I don't remember posting a link to equity gap trading. Gaps in any instrument have powerful effects. Many people fade gaps in equities. In fact, MTG recently released a gap study guide on Google that was very interesting. They are going to be releasing more of these over time on other instruments.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on futures io?
since gap is created by stop at some time on previous day and start at some time today I suspect if their stop time was 9:45 am time stead of 9:30 am, the gap will be even bigger and more 'powerful' than a normal gap.
Wednesday, September 15th - No gap trades, the gap set-up was just OK. I was actually awake and considered entering long at a price lower than the open, with a small stop, fading the gap, at around 1119.50, which was almost the low of the day, but didn't. But I took a first-hour trade, fading the highs of the day. I went for a better entry so I entered in later than normally, but before that there was a push that went 3 ticks from what was the target, so in hindsight perhaps I should have canceled my order, but that's Monday-morning quarterbacking. Either way, it would have been a loss, and because I got a little better entry my loss was smaller than what it would have been.
Monday, September 20th - Just didn't work. Especially bummed since I missed 6 winning gap trades on Thu and Fri of last week on ES, YM and NQ. Was out of town on Thursday and just too tired Thursday night to set up Friday's trades. It motivated me to set up my trading server so I can remote desktop into it and setup my trades no matter where I am, any time of day. Got the server installed at the co-lo on Saturday, needs some more RAM though before going live with it.
Friday, September 24th - I took a first-hour trade with a 4pt target and 4pt stop, but Friday's Globex market closed for the weekend without ever hitting my target or stop, which usually doesn't happen. Unfortunately, I wasn't near my computer and failed to get out of the trade before the weekend close, so I was sweating bullets that Sunday's Globex open would hurt me with a huge gap down due to unforeseen news event. However, I was fortunate that the market opened slightly higher then quickly shot up 5-6pts in my favor. Soon after the open I put in a limit order to sell with a 6pt gain and my target was hit.
I'm taking greater precaution by making sure my trades are closed out before RTH, especially over a weekend, primarily by automating the management and entry of these setups. I'll also soon be putting these on my trading server at my co-lo so I can remote into them and manage them from anywhere, instead of from my home PC. I know I can set up remote desktop on my home PC too, but I have other issues (kids that want to play games on my computer, less reliable power and internet connection, etc) with running these things from home. This is a business, not a hobby, treat it as such.
ES: 1 win: +24 very lucky ticks
The following user says Thank You to shodson for this post:
I'm sure you know this, but with Ninja you can set up a time exit for all your trades. I have that programed on my Dom to exit all my trades at 4:14 PM EST so that I will not carry a trade overnight.
