This thread will track my idea of trading the ES. I have traded nothing but the CL (CL method () for years now, but want to trade less, both in terms of number of trades, as well as the amount of time I spend in front of the charts.
Back in "tha'day", I created a thread on how I track statistics; you can view it here: Stats (
More information on the ES, as if you didn't already know. (E-mini S&P 500 futures - ES info ()
As stated in my CL thread, one of my goals was to get away from indicators as much as possible, and so, with this in mind, I have a pretty bare chart. I am using a few indicators which Big Mike wrote which serve as moving averages, and a support/resistance indicator.
My only chart is a 6R chart. If price is moving beyond what is currently on my chart, then I will scroll back and look for potential S/R. I no longer use any larger charts, time or range.
I am a strong believer in the idea that your targets must be larger than your stops to be consistently profitable over a long period of time. While I have often enjoyed a high win rate with CL, this was proven to be difficult, especially in the beginning, and requires me to watch the chart with extreme focus every second I am in the trade. With that being said, my initial stops are usually between 8-15 ticks, based on price. With ES, each tick is $12.50 USD. I primarily have different stops so I can easily manage multiple contracts during the trade. For this reason, I also have a profit target entered of 10+ and a potential long range target; but again, I will manage the exit as I am in the trade and price helps to guide me. Also, my statistics and experience with price action, support and resistance, and risk vs. reward will help me exit my trade.
I look to trade from about 8:00 CST until lunch or until the market tells me to stop. By this, I mean when price action becomes poor, volume drops considerably, we get stuck in a small range, etc. I often look to trade the last 90 minutes as well, but may make it a goal to be done every day before lunch.
I will give a few examples, and try to describe what it is I will be looking for.
Basic rules:
1) Trade from 8 - 3 CST; ultimately, looking to take a few trades before lunch time and be done.
2) Take off half of my position at a highly probably first target area, and then trail my runners.
3) Only take A+ setups. If they don't come, then I don't trade.
4) Have fun.
I use 2 indicators primarily:
1. The green and red line you see which is a number of moving averages combined.
2. The green and red dots which serves as an area to look for support/resistance.
Example long:
Entry occurred around 1:51 CST and the entry buy stop was 1361, with a stop of 1359 which is one tick below the entry bar. If this is my A+ setup, price will move in my direction without much initial hesitation and will not return below my entry price often. I would be targeting 1371.75, but would look for price to give me signs on where to exit. Based on my statistics and price, I will trail my stop, but won't allow it to pullback more than the distance of my potential target. This needs to be determined also based on the range of the day. If we are in a tight range, then I will most likely be taking profit sooner.
Here is an example from yesterday:
Just focus on the long at 1:51, disregard the time for now, and focus on what price did.
Price the previous morning stopped at 1360.75, and then preceded to move up 10+ points before heading back down. Price then moves just below that area, but closes high. It also happened to lead into a "cut" of my MA which is usually a nice sign of momentum. Price makes a few small bounces on the way to the target. From there at about 9:05, price also touches down to 1371.75 which is exactly where the price moved up to on that push up the day before. This also lead to a small cut of my MA. Another factor would be the fact it moved below the double bottom at 72.50, but failed to gain any traction to the downside. This would be a good area …