Posts Tagged ‘Scalp Trading’

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Day Trading Indicators

Thursday, January 6th, 2011

Today is Wednesday and the third day of trading on Wall Street for the year, as the Dow was up 31 and the S&P +6.

This market does not want to go down as it popped up after gaping lower on the open. A welcomed sign to all

Tomorrow is the fourth day in a 5 day window as it relates to the January Effect. If the first 5 days are up strongly, it usually spills into a strong year for stocks. Better yet, if the whole month of January is strong, that spills over into a positive year for stocks to the tune of 78% of the time, or something close to that if my memory serves me. Lets watch Thursday and Friday to see how we close out the week. I will also report on the sentiment changes if any tomorrow or in Fridays post. They have been strong as small investors are heavily invested in this market with the public coming in with  Bullish readings of 57-58 %, typically a very high reading.

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Tuesday and Wednesdays S&P emini futures market, with Wednesday being on top.

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Let me shift gears here for a moment. I will start my trading likely this coming Monday, but have done some recent U-Tube Video’s of this weeks price movements as it relates to in part to my trading method. Just a note on that as I will post here the last two I did from yesterday and today. It points out, “Turning Points” as I call them and continuation spots along the way as it relates. These are identified by some custom modified indicators I use to help determine these spots. This is done in an attempt to show those that look on, that there is something to this that can be useful to there trading in some fashion. I do need to say though, the trade indicators are not the trading method and is only a reflection of what is happening to the price.

I teach how to read the price and trade it first. I know I have written about this before, but it bears repeating when I post video’s as such. Their is a solid reason to enter all of these trade area’s as I have them marked as per the trade method, NOT THE INDICATORS.  The thing about it is, that they are in the same spot. Which came first, you know the saying, but this time it is talking about the stock market. Is the indicator before the price or is the price before the indicators?  I think you know the answer to that, and you are right. Price is always first and those who know how to trade the price apart from indicators will likely do better. If you have both and you can trust them to give you insight into the next move of the market, that is all you need.

Traders are usually very visual, but their is a lot more to the trading screen than meets the eye. Their are other ways to look at things, and they are very different than reading candle stick charts and such. Many traders like this form of analysis and I won’t attempt to shoot that down, but that is not what I do as I read the charts apart from indicators.

I mainly trade off of tick charts, attempting to scalp trade 2-4 points a day on the S&P 500 emini futures market. Each point represents $50 dollars per contract traded x the number of contracts can equal a nice sum for a session. Trading three contracts, and landing 3 points, is $450 for the session, with each point being $150 dollars. The minimum margin to day trade the S&P is roughly 1200 per contract assuming you open and close all contracts within the same session.

Trading boils down to good timing. With it, you get in with little draw down as the trade moves in your favor. Knowing when to do that is key and is what traders across the globe struggle with. I can say, their is a way to do that and do it with some degree of consistency. Support and Resistance combined with momentum can lead you to hitting these Sniper Spot area’s. Small windows of opportunity, come and then go. If you are able to hit the hole so to speak, picking up a few points is not that hard to do. Its all about knowing. If you know, you can do it. Does it take work to learn, yes. But what comes to us, that is so rewarding, without work and sacrifice. With it, is the opportunity to expand your empire if you so choose.

I believe, we do have the power to overcome any barrier if we think we can, but you need to know and have a way to get that done. Just thinking it so will not complete the job.

I know their may be those searching for answers to their trading problems and it could be you need a solid trade method, based on trading the price and what it represents first, then any trading indicators to help confirm your findings. This gives you the best of both worlds and is what I do when trading the Sniper Day Trading Method. I don’t want to sound like a commercial, but that is how it is and don’t know of how else to put it. I have helped many traders get over the hump and turn the corner to profitability. If you have questions please feel free to ask. I don’t mind to share some additional info.

Always wishing my readers the very best;

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Successful Scalp Trading, Is It Possible ?

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

Successful scalp trading, is it possible? That is the question that so many traders want to know and I will tell you the answer to that, which is “Yes”. It is not for everyone, that is for sure. Their are so many traders who are not cut out for this, but will only find out by going through the process. Getting good information and a solid trading method will have a lot to do with that success, but often traders will just beat themselves, through their own personal weaknesses.

If you have the passion for taking your trading endeavors to the highest levels, achieving success and harnessing your knowledge to produce the results you pursue, you will overcome all personal weaknesses.

Not all trading methods are alike and you need to find something that is tuned to your personality. What I offer may not be the answer for some, but on the other hand it could be just what the doctor ordered.

Being successful will require a lot and should not be taken lightly. Having the ability to block out distractions and focus on price movement will be the starting point. Trade indicators are only a reflection of what the price is doing and so the trade focus needs to be on the price first.

Recently, I have talked about the three elements for successful trading of any kind. “Time, Space and Energy”.  The first two lead to the third element, trade energy, but today in the daily charts, 11-16-10 Tuesday, we saw the first two elements exercised, in that the time accelerated the price, to the downside, to a level that I called yesterday. I said that I could see where prices were going to go on the S&P, 1175/80. I thought that it was going to take a few days to do it, so that is why I said 75/80. Not knowing that it would come all in one day with a near 200 point loss in the Dow and 20 point loss in the S&P changed the figure a touch. I would have said, 70/75 instead, but I did not know that then. Close enough through and would call that a good call. The next trick is going to come, when this market holds off of these levels and moves back higher. I would say, that we are in the general area of support and will hold these current levels give a take a touch.

Knowing what to expect from the market is key and traders can learn how to do that in any time frame if you know how to read the price. I look at price and can see basically where it is going to go ahead of time, so often. Many of those times, I would not want to place an order in all of those spots because we may have the third element missing (energy), but knowing what you can expect ahead of time is a great exercise for when it does line up and come together. At those times, the energy is their to carry the price through time and space as it releases the stored energy that was built up through time.

I look at three time frame tick charts and glance at a small time chart to better see the gaps, minus the Globex market. The first two time frames are really just one chart with the third chart an expression of the first two. Each time frame is much larger than the next, but it all works together.

The stock market is fractal in nature and I have pointed that out many times. Each time frame is apart of yet a larger time frame and so on. Knowing how to harness that information and put it into a structure that makes sense is essential. Market framework is another way of saying “structure” and shows how time, space (price is another way of saying it) and energy all work together to create small little windows of opportunities where prices can be exploited. Meaning, you have the clear advantage. But how can you see those opportunities and take advantage of the situation. It is all in “knowing”. Either you know how or you don’t. You may rely on other things that you do know and that may be enough if it works for you.


Above is a short U-Tube Video I did today showing the basic entry points I might have considered. These area’s happen all day, every day, with today being very normal and not anything special.

The power went out in the mountains where I live today and did not have enough battery back up supply to trade. I waited it out as long as I could and came in for the last 30 minutes or so. I hit my goal and that was good, but still was off in my timing. It still all came out good, but I was anxious because of the lack of trade time. Again, I forced my first trade and tried to take a counter trend trade short for just a few ticks, but got stopped out for a point. The next trades were all gains, but wish I could have waited a minute more to enter. The price would have been the same, but the timing would have been better. I am hard on myself at times because I know I can do better. Even though it came out in my favor, I rarely look at that. Doing the right thing at the right time is much more important than getting a winning trade. I don’t want to develop bad habits. I have to be my own trading coach and writing my blog is one way for me to do that.

Good Trading to all,

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Learn to Scalp Trade and thrive in an kind of Market

Monday, September 27th, 2010

Monday:  September 27th, 2010

The market pulled back slightly today as we moved sideways digesting some of Friday’s gains. We saw new highs in the Dow on Friday as the bulk of that days gains came early on. Today was very quiet as we only had about a 7 point trading range for the day. I do see some additional weakness early on in tomorrow’s session down to at least 1130 to 1133 on the S&P futures. Currently we are at 1139 as the evening Globex Market moves on.

If the general market were to fail, this is the area that it would do it in, but I don’t believe we are done on the upside as of yet. Fridays rally was good, but we will need one more just like it to really get the shorts to throw in the towel.

The market sentiment suggests that the rally can continue as we did move up away from the bullish signal generated weeks ago. Currently I believe we are at 41% bulls. A neutral reading could be considered 45% and an extreme on the other side would be 55% bullish. We are a ways off from that, right now, which suggests that their is more room to run. As I wrote about in my last post on Thursday, the market was at strong resistance and its still really their. One more strong day will get a massive short covering rally and some general buying interest I am sure.

We are coming into the elections soon and that does have some bearing on the direction of the market for many reason’s of which their are to many to go into, but I do believe history would suggest that the stock market will do well leading up to the elections.

Some are calling for an October Surprise and I have heard of the an interesting date of 10-10-10. That surprise could be almost anything, but it will likely help the current elected officials to stay in power and negate the ground swell of political unrest that is going on in the country. I am not sure on its effects on the market, but I could only speculate that it would not be good. So, maybe we quickly go higher and then shake out all the build up ?  Its just to soon to know. What we do know is the trend is up and until proven otherwise we have to give the market the benefit of the doubt. The market will break down if prices get past 1160 on the S&P cash, so we have lot of room right now as we are pushing the other end of the envelope so to speak.

In today’s trading, things went OK as I had a few scalp trades early on with a few small losses after that. I took 8 trades in total as some were scaled out and one of my losses were two fold as I added on and soon their after got out. Today I did much better than Friday, as that day was just a scalp day for sure. If you missed the early move in the market which I did, all that was left was the small crumbs the market left behind, which is fine for me as if you know how to scalp trade, you can trade any kind of market any time. You see, a scalper can always trade for more of the move as a swing trader is not able to scalp a narrow market, so he is out of luck. He may end up several days underwater and unless he has a good self image about himself and his trading he is going to have a hard time overcoming the mental side of his trading.

Some of a traders biggest problems are in their mind. If they could only stop the self sabotoge that goes on at times and learn to be patient to wait for good method trades, they could do better. But that is easier said than done. A scalp trader knows how to pinpoint his entries to a very small entry area. If the trade does not perform as it should, a good scalp trader will get out and wait for another opportunity. You always have to have the advantage and or trading edge.  With out that, you will only be waiting for what the market will do you instead of what you will do to it. The thing is you don’t want to get hit or banged around. Like a running back in football. He tries to slide in and out of defenders without getting hit and or tackled. Being evasive is a strategy and one that works the same for the  experienced scalp trader. You want to get in and out with a quick easy profit. One point on the S&P is a good starting point. This should give you about at a minimum a one to one trade ratio, win/loss. Their are not a lot of traders who can trade the S&P with only a one point stop and be successful on a regular basis.

My stops are about that or less as I get the move going my way and move up my stops and or get out before I take a hard stop of more ticks. The key is getting in at good entries that go your way right away, that way your trade management is easier to stay on top of. I believe if a trader wants to be well rounded he needs to be able to scalp trade his way through his market. Doing so, will put the odds in your favor and allow you to maintain the trading edge. If the market starts to swing large point moves, you can roll with it while its their. See the forest through the tree’s and learn how to scalp trade your way to your dreams and goals. This is the hardest type of trading to master, but for those who can, you will never look back.

Best trading to all my readers,  Vince

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Trade Positioning – Key to Profit

Saturday, September 18th, 2010

September 18th, 2010;

Day trading is not about predicting market direction, or even about winning trades. Day trading is about continually positioning yourself on the right side of the market so you can take profit from the market movement.

Winning trades are a result from proper trade positioning. Trade positioning has to do with time. As time passes, the price gets into its natural position to move up or down, depending on “Time & Trade Position”.

The market has been very slow this week, trading in a narrow range. Always expecting large extended 3 to 5 points moves is not always practical when following the S&P Emini’s. They do happen, but not that often lately. In order to catch those, you have to stalk and wait for the move several hours. That is fine if you have the time and patients, but I usually don’t.

I trade in three time frames. The smallest one is the one I usually show in my blog and below here today. It is the zoomed in view I need, especially when going for small moves. If you know where to enter based on key trade positioning, you can pretty easily pick up some nice trades. They won’t all be winning trades, but getting out when you loose the trading edge is key to keeping your losses small. You don’t have to come back very far if you only take a two or three tick loss on the trade. This is good trade management.

At a minimum, I trade for a one to one (1 to 1 trade ratio) when in scalp mode. It may not look exciting, but taking a 3 tick profit on the emini’s with three contracts, still adds up to $100 after commission. I really like trading for at least one (1) point or more but it does not always come. I know at times I can get more on the move, but giving nothing back does have its benefits.

This is not the only type of trading I do, but it serves its purpose in a narrow range bound market.  When a trending market with multiple point moves come back in style, I will be their. For many traders, they do not know how to handle this type of market, as they continually keep getting stopped out as the losses pile up. Knowing how to trade for the bigger moves is great, but if the market goes dead, basically like these days and you don’t know how to adjust, you can get hurt.

Trade hunting then becomes a favorite past time sport, as trader are looking for and seeing things that aren’t their.  Knowing how to trade any market environment is essential to a traders longevity, in my opinion. A fast moving large directional trading day is great, to clean up on big moves, where you can ride it out for excellent gains. If those moves are not their, you can always resort to scalping a few ticks here and their. With this type of trading, I usually have a safety net of 5 ticks under me. I don’t often get stopped out at the full stop, but if the trade starts to work against me, I will try and close it out at -1 tick ,-2 ticks  or even, before I fall the full amount. On the flip side, taking only 1 or two ticks on a trade is much better than a loss.  The hard stop needs to far enough away so not to get a double fill. Moving your stop up as the trade starts to work for you is also very important to minimize losses and is something I do on a regular basis.  Again, this is exercising good trade management.

When Scalp trading, you need to have the trade start working for you right away. Their is really no exceptions on that. If you start to take heat after entry and that can be -2 or 3 ticks, you did not enter in the right place or time. It should pop in the direction of your order entry right away. How can a trader get the price to do that?  Its understanding how to capitalize on “trade positioning and trade time”, the two go together.

Learning how to trade price action is the key. Trade positioning and time are components of price action. When you understand why the price is doing what it is doing, then you can and will be positioned as a trader to exploit key area’s that you know will have some market movement. This process is the same as for when trading for 3-5 or even 10 point moves, but scalp trading looks to take the quick profits without letting the price come back against you.  A scalp trader can always learn to let the moves run and capture more while risking so small on any one trade. That is not always the case for other types of traders as there stops are often in the 3 point range or higher. You will end the day at a loss because of limited opportunity taking such losses as this, something I am not willing to do.

Below is a testimonial from a recent student who really seems to be getting it. I am very hopeful for him to make it as he has a great understanding of just what I wrote above.  Under that are my trades for the last three days, daily goals + met on all days scalping for small gains with high accuracy, Sniper Day Trading.

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Hi Vince,

Thanks for the feedback.  I am enjoying the scalping approach for now.  For some
reason it is suiting me.  However, I see the benefit of going to the T-2 screen
and hope to practice that in the near future.

Your end of day videos were great and helpful as usual!  They are probably my
best training tool because I am able to compare your trades with  what I did and
saw during the day.  Also, a video is much better than just screen captures due
to the additional explanation you provide.  Thanks for taking the time to do
those!!

I also appreciate the Silver, Gold and Oil charts.  I think I now see how to set
up the charts for the other markets I am watching.

I've been at this for a short time but I am feeling more and more confident
every day.  It is uncanny how well your method picks up the moves.  I have never
felt so hopeful than I have with your method.  I appreciate that it is a method
and not just a system.  Having a structure to work from first makes all the
difference to me rather than just following rules for getting in and out and not
really being abole to see the big picture to understand why a trade didn't work.

Thanks for your great coaching and mentorship in this process.

Blessings.

David
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Scalp Trading for a Living

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

Today is Tuesday, September 14th, 2010 as the S&P 500 was flat at 1121 and the Dow down slightly at 10,526.

The overhead resistance in the Dow seems to be putting a lid on things for now as the market traded off its highs and more closer to the lows for the day. It was the late sell off that did it. The last 20 minutes of the day brought in some fast selling. That can be said to be the smart short term money. It is likely to have follow through effects into Wednesdays session at least initially, so lets watch for that on the open. The futures market is off a little right now anticipating this continued move, so lets see what tomorrow brings.

Above, are my trades for today, while I was in “Sniper Scalp Mode”. That means I am looking to take what the market is willing to give up quickly. I am not interested in giving it back for a second or third move higher. If their is another move higher, I look to take it at key entry points as shown on the screen.

The screen above is actually my T-2 trending screen, I have another trade screen that is actually my T-1 Scalp Mode Screen, but I think since I have been showing my trades for over the last year, I have gotten used to trading both modes out of this screen. I have a bit more going on, but I don’t show it as what I do show is what I can show, if that makes any sense.  Giving traders an idea of what is possible is important when trying to decide if this is something for you. Many other vendors on the internet do not always show how there program performs. I am glad that I am able to do different for those who want to see how things perform under the “Sniper Day Trading Method”.

I have said this before many times, but the indicators shown are a “Reflection of My Trading Method”, not the other way around. I have a complete trading methodology behind my trading. The indicators above do mirror the trading methodology, which is second not first. So, when you learn how to trade this method, you will be learning how to trade, period.

This is not a system that tells you to go long or short, although you could make it do that if you want to I guess. Their are two trading manuals covering 160+ pages of detailed instruction on how to trade, in addition, DVD training video’s and most important, ongoing mentoring and training by me. It is the understanding that we are not trying to pick market tops and bottoms, but looking for the easy and obvious trades in the middle or along the way.

If scalp trading is your thing and you want to get a quick 1 point or so here and their, then you can do that and it could be done in this screen or my traditional Scalp Screen, not shown.  If you want to trade the bigger moves, you most certainly can do that and keep you entry stops down to 4-5 ticks looking for 3 to 1 risk/reward ratio trades or better. In the above chart you can see their were three major turning points for the portion of the screen shown, all for large multiple point returns.

A trader can learn when to trade the bigger moves and when to go for small targets, both have great value. This way, you won’t be at a disadvantage when the market changes up on you. Many traders only know how to handle one type of market, what do you do when the whole trading environment changes? You could be left behind or try and force trades.

Keeping it simple, the one screen above, can do both as displayed. Their are two other charts on this one layout screen which are not shown. This gives you an integrated look at all the market, where this chart is the zoomed in view of what is happening. This allows us to pinpoint our entries, Sniper Style, to keep our draw downs to a minimum.

I truly believe anyone who wants to learn how to trade apart from indicators will get their fill right here. You won’t need to look anywhere else as learning how to trade the price will be a skill and talent that will stay with you for the rest of your life. You can apply this method to your 401 K, long term money, Mutual Funds, Stocks, and certainly other futures markets. The time frames are all relative to the trading instrument and the level of risk you can accept. Since futures trading is highly leveraged, 10 to one for overnight position trading on the S&P emini’s and up to 50 to one for day trading. To use this type of leverage, you have to be right. Small gains can turn into large returns when on target. That is what you can learn with this method.

I don’t often tout my trading method, but it is effective and very consistent. Each individual trader needs to be patient and disciplined to execute it. If you don’t have those qualities, you need to find it before you put money on the line. My free E-Book may help those willing to better concentrate and take your method or system trades, but if you are in need of learning a “Price Action” driven trade method this is the place.

I enjoy teaching others what I do. It has been a passion of mine as long as I can remember. It has made me a better trader and look forward to the day when I am trading 100 lots. ( that’s 100 emini contracts / 5 million leveraged dollars) To get to that level will likely take 1-2 years of slowly increasing contract size.  I have to have precision timing and unshakable confidence and am building that up every day that goes forward.

If you have questions or interest email me. If you want the free E-Book, just  fill in your name at the page request top left corner of any page.  You won’t get a lot of hounding follow up emails from me when doing so, that is not me, but I am here only to help those interested.

Wishing all my readers the very best !      Vince

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Scalp Trading Chart in a Narrow Range

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

Today is Wednesday, August 11th and we finally broke down with some conviction today as the S&P fell 35 points and the Dow -265.

Well, I wanted to post yesterday, but I had family come in from out of town and did not get a chance. I saw the market over the last few days holding up nicely and we did see strong closes at the end of these sessions, but something happened to kick off a ton of stops that were built up over the last few days of trading. I did see and wanted to say that a break of 1110 on the S&P would send this market down and a break over our previous high as a continued move up would decide the next market move, but that was just said to me in my head.

I put up a daily chart a few days ago and said that this break from the above area would send the market down to the 1075 / 1080 area and I see in the night trading that we bounced off that in the session. We are bouncing off that support low by 6 S&P points on this Wednesday evening at 9:39 West Coast. I think we will see some kind of a bounce in Thursdays session but the cash market is likely to trade down to the 75/80 area to fill in the gap from the futures. I would expect to see support in this area at least for the time being.

The up move over the last few weeks has been contained and I am in a just wait and see approach for now on the larger overall market direction. The best I will do is to just trade what I see for now. The market is acting very normal and a pull back from this move up is definitely not a surprise. The market can do what ever it wants to do and we all need to remember not to fight it, but go with it.

Below is the last two days of my trading as I was just scalping this market, especially today. I always remember after a very big drop of which most of it come in the premarket, it leaves little to trade for the regular session and the moves are often smaller. The majority of the energy was released in the premarket and as mentioned, left little for the opening. With that said, I decided to just scalp trade this market for short targets of which you can see in the charts below. Yesterday was a little better, but missed a few good moves, but not complaining at all. So I will be back tomorrow with more comments but will end it for now. Good Trading and be safe.  Vince

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“How To Trade The Futures Market”

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

Today is Thursday July 8th and we will be discussing how to trade the futures market.

There are many ways to trade the futures market. One of those ways is to swing trade key positions that you hold on to for a week or longer. This requires holding your positions over night and does increase your risk. Many traders prefer to day trade the futures market, where the opportunities are endless.

There are many styles of day trading, with position trading, trend trading, scalp trading and counter trend trading, just to name a few. Each style has it advantages and disadvantages.

Every trader needs to do personal analysis to see which style best suits there personality. If you are very impatient, you probably would not do best holding your positions for long periods of time. Trading for smaller moves more often can be the way to go, as long as your risk is controlled and proportionate to your gains.

Many traders will not put a trade on unless they have a 2:1 profit / loss ratio or higher with emphasis on higher. There is nothing wrong with that and may be the way to go for most people. If this is your desired way to go, you will need patients to wait for the trade to come together. This also may mean that you need to trade a good part of the day or all of it, to get the high quality trades to come to you.

This brings us into trading time frames. What is the best trading time frame to use. This goes back to finding out what type of trading best suits you. If you have a limited amount of time to trade, say 90 minutes off the opening bell. You will need to bring your time frame down to the point that you will have several trading opportunities to get in and get out. If you only have limited trading opportunities, you may find yourself in a session draw down with no time or trading opportunities to come back.

If you are like me, I am able to find many trading opportunities trading a combination of scalp trading and trend trading. Both of these terms are relative to my trading method (Sniper Day Trading) and may mean something different to other traders.

Learning how to trade the futures market does not have to be hard. A person almost has to think in the opposite fashion as conventional wisdom. I have heard it said and would agree that futures trading is simple, but it is never easy. If you have a strategy that is easy to understand and has clear visual guidelines to follow, with modest objectives, a trader can get and keep the upper hand over a long period of time.

There are other factors that many futures traders do not take into account. Traders are human, and such they all have a human nature which is predicable. This human nature can be used to our advantage or it can be the “kiss of death”. Being successful in my estimation will require that every individual take steps to overcome all personal weaknesses, what ever they may be. If you procrastinate, you will need to work on that. If you are lazy, you will need to address that. If you are impatient, you will certainly be tested, and so. What ever personal weaknesses you have, the market has a way of uncovering them and bring it to the light.

My suggestion for anyone who wants to trade the futures market, do not open an account larger than $5,000. Bring personal discipline into your life. Exercise regularly, eat a balanced diet and get plenty of rest. That is just to start. You will notice there is nothing in there that has to do with actual trading at this point. The reason, if you are not together, your mind will not be together and thus your trading efforts will suffer.

The reason for the small opening cash balance, is to bring a moment of pause. If you are just starting out, you will likely loose the funds, no matter how large, in your trading account, you will be fighting human nature as well as other traders.  That is just the way it is. Most people are not going to be mentally and physically prepared to do battle and will fall victim. If you take the preemptive  action you will have an advantage. Having to refund your account will bring as I mentioned “a moment of pause”, to the picture. Giving you extra time to make changes and adjust yourself for the consistent gains you strive for.

Trading the futures market successfully takes time. Let me say that again, because it is very important. Being successful takes time. Far to many traders rush into live trading with only a few weeks if that under there belt. It takes longer than that for most people. The reason, most traders do not have a tested trading method that they follow, one that actually works.  They have read a few books, look online at different websites to see what can be extracted and feel that they are qualified to consistently make money.

It takes more than that, a lot more. Every trader needs to have set guidelines and or rules to follow. If you don’t, human nature will take over and you know the rest of the story there. If you try and come up with them on your own, it would or could take years. I am not kidding about that. I know, because I created all my own rules and method and it takes that long. For many who go that way, your rules and or method may just not be any good, so you could have and will likely waist a lot of time and money.

The answer is not always buying systems or trading methods. Some are good, most are not. Some are very expensive, 5K and up and others not so much. It is hard to know who to trust in the trading education business. You should be able to see consistent patterns in what ever they are offering. Is this trad-able, is it easy to follow, is it something you can see yourself doing?  I will continue with part two of this in tomorrows blog postings.

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In today’s trading, I had a good profit day. I did take a few trades that could have been avoided, but I was able to overcome it as I usually do. I had a great trade towards the end of the day that can be seen in the U-Tub video gallery, top right hand corner website, first in line. Other than that, my call yesterday was for the market to trade up to 1066 where it would find temporary resistance and back off, but then attempt another run for up to 1080. So far that is exactly what happened. Yesterdays market closed at 1059 and we traded up to 1067 (1 point over) and backed off 13 S&P points and made a run to close at the high for day, 1069. We should see higher prices on the open which could include the 1080 forecast. I would not be surprised if we did see a reversal after 1080 is hit. This is just something I will be looking for. Good Trading, and be safe.

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Scalp Trading

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

Today is Tuesday and we saw good movement in the S&P Emini today, closing only slightly higher.

Index’s across the board up slightly as the market is trying to gain its footing. We are getting squeezed in this sell-off. I see higher prices for at least the short term if we get over 1030 on the S&P futures. I also see lower prices if we break below 1013. Either way, it is going to move off of those levels. I see a lot of things that say we make a stand here, but there are things brewing that show more downside. I would have to say I am neutral until one of the levels just mentioned are broken.

Today’s trading went well. I scalp traded my way towards my daily goal nicely in both directions. I took very little heat on my trades and that is the way I like it.  All gains, to the plus side. My timing was good and played it safe for the most part. Scalp trading is not impossible as many in the trading world say. They only say that because they could not do it, so now it is bad and impossible for everyone. “I don’t think so”.

Trading is simple, but its never easy as I had a few two point trades and several 1 and 1.50 point trades. I did take one more trade after the posted trades below for just one point. One hour of trading as I have a screen shot of my trades below. I will pick it up tomorrow and post early if the sentiment numbers come with any surprises. Until then, Good Trading.

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Scalp Traded The NASDAQ Emini’s Today

Monday, June 14th, 2010

Today is Monday, June 14th and we had a little reversal after a nice run up of 16 S&P points.

The market ran up on the open as it continued from its night trading move higher only to top out and pull back to end the day flat. The Dow was up over 100 points and actually ended the day slightly down -20 points.

I think the move was just a move off of some new resistance levels that were touched. On the S&P it came within a few points of that 1106 resistance number that I have talked about and only now becomes even more clearly defined. The Dow is facing the same kind of resistance once it hit its high in today’s session.

Over the weekend, I looked again at all the charts that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Index and I would have to say, that what I am seeing does not look good. I do see a push up as we are making happen right now and likely over the next week or two, but I do see resistance at those middle numbers I put out yesterday, 1122 to 1142. You can pick the middle of those two and say 1132, that would be the average. I am pretty sure we will see the market trade up to those numbers and I can not help but see weakness in the charts that say, we go down pretty big. It may not be a long drawn out thing that lasts till the end of the year or something, but a big move down to around 8800 -9000 Dow at the best and then a possible big move up, taking out our most recent highs.

That is a bold prediction and I am not sure how it is going to coincide with the sentiment numbers, but that is what I could easily see happening. The first move is now up a bit over the next week or two and then a sharp fast drop down, enough to get everyone and there mother to throw in the towel and get bearish, just as we get a short squeeze back up. This is an election year and I don’t think the “powers that be”, wants to let this market tank down to new lows. The first two moves, up slightly and then down big and fast. The last move, we will have to see, because I am a roaring bear long term, but later in the year or early next.

If things change, I will update and show why it may be different, but I look at the charts as if I was looking at a tick chart of the S&P and or any other trading instrument and it just looks like that is the way it is going to go down, no pun intended.

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Today’s trading was pretty painless, as I just picked up a few scalp trades as I saw them. All winning trades here today and did scale out with size as I kept trading. I did not want to dig my way out of a loss by taking a loss with size on it. I was going to stop, but one way to keep trading is trade smaller size, so your draw-downs will not hurt your efforts much to that point.

Later in the session, I decided to try and trade the NASDAQ market and see how its movements are. I have picked one chart below, the smaller time frame to show you the trades I took in it today. The first trade was a loss, but picked up several trades in a row after that, pretty good. I was trying to trade both ways as you can see in the chart below. Down, up, down – that one I missed, but was a good trade, then up, down, and finally up.

I don’t advise this kind of trading for most people, but I did it today. In the last 50 minutes of the day, I took all the directional moves except one, which got away from me and did not chase.

I took most of the trades at the market, because I was not familiar with the fills and it was just easier to go in at the market. The one trade that was not a market order was the one that got away.

The NASDAQ market is a smaller size market. The S&P is traded in .25 points and there are 4 quarters that make up 1 point, which is $50 or $12.50 per increment. The NASDAQ also moves in .25 or quarters and 4 of them makes up 1 point. Each tick or .25 point is $5 dollars for you or against you and 1 point is $20 dollars. I think a 9 or 10 tick stop is good when trading this market and may even be giving yourself more room on the trade when compared to the S&P. That would be $45-50 dollar stop per contract traded. If you can hit an 8 point move, that would be 8 x $20 x 3 contracts = 160 x 3= $480.  Your risk if 9 tick is 45 x 3 = -135 and that is pretty good. I do like the fact that you can have a 9 tick stop and 10 tick target or higher and get the commissions taken care of, because of the smaller increments.

Even at times if you are scalp trading and going for one to one, that is 9 tick stop and say, 10 tick target or 2.50 points for $ 50 x 3 (contracts) and $ 150. Your loss is the same and your gain is the same. You are not looking for a home run here. If you pick up 3 of those little moves, you have a nice wage for the day, but that is just scalping a small piece here and there.  My trading method can definitely do that and more for those interested.

I never got to the lesson on “Day Trading Goals”, and again got on about something else. We will try again tomorrow.  I hope you enjoyed the new information on a new market. This can be done on stocks as well, no problem and if anything,  is easier to trade than the index futures. More on new markets in the coming days, stay tuned.

Good Trading to All.

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Reduce Stress Associated with Trading Gains & Losses, Part 2

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

This post is for Fridays market May 21st where the selling continued, but reversed at days end to close much higher.

The selling continued in the night trading Thursday evening and carried over into Fridays session where it started to pick up steam to the downside.  Buyers did come in before it got out of hand and salvaged the day for the bulls.

My last post I put up a single screen shot showing the support that was coming in from a couple of angles. That support if broken on a closing basis with conviction will likely kick in the next wave of selling to the area’s marked on the screen, 864 is the lower number. I do not rule out the possibility that it will keep going at some point, but one thing at a time. There will have to be some economic or world crisis to trip it into gear, but its to much to think about right now.

In my trading Friday I had a great day hitting another one of those mega days. I have a screen shot of my last trades of the day here. In this shot, I have only a striped down view of my screen only showing one chart of my main screen with only one indicator below.

By following the complete trading method, the timing of the buy and sell signals are really generated by something completely different, but the indicators do line up with trading method.  By learning how I trade, you will know why and when to go long or short, not only because an indicator says so. I use different models with different time frames for each model depending on the trading movement. With just a hint of a trending market, I will and can trade out out my T-2 screen of which I have a tiny portion shown above. If in a choppy market my T-1 screen works like a charm. You still need to know how to handle yourself on the board. You can have the best tools and still mess it up, if you act irrationally and become overly emotional.

One more point that I have been wanting to show for some time now, is how my trading method will work with stock trading. The only thing that you need in any trading instrument is movement. If it moves, it will work. It works in any time frame, as well as with tick charts,volume charts, range charts, minute charts, hourly charts, daily charts, weekly and monthly charts. There, I covered all of them. Not all traders are alike and each trader needs to find what time frame is best for there personality. For the trader who feels good about holding a position for several hours and even days at a time, may not be best suited for scalp trading where you may be in the move for only minutes. I have tried them all over the years and it took me a long time to find where I am best suited and that is scalp trading with my own version of trend trading tied to it.

The video below is on a stock, symbol FAZ in a 150 tick chart. This is fast especially on the open where the market gaps higher by a lot. You can always slow it down by just increasing the time frame to say 250 tick chart or higher.  It is a financial bear index and works in the opposite direction as the general market. This stock tracks the financial and banking stocks but will go up as the financial stocks go down. As a day trader, it really does not matter, as long as it moves and this one sure does. The point is, I am just showing one timing tool tied to this and how if you knew the complete trading method, you would be certainly be able to get in at or near these turning points and have a very small stop, .10 to .15 cents.

Continuing with Thursdays lesson: “Reduce Stress Associated with Trading Gains & Losses”

Continuing where I left off, I discussed reducing stress associated with trading gains and gave a few idea’s on how to bring that about. Most traders struggle with this one, “the losses”. There is usually an increased amount of stress as losses start to mount. To often, traders are thinking about the money and not trading there plan and trading method.

Try not to think about the money. I know that is easier said than done, but if you resolve in your mind the worst thing that is going to happen to me today is a loss of 3 S&P points and if you are trading stocks, say 30 cents. If you are trading one contract on the S&P’s, that is a $150 dollar total loss for the day and with stocks, trading 500 shares -.30 cents you are looking at about the same, -$150 dollars.  The idea is, you are not planing on losing for the day, but the stress associated with trading loses only add to the pressure you are under, so focus on following your plan of action. Expect and see yourself doing the right thing as called for and see the trade moving in your favor just after you enter. Don’t wish it or hope it moves, but let the stock do all the work. You are not going to help it along with your added emotions.

Ever heard the adage, less is more and more is less. That would apply here. Day trading is a mind strategy that gets played out on your trading screen. Do the right thing at the right time and you won’t have to try and help it along. It will  already know where to go, right to your target area or running as though it were in a marathon. Go along for the ride as a passenger but be sure you get off before it stops and goes the other way.

You will be reducing stress if you can accept your daily loss limit for which you should have. A maximum amount you will risk in any one trading day, (mine is 4 S&P points).  Then, don’t think or worry about the money and just trade with the rhythm of the market and let it tell you if you should be long or short.

Your feedback and comments are welcomed and appreciated. Enjoy the rest of the weekend, Vince.

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