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

To: Patrick Slevin who wrote (2774)	8/28/1998 11:59:00 AM
From: SE	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 44573

Found this on the Omega list....thought everyone would be interested in it. This is not my work and I do not know the guy who wrote it. Maybe some of the traders here can offer thoughts as to what is stated. How were the fills and the spreads when calls were made. -Scott ---------------------- if all you can trade is onesie, twosie, then don't trade. the floor will go with a 5-10-15 etc size over a 1 lot. trade in increments of 5 lots or don't trade. trade only in the early morning and middle to late afternoon. wild days chop during the middle session in thin, volatile trade. use globex for entries and exits if you're gunshy. globex is tamer than the pit on days like today. remember that globex doesn't take market orders. know the rules (not held, fast market, limit down, etc) before trading. you know what they say about ASSumptions. it's been proven over and over that e-trading is shitty on wild days, so avoid it or don't trade. don't trade breakout systems on days like today unless you're prepared to get hammered on the slip. hell, the whole damn world sold the quad bottom breakout today at 1055. this was so obvious that a blind man could see it. my pit guy said paper was easily getting slipped 5+ handles. don't overtrade. the slip will cost you your profit. example: i sold the open, and covered around 10:30am (CDT). the bond trade was reversed, went long on bond open and sold em when i covered the s&p short. then i took a nap from 11:00 to 1:00 (i was dead dog tired). around 2:00pm, I sold the retracement after the bond close and held to the close. if i wasn't so damn tired, i'd just sell the open and hold til the close. remember that quotes will be running late. call the pit for bid-ask. don't be surprised at a 2 handle spread. in the oct 87 panic, the spread was running 5 handles most of monday morning. the market is panic driven on days like today. i heard rumors that yeltsin was murdered, a military coup took over, russia launched the nukes, and clinton was in airforce one preparing a counterstrike, plus everyone was defaulting on 200-600 bil derivatives, as if anyone would care about money if we were in a nuke war. of course it was all bullshit. but rumors that would have been laughed at a month ago are taken seriously in this panic environment and are reflected in the wild gyrations of the markets. remember that if your broker was in a surly mood today. my best advice: don't trade. the markets will settle down and things will get back to normal. contrary to popular belief, traders who make big bucks today are meanier than junkyard pit bulls by the close. handling losers is a hell of a lot easier than managing winners on wild days.