The dream of trading for substantial profits can often seem like merely a pipe dream for the small under-capitalized trader.  One might find some surprising inspiration in the rise of MMA's super star Conor McGregor. He has pursued his dream of MMA and combat sports with a conscious, deliberate mindset, and yet people have doubted … Continue reading Is trading a pipe dream? Lessons from Conor McGregor

Athletes train for success. Futures traders should also train for success. Here are some drills that the futures trader should work on... Placing orders in the DOM. Adding and removing contracts. It is surprising how bad most trading platforms are when it comes to managing multiple contracts. It is important to the active trader to … Continue reading Getting in the training…

Weak hands lose money consistently. Strong hands make money consistently but blow out in spectacular fashion. Lesson: Don't be a strong hand or a weak hand. Instead be a Different Hand or a Smart Hand. What does a Different Hand or a Smart Hand look like, that is the question. Something different, something smart. Below … Continue reading Weak hands vs strong hands

I have had an uncanny knack for predicting the market across all time frames. Something I have observed though is that the market will tend to jump at my highest point of uncertainty. Unfortunately, this jump is often at the same level that one will want to close their trade with the assumption it isn't … Continue reading Jump from highest uncertainty

HFT's like to buy the low of the market. The way this game works is (1) add significant size to book just below the lows, (2) aggressively buy the market near the lows. The HFT knows that both long and short biased traders are more likely to experience cognitive biases near price lows. This will … Continue reading More HFT patterns to watch for…

Before, I warned against attempting to trade with a single contract. The active futures trader should only attempt to make a small amount of profits per day from $50 to $100 per day on 1 lot. If you are a great world class trader, this is very feasible. Once a trader becomes adapt at trading … Continue reading If you’re a discretionary futures trader do not do this…

Here is a conjecture for how the HFT in the e-mini S&P 500 may be trading: A group of technical traders find a predictive pattern in the market or trade in similar fashion. Those traders act in unison at similar times or prices in the market. This creates an imbalance of buying with predictable stop … Continue reading HFT in the Eminis?

A small dose of reality... Recently, I have been experimenting with trading with very tight risk limits. I am doing a combine in both TopStepTrader and trying out for an account at OneUp Trader, as well (for more information about these firms see my article: Prop Funding at my other blog). While I just started … Continue reading If you’re a discretionary futures trader do not do this..

Typically, I do not included trade costs in my initial exploratory work because I want to understand the general properties of a market which is best understood without imposing trade costs. Many times a strategy that shows promise but one that does not overcome trade costs can be improved to overcome those costs-- but including … Continue reading Quick tip: Manipulate Trade Cost For Insight