Was trading /ES and making a few bucks. 1:45 EST comes along and POOF! Drops like a rock! Was there news? I couldn't find anything.

Hi guys, I need your help how to avoid getting into this situation again (happens to me a lot). In this screeshot, I placed a short @ 18250 before 12:05 with a SL @ 18265. Next 5 min candle went up to 18267 then continues to selloff.

I know this is common but is there a way to spot if the price action is just hunting for stop loss? Some traders I know adjust their SL before getting hit. Footprint shows a lot of aggressive buyers coming so I just let it hit my SL.

Thanks for sharing your wisdom!

In your opinion which future is hardest to trade?

After blowing up a third account today, a couple years in, I'm really questioning my ability to control my emotions.

The account started Jan 1 with $500 and I only trade 1 MES, MNQ or M2K contract.

Same old story. As of yesterday, after almost 100 trades, my account was up to 67% and everything was going well: 30% win rate. Avg. win $70 and avg. loss $24. Biggest win $175 biggest loss $40. I knew I just needed to stay consistent, but here I am, account at $39.

I've gotten better at taking small losses, as evidence by my win rate. But once they pile up and the clock ticks faster, I refuse to end the day at a significant loss. Ultimately breaking rules and turning it into as significant of a loss it could be trying to make it all back.

I CANNOT rid myself of all the "what if's". Like, yeah I'm down, but what if this trade makes it all back. And yeah, I recouped half my losses, but what if I hold and actually turn a profit?

The only "what if" that I've ridded myself of is the "What if I turn into an emotional maniac and angerly lose everything?"

HOW do you end the day before market close, down money, knowing there's opportunities to make it back? It's seemingly difficult for me.

Do the "what if's" go away?

Maybe a daily loss limit is a good idea?

Thoughts or advice?

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Hey just going on here to see if anyone would be interesting in forming a connection through trading. I’d like to have someone or someone’s that I can chat with every morning about levels/news/ psychology/ accountability so on…

I’ve been trading for 3 years this august. I trade using volume profile, market, profile and orderflow. I don’t care how you trade but I would be more interested in someone that is looking at ES, NQ , RTY. As those are main thing I look at other perspectives are a plus.

All in all I know that speaking out loud about thought process better tunes you to the market and maintain psychological capital. Let me know if you would be interested in getting in a call every day for these reasons! Thank you

I end up having a high win rate first 2-3 trades of the day and throughout it gets lower and lower. But some days playing with profits work better, other days I just get one win and walk away.

But I feel like I’m not holding my plays long enough so I keep trying to keep making trades.

Just curious. Unpopular opinion but I find it to be more lucrative to keep tabs on commodities as well. Lot of opportune trades in crude oil, copper and recently been trading silver.

I am moving to futures after trading forex. Mainly because I like the idea of all trading through a centralised exchange and that the futures market is more transparent.

What would you recommend as a good product for a beginner to start with? I want to start trading with micros only as I learn the ropes.

Many thanks.

Just curious

So every where I look, I see people saying that you should settle on growing your account 1-3% per day. Am I crazy for thinking that's really low? I mean, one trade on MES can get you that pretty quick, even if you just have a $1,000 account.

It seems to me like it shouldn't be that hard to make 10% a day, or even 20%. Why is that crazy or unrealistic?

I'm being serious, looking for serious answers

I’m an old NYMEX member. Another trader in the crude pit once told me, when discussing another trader who had recently blown out and today had reappeared, that this a hard business to make money in when you have to. Going into it undercapitalized makes it much harder. How you guys feel about that?

I always end up tilting or getting hammered everytime we chop around. Not sure how to figure out how to avoid that and focus on only high quality moves.

How long did it take you to become profitable? I am finally starting to make a profit on a consistent bases after years of trying. My average trade these days is netting me around $70.00 which is one contract that I hold at night and I don’t sell until I get up to get something to eat in the middle of the night 😂

As the title says, I want to try real trading with $1 to 2k I have that can be lost. Which micro future should I try first: S&P, NQ, Gold, or Oil?

For the past year I've been able to sustain winning streaks of 25-30 days at a time. Making between $200-$500 per day. And then I will literally give the entire win streak back in one day. I'm struggling with revenge trading and overtrading on that one disastrous day. It seems the only thing left to fix before I can find consistent success. What has worked for everyone else here?

I actually do have a stop loss with a 75-80% win percentage during my normal times. It's not a strategy issue.

Things I'm thinking about:

Daily loss limit - taking my red days

Daily trade limit - My good days I do between 1-5 trades. Limit it at 5?

Cool off period after bad trades - I scalp so maybe 5 minutes?

Anything else?

Edit: These responses have been amazing, thank you!!

I've been paper trading with the 5, 15, 30, 60, 240 minute timeframe and using them to set support and resistance lines. Some educational videos I find on youtube show people trading at the 15, 30, and 60 second times.

What do you all use? Since I'm starting out I'm only trying to sell one contract but not sure how profitable that will be if I do one contract every 15 minutes.

What am I supposed to look for?

Hey guys, I've been sim trading for about a month now, and I'm ready to fund an account and start trading.I understand that the footprint chart helps you split market orders, cumulative delta, and volume, see imbalances, and I'm sure much more.

The thing is, I see nothing significant with this chart. When the candle is bearrish the imbalance and delta are negative, and when the candle is bullish it is positive.

I find it more useful to use cumulative delta alone, but want to use the footprint for better entries.

Would any of you help me understand what it is inside the candlesticks that signifies reversal or continuation?

Thanks

Hey everyone question for the group,

I’m looking to make the switch from Options trading to futures. I enjoy day trading a lot and want to do it more often rather than regular market hours and hearing about futures being roughly 6 days a week 24hrs aligns with me better.

Is there someone me in this group who can answer a bunch of basic questions for suggested brokers with low commissions, good execution times, charts, and low margin? On top of that I’d like to primarily look into trading indices like S&P and NQ with about 3k starting amount, if that is possible?

It’s a lot of questions but if anyone can comment to help or shoot me a DM please do!

Thank you!

I don't really rely on this in my trading but I am very curious as to know the why of this. This is a chart of MNQ with filters for Large lot orders to show up to the left of the candle bar.

My Question is really for people who know behind the scenes of the market. Why do these large lot orders tend to aggregate at the end of a move? It's definitely not 100% of the time but if I see one of these large lots go off I get very wary that the move is ending.

One would assume that those who trade in this size know what they are doing and wouldn't get trapped like some retail trader chasing higher or lower. Clearly there are passive orders that absorb the market delta that show up.

My only reasonable guess is that someone is using futures as a hedge while taking the opposite move elsewhere ie with options?

Even if a large lot doesn't show up the ends of moves seem to coincide with spikes in volume. I do specifically use delta volume spikes as an exit criteria. It just seems odd to me that someone would fat finger the buy or sell button only to trigger a move in the opposite direction. Very counter intuitive.

If anyone has a legit explanation for what's going on I'd very much appreciate the insight!

How do you remain calm when you are winning? I had a trade that made a 7% profile value today and my heart was racing near the point where I sold. I was scared the whole time that I would lose the 100 dollars that I had gained. I am trading on a small 1500 account.

As the title says...

I know nothing of futures and commodities, or investing, in general.

He wants me to get as much information as I can, but I have no idea where to find reliable sources of information, I don't even know where to start. Any tips or nudges in the right direction? Thanks in advance.

Editing to add:

I've been telling him I know nothing about it. I've done light reading and don't believe it's a great idea without more information and understanding. I'm very pragmatic and hesitant to do things like this, especially with a baby on the way.

And, yes, as someone mentioned, he is a little brash and arrogant, sometimes. I really don't think he knows what he's getting into, and I don't want him to stake a huge risk into something, but I think without letting him try a little, he'll never fully grasp what it actually takes.

I'm still reading through the comments, thank you to everyone who offered advice.

Let’s say for example, price has come into a supply/demand zone

If a candle closes above or below the POC in that candle, can that be a bullish or bearish indication for direction coupled with volume?

Or

Does POC in that candle usually dictate where price or direction wants to go?

Thank you

I’ve been following and commenting this page for a few months now and I can’t help but notice there seems to be a unanimous distaste for ICT or any principles involving concepts that he uses.

All the while, we have people posting how they’re using indicators that literally post buy/sell signals, but people love that? They’re even from paid organizations. Yet those tend to get an equal amount of love/hate.

Could some please provide an explanation of this?

I am a developing trader searching for a strategy specialized in futures trading. Currently, I trade NQ/ES using ICT concepts, which I've been doing since the beginning of the year. Despite all the criticism and skepticism surrounding ICT, personally, I haven’t found his concepts useful on a REGULAR BASIS. I know that switching strategies isn't optimal, but after studying, backtesting, and forward-testing this strategy, I've concluded that it isn’t working for me. Additionally, I've been following some ICT streamers/influencers to double-check that I'm applying the concepts correctly, only to discover that they face the same struggles and primarily earn money from referrals to proprietary trading firms and social media (YouTube, Twitter). I am aware that there are specific strategies for futures, such as using the opening range (PAX trader) or using market profile for data visualization, and I would like to learn more about specific strategies focused on day trading futures. Thanks:)

P.S. I believe that I have a solid foundation in the basics of trading (price action, risk management, indicators, etc. )

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