Style Suggestions For Intraday Trading While Working?

January 31st, 2016, 04:31 PM

Hi, All

I have a full time job and spend 90% of the day at a desk. I get paid by performance, so there's no conflict with me keeping my trading laptop open, which is what I do.

Because my work occupies most of my attention, I have to trade in a style that picks out what I think are fairly obvious setups which develop over a good deal of time. So, I trade price action on the ES with swing and pullback techniques taught by Al Brooks and PATs. I use a 6500 volume chart, which gives me plenty of time, even at open.

I try to keep the chart clean because I don't have time spend all day messing with indicators etc. I am intrigued about adding order flow techniques (e.g. Jigsaw) because I have difficulty staying on the right side of the market in chop and tight sideways ranges. (I probably should just stop trading that type of market anyway.)

Pure price action's working decently well, but I was wondering if perhaps anyone else is in a similar situation would like to trade notes.

February 11th, 2016, 07:28 AM

If you're using Al Brooks, stick with that. His methodology and analysis will take a lot of time to learn and understand, and in the meantime I know you will want to look for "other stuff" to add to your arsenal. But you should first study all of his material (books and video course). It is well worth the time. The whole point of price action is to NOT need any extraneous tool. Also, it might be better to trade an instrument that has RTHs that match your availability. Al Brooks methods require a lot of focus and attention to detail, so you may be doing yourself a disservice trying to trade while at work. Trading is hard enough as it is - try not to add more difficulties and stress. There are plenty of markets you can trade in the early evening, such as N225M on the Osaka Securities Exchange.

February 11th, 2016, 07:35 AM

Have u thought about selling Options on futures
Longer term
Still at work u can do all the analysis based on daily and 4 hr charts
Sell at support resistance when vol is high

February 11th, 2016, 08:28 AM

Thanks for the tip mangolassi. Agreed that sticking with Brooks is the way to go. His books actually explain methods of reducing information needed to catch trades. Right now, I'm focusing on always-in trades after major trend reversals within first 90 min. of open in hopes of catching near a low or high of the day's range. The setup is specific and the time window is small, so it's been very manageable while working, especially before the day really picks up with work.

Will look into N225M.

Thanks, jokertrader. Brooks mentions options trading as longer term swing plays. I may well do this eventually, but I'm still learning price action and trade management. I'd rather trade daily for now to learn. Once I get more confident, I plan to size and find markets for larger multi-day trades.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

February 11th, 2016, 04:35 PM

I would try to master backspreads. If you get the direction right, you'll be very profitable. If you're wrong, then your risk is capped no matter how much the position moves against you. And if your wrong because nothing moves, at least the position is a bit cheaper then a purely directional options strategy.

Finally, since you can't get perfect pricing trading the underlying being on call during the work day, at least you'll the "imprecise" pricing will be easier to swallow executing on the options.

February 28th, 2016, 07:34 PM

So, just updating in case there's a fellow traveler looking for feedback from experimenting.

After some decent success and after giving much of it back, I found that my current trading plan was interfering with work and vice versa. I took a second spin through some Brooks course and book stuff, hunting for ways to lower risk while also lowering analysis time.

Came away with a strategy of trading only the always-in legs of the most likely channel or range. I put my limit order right where my trend line would meet price if it spiked at a given moment. 6 tick stop, never move it. Pretty happy not to stop out that often (when I do, it's after an MTR I wasn't trading or expecting.

I also switched from the 6500 Vol PATs chart to the 5 min. Brooks chart. Way better. Even pace. Doesn't make me feel like I have to baby sit the market or trades. Just check it each time bar alert tells me it's closed after 5 min.

But here's been the game-changer: NO CANDLES! I use bars only. The result is that I draw better trend and channel lines. Since that's where I place my trades, I'm demanding the best prices for my trades. And I'm not getting suckered into prematurely or belatedly entering on long candles. I also have only the bar patterns to go off of, rather than try to compute how the candles influence what I'm seeing.

Trading only the always-in leg has been keeping me on the right side of the market and avoiding getting suckered into failed breakouts or traps. Trading only trend line entries has taken tons of stress and time out of entering.

I trade 3 contracts. One target is 8 ticks, another at the other end of the channel. The third sits just inside the daily high or low, to catch any home run follow through. Breakeven stop after 8 ticks.

After first week, worst day was +$50 on 5 trades. Best was +$1300 on 3 trades.

I can live with these results. My job is my job and this is extra. I can't have it distract me and I can't lose money on it. So, I'm fine if I leave money on the table, if that means I can devote more time and focus to work.

Having a strategy that doesn't lose money over time, pays for itself, and occasionally hits a home run is all I can really ask for. So, gonna keep trying this for awhile, I guess.

February 28th, 2016, 11:31 PM

can you show a screen shot of your chart? maybe with trade entries and exits... i'd be interested as i'm in much the same position as you.

February 29th, 2016, 08:30 PM

Will try. Probably won't make much sense without also seeing my trend and channel lines. Tough to do, as I erase them almost after every trade or channel break to avoid biasing myself. Already working while trading. Screenshotting is another thing. Will do on slow workday.

February 29th, 2016, 08:37 PM

Also forgot to mention. Another thing I'm doing is drawing the channel line first and copy-and-pasting it as my trend line. This is anathema to many, but it gives the important advantage of giving me one more and earlier always-in leg to trade. If I wait for the trend line to establish, I will have missed the first and second always-In legs. So, by drawing the channel line and then copying it as the trend line, I get an earlier frame of the price action.

For those of you not familiar with the terms, the trend line is the line that would be broken with a change of direction. And the channel line is the parallel line on the other side of the market. In a bear trend, the channel line is on the bottom and the trend line is on the top. In a bull channel, the channel line is on the top and the trend line is on the bottom.

Many like to draw the trend lines first because they confirm later and are thus in a sense more accurate. But if you wait for two necessary points (peaks for bears and valleys for bulls), you miss one always-in leg. Draw it on paper and see for yourself.

Style Suggestions For Intraday Trading While Working?

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Style Suggestions For Intraday Trading While Working?