 100 tick, which may be a little too fast for someone who is just starting out. This is still plenty fast and the trade setups are still fairly frequent. When I counted the trade triggers generated in the one day, there were 50 possible trades for this time frame (233 tick)

Again, the training is broken down into 9 segments of 5 minutes each, given to you one each day and represents the full trading day of  Thursday, February 5th, 2009.  By the way, Friday’s market action looks the same as Thursday’s and Wednesday’s looks the same as Friday’s, they all  more or less look the same, repeatable trading patterns that happen over and over again.

This is just a sample of what you can learn with me. If you decide to partner with me, you will be able to follow me in the morning for 30 to 60 minutes, capturing your daily goal. I think you will be nicely rewarded with new knowledge, experience and hopefully some extra cash to go along with it. 

Ask about my “Mentoring Special”, Learn While You Earn.

Have a great day!

Vince

http://www.screencast.com/t/WhGbWgD8Y                     Sample Training part  #1

http://www.screencast.com/t/44E4Uu492Qt                   Today’s equity chart

http://www.screencast.com/t/tBnsAUQswkN                   Today’s trades

http://www.screencast.com/t/kGkg0mjTPe                     Add on trade/1 entry 3 exits

http://www.screencast.com/t/ut61mZJgZn                      Updated equity chart

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