I had a friend of mine ask me a question last night which has thrown my trading plan into question. He dabbles in the market but is not as serious as I am.. I told him about my plans for trying out for Top Step Trader which he thought was good idea. Then he asked me if they allow Forex trading on TST? Answer: nope... next questions: Shouldn't you be practicing with what they allow you to trade? uhg..
That made too much sense for me to ignore.. I know 6e follows the euro but one is future and one is not.. There are differences on how they trade.
Then I started talking about scalping, which I am leaning toward as a trade of choice.. He pointed out the volatility in 6e and suggested something a little more boring might be better suited for scalping.. which again was a good point.
We talked for about a hour and half about my plan. I walked out there with more questions than answers. The two questions above being the biggest. I need to answer those questions before I move forward.
The conversation was positive but a bit of reality check.. I would be lying if I said I didn't feel a little deflated at the moment. I have not even seriously looked at a chart today. Just watching.. I will give this more thought over the weekend.
As always, feedback is welcome.
Robert
nosce te ipsum
You make your own opportunities in life.
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I think if you have a method that is working for you, stick with it. As far as the instrument, I don't think the 6E could be too different from FOREX EUR/USD, though I have nothing to back this up with. If you are leaning towards scalping, you might actually benefit from switching over to futures because you would have access to order flow information(volume and TS), which IMO can be very useful for scalps.
Have a good weekend Robert and don't over-analyze your plan. Just make sure you are always moving forward.
Xavier
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To me, scalping is about being in and out quick. A slower instrument will provide that? I doubt it. I would stick with the Euro at least until it goes the way of the dodo bird. Nice $ per tick, decent movement every day. You could be done in a couple of hours every morning.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
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I spent much of the weekend with my son watching movies, playing Wii and playing Star Wars. Miss being a kid!! The Star Wars battle was epic. He of course won. He beat me in Wii bowling 183 to 182. He was so proud of his self as was I. This was exactly what I needed to clear my head.
I decided I need to trade actual futures so I signed up for TST to have access to futures and to get used to the software they use. Once you get pass the learning curve of how it works it is quite powerful. The one thing I miss from NT is the charts and ATM strategies.
Sunday night and Monday were spent learning the T4 software. I tried to use their charts but it just was not happening. Went back to NT charts (FX EURO feed) with TST trade interface.
There is a big difference on how futures move vs the FX Euro move. The 10th pips allow you to see the movement between the ticks. This threw me off when trying to get into trades because the movement on the chart which is 10x as big and did not reflect the small movement in the trade entry window. Other issue is the futures is 10 ticks off from FX euro price. This was easier of the two adjustments
The scalping setup I had designed in NT does not really work well with their software. Its hard to enter 3 different prices with different targets. I will see what happens when NT is supported which they said it should be released next week. For now I am playing support and resistance moves and trend line breaks.
I added the 50 MA and 200 MA to the chart. I was seeing bounces off these levels. I am not sure if I am going to keep them. I really like a clean chart.
Finally I created a simple breakout indicator based on the 50 MA. If it makes a new high above the 50 MA the bar will be blue. If it makes a new low below the 50 MA the bar will be black. I created this to identify breakouts which occur near the 50 MA and a trend line. I don't think its working quite right... Seeing some bars which should be colored blue or black which are not. Again, I am not sure I am going to keep it.. Just a test.
Today was my first day of real (sim) trading. I ended up +9 for the day. The last trade saved me from having a negative day. I decided to end the day on a positive note.
The best thing which happened to me today:
I saw a breakout move coming and moved my target to just above the low of the day. I best part was i did not kill the trade before the target was hit.
The worst thing which happen to me today:
I took several trades which I should have never taken. Lack of patience prevailed for the 3/4 of the trading day.
The other thing I have to work on is cutting my losses short when I am wrong. I beginning to see in the charts when I am wrong and need to get out. I need to cut those losses short.
I need to quit cutting my profits short. I did this several times today. This ended up making my avg profit less than my avg loss.
re-reading the last two statements I realize I am doing it totally backwards! Need to cut losses short and let profits run.. not the other way around.
Trades today:
Screen Setup
nosce te ipsum
You make your own opportunities in life.
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I think after getting used to the minor differences, you will find they move very similarly/identically. And for scalping, the 6E should be superior, mostly due to overall spread+commissions costs, and also fills/execution.
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6E morning session
+8 ticks
+ 20 ticks for last night and this morning.
Today was all about patience! Last night and today I took trades which broke the support / resistance or trend lines and had room to move beneath the lines. I placed a sell stop beneath the lines where I thought the price was beyond the reach of a false breakout but still would be a good entry point. This was actually good for me because it took away the hesitation which causes late entry or no entry at all.
The first trade I originally had a target of 2880 however it pulled back on the support. When it pulled back I was tempted to exit the trade. I kept a tick count of how many times I wanted to exit the trade.. It was 17 times in 35 minutes. I ended up exiting the trade on the double bottom. I felt there was a chance for a rebound and breakout, which the rebound happened but the breakout did not. In the end the price ended up 1 tick from my original target.
After being in the trade for 5 minutes a thought occurred to me: I should have traded 2 contracts. 1st target at the support and the 2nd target at 2880. I am going to try this next time this type of trade comes up. I would have felt more comfortable holding the second contract since the first target would have been hit.
The second trade was a scalp. It broke the support of the previous trade. I thought it was going to go a couple of ticks lower than it did. This trade could have easily been a loss or BE.
third trade: what could have been!! I had a buy stop 2900 and took it out. Dont have a good reason for it. I saw something I didnt like. My original thought was for a 5 tick target which it would have hit.
What was the best thing that happened today:
Patience! I stayed in the trade and let it run its course.
I took the hesitation out of my trading by using buy and sell stops.
What was the worse thing that happen today:
I didnt trust what the chart was telling me. I let some emotion get in the way of a final trade.
I am switching back and forth between my NT chart and the TST chart. The TST chart shows the trades, target and stops which is helpful. I have better vision of the market with the NT chart; using this to identify trades.
I am done for the day. As much as I want to trade more I am going to exercise restraint.
Final thought: I stared at my account window yesterday and today for what seemed like hours and I am finding great motivation to for doing this the right way; The $362 I made in Sim over the last two days could be "real" and mine! I want this bad!!!
nosce te ipsum
You make your own opportunities in life.
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I have not even seriously looked at a chart today. Just watching.. I will give this more thought over the weekend.
He beat me in Wii bowling 183 to 182. He was so proud of his self as was I. 
This was exactly what I needed to clear my head. 