Naked Futures Trading With Me

Ok so I don't usually trade in the buff, but I do trade naked . Some of you might know me from my other threads and for some of you I may be new. Suffice it to say that I have learned a bunch over past decade plus I have been doing this, dam time goes by so fast, so my approach to trading has morphed into something very different from where I started. I have been trading futures for about the past 18 months, I moved for a number or reasons including insured accounts, easier access to funds, more variety of things to trade etc. I currently trade 6C - loony (cad) futures, cc - cocoa, ng - natural gas, zn - 10 yr bond futures, zl - soybean oil , zc - corn, he - lean hogs, ct - cotton

In this thread I will post trades, pretty close to real time, as I take them an they may or may not include any commentary. You will not see any predictions about where price will go, I can't predict the future, I only trade what I see. You will not see any crap on my charts, no freaking fibs, no waves, no trend lines, no ma, zip zilch nada nothing but candle sticks. My trading relies on 3 price patterns that offer very low risk trades with pretty high rewards - usually at least 2R, i will also look for other very low risk entries that do not fit those price patterns but they offer a cheap entry with a good chance of success. I may or may not go into detail about the hows and whys I trade, I am not writing this thread with the express intent to teach anybody anything, if you are smart you will pick it up from the charts. If you want me to teach you how to trade go someplace, if you want to bitch, complain, wine, etc you will be banned from the thread.

I would love for others to post charts of their trades futures or forex and how they approach the market and for this to become a real place of actual discussion about trading, I know this is pretty unlike here at FF but who knows .

So as I sit here looking at charts patiently waiting for a trade I figured I would post some details about how I prepare for each trading day.

1. I try to clear my head of any silly thoughts/negative emotions and just focus on the charts and what is occurring on them
2. mentally review my trading plan.
2a. envision myself taking each of my trade setups and what they look like, the goal here is to make sure that I take the setups that happen and don't somehow miss them.
2b. review trade management . my standard rules are if the trade is in some sort of range shoot for 20 ticks but if not let the trade run, how far I let the trade run is dependent on the contract. Though I usually don't hold trades overnight
3. make sure each chart is using the correct template (the templates in thinkorswim manage the SL / TP initial settings)

Hello Endroute,
I also day trade futures, for the same reasons as yours. It's rare to come across traders talking about futures trading in FF. So I am going to stick around for a while and talk about futures with others who may join in too. I trade the TF, EC most of the time, and sometimes CL and NG. I had looked at trading the ag commodities in the past and may look at them again if advantageous to do so. My methodology is mainly discretionary, technical analysis based on price action and chart patterns, multiple time frames; with visual assistance from a limited number of common indicators (e.g. MTF Stochastics with modified parameters). So my charts are not quite naked, but pretty close. I use TradeStation and Ninja Trader for day trading; I also have TOS and Interactive Brokers for swing and longer term trades of stocks and ETFs. I am very diversified but will stick to this thread of day trading futures here.

I used FF infrequently since joining while looking at forex, have not posted much, and don't know how to post charts yet. I'll try to find out from reading some instructions in this forum soon.

Like you, my main goal coming in here is not look to learn or to teach. My goal: Trading is a lonely business, after a while, one may get bored and loses concentration. Experienced traders say "getting bored" in trading is a good thing ..., I understand that; but I think if boredom affects trading then it's not good. Bored and not paying attention then there is no "feel" of the market. I am trying to find ways to improve my attention span and discipline. I want to see how looking at charts and doing this may work well together. Or are there better ways? Of course I won't stop learning. And my trading may evolve over time as I improve.

What trading hours do you normally start your trading day, the CME regular hours? And for how long do you trade each day?

Looking forward to make some meaningful trading progress with this thread. Thanks for starting the thread.

Regards, Bill

Hi Bill and welcome to the thread. I would say for me boredom is enemy number one with everything else a distant second at this point. If I am bored I become distracted and focus on things other than my trading, which is how I miss setups etc. I normally trade from about 6 am to about 2 pm ET depending on how the trading day has gone, if I have had a really good day I might knock off early and conversely if was a slow day I will probably stick around a bit longer. Most of the time when trading the ags I don't trade them until after the open, but sometimes you can catch a really good trade pre open. I will also look at some of the currency futures from about 8-9:30 pm ET or so as you can catch some really good moves for pretty low risk sometimes. I hope to start posting charts this week etc, as i missed all my trades on Friday because I got sidetracked ugh.

hi, i been trading forex on a very small scale, but just recently i decided to check the futures and I DID SEE YOUR NOTE that you are not here to teach. I like to follow your thread but can you just give a hint where should i start , where should i go to learn FUTURES.

At a certain point trading styles are transferable between different instruments. I would first start looking at the charts of different futures contacts and see if your system work's, you can also trade currency futures contracts. Be aware that some futures contacts are very thinly traded and you probably want to avoid those. You will also want to understand the news cycle for the contract you are trading and at least read up on how futures contracts work.

endroute,

Distractions are my biggest destruction of profits as well. Listening to music alone is not enough. Nor is calendaring. I am working on solving this. I was hoping to find a "free" futures trading room to hang out, where it is not too "noisy", to keep me focused during trading hours.

I also like to trade the opens of the US markets, where most liquidity is, and where price action often springs to life. Price movement slows down after a couple of hours for the rest of the day. If I remember right, the CME ags and crude open at a different time from the US indices, so it's like having another market open to trade. Or have the hours changed now. I found though I am often busy enough with trading the main markets so can't keep up with the ags; plus I am not sure how to take advantage of their various grains reports (time, day, weather, country, all for the "feel") etc. FF does not have such in their econ news calendars, as they are not "forex".

Yes, the Asian market open is another good time to trade. I have not lately. Sometimes I also look at the London open. Seems like you get the best markets covered.

Looking forward to your posts. Thanks.

Regards, Bill

Case in point ... before the open, based on overnight action, I expected the market to open pretty flat. The markets indeed opened flat, and stay flat for 2 and half hours. Drifting. Sideways and choppy. If scalped, could have trapped a few ticks here and there, but don't know how many I may have given back by false moves. So I stayed out (correctly so), lost interest and got distracted (bad) ... Then just in the last 30 min, the Russell made a lower high, broke support and dropped 45 ticks without me. ughhh

its funny life never fails to toss you the occasional curve ball, a couple of weeks ago I fractured my ankle in 3 places, I am now recovering from surgery and getting used to not having the use of a leg. I hope to start trading and posting again this week

​Hi Endroute, "break a leg" is an idiom of a good-luck wish. Luckily trading does not require the use of a leg. Good luck with your trading. Looking forward to your posts on futures trading. Bill

So......... huge gap in posts but I am going to try to start posting again. These days I primarily try to trade just a single instrument and for quite some time that has been gold using 100 period dema (this is pretty close to a 35sma )

BASIC RULES - BUT THERE IS SOME NUANCE AND DISCRETION USED especially at current day highs /lows

I have 4 types of entries
1. engulfing candles - where the open is engulfed - so these are usually outside bars but sometimes not. I look for candles that either close flat or with a small wick 3 pts or less and in the direction of the trend of the moment. DO NOT try to use this strat to hit reversals
2. strong trend of the moment decent slope to the 100 dema (double exponential ma) candle opens on one side of the ma and closes on the other - not for use in long drawn out runs back to the ma - as I take these I will post charts that will explain more.
3. Close in - current candle closes within the wick of the prior candle and current candle opens below/above (depending on direction) of the prior candle - again as I take these I will post charts that will explain more
4. Inside ish candle - the entry candle needs to encompass at least 50% of the prior candle body and NOT go below the open, the entry candle can extend past the close of the prior candle. I generally take this with the trend but because the risk is so small I will take this in some instances where price is likely to reverse

Stops- i keep a static 20 tick SL but for close ins and inside candles my sl is at prior candle high/low as dictated by direction
TP - 35-60 pts depending on how things are moving, but many times price moves so fast I am not able to move my tp in time so I end up with 35 pts

Well another day in the books, didn't start trading until after the CPI reports. I usually avoid trading before news but lately I have seen some good trades on gold pre news so I think I am going to start trading up until 5 mins pre news. 4 trades 3 winners 1 loser 127 pts to the good for the day.

Keep them coming!