Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: TradeOfTheDay who wrote (6093)	10/11/1998 2:26:00 PM
From: SE	Respond to of 44573

I have been asked via P-Mail to give an up-date on my trading with Zap. I don't know that I have much more to add since I wrote about it a few days ago, but overall at this point in time I am happy with them. I noted in the last post on this that there seemed to be some slippage with the large contract as I attempted to line up time and sales to my fills and I don't have any further information on that topic. This was only my observation based on only a few large contract trades....so certainly there is/was no statitical significance to my notation at this time. I will be trading the mini with them for the foreseeable future. The excess volatility, well quite frankly, has me scared out of my pants! :) Well, OK, not that bad, but it sure can lead to ruin if one is not careful, so I have made the decision to trade the mini for the time being. The mini trading with Zap is excellent. The interface is simple and easy to use and the fills are at the price quoted on quote.com real time mini quotes unless it is a very volatile day at which point the fills are still within .50 of the entry and you will see the price move on quote.com as your trade was entered and filled. The only problem with the mini is the commission on a single trade is close to one full mini point with Zap. I have not shopped around, but suspect this to be the case most anywhere. This is quite expensive in that if you are wrong, you had better cut and run in a hurry or you easily can be down 2, 3 or 4 points. Let's say you are wrong on the first mini trade and you cut your loss at a full point. This means the second trade you have to make 3 points just to break even on the two trades. The cost of doing business in the mini is high. However, I have noted that trading the mini I have come out ahead in my trades. Not by a lot, but even if you only make $50 or $100 per day trading the mini, it adds up and can be a confidence builder. With respect to mini trading I will be working on two things over the next few weeks. First, I will be examining closer how to position trade. Right now I know I am not a good position trader. I will be happy to hear from anyone some of the specifics to look at in terms of position trading. I think that position trading the mini is probably about the only way to do it, unless you can establish a methodology that nets at least +2 to +3 points per mini trade. Of course, I mean that to take into account losses as well. This is the second thing I will be looking at. I will be examining my methodology to see if I can expand it to get more than the average net of 1.25 points I am getting. I think I can change some parameters and get my short term trading to net 3 or better. Under my current methodology a move has to be well under way for my method to signal a long or short. By the time the signal comes the contract might have moved 4 or 5 points. This still leaves me 2 to 3 points to nab, but I believe I can examine what I am doing to get quicker entries in these moves and net out 3 to 4 points on the winners. Anyway, this is longer and answers more than was asked for in the PMail, but the long and short of it is that for now I am happy with Zap and will be altering some of my methodology over the next few weeks and trade the mini solely until things settle down and get back to normal. Have a great Sunday afternoon all. -Scott PS - I read something yesterday that was an interesting viewpoint. The authors point was to assume that any position you put in is incorrect until the market proves otherwise. Don't assume you are correct...assume you are wrong and exit immediately unless the market says you are correct. I suspect this is a touch different viewpoint than most of us trade with. I know when I enter a position I am assuming I have the correct position and let the market prove me wrong. To the author, this is backwards and can be damaging. Something to think about.