Dan, glad to see this thread is back to life, thanks phoenix...
fwiw... I started playing with e-minis about 3 months before. My experience is, I get whipsawed a lot, only to find out the next day, that I was right. I somehow get more nervous when I see losses on my future trades,,, though I don't feel the same with my option losses. I should know, unlike some of my tech stocks becoming penny stocks, ES can't go, say below 600, unless something catastrophic happens, IMHO. Sometimes,though ES remains at the same value for a given period, I end up losing 20+ pts or so. The stop loss orders kill me most of the time,,,, so I have decided not to give up on options completely, The main advantage, I think with e-minis, is liquidity and non-regular hours trading.
When it comes to options, I have given up spread strategies on high beta stocks. I have reduced my buy of simple call/put options, as I am not good at predicting the market direction. I have learnt the hard way, managing risk is equally important, as trying to guess the market direction. The only strategies worked for me are spreads on indexes like QQQ and long straddles, though I am still new to straddles. But both these strategies require a lot of patience, waiting till expiration sometimes (especially last 2 weeks before expiration). With straddles, I have left a lot of money on the table because of lack ot patience :(
Well, the search/trial continues, hopefully not forever, till I find a style which suits me...
my 2 cents |
