What do you trade and why?

Do you trade indices, commodities, shares or something else?

Can you specify your reason for it please? Also what is your favourite time frame?

I'm trading (spread betting) FTSE 100 at the moment. My style is day trading from 8:00 till 16:30.

I trade gbpusd spot/cash instrument. Generally forex pairings (the majors in particular) trend well, react well in economic/news data events, and react well to technical analysis. They generally have a good atr and a low spread erosion. Gbpusd in particular accounts for some circa 11% of total forex volume and attracts a lot of speculative capital..moves therefore tend to be better in terms of pip availability /quicker than those in the directly correlated eurusd for eg, on the t/f's of interest to me.

I choose to trade multiple repeating set-ups on 1 x instrument as opposed to far less set-ups on multiple instruments, it's either/or here - to do both would I think prove difficult.

I choose to trade the lower t/f's (ie typically sub 15min triggers) principly because there are potentially more opportunities in a lower number of hours spent at the screens and because exposure to risk of being in the market is lessened. I typically (not always) trade 7.30am Uk till 12midday Uk and occassionally after breaking earlier come back for an hour around any big U.s data announcements ( a couple of times per trading month on average.)

Specialising on one instrument -versus trading multiple instruments probably has other benefits like getting to know the ' character ' of that instrument and it's repeating idiosyncracies, the extent to which this is of benefit I have not quantified but I'm pretty sure there is some - this may be psychological - ie it just feels beneficial, but whatever the case - it does.

G/L

bbmac said:

Specialising on one instrument -versus trading multiple instruments probably has other benefits like getting to know the ' character ' of that instrument and it's repeating idiosyncracies, the extent to which this is of benefit I have not quantified but I'm pretty sure there is some - this may be psychological - ie it just feels beneficial, but whatever the case - it does.

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Thanks BBMAC for your detailed post.

I should think that specialising in one or very few instruments is a good idea. It makes it easier to focus and to chose the best set ups based on a particular instrument's 'character'.

ZEN archer said:

Do you trade indices, commodities, shares or something else?

Can you specify your reason for it please? Also what is your favourite time frame?

I'm trading (spread betting) FTSE 100 at the moment. My style is day trading from 8:00 till 16:30.

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Primarily EurUsd. The reason: greatest volume and therefore participation of the HERD, therefore the cleanest waves in the galaxy. Timeframe is DAILY.

On a close parallel I hunt only pure, ultra-feminine females and totally ignore gays, bisexuals, masculine women, transsexuals and other yet to be discovered sexual preference individuals. Occasionally I have to inform the latter to have a good look but they ain't getting any.

Its a confusing world for the unfocussed individual - stay focused and your trading will improve, I promise.

Learn one worthwhile instrument and all its twists and turns, its idiosyncrasies and thou shaltl be well on thy way, I promise.

If this does not work you can always blame George Bush who set us back a couple hundred years and if you count his grammar deficiencies, a couple million years.

i trade stocks, indexs and forex.... stocks being a slightly long term investment and forex mainly intraday....

deadbroke said:

Primarily EurUsd. The reason: greatest volume and therefore participation of the HERD, therefore the cleanest waves in the galaxy. Timeframe is DAILY.

Its a confusing world for the unfocussed individual - stay focused and your trading will improve, I promise.

Learn one worthwhile instrument and all its twists and turns, its idiosyncrasies and thou shaltl be well on thy way, I promise.

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It makes sense - I've read somewhere that average currency trading volumes are $4 trillion per day (20 times the size of daily trading volume on all the world's stock markets combined). That should provide good liquidity.

deebee1 said:

i trade stocks, indexs and forex.... stocks being a slightly long term investment and forex mainly intraday....

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That may be a good idea if mixing - choosing a longer time frame for stocks makes it less stressful and gives more time for proper analysis.

choosing a longer time frame for stocks makes it less stressful and gives more time proper analysis.

deadbroke said:

If this does not work you can always blame George Bush who set us back a couple hundred years and if you count his grammar deficiencies, a couple million years.

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Indeed. He did leave one contribution though and it was to golf.

George Bush "Now, Watch This Drive" - YouTube

Any other members willing to share their trading experience?

i favor the sp as its for psychos!

i trade currencies. any one of them when volatility is rising. i trade 2 time frames. they don't matter the length but i like M30 and H2 or anything with a chart ratio of 1:4 meaning the higher time frame is no more than 4 times the length of the lower time frame

N Rothschild said:

i favor the sp as its for psychos!

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I've heard about S&P being a reasonable instrument to trade so many times from different traders. I've tried it few times and for some reason never continued (few intra day short time trades using 5 min charts)

hazelj80 said:

i trade currencies. any one of them when volatility is rising. i trade 2 time frames. they don't matter the length but i like M30 and H2 or anything with a chart ratio of 1:4 meaning the higher time frame is no more than 4 times the length of the lower time frame

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I've tried trading currencies (intra day) and was a bit surprised by excessive volatility compared to FTSE 100. It seems there is opportunity there to make big profits and also to lose a lot quickly. Also interventions from various central banks can cause massive loss if one is on the wrong side.

I've heard about 4 times the lenght of the lower time frame - was always wondering why is 4 important? Is that based on some research on different time frames' price behaviour?

here are the instruments I trade

The ES, sometimes in the Globex session but usually 9:30am-11:30am EST.

On the surface, it appears to be a tough nut to crack BUT the ES has so many people trading it that you can use the herd behaviour that is apparent to your advantage.

I also trade the US treasuries. Mostly because they are thick instruments and so there's some overlap in the techniques you use on the ES.

I am also looking at CL right now. I'm fairly useless at reading the order book for thin markets. It's a nut I want to crack plus there's plenty of down time trading the ES/US Treasuries. So it's the CL or porn.

MajorDutch said:

here are the instruments I trade

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What percentage do you take off the top?

I trade forex as I am familiar with it and forex is the best option for me. I also prefer to day trade.

Forex is my game..........24/7 liquid......no unnatural large Predators that can move/mainpulate the market (hey apart from Governments ) ..........and the more you learn the better it gets

I trade USD pairs and also sometimes Yen Pairs :smart:

I suppose at a push I would say the high % of my trades are

AUDUSD and EURUSD with GBPUSD in third place.....

I rarely go below 15m these days......I notice BBMAC likes a little G/U action sub 15m timeframe..............his trigger finger is fast then so I salute him !

N

Thanks to all the posters - it's very informative (and some of the posts are funny as well).

Hopefully there are some more members willing to share their trading styles.

MajorDutch said:

here are the instruments I trade

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Is that a bloke?

Day trade US Equities. I screen for high volume (8M+ avg volume) and ATR >$1. I use 1-day/5 min and 1hr/1min charts for my entries & exits. Mainly discretionary style using resistance/support lines.