Yes, Cormac we are completely OUT of the market all the time (flat)... sometimes on a daily basis, depending upon market conditions. In a trending market, we will go flat less frequently, since there are more swing trade and position trade opportunities. Over the past two weeks, we've gone out flat about half the time; and we've held only a few positions longer than 24 hours. Our average intraday trade lasts 10 or 20 minutes. We do quite a few "overnight" trades, where we enter close to the close, or post-close, and exit in the pre-market, or at/right after the open.
One of the features of our service is, we have developed custom software (C++ code driven by a Comstock Satellite dish) which among other things, scans for all movers before the open and after the close. So if anything moves more than 0.1 point before the open or after the close, and it's an interesting play, we'll know about it and we post many of those in the room as potential trading opportunities.
I did trade the S&P Futures and the Bond Futures full-time for 15 months, and it was a great experience. I am not currently trading them, because I find stocks and options leverages my expertise and trading style better - thus my profits flow more consistently in trading the stock and options markets. However I'd recommend trying Futures intraday (with a good coach!) to any aspiring trader, it's a great way to "get your Black Belt" ;) My friend Teresa Lo has a terrific site for learning that, www.intelligentspeculator.com, and she has a terrific thread here on SI as well. Todd Mitchell (Detroit) also offers an excellent course on S&P Futures trading. Of course, we constantly monitor & interpret the S&P and NDX futures throughout the day as it applies to our stock trading.
-Steve |
