How many instruments do you trade?

ffsear said:
Many, I trade FX, US equities, Commodities and Indexes
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Hi ffsear,
How do you decide what to look at / trade at any one time - and how do you allocate funds? Do you divvy up the pot and say 20% for forex, 20% for indices, 20% for equities etc., - or do you do it on a discretionary basis? That's posh speak for making it up as you go along!
;)
Tim.
 
Any more than 1 and my mind would explode, too much work. I CONCENTRATE on the ES.

Cheers
 
ASX in Asia, sometimes AUD/USD trade
FTSE or DAX in Euro Session.
Sleeping in US session.
Repeat again next day.
 
two short term trading FTSE and S&P, and just 6 or so equities longer term
 
When I was starting out I was trading 4 or 5 intruments for 10+ hours per day. As I became more accomplished I reduced the number of markets and hours to the point I'm at now, which is I trade Dax futures 8-1pm GMT.

Less is more imo.
 
YouAreNotFree said:
When I was starting out I was trading 4 or 5 intruments for 10+ hours per day. As I became more accomplished I reduced the number of markets and hours to the point I'm at now, which is I trade Dax futures 8-1pm GMT.

Less is more imo.
Click to expand...

I have also been finding that less is more thats why i opened this thread to hear other's opinions on the matter. I usually just trade the eurodollar and nothing else but sometimes I get bored and start looking at other instruments for opportunities, I always end up worse off for doing this! I need to make sure I only focus on one thing and do it well!
 
With regards to event trading, the most frustrating thing for me is that my order never gets filled with IG index and then I have to fill in the ticket once again, by then it is too late.
 
Steakeater said:
I have also been finding that less is more thats why i opened this thread to hear other's opinions on the matter. I usually just trade the eurodollar and nothing else but sometimes I get bored and start looking at other instruments for opportunities, I always end up worse off for doing this! I need to make sure I only focus on one thing and do it well!
Click to expand...

How successful have you really been trading just the E/U? Successful enough to assume that small sample size d/ds on other instruments immediately make them irrelevant? You'd need to undergo a significant exercise to measure time spent vs success on each pair on a daily to weekly basis and thus establish whether diversifying is worthwhile for long term gains. It shouldn't be contracted to sound bites and would require a professional approach.

It's a long term game. Depends what you're looking for really. Most people who successfully focus on one instrument are actually futures traders by way of the ES or int rate derivatives rather than E/U traders. Until the Volman thread starts turning a profit I suppose!

Best of luck.
 
random12345 said:
How successful have you really been trading just the E/U? Successful enough to assume that small sample size d/ds on other instruments immediately make them irrelevant? You'd need to undergo a significant exercise to measure time spent vs success on each pair on a daily to weekly basis and thus establish whether diversifying is worthwhile for long term gains. It shouldn't be contracted to sound bites and would require a professional approach.

It's a long term game. Depends what you're looking for really. Most people who successfully focus on one instrument are actually futures traders by way of the ES or int rate derivatives rather than E/U traders. Until the Volman thread starts turning a profit I suppose!

Best of luck.
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Its true that I probably haven't got a large enough sample size on other instruments. I find quite often though that there is quite a lot of correlation between instruments. For instance a big move in the dollar also correlates with a big move in gold at times.

What did you mean by ES? Probably a stupid question.

Do you mean emini S&p 500? What would the advantage of that be over eurusd?
 
Steakeater said:
Its true that I probably haven't got a large enough sample size on other instruments. I find quite often though that there is quite a lot of correlation between instruments. For instance a big move in the dollar also correlates with a big move in gold at times.

What did you mean by ES? Probably a stupid question.
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In terms of fx pairs they may all have large moves at the same time depending on whatever is driving buying on the day, but often they don't correlate all that well after more than cursory glance. The E/U and U/J have not traded in the same manner today, even if both have had triggers for larger moves at the same time and the news is USD centric. Cable also has its own major move moments etc etc. I'd say it's up to you. From what I understand you trade the E/U on a daily time frame... even from a discretionary point of view, this is the type of trading that allows for cross instrument positions.

The emini - the micro ct version of the SP cash index.
 
Steakeater said:
Its true that I probably haven't got a large enough sample size on other instruments. I find quite often though that there is quite a lot of correlation between instruments. For instance a big move in the dollar also correlates with a big move in gold at times.

What did you mean by ES? Probably a stupid question.

Do you mean emini S&p 500? What would the advantage of that be over eurusd?
Click to expand...

They are trading it on the CME directly - they can see the order flow, pay a .25 tick spread and the time to enter on intraday support and resistance is magnified as tick vs adr is in quite a high ratio. It will often back and forth .25 points multiple times to a desired point of entry before reversing offering numerous chances to enter depending on liquidity. FX does not really move like this.
 
Just 1

Most successful traders have only ever traded 1 market, becoming masters of its intricacies.
You don't wanna become a jack of all trades in trading.
 
HedgeFounder said:
Most successful traders have only ever traded 1 market, becoming masters of its intricacies.
You don't wanna become a jack of all trades in trading.
Click to expand...

I agree HedgeFounder.

I trade one market, Treasury Futures, but I look at all three at the same time. 5 yr, 10 yr, and 30yr. Sometimes I trade the 10 yr, and other times I trade the 30 yr, but it is one market, sort of working in unison.
 
Hi guys,

Nice subject

I think the more instruments you trade the less risky is your portfolio but the less chance you have to earn nice profits as your different positions could eventually encompass each other.

At the end of the day it would appear that the most important is not to focus on how many products but on what kind of products you would like to trade.

Then it depends on your risk appetite. Trading 20 products and allocating 30% into fixed income instruments and 70% into shares could be a good way to manage your portfolio from my point of view. What do you think about it?

http://www.scoop.it/u/investors-europe

Cheers
Alex
 
It depends , if you are a scalper then yes you should just specialize in 1-2 markets , but if you are a swing trader then its better to diversify and look for opportunities in different markets rather than sticking to just one instrument ....
 
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