what I do isn't for everybody cos it can test patience and means "giving up" or "missing out" on a large chunk of points waiting for price action to confirm my trigger points.
I set an upper kill zone and a lower kill zone based on 2 horizontal lines - you could even create such lines artificially and grab any numbers you want, but i use Camarilla Pivot Points and also adapted, modified DeMark PPs.
For example, you could also use traditional Floor Trader Pivot Points and use either R1 and R2 as the upper kill zone or M1 and R1 (where M1 is the mid-point between the main Pivot Point and R1)
Here are the kill zone set-ups for the ES for Monday 9 Nov, based on CamPPs:
upper Kill Zone:
956.33 & 946.29
Lower Kill Zone:
926.21 & 916.18
the hardest part for some people is sitting on your hands, do nothing until either:
price rises into the upper kill zone then setting 2 resting orders - Sell Stop to go Short at 946.29 to catch the Reversal and a Buy Stop to go Long at 956.33 to catch a Momentum Breakout
or, conversely, when price dips into lower kill zone, place a resting Buy Stop to go Long at 926.21 to catch the Reversal and a Sell Stop to go Short at 916.18 to catch the Momentum Breakdown
caveat - because the outer boundaries of the kill zones represent what should be the limits of price action on a normal volatility day, once a breakout/breakdown trade is triggered from the outer levels of each kill zone, i also set a stop&reverse trade at the entry point
MM permitting I try to trade in 3 cars/lots - take one off at +1, another at +2, move my Stop to B/E and hope for a 'runner"
You may get stopped out one trade in ten, scratch another couple, make +1 and +2 on several trades then usually about 2 out of 10 trades will result in a very decent runner
I trade this way daily on the ES and weekly on ES, GC and CL
anyway, it may not suit you and Sod's Law means the first week you watch this will go tits up, but I thought it worth a mention 'cos it works well for me...and you'll notice the absence of Indicators and timeframes. if you can set audio alerts on the inner limits of each kill zone you'll know when price moves into a kill zone, you don't even need to be anywhere near your screens
the only confirming "indicator" I like to use is Ben Lichtenstein's pit audio commentary (tradersaudio.com) I'm not sure about now, but they used to run a free trial. If you've never heard live commentary from the pit, it's mind-blowing. It may take several weeks to get used to it and understand it well enough to utilise, but once you "get" it, you'll never want to trade without it !
I use several platforms cos I like to keep my weekly and daily trades separate as well as my ES trades away from GC and CL etc. But for me the Number One platform I use is the AT DOM from
infinityfutures. It's a great price ladder, quick and easy to use, great for setting up pre-determined parameters etc
Charting, again I use several, but I do like tradestation for the ease of setting the audio alert on the inner levels of my kill zones
good luck, hope it helps
ps, although it helps to have the knowledge to work out PPs yourself, this site is a decent shortcut
Daily Notes - Numbers for Day Traders
