This post is for Friday’s session March 17th, 2012 where we saw a very slow moving day with tight trading ranges.
Friday was the last day of expiration in the old index futures contract and Monday everyone who held long term positions will have to have moved it over into the June contracts.
The day’s trading range consisted of a whole 4 S&P points, high to low. That is about the smallest I can remember that did not take in a holiday. If this continues I may look at trading back to my T-1 trade screen which takes in smaller scalp targets and smaller losses.
In that model, one would trade for no less than a 1:1 ratio of gain to loss, but the percentages are higher. Trading for 2-3 ticks and risking 2-3 ticks can be done with a great deal of success. It is not glamorous in just settling for 3 ticks on the S&P emini’s but if that all the market is giving, you take it, get stopped out or don’t trade. It is one of the three. For many who don’t know how to trade in an environment like this, they are sunk. There ability to trade is limited to only one market condition.
With the ability to be able to trade in any market condition, very slow narrow ranges, swinging choppy markets, trending directional, or any thing else the market tends to throw at you, you have something to lean on with a versatile trading method.
The best time of the day to trade is where you have the highest degree of participation and that is after the open for at least the first 90 minutes. Many traders like to wait at least 15 minutes to let the market settle and that is OK too. You will have a lot of news released 30 minutes after the open and that often times will drive the market and give it fuel to keep it going for a while. In that, you will have your greatest opportunities for profit.
I often trade when I am ready on my schedule but I should be up and ready for that opportune time. Not doing so causes me to invest a lot more time into trading which I really don’t want to do.
Writing about it, does give me a moment to reflect and somewhat talk out-loud to myself about it which is the first sign I might want to change.
We will see, in this coming week how things continue as the market is up against some hard resistence yet again. The remedy is “time” and or a decline. We did retest again this week where I thought we would be taking that break, but now again I can see strong resistance overhead and a slowing of momentum seems to be taking place.
All that is in looking at the daily markets and does not really matter as far as daily price opportunities for scalping a few points out the emini’s.
I will end it here for today and post my trading results for Friday. Just three trades 2 positive and one loss for -2 ticks and an OK day considering the lack of movement. I did have to wait it all out a lot longer than I liked, but I did exercise good patients. Hopefully, next week things will pick up and offer a lot more opportunities. I wish you all the best and until next week, “Good Trading”. Vince




