Anyone scalping the FTSE Futures??

[MartinC-J]

Hi All

Sorry I haven't been around much lately, but I have taken on some part time project management work. It should allow me to carry on trading but these are the first few days so I am am trying to get up to speed with the new project. The steady cash flow will be nice, while I figure out a way to wean myself off the sim. I make £400 to £500 a day on the sim, but with lots of scratch trades, and I tend to double up when I see the market going my way. I still need to do this live and not care about losing the money. I hope you are all making a killing. Trading seems to take a long time before you have built up the experience to trade well consistently. Two years is a minimum for many. I'll be back when I have the time sorted.

 

[barjon]

Martin

I know you do some live trades as well but you must have been on sim now for over two years and built up some comprehensive records. I went back to your first post on the thread where you said - I trade reversals, continuations, pullbacks and breakouts. . After two years worth of siming how have they turned out? All equal resultswise, or is one (or two) outshining the rest?

Since you're effectively taking a bit of a break because of your part-time work this might be the opportunity to break with sim when you return 100% with the confidence of the "best" strategy behind you (if there is one). You don't need me to tell you that sim is one thing, real money quite another

cheers

jon

 

[reksa]

Martin

Good to hear you have some PM work.
Anyone who does this full time knows it can be a big strain and we all need time away from the charts.
Hope you still contribute to the thread when you can.

All the best

Mark

 

[reksa]

What's peoples thoughts on today. Will the Budget impact the markets in a big way?

At the moment I am wondering if we are just having a bit of a pull back from yesterday's push down, or is it just buy the dip like it has been the last month.

5900 cash needs to hold.

 

[Splitlink]

I've been doing a strict 1:1, 2:1 all this week. It is working but very boring, I'm afraid, It's a sideways trend tactic but that is all that this market can give me.

 

[jimioddy]

The price is moving sideways in a tight band. Looking at the chart I see a downward bias, but my rule-based system favours an upward direction. I'll go with that. Statistically it gets it right more often than I do.

 

[barjon]

Dunno, reksa it's all slack water at the moment. Depends on whether the man springs any surprises I suppose.

As you know, my main bag is ftse100 equities and quite a few of those have rolled over in the last couple of weeks - mainly, but not exclusively, in the mining sector - so there's an amber light showing for the overall up trend. For the moment I'm only 1/3rd position for shorts on the equities and not enough "evidence" to change that yet.

jon

 

[barjon]

reksa

well the budget certainly helped the relative ftse/dow strength - ftse about +30 strong since the man got to his feet

 

[reksa]

reksa

well the budget certainly helped the relative ftse/dow strength - ftse about +30 strong since the man got to his feet

Yes I am back in positive territory.

Hopefully it will continue this way for a while.

But at the same time finding regular trading a bit tricky.

 

[MartinC-J]

Martin

I know you do some live trades as well but you must have been on sim now for over two years and built up some comprehensive records. I went back to your first post on the thread where you said - I trade reversals, continuations, pullbacks and breakouts. . After two years worth of siming how have they turned out? All equal resultswise, or is one (or two) outshining the rest?

Since you're effectively taking a bit of a break because of your part-time work this might be the opportunity to break with sim when you return 100% with the confidence of the "best" strategy behind you (if there is one). You don't need me to tell you that sim is one thing, real money quite another

cheers

jon

Jon, thanks for the kind words. I am going to take this time to analyse what has worked well for me over the 2 years and what hasn't. Being on the sim has got me into some bad habits, and the only way to cure those habits is by going live. By taking on the project management job, I have removed the necessity for trading to work out, whereas without it, I felt that I simply had to make money to live on. Trading with scared money is not the way to trade. Ironically, I have been given a large amount of money by a friend and told to trade with it and not matter if I lose it. But I did not want to risk it until I believed I could trade successfully with it. Hence the practicing forever on the sim, and developing bad habits/discipline as a result.

Well 2 years down the road, I still have the firm belief that I can trade. I can look at a chart and understand all of the price action and how price moves. Maybe to the point that I believe I can jump in anywhere and take a trade at any time and get a result. But possibly I can achieve the same or better by being a little more selective. Some of the time I end up trading the noise, and this is where I need to be more patient, and not just rely on my wits to get me into and out of a trade.

A little perspective is a good thing, and by spending some time away from the screen, I can work out how to make the move to live trading. I love the DMA platforms for order entry and exit, but £10 per point on the FTSE is possibly too much for me right now. £2 per pt would be fine, that way I can close half and let the other half run, just to develop some live trades. But I really hate the spreadbetting platforms. They are just designed to make sure you don't win as easily. Why else do spreadbetters not allow you to move your limit order close to the price? Why do they put successful traders on requotes? I am trying to use the Capital Spreads Demo at the moment, but it follows their data feed and not the futures market. If anyone comes across a spreadbetting platform that has the same ease for order entry as a DOM on the futures platform then I would be very happy to use it.

Next for me is to do some more live trades, now that I am not trading with scared money. I still believe I can trade, and I don't think I am deluding myself. I'll let you know how my next live trades turn out.

 

[Dick Lexic]

Jon, thanks for the kind words. I am going to take this time to analyse what has worked well for me over the 2 years and what hasn't. Being on the sim has got me into some bad habits, and the only way to cure those habits is by going live. By taking on the project management job, I have removed the necessity for trading to work out, whereas without it, I felt that I simply had to make money to live on. Trading with scared money is not the way to trade. Ironically, I have been given a large amount of money by a friend and told to trade with it and not matter if I lose it. But I did not want to risk it until I believed I could trade successfully with it. Hence the practicing forever on the sim, and developing bad habits/discipline as a result.

Well 2 years down the road, I still have the firm belief that I can trade. I can look at a chart and understand all of the price action and how price moves. Maybe to the point that I believe I can jump in anywhere and take a trade at any time and get a result. But possibly I can achieve the same or better by being a little more selective. Some of the time I end up trading the noise, and this is where I need to be more patient, and not just rely on my wits to get me into and out of a trade.

A little perspective is a good thing, and by spending some time away from the screen, I can work out how to make the move to live trading. I love the DMA platforms for order entry and exit, but £10 per point on the FTSE is possibly too much for me right now. £2 per pt would be fine, that way I can close half and let the other half run, just to develop some live trades. But I really hate the spreadbetting platforms. They are just designed to make sure you don't win as easily. Why else do spreadbetters not allow you to move your limit order close to the price? Why do they put successful traders on requotes? I am trying to use the Capital Spreads Demo at the moment, but it follows their data feed and not the futures market. If anyone comes across a spreadbetting platform that has the same ease for order entry as a DOM on the futures platform then I would be very happy to use it.

Next for me is to do some more live trades, now that I am not trading with scared money. I still believe I can trade, and I don't think I am deluding myself. I'll let you know how my next live trades turn out.

think you should just give it up mate.......you don't make sense

 

[Dick Lexic]

I've been doing a strict 1:1, 2:1 all this week. It is working but very boring, I'm afraid, It's a sideways trend tactic but that is all that this market can give me.

think your right split, it's been 1:1 for me this week so far

 

[barjon]

Jon, thanks for the kind words. I am going to take this time to analyse what has worked well for me over the 2 years and what hasn't. Being on the sim has got me into some bad habits, and the only way to cure those habits is by going live. By taking on the project management job, I have removed the necessity for trading to work out, whereas without it, I felt that I simply had to make money to live on. Trading with scared money is not the way to trade. Ironically, I have been given a large amount of money by a friend and told to trade with it and not matter if I lose it. But I did not want to risk it until I believed I could trade successfully with it. Hence the practicing forever on the sim, and developing bad habits/discipline as a result.

Well 2 years down the road, I still have the firm belief that I can trade. I can look at a chart and understand all of the price action and how price moves. Maybe to the point that I believe I can jump in anywhere and take a trade at any time and get a result. But possibly I can achieve the same or better by being a little more selective. Some of the time I end up trading the noise, and this is where I need to be more patient, and not just rely on my wits to get me into and out of a trade.

A little perspective is a good thing, and by spending some time away from the screen, I can work out how to make the move to live trading. I love the DMA platforms for order entry and exit, but £10 per point on the FTSE is possibly too much for me right now. £2 per pt would be fine, that way I can close half and let the other half run, just to develop some live trades. But I really hate the spreadbetting platforms. They are just designed to make sure you don't win as easily. Why else do spreadbetters not allow you to move your limit order close to the price? Why do they put successful traders on requotes? I am trying to use the Capital Spreads Demo at the moment, but it follows their data feed and not the futures market. If anyone comes across a spreadbetting platform that has the same ease for order entry as a DOM on the futures platform then I would be very happy to use it.

Next for me is to do some more live trades, now that I am not trading with scared money. I still believe I can trade, and I don't think I am deluding myself. I'll let you know how my next live trades turn out.

Martin

I hope you don't mind me saying so, but the first thing I'd do is to give your friend his money back straight away. He might not be worried about losing it, but you will be and you really don't want that sort of pressure on you on top of everything else. You have, quite rightly, been reluctant to use it and all thoughts of the possibilty should be removed completely.

If you're going to trade small until you've got enough money behind you - as well as the confidence - to go £10pp, then you've got little option but SB. Despite their frailties and the need to do things manually if orders won't be taken too close to the price you won't have much trouble from them whilst you're trading small unless you are "bottom end" scalping for 1 or 2 points a time. I mostly use ETX for my "play" stuff at the moment and I think their platform is very good.

At the end of the day if you can't make money on SB it's unlikely that you'll make it on the "big board".

Finally, from all I've seen from you on here, I think that you CAN have confidence in what you do. You've gotta get off the sim though - at this stage it's really of no help or use to you at all.

cheers

jon

 

[Cornix]

Very interesting thread. I stumbled upon FTSE100 recently and got curious what scalping this market is like (currently I scalp EURUSD, but it gets very noisy at times and it would be nice to have a backup vehicle for those periods).

Did I understand correctly, that the best time to scalp FTSE is first couple hours after London opening and then after US opening?

Thanks.

 

[et.]

Very interesting thread. I stumbled upon FTSE100 recently and got curious what scalping this market is like (currently I scalp EURUSD, but it gets very noisy at times and it would be nice to have a backup vehicle for those periods).

Did I understand correctly, that the best time to scalp FTSE is first couple hours after London opening and then after US opening?

Thanks.

I've been watching the FTSE for about 8 months. Normally, yes. Sometimes the effective trading window reduces or expands by hours though.

I found a few months ago that chalkin volality indicator is good for telling you when to leave the market alone. When it is descending below the line and is below the line it will be noisy. Descending above the line is okay, when it is rising above the line, that is a good trading situation. The price may still trend when chalkin volatility is bad but it is slower and perhaps the signals are less clear.

I use the 10 minute chart to assess chalkin volatility. However also check the daily chart. The effect may be more pronounced when the daily is low/descending below line.

 

[Splitlink]

Use all the indicators that you wish but it all comes down to a good dose of luck in the direction that you pick and the risk that you take on board. I try to be as pragmatic as possible with my entries. The fact is that I have no proof in my assessment of direction---only experience of what has happened before. If it does not work, then my only defence is the loss that I am prepared to accept.

That is why chart assessment is treachorous. The trader who looks at a chart is assuming a direction when he enters. The market will rise, or fall, and does not know about charts. Getting out of a bad trade is the main factor that kills traders. They hang on too long because they will not accept that they made a mistake.

Risk acceptance is one's only defence, The only fact that one can know with reasonable certainty. The rest is pie in the sky because it is the unknown factor.

There is no way of knowing one's profits---only of limiting one's losses. That is the only way that survivors stay in business.

 

[darkcider]

Use all the indicators that you wish but it all comes down to a good dose of luck in the direction that you pick and the risk that you take on board. I try to be as pragmatic as possible with my entries. The fact is that I have no proof in my assessment of direction---only experience of what has happened before. If it does not work, then my only defence is the loss that I am prepared to accept.

That is why chart assessment is treachorous. The trader who looks at a chart is assuming a direction when he enters. The market will rise, or fall, and does not know about charts. Getting out of a bad trade is the main factor that kills traders. They hang on too long because they will not accept that they made a mistake.

Risk acceptance is one's only defence, The only fact that one can know with reasonable certainty. The rest is pie in the sky because it is the unknown factor.

There is no way of knowing one's profits---only of limiting one's losses. That is the only way that survivors stay in business.

A very good post indeed:smart::idea: It's amazing how the random nature of the markets drive people into thinking all kinds of absurdities. If most fail, then surely we need to be doing the exact opposite of what the majority are doing, or at least trying to do:?::idea:

 

[Splitlink]

A very good post indeed:smart::idea: It's amazing how the random nature of the markets drive people into thinking all kinds of absurdities. If most fail, then surely we need to be doing the exact opposite of what the majority are doing, or at least trying to do:?::idea:

I have been considering how to, successfully, do the exact opposite of what the majority is doing.

It is very difficult to be one of the minority. Logic is what most of us use and ,therefore,the majority, it seems to me, is the most logical. Answer me, If you are illogical do you believe that you will be more successful? For one thing, we do not know if the majority is failing, or not. When we enter we do not consider that we are part of the majority. Only that what we are doing is the correct action to take. If we are wrong the one certainty that we know will work is the loss (risk) that we will take.

 

[Cornix]

I've been watching the FTSE for about 8 months. Normally, yes. Sometimes the effective trading window reduces or expands by hours though.

I found a few months ago that chalkin volality indicator is good for telling you when to leave the market alone. When it is descending below the line and is below the line it will be noisy. Descending above the line is okay, when it is rising above the line, that is a good trading situation. The price may still trend when chalkin volatility is bad but it is slower and perhaps the signals are less clear.

I use the 10 minute chart to assess chalkin volatility. However also check the daily chart. The effect may be more pronounced when the daily is low/descending below line.

Thank you. The strategy/tactics is not an issue for me, that part is pretty clear, because same things work on all markets (classic TA based on price action trading for me).

Was more wondering if FTSE100 usually has enough intraday volatility to day trade it on regular basis.

 

[barjon]

I have been considering how to, successfully, do the exact opposite of what the majority is doing.

It is very difficult to be one of the minority. Logic is what most of us use and ,therefore,the majority, it seems to me, is the most logical. Answer me, If you are illogical do you believe that you will be more successful? For one thing, we do not know if the majority is failing, or not. When we enter we do not consider that we are part of the majority. Only that what we are doing is the correct action to take. If we are wrong the one certainty that we know will work is the loss (risk) that we will take.

Split

Does it matter if you're siding with the minority or the majority? After all you're just making an assumption at some point in time about where price will go next - if it doesn't you kill it, if it does you ride it until you have to make another assumption about when "enough is enough". Easy peasy (I wish )

jon