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Friday, February 26th, 2010

If you have 60 to 90 minutes a day, a computer, risk capital, the Internet, mental discipline and “Sniper Day Trading”, I believe you may have what it takes to attain financial and time freedom by Day Trading the E-Mini Futures.

Emini Course and Mentoring Program

In my Emini Trading Course, I show you how to utilize a “Sniper Trading” type approach using my tested method to earn at least 2 points per day from the markets. You could learn how to make consistent profits in good or bad markets. Our method focuses on high probability trading, delivering you your points for the day. Day trading for a living does not have to be hard, if you have the right method, plan, course of action and someone to explain it to you in a live market trading environment.

Price action, is driven by emotional buying and selling decisions for a variety of reasons, all of which are present in the current price at any given moment. Our job, is to find the turning points that exist in each session through precision market timing. These turning points are present every day the markets are open. Sniper Day trading will teach you to clearly spot where these turning points are, using a trading mastery type approach. These points show up like consistent “Sniper” shots on your trading screen and are clearly defined by using the custom tools I have created.

We strive to teach our students to learn price action apart from indicators or tools, but they are helpful to point out what may not be seen in the beginning. I am sure what I have in full is not being taught by anyone and is unique to me and the many years I have spent developing and now clearly defining the “Sniper Day Trading Method”. The signals generated by my method will produce the same signals to anyone who is following it, there is really no gray area, only which trades you decide to take and which you let go by.

Sniper Day Trading Method

We trade with tick data and use multiple time frames in timing our trade entries. I have three different styles I trade and bring them up as the price action dictates. One is a “Scalp Trading Method”, (T-1 Trade) that is very accurate in picking up 2,3 or 4 ticks on the S&P. My stops are such, that this approach averages a one to one risk/reward ratio, but enjoys a very high percentage “Win/Loss” ratio. This is bread and butter for me.
The second style enjoys the benefit of my “Precision Turning Points” model, (T-2 Trade) and is usually traded with multiple contracts. The first part is scaled out around 1 point, which quickly brings me to a no loose position and the second half is usually allowed to run. I have four incredible ways to get out, all of which act independently of each other, but are uncannily similar in their results.

The last, is a “Pyramid Trading Method”, that when conditions are right, you are able to keep your first risk small but scale into the trade, adding positions in the direction of the trend, but only at very low risk entry points, keeping your stops down to 1 S&P point. Each one of these methods are very clearly explained in my 80 page trading manual and followed up in the DVD training part of my course. They will also be gone over in our live trading sessions.

While only needing to pull 2 points after commission per day out of the market, (8 ticks) catching a few scalp trades or a T-2 trade, is really all you need to hit your daily goal. I believe in setting realistic goals, which increase your chances to meet them. By having a clear mind, a solid trading plan, with position sizing risk limits and rock solid money management, you come that much closer to trade your way to financial and time freedom.
Examples of two typical trading days back to back, applying the Sniper Day Trading Method. It only took about 20 minutes to get my daily goal plus on both of these days.

Mental Discipline and Trading Psychology. I have told you what I can offer to you, but this is not all you will need for success. I am convinced that my method, custom indicators and complete approach could make the aspiring trader profitable on a regular basis, but do you have what it takes? Trading psychology plays a huge roll in all traders, whether they know it or not. You have forces constantly working against you. Success is only going to become a reality to you, if you have the qualities needed to pull this off. What you are going to need is * Discipline * Patience * Ability to follow rules * Control your fears * Get a grip on personal greed. Frequently, I talk about this in my daily blog, because they are too often why traders fail to reach their goals.
I offer a lot of support in this area as well, if you are a struggling trader and want to change, I have the tools, method and know how to likely turn you around, so that you can create the consistent income, free up your time and fulfill your dreams in becoming a successful day trader.

Mental Exercises

In my program I address some of these issues in a series of “Mental Training Exercises” that I have put together. They are designed to get your mind thinking and believing that trading for a living and meeting your daily trading goal is normal, natural and the only outcome you will accept. The titles in the first series are; * Financial Freedom * Positive Risk Taking * Holding your concentration while trading * Achieving your Trading Goals. The titles in the second series are; * Overcoming Trading Obstacles * Controlling Emotions while Trading * Overcoming the Fear of Failure * Creating Hope & Success.

These I believe are very powerful and are in, “the first person” and will become personal to you. They are a form of Neuro-Linguistic programming that can take you farther and bring you closer to meeting your trading goals. They are, in written form and in audio CD and created by me. My plans are to continue to expand these in the future and make any new additions available to students who come on board, all at no extra charge. These training series are specific to traders and cover issues they face.

Solutions for traders, Sniper Day Trading

I realize that not everyone is born with all the qualities a successful trader will need, but I feel it can be learned if you want it bad enough. Ask yourself, how much do you want to become a consistent successful trader ? The answer to that is going to make all the difference in the world.

I know personally the things that hold traders back from bringing it all together and I know exactly what to do to help them change. I believe I can help the struggling trader as well as the trader who has never done this before.
I can set you on a course that is tailored to your experience level and walk you through everything needed and expected. The good part is, you won’t have to go it along. If you have any question, I can not only answer it, but help you apply it, to get the results you will need. Our daily goal is not to hard to hit, 2 points + per day. We can take a conservative approach to help you get that goal regularly.

If you are honest and know you need help and are willing to work hard and change what ever you have to, then I am sure I can help. Trading for a living is possible, but you need to do different, be different and think different from the majority of other traders. If you first commit to yourself these things, then I will commit to you, which will bring you one step closer to the success that we all strive for. Lastly, I want to assure anyone with doubts, my method, straight up works. The only question that remains is, will you move forward and decide to make it work for “YOU”.

Price Action Day Trading

“Price Action Day Trading”, is the key to your long term success. The markets do something everyday that is consistent since they began trading, over one hundred years ago. It exists in all time frames and gets played out on trading screens across the globe each day. It is important to understand and learn, “good price structure” and how it is built. That is what I teach and that is what students get when they partner with me at Sniper Day Trading. The key is learning what to do and when to do it and why. If you don’t know the answers to those questions you will eventually fall short. Many traders use indicators to help them and that is OK. I have them and use them also, but I do not base my trading decisions on the indicators. I base it on good price structure and trade setups that happen over and over, day after day. Traders and investors are very predictable, they base many of there trading decisions on emotion. Knowing slightly ahead, how they will react when certain prices are reached and breached, give us the trading edge we look for. With that said, the indicators magically line up with our trading decisions which can give us the added confidence to put our money on the line.

Below is a typical trading day where you will see the trading, “Turning Point”. I have stripped away everything from the screen except two things. There is much more, but I just want to show you that the indicators line up with our turning points. Which came first the chicken or the egg. The chicken and that is price. Price is always first and the indicators are second. That being said, the indicators can help traders see what is already on the trading screen. I hope this explanation helps clarify in the minds of seeking traders that what we have and do is real and works.

What You Get With Sniper Day Trading

  • My E-Mini Trading Manual (hard copy 80 full pages) with future updates. (very nicely done)
  • Complete DVD video training package in very nice hard cover locking case / extra: will include method applied to stock trading.
  • Method explained throughout the week, with full screen video and audio illustration in both the T-1 and T-2 screens, “Turning Points”. Very powerful part of ongoing training. (This service will be included ongoing all at no extra charge)
  • All custom chart settings to build your trading platform and help by me if needed to set it up.
  • All of my custom and modified indicators I created, that will unmistakably identify my “TURNING POINTS” for the T-1 and T-2 trades, when applied to the method.
  • Method checklist work-sheet ( for examining trades against method).
  • Laminated 8×11 “Method Overview”, to pin up over trading screen. Laminated 8×11 “Mental Exercise Overview” pin up over screen.
  • Mental Training Exercises: eight titles – audio CD and in written form. On-going future title releases no extra charge.
  • Leather bound “Trading Journal”, to help you keep your thoughts, progress, questions and answers.
  • I will personally work with each trader by screen sharing technology and voice of I.P. through SKYPE, in a live trading environment. After you go through the material, we will set appointments for our personal sessions together. We will apply live market data to the method and I will show you exactly what to do and how to do it. The manual and video’s will give you a head start, but working with me personally will undoubtedly bring it all together. I will spend as much time as needed with each trader who comes on board until he or she understands the complete trading method.

If in the future if you have questions, I will always be here to discuss them and go over your charts to help point you in the right direction. I am not just selling my trading method, but offering much more, mentoring and getting you profitable. Traders often face mental barriers that hold them back, but they do not know exactly what it is or why they consistently make the same mistakes over and over again. I can uncover the problems here, find the solutions and set you on your new course.

My goal is to get each trader that joins with Sniper Day Trading to book at least 2 points per day and gradually increasing contract size to a desired income goal. I will do my part as stated above, will you do yours?

ORDER HERE

Important Notice – Risk Disclaimer:

Futures Options trading has large potential rewards, but also large potential risk. You must be aware of the risks and be willing to accept them in order to invest in the futures and options markets. Don’t trade with money you can’t afford to lose. This is neither a solicitation nor an offer to Buy/Sell futures or options. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those discussed on this web site. The past performance of any e mini trading system or methodology is not necessarily indicative of future results.

Daytrading Involves High Risks and You Can Lose A Lot of Money.

Hypothetical or simulated performance results have certain inherent limitations. Unlike an actual performance record, simulated results do not represent actual trading. Also, since the trades have not actually been executed, the results may have under or over-compensated for the impact, if any, certain market factors, such as lack of liquidity. Simulated e mini trading programs in general are also subject to the fact that they are designed with the benefit of hindsight. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those shown.

Additional Cautions

There are no guarantees or certainties in trading. Reliability of trading signals for mechanical systems are in probabilities only. Trading involves hard work, risk, discipline and the ability to follow rules and trade through any tough periods during the methods off times (and all methods or systems have off times) – If you are looking for guarantees, trading is not for you. Most people lose trading. One of the reasons is that they are not consistent and lack discipline. A method of system can help you become consistent, BUT you have to stick to the method like a formula. The ability to be disciplined and control your emotions is even more important than any technical indicators a trader may use. Worrying about the money aspect of trades (which is an emotion) can contribute to and cause a trader to make errors. It is important to trade only with true risk capital. You can find further information at: www.sec.gov

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Institutional Day Traders not Participating During Christmas Week

Thursday, December 24th, 2009

Today is Wednesday December 23rd and we sure are in Holiday trading mode with light volume.

The institutional traders are not in this market, very low participation because of the Christmas Holiday. The price action is reflective of that as well, with very little opportunity to put anything together.

If you are trying to trade this market, I would advise caution. It can tear you up, because it is not reacting and moving as other typical days. Today there was really only two directional changes all day, down and up and they took hours to complete.

Price action like that can eat at you if you are not prepared or aware of the changes. That is why many traders just don’t trade this week and even next week as well. The whole mood and energy is different during this time.

If you can wait, it would be to your benefit. What I recommend is getting ready for January. You don’t have to make New Year trading resolutions, because most people don’t keep them and if they do, it is only for a very short time.

If you have a deep passion to make changes and determine in your mind that you will create a routine and stick to it, you may have a chance to effect lasting change, but it all depends how bad you want it. If you set goals for yourself, and I think everyone should, now is the time to preparing your mind to follow through with those goals.

It is not going to happen by itself, but only if you plan for it, with a focused determination to succeed at accomplishing it. You must have a plan and it must be in writing. If not, you are not that serious about meeting those goals.

If those goals are trading related you need to start working out now by exercising your mind and preparing yourself to hit it running. Often, people wait until January and find that they need to do so much to get up to speed that they lose weeks just trying to get themselves together. Much of this is in your mind, so you can start right now.

Don’t get over consumed as this is an important Holiday to reflect on the past year, meet with family, friends and for some reflect on their spiritual well-being.  Doing so, only helps put everything I just mentioned above in its proper perspective and makes that job a lot easier to carve out.

I personally have not traded but one day, I think that was Monday, this week and very little last week. I am not in a hurry. I really don’t like the slow volume. I don’t like to trade unless there is some volume to market. I can get tripped up waiting to long and it is not worth it. Mondays session was really still pretty good, but the last two days were terrible. If anyone did trade the these days and struggled, the price action had something to do with it. We are all still responsible for our own trades and are not under any obligation to trade.

If you feel compelled to follow the market tomorrow and next week, just keep in your mind that you will only take a trade by exception. If it jumps out at you with a strong buy or sell, other wise, just let it go. This is and can be one of those important exercises. Following the market but not taking any trades. It can be hard to do for a lot of people. You must maintain control at all times of your trading account. No compulsive behavior. If you find yourself doing that and you don’t seem to be able to get a handle on it, you may be a candidate for a trading buddy.

A trading buddy can be anyone you know with a similar interest. You back each other up while you try to capture your trading goals. You support each other if you get off chores and so on. It can help if you know of someone with similar interests. This may help you stay accountable to yourself by watching and helping each other. You can do this remotely by tieing your computers together so you can communicate.

If anyone is interested I can help you with the software you will need and tell you how to do it all for free.  I won’t charge anyone for the information and time and the way you can do it does not cost anything from the vendors.  You can consider it a Christmas present from me. I won’t try to sell you anything either. Just good old-fashioned neighborly help. email me at www.sniperdaytrading.com if you want more information.

The S&P is outperforming right now, the Dow is lagging. The 120 minute cash chart is point up, the daily is just about to go up if we have one more positive day. The futures are right back at the top and do mean the top of the range. The moment of truth is about to be unfolded very soon. Be careful. I think everyone knows what I am looking for, but I can not be taken off guard by a break out to the upside.

Tomorrow’s blog post will include what the sentiment numbers are that I have talked about, until then, Enjoy!

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Up Up and Away, as Called

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

Today is Wednesday and the markets are continuing their move.

We did continue the up move as I posted in yesterday’s blog. Hopefully you were able to take advantage of the up trades as they were presented. If your timing was good on your entries you probably had some nice gains. Getting the direction right is half the battle, then the timing is your next focal point.

Most days you get moves in both directions, but when you see the trend clearly up and move after move adding to gains, don’t fight the trend. If the market does reverse it’s overall direction, you will know about it, but until then, it pays to stay with the dominant trend.

Trying to tell yourself that this market has to back down and being proven wrong is not the right mind set. Stay with the overall move until it no longer provides opportunities. I have another chart below with a 4 trades on it, 3 were good for gains and 1 was a break even.

Would you have placed orders where I have it marked?  The last one was short, but there was no follow through there. The market did then reverse back to long side and it continued for the rest of the day to close substantially higher. There were a lot more trades to the upside. Once the market showed that there was no follow through on the down side break, you cut your gain or loss short and see what the price action is telling you.

In this case, after the last trade, it was telling you it wants to go higher. The question is, will you have the resolve to listen or will you try and impose your will on the market. This is again where biases come into the picture. Don’t let your opinion or ego get in the way of what the market is telling you. It can be hard, but that is why I point it out. You or any trader needs to be aware of it, so you have the ability to counter balance yourself and stay grounded. Listen to yourself think and try and talk it out. If you listen to yourself and balance your reasoning with what is actually happening, you can catch yourself forming directional biases and “Stop It”. I think that is good advice, but to each his own. Trading is not easy and I plan on talking a lot about the part of the game that is between your ears.

Still not back trading yet, but soon. I dislocated my shoulder on Sunday and I have been in a lot of pain. I had planned to get things going this week, but have not had the ability to focus off of the pain. It’s my right arm and I use the mouse with that arm, a bit difficult.

Stay tuned, I am going to continue to discuss the potential hold ups traders face while trying to bring their trading into the black. This is an ongoing venture for all traders, you do not have the ability to let your guard down and get cocky. You are really trading against yourself. Many think they are trading against other traders and in reality they are, but when it comes down to it, you are really trading against yourself. Reason being, if you follow base trade setups as outlined in your trading plan, you will be doing what you are supposed to be doing and that is great. But when you venture off and take trades that you have no business taking, who do you have to blame and who are you trading against then? You cannot expect the desired outcome when you do the wrong thing and if in fact that trade does work out when you go beyond your planned set up, you will only be re-enforcing negative behavior and setting yourself up for only more problems down the road. Stick to your plan, hopefully you have one, and take only those high percentage trades and hit your profit target for the day and give it a rest. Food for thought.

Talk to everyone tomorrow, until then.

http://www.screencast.com/t/kzm744pdhkL A few potential trades after the open

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S&P Day Trading: Where We Go From Here

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

This is Friday, July 3rd and the markets are closed today for the holiday

Yesterday’s action was no surprise, a big sell off. The indexes moved up on Wednesday a little more than I thought, but no real surprise there, just before a sell off, drawing in those who wanted higher prices. Wednesday I said that at the open we should see some continuation going higher by a few points, but once the trajectory of the up move is broken, you will see the wave down to lower prices. We needed to see how deep the sell off was going to be and if the market could support itself above the last pivot low and hold.

Well, we did just exactly that, but the sell off was already a little deeper which says we may be going lower on Monday. In addition, there was no bounce off the bottom and the market closed at its lows for the day, usually not a good sign. As of now the neckline has not been broken, but I would have to say that it does not look too good. The daily chart is definitely in a downtrend and has been for some time. The rally last week was a reactionary move back to the middle of the range and that is why I was looking for lower prices. The part that we didn’t know was by how much and how soon. Well, we are here now and to explain things a little further I put together a 5 minute video showing the price action and what we may expect over the next week or so, so check it out.

I have not been trading lately, my connection is still being restricted and I think I have two more weeks before I get my full bandwidth back. I will have to watch my screen time so that I do not go over my alloted usage of 5 gigs download and upload. The satellite venture was a failure, trying to get more speed into my system. I have heard there is another company that seems to do a better job, but I am a little worn out right now with the whole process.

This has been a good time for me to take a break anyway. I am not anxious about it, because I see the volume on the board has been very light. I hate that. It seems that the open is the only time worth trading, say the first hour. After that everything seems to have slowed down to a snail’s pace. That can work heavily against you, by testing your patience. You wait and wait and the market seems to do nothing and then, you put a trade on and it goes no where. That is not good. Even the afternoon trading is terrible. People are on vacation. It usually happens this way every year. So now is a good time for me to get things in order, rest up, and get my bandwidth and connection problems behinds me.

TRADING IDEA’S TO CONSIDER:  Anyone who is trading, now is a difficult time, so be careful. The market is not giving very many opportunities to get ahead and or recover for those underwater. You have to be much more selective and wait for the good trades.

Everyone who is currently trading, I believe you should be keeping a journal of your progress. Ask yourself before you take a trade, does this trade line up with my method and name out the key points. You should even make a check list and before entering a trade, or as you think a trade is developing, start marking off the characteristics of your method for taking the entry. Does this trade have this present, that present, and the other, what ever your entries call for. It only takes a few seconds and I think you should check it off as it comes together. This will keep you from getting clouded vision and reacting from emotion.

All of your training and practice will boil down to this: are you taking base trade setups? Meaning are you following your method or system. If you are not, it will be easy to identify where the problem is. That is why you need to have a daily loss limit, so that you have time to catch yourself before you bleed out. Every trader should do this. Yes, it takes time and effort to make up a sheet that has a check list on it. In fact, if the market conditions change and they so often do, you can have different sheets made up for different strategies. That way you have before you your map to follow. If you don’t have a tour guide, you will get lost in a foreign country, for sure. How will you know where to go?  But if you have a guide, you can easily follow your guide and or your map. This takes the stress away and frees you up to be on the lookout for your trades. Having all of your ideas only in your head adds more processes to compute and slows down the computer in your mind, but by writing it down and following a quick check list of things you are looking for, will free up valuable disk space for more meaningful insight into where do you go from here. Doesn’t that make sense? And if you follow it, it will make dollars too.

Have a great weekend and happy 4th of July

http://www.screencast.com/t/DF7nCk3Ye2 5 minute video of daily S&P and Dow

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S&P Day Trading: Part Five

Monday, June 29th, 2009

This is Monday, June 29th and the markets have moved back to the middle of their most recent range.

The market has performed  in a very predictable pattern at this point. The natural rhythm of the market would say that we back off to the downside one more time, but this time the thing to watch is going to be if we can hold above or somewhere in the middle of this move of the last week. That would put pivot points above and pivot points below, setting itself up for a pretty big move outside of those pivots. Nothing here would surprise me and we can not rule out a move below last weeks pivot low. Just have to wait and see what kind price action we get.

The move to the high today is what I called for last week, that was right into the mid Fibonacci range on the dailyies. Day traders need to wait for the setups and go from there.

Last week I talked a lot about what does it take to become and stay profitable as a day trader. Discussed the things to avoid and controlling your mind-set. The real battle is between your ears. You have the ability to come out on top, which will take work and dedication to the whole process. You also have the ability to let the market pressures get you down and abandon your plan. Yes, you need a real plan on paper. One that clearly defines what constitutes a buy and sell signal. A stop must always be in place. If you trade without one, you will eventually be sorry. The markets move fast and you will inevitably take a much bigger loss than you bargained for trading without a stop.

For those trying to get started, I would caution you to have a modest daily goal and modest daily stop for the day. This will resolve in you, that you will not take a huge loss any one day. I have gone over this before but a little overall recap. Ask yourself, are you trading to get rich or make a living? If you are trading for a living, then you need to ask one more question. How much do you want to get paid per week? What do you currently make at your current job or your last job? Was that a fair wage for what you did at the company? Ok, how much time are you planning to trade each day to make your wage?

I really only like to trade for about an hour, sometimes two. Everyone is different, but the longer you stay, the chances are you will do worst. You will not be able to overcome all the mind games the market plays on its participants each day. Maybe in time you can increase you trade time, but concentrate on your trade setups and focus on your timing. When you see a base trade setup, take it. Don’t hesitate, doing so only creates a lack of confidence and indecision. You take the trade only when the price action tells you to, if not, stay out.

For most people 1500 per week would be a good wage. Many in America only average about half of that per week, so if you are able to do better than Most Americans and do it in 1 to 2 hours per day, would you not say, that is a good living for the time you are putting into your work. The answer would have to be yes. You always have the ability to get a raise, but only if your performance warrants it.

So, just getting started, let’s break this down. A weekly salary of 1500 per week is 300 per day. You would need to trade with 2 contracts and pick up 3 points per day and or 15 points per week. When you say 15 points per week, it sounds like a lot, but when you say 3 points per day, it sounds possible. That would be three 1 point trades or one 2 point trade and another 1 point. You can also get it this way, by picking up four 3/4 point trades. If you get out too soon on a big runner, why would you care, if your daily goal is to make a consistent living. If you become greedy, you will likely end up with nothing. Greed and Fear are your enemies.

Let’s focus on “Greed”. This is a natural emotion that traders have to deal with. You need to put this one in its place and control your desire for more. It is a victory knowing that on any one trade that you could get more, but you choose to only trade for the amount left that will give you your goal for the day. This is especially important in the beginning, confidence is critical and you cannot get it if you are not able to put a string of winning days together in a row. If you don’t control this particular emotion early on and get rid of the idea of making thousands per day, you most certainly will not make any dollars per day.

Just because it is possible does not mean it is going to happen, not to say that it will never happen, but not before its time. There is no get rich quick stories that should be floating around in your head while you are getting started. Again if you are able to string these modest targets together each day, it is so imperative that you do not give back 3 days of profits all in one morning or day. You need to preserve your capital and chip away at it.

When a sculptor sets out to create a piece of art, his intention is to create it with one chip at a time, day after day until he has what he was intending to create. The same is true here. Take it step by step and control your emotions for wanting more – it will only hurt you in the long run. There will be plenty of days in the future that the price action will give you a lot more than few points a day, but you should not be looking for what is not there in the beginning. It takes 21 days to create a new habit, start now, with DAY ONE.

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Have You Ever Asked Yourself, What Are You Trading For?

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

Today is Tuesday, May 26th and the markets reacted off that now famous 880 support level once again.

Very interesting day today and I would have to say that I am not surprised. I have been leaving the door open for moves in either direction as long as the 880 S&P support is holding. What is happening now is evidence to base future direction on.

With today’s action, we are putting in what I call a “W” pattern. I have never heard or seen anyone use that term and rarely even reference the pattern. I don’t know why, actually don’t really care, because I seem to have very good success from reading these patterns in the smaller micro moves that happen all day long.

This pattern happens to be  very big, in looking at it from a 60 minute bar chart. The bigger the pattern the bigger the move, is usually how it works. I am keeping an open mind as to overall direction. We are close to the top of the “W” pattern, with maybe 10 points of potential upside. If the market gets over 925-930, that would be a significant development.

I don’t think that is going to happen right now. We should be contained to the upside around 920. Once hit, a reactionary move back down would be a normal price move, but there is a good possibility that it will be contained. What I mean is no big sell offs. There is a parallel channel based from the recent tops, bringing support back in around 847-850 or so. I don’t know if that will hold but it will probably bounce off that number. We’ll have to look at price action at that time if, in fact, that plays out.

My last post I had talked about how the open can set the tone for the rest of the day. Today, we had a sell off early, setting the stage for a break out after the hook was set. An early morning spike down to catch up with the futures and a great looking upside break with a lot of pressure built up over the holiday, good for over 20 points.

I did not get a chance to see that set up today. I started a little late, but that is one move I would like to think I would have been in. I did not enter on the way up, my data stream has been acting a little slow. I tried to enter a couple of times as a continuation pattern was developing, but I could not get the execution done. I am running SKYPE conference line and a screen sharing program and TRADESTATION with several charts up on two screens.  When the action slowed down, it seemed to be a bit better, but I missed some big moves there.

After all of that, I know that when you get a sustained move with velocity to it, at the top, it usually moves into the CHOP ZONE, that is what I call it. I love the chop, it usually works well for me when I switch to my scalping mode, 1/2 to 1 point trades with targets. The issue was, I was in what I call T-2 trade setups. That is when you have split targets, the first comes off early, the second comes off later at  higher levels.

If you are in the chop zone, you will often only get one target and not the other. This helps to offset your losses, but it does not take your equity up very fast if at all. Needless to say, I switched to my T-1 trades (Scalp) and picked up some nice little moves here and there that added up quickly. I have included a small screen shot of some of these trades below.

There are no indicators attached to them, but I do use them, just not showing you here. I do have one tool up, that helps spot directional changes to the price action. I can trade without any indicators and at times I do, just so that I do not depend on them in the future. Indicators are usually lagging behind price, that is why you want to be able to train your eyes to spot the moves independent of anything else. You will become a better trader if you start that process. In the mean time you can use some of these tools to help you see what is present in the chart that you are not able to see on your own, at least for now.

The trades that I am showing you below, are all timed to some of my custom indicators. Some are pretty standard that have adjustments made to them and others are used in conjunction with the first. They all work together to give you market reads that you may not be able to see alone. But remember what I said about these tools, its very important that any person who wants to excel as a professional day trader, learn how price action works in relation to all the other factors.

For anyone interested in trading, I have always said that if you are well rounded and can trade differently for different conditions, you will have an advantage. I do like to take trades that I can get 5 points plus in, but it usually starts out as a scalp. My stops are small,  (at times I start out at 4 ticks, but move it to 3 – 2) .

Have you ever asked yourself what you are trading for?  Many people will say, “for the money”.  Another question: Are you willing to leave your EGO aside to reach this goal?  Many people will not. If they are being brutally honest, they want to be right and have this conquering feeling of, “I outsmarted the market”.

If you are trading for income, that puts a different perspective on the whole thing. A modest daily goal of 2-4 points per day. Reaching for too much too fast, just because you think you can, will leave you with nothing. It is hard to take a 1 point profit on a trade and watch the thing go to the moon without you, but if you are trading for income, does it really matter? You only need one more good trade for a point and a little topper of  say a 1/2 point to make a daily wage. Trade 5 contracts and you have $500 for the day. That is $ 130,000 per year at only two points per day net. If it’s 3 points that puts you at $ 200,000 a year. I would say that 2-3 percent of traders make that kind of money. How’s that for perspective?

By learning how to scalp with very high percentage fills 80% or so, you have the ability to pick that up in less than an hour a day. You can always spot special set-ups that can give you the big moves on occasion. That is just the way I see it, how about you!

http://www.screencast.com/t/0nAW1ajnZ Some of today’s trades, still shot

http://www.screencast.com/t/drQHtn1lSG Today’s equity chart

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Market Rebounds Right on Time

Monday, May 18th, 2009

Today is Monday, May 18th and the market puts in a nice rebound day as expected.

Very nice day today to the upside as I had said in Fridays blog. The Dow was up around 230 point and the S&P 26 points. About half of the move was before the market opened, so full participation on the move by all was slightly hampered.

Over the course of this week we should see some higher prices overall and retest the old highs of last week. I had said a couple weeks ago that I was expecting prices to go to around 940 on the S&P and we came up to around 930 and backed off.

I still think the market will want to push itself up into that outside resistance area which is around 940 ish. That would give us a slightly higher high and would put in a nice fat pivot point to trade short off of, if in fact we get it.

If today’s lows get taken out, all bets may be off. Today’s low is the line in the sand for this move of the last couple of months. If it gets taken out, the move should be back to the middle of the previous range at a minimum.

In today’s trading, I did good, picking up my daily goal, as I have come to expect. But I did take a few stops on some split trades early on. I had missed three real good trades because of my computer acting slow at the order point, very frustrating. Others who were following me had no problems picking up those good entries, capturing their points early on. I took a break after the first hour and finished up a little later, capturing a few nice trades to more than put me over the top for today.

I still have not upgraded my trading software which is going to fix the problem I have had with posting my equity chart like I had been, but I have included today a short video of a few trades that I actually took and a recap of the day’s trading signals in another video.

I will post the video on cattle futures maybe tomorrow that I did on the weekend. This is just showing that if you understand how price action works, combined with support and resistance and other techniques, that you will be able to put yourself in front of trades that can carry you to profitability no matter what you like to trade.

Trading Lesson:    Trading is by no means easy, but you can do a few things to put the odds of profitability in your favor. One of those things, as it has been talked about in trading circles, is to control your emotions. Emotions make people do things that they would not otherwise do. Fear and Greed can make people enter bad positions and take you out of good ones.

One of the ways to help overcome some of these problems is to be able to settle in your mind what is a good trading goal for the day. If you want to be a millionaire and you want it to happen now, that is not a realistic objective. If you want to replace other income with trading income, you still need to answer the question:  How much is enough?

If you are realistic, and come up with a modest figure and work towards that goal slowly, you will have a far better chance in reaching that, but more importantly, sustaining that over a long period of time. I have come up with a figure that will work for me and it seems reasonable at 2-3 S&P points per day. I have not had any problem getting to this figure for months now and it is because my expectations are reasonable in what I can safely take out of the market today, tomorrow and the next.

If your expectations are 8-10 points per day, that is not realistic over a long period of time. You may be able to hit that some days, but the psychological pressure you will be putting yourself under to obtain that figure will take a toll on you over time. It will make you reach for trades that are just not there, inevitably making costly mistakes and having to struggle to just make up for those mis-trades. If you are honest and realistic with your daily goal, assuming that you have one, something much smaller is sustainable and will not create the anxiety that hitting such a lofty goal will put you under.

That being said, once you hit your goal and you are in sync with the market flow, you can at times continue to trade but you should consider cutting down on your trade size. This will again take the pressure off and allow you to concentrate on the just the pure move, by removing some of the fear that can creep in by trading your P&L.   If you trade on your own, you have to be your own risk manager, there is no one there to rein you in if you put your account at risk by taking multiple losses. Do you have a plan if that happens?  You should, because it happens to everyone at some point and others all too often.

We as traders need to always work on performance as a means of extending your personal mastery. This is done by repeating the same base trade setups that happen again and again each and every day. Waiting for the trade to come to you is key. You cannot go looking for it, you will get lost. The markets have a rhythm to each and every one of them. A collection of people’s emotions taking prices up and down. I have said this before but it bears repeating. Find the rhythm and go with it.  Doing so will put you into a small group of traders that can, versus the traders that can’t. Which do you aspire to be?

http://www.screencast.com/t/8ce2iH3Df              Some of today’s available trades

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Video of Today’s Results with 9 to 1 profit/loss Ratio

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

Today is Wednesday, May 13th and I decided to do something a little different from the start.

Today’s session was a little different in that I traded my bread and butter scalp trade setups – mostly. I took only a few trades for more, one I remember was for 3 1/2 points and a couple others were for two points or so. But the bulk of my trades were for only 1/2 point. I only had that mind set from the start. I wanted to show how I can scalp trade and only run a 2-3 tick stop for most trades.

In fact, since I am having a problem getting my equity chart to come up on Tradestation  (just not working?), I have a 5 minute video of the trades that I took below. Most all of the trades go past my target and that is fine, I was not worried about leaving points on the table, that was not what I was there for. There were some trades that I could not get filled in time at my price and that was ok as well. I show a few of them in the video. I have some of the trades identified as potential trades and that is all that they are, potential trades that I could have taken, but some of them are the ones that I could not get filled at my price.

Keep in mind, to get to my basic daily goal of 2 points, I only need 3 or 4 of those little trades to get it. That being said, my stats for this type of trading this morning is 24 gains and only 4 losses with a few even trades. The stops that I took were -2 ticks, -2 ticks, -1 tick, and -4 ticks but this one was only on 1 contract, the other half of the trade was a gain.

This did not happen by accident and it is repeatable. So many people cannot bring themselves to only trade for such a small amount, that they miss the possibilities. I am not saying that this type of trading is what everyone should do and not even myself for that matter. You need to be able to pull out different tools in order to build a house. If you only have a hammer and nails, that’s good, but you may not get the house you are looking for if you only have those tools in your bag. There is more that may be needed. Anyway, this is part of the method that got me out of trouble yesterday and I am giving you a glimpse of that type of market action today.

There is a set of conditions that are met every time to get these results and it most certainly is repeatable. If done right, you should be able to hit 80+ percent of your trades and still run a very small stop. Those are good odds, how ever you look at it. Now, as far as size is concerned, I dropped it down to only 3 contracts. I did not have to, but I did. With this high percentage trade, I could have been trading 10 contracts, easily.

Today’s results produced about $ 600 dollars profit per contract traded, in 3 hours and that is after commissions. So, since I was only running 3 small contracts, I added $1,800 with today’s results. If I had been trading the 5 contracts that I usually trade everyday, that would be 5 contracts x $ 600 per contract net  $ 3,000.  Ten contracts would be, $6,000 and 20 contracts brings it to $ 12,000 for the day. A few weeks ago I was trading at 10, but I brought it down to mostly 5 lately.

Anyway, that is pretty darn good. I was getting tired after 3 hours of this and that is why I stopped. It is a lot more than I usually do, but I was on a roll. I could feel that my concentration was slipping, so I took that clue as my sign to stop. I could come back after lunch and do it again, or trade sparingly for higher point returns, if the market is rolling, but either way, to be able to trade profitably at will is a great feeling and a nice boost of trading confidence.

We all need to remember to stay humble and I am speaking to myself right here. If I, or anyone else gets sloppy or trades without discipline, the market will bring you back in line or take you out. The second part is what usually happens. If anyone trades without a plan or method, you will most certainly be one of the ones that gets taken out, that is for sure.

You cannot think that you have greater trading knowledge than the traders on Wall Street, who do this for a living, and still come out ahead of them without a trading plan and or method. That is the problem with the small independent trader who thinks he has a handle on it. It takes time and without help, it could take years and a lot of money and you may still never get it. There are very few services out there that are of any real benefit to the small would be trader. Most never show you actually how the markets work and it can be confusing and frustrating for many. I never learned from anyone but myself and it took me a long time, but I am happy to say that this is a compilation of years of experience that has been tested over time. It works.

The great thing as I have said before is that this method can be traded on any instrument on any time frame. Mutual Funds, Stocks, Commodities, Forex, Futures, all of them work the same. In fact it is easier to trade higher time frames because it is very slow to develop and you have a lot of time to see things take shape. The downside of that is, you need a much bigger stop.  If daily charts are your thing, then by learning how to trade small time frames, you are exposing yourself to so many screen shots, over and over again. As time passes, you will get very familiar to what a good set-up is supposed to look like and then apply that knowledge to the daily’s.

Consider trading for income and a modest daily goal. It just could be what the Doctor ordered !

http://www.screencast.com/t/xMmWZHiAmI 5 minute video, to replace today’s equity chart

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Trading Discipline, Part 4

Friday, April 17th, 2009

Today is Thursday April 16th, and I have a valuable trading lesson below.

I started my day on the wrong foot, that was for sure. I know the potential always exists to mess up a bit, but I also know that I have enough discipline to stop trading if I am having a bad day. We all need to know at what point you will stop trading for the day if you hit your daily loss limit.

This is a discipline question that needs to be known before you start the trading session. I always know what that point is and I feel other traders in the business should also, but everyone trades differently and there are almost no two styles alike. You may mirror yourself after a successful trader and that can work well, but you will eventually need to OWN IT for long term success to take hold.

This would be whatever you learn that seems to work and slowly adopt it as your own, because everyone will see things at least a little differently. The bottom line is, did you follow the “base method setups” to get your points. If you did, then your results are duplicatable for future profits and that is what we want – daily positive results.

Today, I came up to my daily loss limit, which for me is always two times my minimum daily goal. My daily goal has been one thousand dollars, so my maximum loss for the day can be no larger than two thousand dollars. My first couple of trades were small, then went to double positions. If I click 5 contracts twice, that is a double position, but it shows up as two separate orders when taking losses and gains.

I was using double positions and not hitting my targets – not a good thing. I usually lighten up until I get a better footing for the day, but I did not, which pushed me down right above my limit. Funny thing is, when the chips were really down, I know I had to hit the next trade or I was going to have my first losing day in months.

I finally got it together and waited for a very good runner and followed it up with another one almost just like it. I put one last trade on to top off those two large gains for a total profit for the day of $ 2,600 dollars – over double daily goal. WOW, that was close.

I was not feeling well this whole week and it finally showed up. I noticed I did not have any focus and patience to wait and look for my basic trade setups and it showed. I almost was not going to trade this morning, but I reasoned with myself and went ahead.  I did not like the feeling of having a string of losses like I did (remember I took several double positions, which makes it look worst), but how I handled the emotions is what I am going to talk about today. This is the exact topic I had planned to discuss, no kidding. Is that not ironic?

Trading Discipline: Part 4

Trading Discipline has many aspects to it and I could write many more articles on the subject, but the one I will discuss today is how to handle your emotions after having multiple losses in a row. The easy answer is to just tell yourself not to get anxious and wait the move out for a directional change.

Easier said than done. We have all been there and will likely be there again at some point, but you really need to rehearse this scenario in your mind to pre-plan how you are going to deal with it when it happens. If you don’t do the work now, you will certainly do it later, but under different circumstances, which could cost you big dollars.

This is a very serious matter, more than you may realize, because it is at this point that many traders can just LOSE IT.  What I mean is, you get to a point where you can no longer handle the pain of loss and if you don’t pull it together quickly, you will self destruct. No kidding. Everything you do will be wrong, not matter what. Your trading plan will get tossed right out the window and you will go into survival mode, which is better classified as SELF DESTRUCT MODE and you really don’t want that.  So the very first thing is:

* Take a deep breath, get some oxygen in your body, so you can think clearly and take at least 30 minutes off.

* Go back over your contingency plans you thought of before this whole thing started.

* Imagine what you did when you rehearsed this scenario in your mind, see yourself confidently putting on a positive trade, while imagining hitting your target or your expected outcome.

* Be sure you do not trade past your daily loss limit.

* If you still have room to trade, plan it out, just like a sniper would pick his target. You may only have 1 or 2 bullets. Make it count.

* Have next to your computer a script of positive self talk, that will help you change your negative state of mind, this should be something you read often for this scenario.

If after doing the above, you still have a loss or even hit your daily loss limit, don’t beat yourself up. One of the reasons for a daily loss limit is it takes the pressure off. If you already know ahead of time that this is the very worst that can happen today and you accept that, how much easier can it be in relieving the stress and pressure.

One double daily goal loss is not bad, when you consider that there will eventually be days that you hit double daily goals. I do it all the time. In fact, most days are at least double daily goal. That gives me plenty of room to come back the very next day and still stay on target of at least hitting a daily goal average for the week.

Never let your trading account losses get away from you. As “Day Traders”, we need to stay alive and our life blood is trading capital. Keep the trading capital in your account, so you can trade again. If we lose our blood, we die. Don’t let this happen to you!

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

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Trading Discipline, Part 3

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Today is Wednesday April15th, and all is well.

I had a fairly easy day on the board today. It could have been better, but the opposite is also true. I had one loss that totally could have been avoided, but I had to get over it and move forward. If I were to beat myself up over that, it could effect future trades. Knowing that, I saw my mistake very easily and learned something from it. It’s always important to go over your trades, especially after the trading day, to see anything that you might have missed. If you make mistakes, its OK, we all do, but we need to learn from them so we can minimize the damage and not repeat it if possible.

Today’s trading I had 12 gains 4 losses and came right up to $1,000 dollars and stopped. I turned my data feed off and did other things today. I traded for about one hour from 8:45 to 9:45 am West Coast time. There was not a lot of movement and it was a bit choppy, but I was still able to squeeze out my daily goal. I was only trading 5 contracts for all orders, so I had the equivalent of capturing 4 points net after commission. I came in to today’s market with low volume, not a great deal of direction, not a lot of overall movement and still captured my points. I am pleased when ever I get good results with less than ideal conditions.

Yesterday, I went over a new idea that portrays discipline in the life of a trader. Last week I pointed out another idea and will give a short recap now.

1) Your trading environment has an effect on your trading performance, so keep it neat and organized, it makes a difference. (last week)

2) A balanced home life and priorities that are a reflection of your personal long term goals and values, a key ingredient for long term success. (yesterday)

3) Exercises that you can take to expand your general level of self-control in any area, which will spill over into greater control while trading. (today)

Point number three is what I will briefly discuss now. Maintaining control while trading is going to be one of your best friends, if you can find a way to harness it’s benefits. One of the hardest things to do is to act when you need to, not before, and not after.

If you discipline yourself in small areas of life, it will send a message to your brain that you do what you say, when you say it. If you procrastinate in putting things off and then scramble to get it done at the last minute, like finishing your Taxes on the deadline day, you may not be as in control as you would like.

The good news is, we can all get better at improving in this area. Find something small, that you know you can overcome. It may take some thought and it can be just about anything that can effect positive change. If you resolve to overcome whatever that is, and get some desired benefit, you are now exercising your mind, will power, self control and gaining greater self esteem.  There are many benefits that can spill over into your trading session. You will come to trust yourself more over time as you exercise yourself in these areas. That will give you added self control when you need to stay out of the market because your trade setups are not yet present and a whole host of other benefits as well.

Back to trading technicals. Before you put a trade on, your TIMING is going to be critical.  When you see the trade setup that will yield you an easy point, you need to have the discipline to take the trade at that moment. If you wait for confirmation, you will either overpay and risk getting stopped out, thus also hurting your chances of getting filled at your target.

This kind of discipline and confidence can only come from getting a good handle on what you are looking for, but once you know that, the thing to do is execute. If you hesitate and are not sure, when a perfect trade setup presents itself, you have a problem. You will eventually get frustrated and your next few trades may become losses, when you finally get the courage to take the trade.

You need to not let that happen, by envisioning the whole process ahead of time, you can train your mind to jump on the trade, the moment you are sure it meets all the qualifications of a legitimate trade setup. With short term trading, you need to put it on only when your timing tells you to, but do not hesitate. Whatever time you take to examine your strategy for what constitutes a trade setup, that is what you need to get familiar with. You know what it looks likes before and have seen it hundreds of times, so when you see it in live trading action, that memory recall is what you will need to draw on.

Seeing the trade set itself up and developing in a live environment is critical. As the trade develops you see what has happened so many times before when the conditions are met, you come to expect the same outcome this time and place the trade with a high level of confidence and capture the  intended outcome.

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

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