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Strategies & Market Trends : Systems, Strategies and Resources for Trading Futures -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Matthew L. Jones who wrote (39806)	11/2/1999 3:06:00 PM
From: Gary E	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 44573

Matt, If you 12 pts....CONGRATS :) Never look back,,,,, Hal

To: Matthew L. Jones who wrote (39806)	11/2/1999 4:12:00 PM
From: Magnatizer	Respond to of 44573

Matt I hate leaving money on the table! get used to it. ;-) I find it much harder to stay in spoo position than i did with stocks. ht david

To: Matthew L. Jones who wrote (39806)	11/2/1999 8:26:00 PM
From: Robert Graham	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 44573

I am new to the e-minis also. But I have some comments that I can make on this subject. There is a difference between price targets and an important S&R like the day's low. Specifically, while price targets provide points where a decision needs to be made, you need to understand how price action can behave around support or resistance. This is very important. When the price target which can be based on this S&R is reached, you are at a decision point. You can based on how the price responds to this resistance or support let the trade ride, or you can take it off the table. You may want to consider the profit you made at that point in the trade to help you with your decision. Now if you are trading multiple contracts, you can develop a money management approached based on this with respect to your price targets. Most importantly always in mind that you are attempting to manage the risk of the trade. If you are to intelligently manage the risk of the trade while it is in progress, the profit will take care of itself. The risk is IMO where the focus needs to be. Consider thinking of the trade this way. The selection of your entry helps determine the profit potential of the trade, while managing the exit of money from the trade helps determine the risk exposure of the trade. And the risk profile of a trade can and does change as the trade progresses, besides being different for the type of market you are trading in, which also changes over time. I personally have multiple price targets. One is for a scalp, another is for when I expect price to follow through, and perhaps another is for an unusually strong move that has a continuation leg. This particular price target I usually decide after the price has progressed a distance through my trade to the second price objective, and the price action is telling me that a continuation leg is possible. Part of my money management scheme considers the type of market I am trading in. So for instance, with a market that has setups which follow through normally to their second price targets, I may take some contracts off the table for a scalp trade, but keep some for the follow through. If the market is trading in a way where follow through is not likely, then I do scalp trades based on the first price target. There are different ways to manage risk in a changing market and this is one way I do this. IMO what ultimately determines the decision to exit is the price action that lead up to the following price target. This requires focus, discapline, and most importantly, experience. This is one area that I am still working on. I find that this is one area that many traders in the market still need to work on. For a market that usually follows through on setups with some strength to the second price objective, I am very good at managing the trailing stop and when to move it up close for the exit. But for markets that do not follow through like this, or does follow through but is prone to unusually slow movement and perhaps some whipsawing along the way, this becomes much more difficult for me. In summary, all price targets really do is provide the trader with points at which decisions need to be made. But the price action itself leading up to the price target is the most important consideration during the execution of a trade which may send a message to the trader that the trade may need to be exited prematurely. But in order to put this in perspective, the trader has to determine what type of trade he is making (scalp or longer move), and this in part depends on the type of price action that market is providing the trader to attempt profits in. I hope this helps. Comments welcome. Bob Graham