Thursday’s Blog Results: Your suggested entries didn’t trigger. The profile was wide open due to the rapid drop after the FOMC announcement.

Today’s Trading Tip:  Volume redefined.     

In technical trading there are only a few variables to consider: price, volume, and time. Every technical indicator or method is derived from variations of these variables.

Most traders look at volume within a time interval. They see volume in a histogram at the bottom of the chart. Good to know.

The chart above flips the volume from the time axis to the price axis. Now you see the volume at specific prices. Much better to know.

Why? Large traders (institutions) approach buying and selling different than you and I. When we want to buy or sell we click a mouse and it’s done. Our position size is small.

Large traders can’t do that. They need to accumulate and distribute their positions in their chosen price ranges.

Let’s say you consume...

Wednesday’s Blog Results: Your suggested buy at 4742.50 was only good for a 6.75-point scalp BUT you shouldn’t have taken the trade.

Today’s Trading Tip:  Stand back.    

Traditional work, your job, your career, your profession, all make becoming a winning trader difficult. Not because of the time devotion, because they instill a belief that is NOT helpful in trading.

What is it? Doing something. Can you imagine if you were caught doing nothing and told the boss “Now is not a good time to be working on this.” Or “Thursdays are difficult days to get anything done, so I’m going to loaf.”

In trading NOT entering a trade is not only OK it’s smart. There are times when the probability of success is low. Don’t trade. Unlike your job, doing nothing is completely acceptable.

Look at yesterday. The FOMC Minutes came out at 2PM ET and the volatility soared. The initial reaction was a 13-point bounce higher....

Tuesday’s Blog Results: No free trades triggered. Team members saw another great Globex session with a breakout to all-time-highs running for 15.50 points.

Today’s Trading Tip:  Puzzle solved.

Being curious and constantly learning is critically important to your trading… and your longevity! Resolve to get in this habit:

1. Choose a trading topic you know little about.
2. Research it thoroughly using the Pomodoro Method.
3. Act (trade) on your new-found knowledge
4. Journal every trade.
5. Review and improve your skill.
6. Start the process over again with a new topic.

Too busy to get started right now? I’ll do it for you. Email me the topic you’re curious or confused about and I’ll share the results in a future blog post.

Today’s Best S&P Futures Turning Points:  

Short Level: Sell 4800.50 stop 4805.50.

Long Level: Buy 4742.00 stop 4739.00. Same as yesterday.

Happy New Year!

Mike Siewruk

P.S. Tired of trading alone? Need more quality...

Monday’s Blog Results: Your suggested short on the breakout below 4766 was good for an 8-point run. Team members saw the “perfect” Globex session with two 17.50-point trades back-to-back, level-to-level.

Today’s Trading Tip:  The “easier” session.     

One of the many great features in the Futures market is the Globex session. Most popular Futures contracts start trading at 6:00 PM ET. That’s 15.5 hours before the opening bell the next day.

The participants and trading are different than the day session. During the day the big volume traders are way more active causing price to jerk around more. Statistically, you’ll have more stop-outs during the day.

That sounds good but the main reason you want to trade in the Globex is predictability. Think about it. During the day session all the big volume traders are leaving their “footprint” on the price map. You can “see” where they want to...

Friday’s Blog Results: Your suggested buy level at 4722.75 never triggered. Team members saw a nice bounce off a secondary volume level, good for 16.50 points.

Today’s Trading Tip: Thought journaling.   

Documenting all your trade setups, taken or not, is critical to improving results. It’s quick and easy to do. With many strategies the information can be downloaded directly from your trading platform. There is no excuse NOT to have this valuable data.

Then there is the more important information most traders ignore… their thoughts and feelings. Trader psychology author and trainer Dr. Woody Johnson suggests that 80% of trading success is based on your personal psychology. If that figure is anywhere near accurate then you should be keeping what he calls a “Thought Journal.”

Start with the trades you take. You want to make this habit easy to acquire. Immediately after you place the trade log your mental condition. Sharp? Alert? Foggy?...

Thursday’s Blog Results: Your suggested buy level at 4786.25 ran for 13.50 points.

Today’s Trading Tip: How fills work.  

Trading futures contracts on the Globex exchange (cmegroup.com) might be the fairest market in the world. Why? Because the orders are time-stamped upon arrival and filled on the first-in first-filled basis. No one gets preference. You’re in a line and it doesn’t matter if you’re a small retail trader or an institution.

Real-world example: Looking at the winning trade from yesterday (see chart above) you’ll notice that price turned right on the suggested buy level. Not even one tick penetration. This does NOT mean you got filled. Some contracts were filled there but maybe not yours. Maybe you were too far back “in the line” and price bid higher before you filled.

One of the many benefits of this strategy is that you can place these orders when you receive this email. It was sent at 7:14 AM ET and the trade was...

Wednesday’s Blog Results: No trades triggered.

Today’s Trading Tip: How the legends did it.

You know it all when you don't.

My kids reminded me of that. As they approached their teens I noticed they were all smarter than me. Or so they thought.

This made me recall how I was as a teen. Yup. Dad was wrong and I was right.

In my infinite "wisdom" back then I decided history was a waste of time. I barely passed those classes.

A couple of decades later I became regretful. History is vitally important. It's a fabulous and free learning experience from the best mentors you could find.

I read a White Paper the other day on the history of Trend Following (in trading). In only 15 pages of "study" I know infinitely more about how trading has evolved over the past... centuries!

Why should you read this white paper? Because you will learn HOW the BEST traders in history made their fortunes and shaped the industry for us today. Will that give you some edge?

As I mentioned, the...

Tuesday’s Blog Results: The suggested buy at 4772.50 caught the bottom of the day session running for 14.75 points before ending the day +7.25.

Today’s Trading Tip: Goodbye frustration.

What frustrates you? Losing? Missing a winner? Not understanding? Slow markets? Fast markets?

Frustration is a common emotional response to opposition, annoyance, or disappointment. It happens when your goal is denied or blocked.

In many areas of your life, you can and do control the outcome. You’ve learned through growing and experience how to “get what you want.”

In trading you cannot control market behavior. You need to truly accept this fact. Once you do, your need for control can be transferred to the ONE thing in trading you CAN control… your behavior.

If you want to finally rid yourself of frustration in trading follow these 5 simple steps:

1. Admit you can’t control the market. Funny as it may seem I’ve found that looking in the mirror and saying...

Thursday’s Blog Results: The suggested short level at 4736.25 stopped. Team members saw the breakout run for 43.75 points at the close.

Today’s Trading Tip: Learn don’t burn.

We know that failure and mistakes are inevitable. Losing trades and investments will continue to happen. Then why can we be so hard on ourselves? It’s a complete waste of energy and exacerbates the problem.

A great habit I learned from Jim Kwik, author of Limitless (highly recommended, jimkwik.com), is to re-focus on learning from your failure. This immediately shifts your energy from negative to positive. The compound effect is amazing. Instead of wasting time stewing about your loss, you learned what NOT to do next time.

Many of the traders on our team took the breakout that ran smoothly for 43.75 points. Most didn’t get the entire gain (myself included). Instead of being self-critical, being grateful you captured most of the gain and journaling HOW you’ll change your trade...

Thursday’s Blog Results: The suggested short level at 4726.75 was good for 6.75 potential points.

Today’s Trading Tip: Attitude is everything           

The late Mark Douglas wrote two excellent books on trading that you should read and reference. Trading in the Zone and The Disciplined Trader: Developing Winning Attitudes.

Why? Because “Trading is 80% psychological and 20% methodological.” Here’s a link a Mark Douglas video a dedicated trader on our team shared with us. This should get you motivated to paying more attention to this often neglected side of trading:  https://youtu.be/s8hg-1Rfs7c

Today’s Best S&P Futures Turning Points:

Short Level: Sell 4736.25 stop 4740.00 (3.75 risk).

Long Level: Buy 4700.00 stop 4695.25 (4.75 risk).

Happy Holidays and Trade Well,

Mike Siewruk

P.S. This blog is my daily gift to hundreds of traders who read it every day. I would LOVE to hear from you!...