Plan the Trade

It's a trender so taking pullbacks to s and d area seems to be the ticket

I'll review the charts you guys have been throwin up to see how you've been figuring SD cause its definitely different than how i'd call it in EU.

good observations. couple of things though

1. have you tried using mt5 with cqg data? if people can trade forex with mt4, why not trade futures with mt5?

2. max contract size on NQ is NOT 10 contracts..i've put up to 20 contracts on a single trade before, no issues. maybe you ran out of margin?

3. regarding the comm cost- you can pull up on CQG daily fills. Take total max contracts traded (both ways) multiply by RT comm damn it! lol. put that shit on excel and But i do agree, if you're using tradervue for example, CQG will not download yesterday's fills, only todays. you have to rely on copy/paste or pnl statement from broker daily

4. this market is definitely not for the poor. I think safe account size is 1 contract/$5000 (in current volatility) 4500/5 ($500/contract margin)=900 ticks loss before you blow out. Take that 900 and see how many consecutive losses you can handle based on your average losses (including comm). If it's <30 (my opinion), put more money in. Targets is determined by percentage of average daily ATR.

It's a little out of the box but it's just a pullback where a thrust bar started move

If you have a entry stop and target put on then you need 1500 or 2000 for 1 contract. I trade 4 contracts so I keep 8000 in acct and draw out rest at end of the month

I agree "D" I use 2k per contract also.

If you click chart trade mode on you daily dpl is located in left corner just subtract 1tick for commission per contract it really isn't a big deal

Costs - comm, nfa, exchange etc. - are subtracted when orders are filled not at the end of the day.

As far as the platform is concerned, you really need to read the documentation!

Balance:

https://www.sierrachart.com/index.ph...ountBalanceTab

Commission:

https://www.sierrachart.com/index.ph...#UseCommission

To each his own. When i say SD i mean where sellers have overwhelmed buyers and visa versa. Not the stuff with boxes that extend to the right. I bought into that back in the day, but i eventually got past it. With that in mind, i agree with you.

I prefer currency futures (6e) over spot (eurusd). No pipettes, a stable spread, and less chance of a broker conflict of interest.

Kool. I will STFU and go in my cave. I promised myself not to comment on anyone and anything unless asked. I broke my promise so self-punishment is no posting for the rest of the week. My apologies to cause clutter. i will delete my posts to keep this thread clean.

Margin higher for currency futures

Hi guys, just been catching up, couldn't resist loading in the chart and seeing what was happening, lo & behold!

I dunno the thread rules but nothing wrong with a little mind speak as long as we all stay respectful.

"What you talkin bout Willis?!"

Taken from CME
NQ Maint 6150
6e Maint 2300

Both get 500 day.

Only problem is 6e can be a little snail-ish. I guess it's reflected in the maint lol

They must have lowered margin then last time I looked daytrader margin was 1000. The NQ trends like nothing else let that sink in and you will have an aha moment. Hey CG hope all is well

I had the moment maybe a year ago. It's only now that i have the time and mind space to pursue without distractions.

Then kick every other market to the curb and go on the magic carpet ride of the NQ

i'm still kicking the idea we all meet at CME exchange once a year..or every other year..that would be nice. don't worry, if you're short on funds, mr D can cover your trip

i'm still kicking the idea we all meet at CME exchange once a year..or every other year..that would be nice. don't worry, if you're short on funds, mr D can cover your trip...........

LOL gee thanks Harold, mines a flight from New Zealand, happy to do economy assuming your financial manager Hilmy is keeping tabs on the reunion spend ;-)

Sorry man.. #3 requires further insight (hopefully for the benefits of those venturing into futures) as you will understand what I am about to share...

Upon review of my daily statement, I have the following observations to share.

1. Daily Statement is from AMP, daily transactional download from platform (CQG mobile) is from the "datafeed provider" i.e CQG. They do not match as transactions have Order# and Daily Statement has Trade Number. Both are different so there is no way to connect the two. Wait for it... it gets better
2. Each row in Transaction Report from the platform has a DateTime stamp. Daily Statement pdf does NOT. Every trade row in pdf has a "Date" with no timestamp. This is just fucked up !
3. Daily statement does not tell me what is the start time and end time of the report! How the hell would I know when the "day" starts and ends. I am assuming Daily Close is 5pm CT as CME is based in Chicago but if you are trading multiple exchanges, more headaches :-
4. Now, here comes a biggie. In the Daily Statement, I see "Please report issues immediately to the trade desk. Not exercising your right to have issues corrected before the start of next market session will be deemed acceptance of this statement". This is beyond fucked up as it drove me up the wall to see the same shit with MT4 daily statement email. How the hell can one match a trade between trade log and statement if there is a no common field to search/spot check? What am I missing? Not a big deal for some but when big $$$ are involved, such administrative stuff can quickly become a daily nightmare. Now I know why Harold trades the way he does ! Simple and Elegant is the way to go... with that said, I fail to understand how professionals and volume traders can put up with this.
5. Now, let's tackle the 1tick/RT trading cost equation. In principle, this is fine for simple low volume traders. Again, Harold benefits from this as he can run a mental ticker of +/- ticks made but for advanced strategies, this will undoubtedly become a nightmare. Partial close, partial scale in/scale out etc will most definitely require a "realized trading cost ticker" to account for such scenarios. if you don't, you will most definitely end up paying more than your account balance down in the trading platform as there is no such thing as negative balance protection in futures. This was the mistake I made so just sharing for others to be aware. We have to account for trading costs from realized trades and not just from open trades. Net Liquidation Value shown in the platform gives a false impression that it is the net equity left in your account. It is not... if what I am saying applies to all platforms. I have demo'd Tradovate, TT trader and both have the same limitation. So, if your strategy involves Breakeven at Account Equity, it will be hard to do it manually for decent volume traders without some automation/scripting.
6. And finally, cut/paste from pdf to excel copies the entire trade row into one cell in excel. pain galore but sure there is a fix for this.

Bottom line solution: pick your position size and only open one trade at a time to keep this shit under control. One trade at a time is plenty for daily income. If you use Breakeven, you better add a tick for each lost trade*number of contracts. I hope I am making sense!

EDIT: And just to say it, I am a skeptic if the broker or platform provider is not willing to publish their margin and commission fee structure openly on their website. The "submit to get a custom quote" smells fishy to me but understand they have to cater to a variety of traders and their trading styles. Just be transparent and open about it so the little guy knows the same as the big guy! I am also skeptic of broker providing "special edition" of third party software packages. "Free" is never good when large capital is at risk.

Well , i dont get the point that people want to get this thing too complicated while D has given us simple and elegant way to make money. I would rather focus on my execution where i have complete control.