Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
My thoughts and strategy as in trying to become a scalp trader!
Live in the market, target set at 10 points, (updated) target achieved! That was my first trade noted in here...
In the meantime I try to set up NinjaTrader, because of the orderbook etc. but I don't understand why many people use MetaTrader including myself if the orderbook/DOM is not included...
The thing is, this was a manual trade, but I have an Expert Advisor specifically build to automate at least the scalping bit.
Now I sell 100% at a given target, which was 10 points in this case. But it could also be the mid-BB line (20/2) of the 1/3/5 minute time frame.
Depends on how I interpret the behaviour of the market.
Today we saw a lot of scrambles that could have been taken, but I only executed this trade stated in my post above.
Because the BB's were still in a range of worth taken a trade. I noticed as the day progressed I could have taken on more trades, but the BB's were also directed downwards, which makes 'the zone' of opportunity a lot smaller, which again makes the chance of hitting my 10 point target a lot smaller as well.
I could have taken more trades but my target would have to be closer to my entry point. I am thinking in conditions like this, I will have to settle for 3-6 points.
I didn't took the massive rebound today, as I waited for the oil reserves numbers for drastic movement. But it didn't provide me with an opportunity because it went up immediately. As can be seen in the picture above, as well as the zones of opportunity I use and talked about above and in previous posts.
Maybe I had traded a long, if I didn't already had a 10 points win... and again would be a 10 points win as well from any point. But that's just mere chance.
To be clear and open, I am bulking up my account so I can trade bigger contract sizes in the future.
Right now, I am doing 1 euro per point.
My third trade of the day, was a bit more problematic, because while everything was telling me to go IN and short it, which I did, it still had another leg up, so I went on to about -20 points before the market went back to its more natural state of course my target was set at another 10 points! I could have gone out a swing sooner if I took 6 instead of 10 points.
Also we have numbers coming in on 14:30 CET, US labour numbers, we often experience a move before the numbers actually are in, then we get a small consolidation period before the numbers are published to either flip the coin to its good side or to give the go ahead for another rise.
Definitely more risk taken in this trade, and yes, as you can see in all my trades, profits could have been far more than just 10 points. But you don't know that in advance, right. Hence... when I have the budget I can let a piece of my order run at break even and sell off at different targets. For now, it's 10 or in stressful times 6.
Both BB's are now relatively close together, which makes the retrace shorter and more risk to be taken, the pattern is a bullish engulfing and ideal moments are when it's consolidating, especially news spikes that have no follow through.
Even though numbers are coming and opportunity may arise, I will call it day!
There may be a deviation in time, my MT is on GMT time, which I note sometimes or use my own CET time which is 1 hour later. But you can see that yourself as well.
Pre-opening you can see how good the market was for a short entry, the candles opened very nicely in the zone (coloured in red a bit) and as you can see, the zone was quite large, which is how I like it the most!
Besides the gap-up at the pre-opening, I have read that the majority (around 80%) of the gaps in general closes within their first hour! Basically making it another good reason to open a position.
Also R1 was hit during opening and R2 is only around 50 points away from R1, basically you had 2 resistance areas in your advantage.
The market is currently closing the gap.
Unfortunately my rule is only to open a position when the market is open, post 09:00 CET,
But this shows us an example of a good opportunity even if you aren't allowed to make use of it!
Rule: On Mondays which is tomorrow, I'll wait at least an hour after opening before doing any trades. Trades will be done after 10:00 CET.
As I can see in the agenda important news is being released on 08:00 CET, German's economic growth numbers.
This definitely brings volatility to the market, never mind any relevant news which happened during the weekend.
I am curious if an opportunity will arise and whether I will take it or not.
Currently I am holding a stop loss of 50 points and a target of 10 points. Which is a bad risk/reward ratio, I know.
But to be honest the strategy is aggressive and needs room to work. I am still reasoning about this.
Also I have setup Ninja Trader with the right chart settings, will try a SIM trade tomorrow with the SUPERDOM etc.
And hopefully see an addition in trading like that.
I overlooked the agenda, numbers are coming in on Tuesday!
For now... the BB's are directed upwards and are closely behind each other, which is not ideal! RSI is oversold though, but RSI is a confirmation for a more reliable trade, the main indicator to enter a trade or not are the BB's!
Based on a 15 minute time frame we are consolidating and have put up a flag as a structure.
A couple of good opportunities came by today, however I took none. Which showed discipline, I guess.
I don't want to trade, because I need too! I want to trade because I see an opportunity worth taking a shot at.
Statistics can always be coloured, like I have said before.
I don't try to reason in risk/reward scenario's. Risk tends to be high when I see it has a reward for me in store. But ultimately over time the market always goes back to its natural state... we must all agree on that!
The advantage is in my opinion, this strategy has a dynamic approach and of course can be automated by putting limits in place. But for now, I still trade manually and am doing trades automation isn't able to do, because I trade solemnly on my subjective view on the market using the strategy explained in previous parts/posts. Because it's subjective, you can either make the wrong decision or a good one. Basically training your intuition which trade you will take and which one you let go.
Automation, R/R scenario's... do people understand even statistics? If you have an 80% chance of being good, there's still a 20% chance of being wrong! Which means depending on your back tested time period (which is the only data available to have your statistics based on...), you still can have the upcoming next 10 trades wrong. Although chances are small.
I like to be able to give chance a try when I trade.
Especially those systems developed in my opinion during the QE period, do they even know how the market works without QE? 9 out of 10 times, people adjust their systems as well. And doesn't that make it ultimately just as subjective as manual trading? I think so!
Trading isn't a game by clicking enough buttons in a sort of weird combination till it suggest you have a good percentage in succeeding a trade with that specific combination.
I look forward for tomorrow, it will be Wednesday, mid-week... I tend to see some choices being made in the market. And hope to put on another good example of a live trade or of a trade taken, of course with a positive result.
