Posts Tagged ‘afternoon session’

FAQ

Thursday, February 25th, 2010



Frequently Asked Questions (Click on the Question to Reveal Answer)

Q. Can I trade more than 30 to 60 minutes a day?
A. Yes. You can break it up into two sessions if you like. Perhaps a morning session and afternoon session-make 2 point each session.

Q. Can I trade for more than two point a day?
A. My E-Mini trading course has advanced material for those who WANT to trade all day and earn more than two point a day. That’s fine to do, as long as you stick to the rules and not deviate from the trading plan. I personally do not advise it. The high side of the daily goal, four points, should be enough for most traders.

Q. Can I use this with Eminis other than the S&P?
A. Yes! my method works great with the NASDAQ Minis and the Dow Minis.

Q. What is a Day Trading School?
A. Many websites offer day trading training where you have to attend a classroom in a school. If you are not near one of these “schools”, you are out of luck. I offer my course as an “at home” learning experience. You learn at home, to earn at home.

Q. Is this a mechanical system?
A. Yes, and no. Yes, it is mechanical. No, it is not a “system”, it is a method. In my opinion, systems don’t work because the markets always change. Sniper Day Trading will give precise entry points that are highly accurate.

Q. How much money do I need to start?
A. Most brokers require a $5000 starting balance to begin. Amp Futures has a lower minimum opening balance of $ 2,000. That is very tight and offers little room for error, but it can be done if you have excellent discipline and really grasp the method. Following the rules for profitability is a must. Daily loss limit a must and may even have to be tightened to 3 points from 4. That is a daily loss limit of $ 150 dollars for the day. The worst you could do on any one day. So with discipline, focus and the right person, it is possible.

Q. Can I really make an income with a $5k balance?
A. Absolutely! Assuming you can follow the rules! If you can’t, then you will not make it, plain and simple. The choice, decision and outcome are up to you. You will have all that you need to make it. My method works, there is no doubt in my mind. The daily “Turning Points” video’s I do will be an incredible help. If you can build your contract size to just 4 contracts in 4 months time. Increasing your size just one contract per month over 4 months, you will be at a annual monthly income equivalent to making 100K per year, with averaging just 2 points per day. Some days you will hit 3-4 because the market will just give it to you, before you close the trade. That will make up for days you may fall behind. So again, yes it is possible.

Q. Can you recommend a good broker?
A. Yes, Tradestation Securities is the data vendor I use and also the broker, two in one. I have found that these guys are one of the best in the industry and have a very easy trading platform to learn. I recommend them also because it is easier and better to build your screen the way that I have it. We will be using the same platform and format.

Q. How much are commissions?
A. Commission are $2 dollars to buy and $2 dollars to sell per contract. It could be a little more or less depending on the volume you trade.

Q. How long will it take to learn this method?
A. I believe if you read the manual and watch the included videos, you will be underway to learning the Sniper Day Trading method within a week or two. You really need to review the daily trade videos and you really need to trade the simulator first. I will not tell you how long to trade the simulator, because everyone is different. You may need more than two weeks of simulated trading or just a couple days. Any experienced trader will be ready in a few day or so. The method is not hard to understand and apply, most people will grasp it quickly.

Q. What kind of support will I receive from you?
A. My undivided attention! I am not a sales man trying to sell 1000 copies here. I am a real day trader who makes his living from day trading-period. I truly want to see you successful. You will have my private cell number and email address and all the consultation you need.

Q. You mention discipline quite a bit. Why?
A. It’s that important. You need to be disciplined to follow the rules to the letter. That’s why I highly recommend listening to my “Mental Exercise Program” often. As mentioned I will be coming out with future releases of this and make them available to partners at no extra cost to them.

Q. Can I skip trading for a few days and still make money?
A. Absolutely. You will be making money every day you decide to trade! Of course you will not make money when you take a day off.

Q. Can I pay for my course in installments?
A. No. A simple one time payment is required. Please read our CFTC Disclaimer linked from the bottom of my home page. You should be well capitalized to trade futures and should not be trading with money you cannot afford to lose. If you cannot make a one time payment, you may not be ready for trading!

Q. How much can I expect to make in a year?
A. Great question. Personally I consider a $100,000 + a year good income for most people. Following my plan and trading 1 contract to start, and adding 1 contract after every $1500 profit,(every three weeks at 2 points a day) you could be earning well over the above amount a year in a very short time. Trading only up-to 4 contracts at 2 points per day would attain this goal. This is a very conservative approach and one that most should consider especially if you are new to futures trading. Everyone is different. If you do not follow the rules and lack discipline, all bets are off.

Q. Do I have to install your software on my computer?
A. No. I do not sell software! I am selling education materials only. If you don’t have a data package and broker, I really recommend Tradestation. They have it all, they are not perfect, but they have all the software you will need. My custom indicator can be set up on your screen without to much trouble and I can help with that if you need it.

Q. What if I lose my connection while I am in a trade?

A. You need to CALL YOUR BROKER IMMEDIATELY. Personally, I always have a back up computer with a Verizon Internet Card ready to go in case my cable modem goes out. It’s very prudent to have a backup and have your broker’s number on speed dial. I have not had this happen to me, but I am certain it could. I also recommend a battery back-up/surge protector in case the power goes out while you are in a trade.

Q. Will I make money if the market keeps going down?
A. Sniper Day Trading method allows you to profit from up and down markets! Go to the beginners page and read about shorting the market!

Q. Do you offer training after market hours?
A. I do offer an after hours market training to those who need it, but cover a lot of material in the daily video’s I put out after each trading session. This is usually a recap of the trading day and signals generated. I will schedule LIVE TRAINING WEBINARS occasionally as needed to help partners better fully understand some advanced features and how to read price action.

Q. Do you offer a live trading room?

A. Not at this time. I will be considering this in the near future, but not yet.

Live S&P Futures Trading Video’s Today

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

Today is Monday, November 2nd and the Market holds.

Well, we were anticipating some pretty important market action today and so far so good. The Dow was up about 75 points today, but in order to slow down and turn this market around, we will have to see about 75 more Dow points to the upside. That is current overhead resistance and will need to break above that (9860) pretty decisively.

I think I said it all in yesterdays post, so I won’t repeat myself here again. We just need some time to see how this is going to play out and the above scenario lays out the other side of the equation.  Tomorrow, I will post a daily chart of the Dow and S&P to better show you what I have been saying.

Today, I took 3 trades starting around the New York afternoon session, 11 a.m. West Coast.  The first was a split trade and half came off at only 3 ticks, the second half was stopped out for -4 ticks. I was looking for the turn and just a touch early. So this trade gave me a net loss of  -1 tick on half the position,- $12.50.

The next trade, I did find the turn that I was looking for and picked up + 1 point on 2 contracts and let the other half run for +8.25 points. I was looking for prices to get a little higher but I did not push it, I got out at 1035.25 and I saw a potential high for the move at 1038. We came within 2 ticks of that trade high call at 1037.50 before the market retreated 6 points.

I re-entered long right at one of my “Turning Points” at 1033 and did not take half off early like I normally do but let the market take me to exactly where I thought it would, with the whole position. Once I was getting close to my target area, I took off half the position at +5.75 points of profit. I gave the other half some room to work, so it could make an attempt to hit the high side of 1040. It did not make it and I got stopped out at +4.25 points on the other half.

That was all quite OK.  I did notice that after I got stopped out, that the price did turn just after and move up to hit the 1040 level I had called. 

We were running out of time, but I did and still do see 1043 before the move is finished, but that will probably come in the night session or in tomorrow market. 

On that pull back, off the first good move, I was looking for prices to come down to 1031.75, which was 6 points off the previous high. Well, we came within 1 tick, 1031.50.

I make reference to all of this in the video’s I have posted below. These are live trading video’s of everything I just wrote above. The first three are tied to the first two orders and the last two are tied to the last trade.

I am not really saying how I come up with these trades on the video’s but I am reading price action. I do have a custom indicator that I have created that gives you these “Turning Points” and only risks 1 S&P point on the trade.  I do build my screens up with a few more tools to complement each style of trading I am in.

If I were to trade, this mornings session, there were good low risk turning points present there as well and would have easily gotten my daily goal, (2 to 4 points)  

Around 9 a.m. West Coast time, the market gave some traders a big gift, a 16 point sell off. I am sure I would have had some of that. I do see possibly getting out once and re-entering again short, but that was a fantastic move. Their were great add-on spots on the way, if you so chose to, but, what I am saying is these ”Turning Points”, happen all day, when the market is moving.

Yesterday was just incredible for my “Turning Point” signals. The market was definitely moving and if you knew where those low risk entry points where and positioned yourself in font of it, you would have done well. They were happening all day long, one after another, for huge moves.  My stops on the entries were still one point and the majority worked out for multiple point gainers.  

When the market is not moving much and price action is quite, I love to trade out of my T-1 scalp screen. Very accurate for short moves, averaging about 3/4 point each. I really only need a few of these to hit my daily goal and do just that, if the market is moving or not. Even in a slow chop zone, if you follow the method, it comes out. I will say, that the opposite is true as well. I am thinking and speaking to myself here. When I don’t follow my method and at times I don’t, just like everyone else, it does not usually work out and that is a good thing, believe it or not. I do not want to reinforce negative behavior and am glad the trades do not work when I go outside my method.

That is the exception, not the rule, because I do a pretty good job in following my method, plan and rules. The same will be true for anyone else who attempts to do the same.

These turning points are very easy to see and have only a few conditions attached to them before you can enter the trade, not to hard and very clear. I have all of this layed out in my 80 page manual and DVD video series. The price for my course is coming down as I have stated before. Any one interested to learn more, contact me at vinnie@sniperdaytrading.com

http://www.screencast.com/t/ZHl13cgkmDz2 

http://www.screencast.com/t/fUjVI35OFQQw 

http://www.screencast.com/t/JzGvvo6Ihy2

http://www.screencast.com/t/IZn8fKfNoM2 

http://www.screencast.com/t/9RC43BbNjSjh

Called Live, Short Term Top In Today’s market.

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

Today is Monday March 16th and I posted another good day on the e-minis.

While Trading the S&P e-minis today, I called out the short term top in the market before it happened. You can hear me make the call before it happens exactly at the the high of the day. Then you can hear me make the call, on how we will be pulling back from that high point down to lower levels. At the close of the day, the S&P pulled back off of my short term target, by 20 points. That is a lot in two hours, with the Dow off 190 points.

This is going to lay the ground work for a continued pull back. I suspect that, at the open, we will get a small reactionary rally, but I would definitely be watching for short trades. We have had some technical damage and the path of least resistance should be to the downside.

With this being said, the market can do anything it wants at any time, there is no guarantees. All I can tell you is that when I see a pattern like the one I am looking at right now, a pull back is what usually follows. I will be watching for short trade setups and will stagger some of my exits. That does not mean all of them. I always watch price action to tell me what to do and that is what I will be doing.

I try to not have a strong bias for direction too far in advance, but it is something I will be looking at. It may be that the big sell off does not come until the afternoon session, or it could come early on. Price action is what will influence my decisions at that time. I only lay this out for you because I am looking at the daily chart, just like I am looking at a 5 minute chart or tick chart for that matter. The price action is the same and currently looks bearish.

The day was really pretty smooth. I had the time to trade, so I just kept at it. I started out with some nice gains and within a few minutes I had my daily goal. I cut my size back but kept on trading and added to earlier gains. I mostly traded small all day, 2’s and 3’s were the most common contract size. If I had some draw downs it was not going to eat into earlier gains with the small size. I did have some good runners today and captured some of them on video below, so be sure to take a look.

There are different ways to approach the trading market based on price action. If we are in a choppy market and you are trying to go for bigger moves, you are going to struggle. One way that I overcome some of that is to first identify what kind of market we are in. If its choppy, don’t even think about going for more than 4-6 ticks. You will have another trade in just a couple of minutes to capture additional profit. If in a trending market, you can set yourself up for a few more ticks, but you have to know how to play it and not get greedy.

Again, in today’s market, I had quit a few of these. If you have the time, take a look. If short on time, you can always come back later. The bottom line is that I try to get myself in a break even situation first, then a small gain, locked in. After that, if the market runs, it’s all gravy.  By only trading small, I was still able to post some nice gains because of the runners.

I closed out a long position that I got stuck with over the week end for a profit of several points. That gain did not count towards today’s numbers below. Today, I took 32 trades, 25 gainers and 7 losers and my total scaled out percentage was 77%. The total equity gain for the day was just a little under $2,500 dollars on mostly small size.

During a couple of the videos I am calling the intermediate term direction and as the next video progresses you can see it come to pass. We hit the short term top in the market today and pulled back 20 points, take a look.

http://www.screencast.com/t/oPiqTiFG6              Today’s equity chart

http://www.screencast.com/t/P9iiuTUPd              Some of  Today’s Live Trades

http://www.screencast.com/t/Bna8H6Oe              Some of  Today’s Live Trades

http://www.screencast.com/t/NAik15UUR           Some of  Today’s Live Trades

http://www.screencast.com/t/y7YeoTIZC            Some of  Today’s Live Trades

Back to selling again in today’s market

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

Today is Thursday, March 5th and the selling continues.

The market just won’t let up. They are selling off at every chance they get. The market is not liking what is happening on Wall Street and they are voting with their disapproval by selling.

Today’s trading went well and I only traded a little over an hour in the afternoon session. I have 3 short videos of most all the trades I took today. I only had a few losses and the overall percentage was about 85 %. The total profit for the day was $1,400 dollars. My daily goal was met very easily today, by almost three times (500).  

I hope you enjoy the trading videos below, I have my commentary with the trades taken, so you can hear what it is that I am thinking. Until tomorrow!

http://www.screencast.com/t/kqgskxxN6GO 

http://www.screencast.com/t/vVPldJUef

http://www.screencast.com/t/fKv0OWPp

At last, an up day

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

Today is February 4th, and we finally got a move up.

It has been a long time since we have had a move up and it sure is welcomed. I had gotten that feeling that we would rally today, when I heard Obama say that Americana’s with the means should consider to buy stocks. It is not very often that you will hear a sitting president, to buy stock in the market. I think he got tipped off by Goldman Sacks. If we do get a rally, everyone will be saying, “see, Obama told us the bottom is in and we should buy stock”.  Knowing how people think, heard mentality, people went out like good little citizens and did what they were told, buy stocks. I am being a little sarcastic and maybe I should not be, but I can not help myself right now. I do not ever remember a president making a market call like this today and I have been following the markets for 25 years. Oh well, there is a first for everything.

The rally was welcomed, I am sure by all. I thought yesterday, that as the market closed close to the low of the day and Tuesday is the day that the sentiment numbers come out by the news letter writers, that the numbers must have dropped again, which is good news for the bulls. I will post those numbers tomorrow, because I get them two days late. I am not a subscriber so the best I can do is a little delay, I will take it. My guess is that it dropped 3-4 % to 23 or 24, with a reading under 35 as a traditionally a bullish signal. You need to remember, that all of the times we were in more or less, normal market conditions, these readings were very very accurate. But as we find ourselves in this massive sell off, which has happened before, like in 2000, sometimes the readings get stretched to extreme levels before the market reacts. This is such an environment currently. When the numbers got to the mid 20’s, we had a big market bounce off the bottom in November of last year. Since then the numbers started to rise and are now getting back to what they were before, pending Thursday’s reading. So, I am thinking that we may be in for a bounce up for a few day’s. In addition, I heard a lot of people starting to say that much lower levels are coming, like now. When you hear people on TV and Newsweek, Time, etc. saying the same thing, look for a move in the opposite direction. Those people are rarely right and it usually can pay to bet against them. With all that being said, the current trend of everything is still down. Let hope we get some follow through this week.

The market did sell off just at the close, by 100 Dow point and 10 S&P points, in just a few minutes. That sure was not good, so for tomorrow, look for a continuation of the pull back initially and watch for a rally back up. It is possible that we could get a few days of consolidation at these levels to give us a better footing for an up move, but we will just have to wait and see.

Yesterday, I made a comment about the Pension Funds being underfunded and I found a chart of just such a story, explaining the facts. Below I will post a chart of some of the underfunded companies that are having the most problems. Over all, I hear there is a $ 409 billion dollar shortfall in the pension funds right now. Last year there was surplus and now, a big underfunded liability. These companies have some time to make up the difference but if things do not improve soon, it is really going to hurt. They are regulated by the government to make these pension contributions to cover future retirement obligations. They are currently only funded to 60%, which leaves them 40% short. They are going to have to take more of there earned income and kick in a bunch of money to make up the difference and that is going to hurt earnings potential. On Wall Street, its all about the earnings. “What have you done for me lately”. That is an old saying in my family and is appropriate for the current situation hear. Oh, the reason for the big shortfall, is that a lot of these companies invest that money in the stock market and with valuations going down so much, it is putting a big strain on there balance sheet. This can turn into the old snow ball effect, if things do not turn around soon, lets hope. Just reporting the facts here.

In my day-trading effort, I only had a limited amount of time to trade and did so for only 15 minutes in the morning. I did get my daily goal with all gains. I placed 5 trades with 8 exits in the morning and as I said all were gains, nice. I found a few minutes in the afternoon session around 11 am and traded for about 25 minutes and added nicely to my gains. I posted around $1,300 for the day with 22 pieces of profit and 3 losses, 88% . I started out with a 1 point gain on 5 contracts for $250 profit, then started to reduce my size, played it safe, because I had a limited amount of time. If I had draw downs it would be harder to come back, not having the time. It worked out just like I wanted and so, I chalked up another days worth of gains. I think I am now about 30 days in row of posting solid profit every day, no loosing days. I had many days of profit before that, but in the last week of January, I started to post every day, no exceptions and it has been going great. I have had struggles and came close to my daily loss limit, where it is, that I will have to stop for the day, but my streak is alive and I plane to keep it that way, by trading smart and following my rules as best I can. Below is an equity chart of the days gains and a chart of some of my trades in the 233 tick. I am taking these trades in the 100 tick, but I am looking at other time frames to give myself a larger view and perspective.

 http://www.screencast.com/t/E8oNvlEsc6r         Today’s equity chart

http://www.screencast.com/t/KTX51dkd               Some of today’s trades in 233 tick

http://www.screencast.com/t/dOBUnSMx              Chart of, some company pension shortfalls

http://www.screencast.com/t/MAWnN1pts7b     Day trade chart of IBM, my promise from yesterday

Big Day of Profits

Saturday, February 21st, 2009

Friday, February 21st and all is well.

Today was a real good day in profits posted. Still, I could have done better. I had over a 2 to 1 profit ratio and my percentage was about 75 percent gains. I traded a little differently today. I was splitting my targets in 2 or 3 exits. Today I was going for extended gains. I got many of them for some nice profit in the afternoon session. The market again was moving nicely in the afternoon.

I have a  few screen shots below, one of the 233 tick and one of the 100 tick. I was taking most of the trades based on the entry of the 100. It looks like I entered a little early for that 9 point staggered gain on the 233 tick. I did not have too much heat against me, so I was able to stay in for a real nice gain. I just played the whole day a little different for some bigger trades especially in the afternoon. I thought we would have some extended plays, so I was ready. The screen shots are below. That’s it for now.

Vince

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

http://www.screencast.com/t/paRzngGDA         100 tick chart

http://www.screencast.com/t/Hh7nawn74        233 tick chart

http://www.screencast.com/t/1zrPzHdI65          233 tick chart