HOME What's Really New My Emini Systems Emini Day Trading Easy Money in Stocks A Word of Advice Recommended Special Offers Resources Meet HOBO Reference Eclectic Links About Us Contact Us	A Word of Advice I intend this section for educational purposes. As someone who has spent almost a decade trading various financial instruments, I believe I have a pretty good idea of what works and what does not and what can make you money and what, and in particular who, you should avoid. Among many other things, this section is thus dedicated to the issues of critical thinking and the trader advocacy. As a matter of fact, its very first article already sets the tone for these topics.  But the main topics covered here are those related to emini trading, emini trading systems, or trading systems in general, and, although to a lesser extent,  those pertaining to stock trading. I hope to be adding to this section rather often and may also include here some high quality articles written by others if I think that they belong in here. You may want to check it out frequently. For more information about emini futures and emini trading, largely of introductory nature, please also see the section of Emini Day Trading.   KING has arrived. Are you ready?   Emini Trading: Sham and how to spot it Sham is ubiquitous in the trading world. The majority of vendors hide the truth about their systems or courses in one way or another and some of them misrepresent things or plainly lie. Almost everyone falls for this at least once, some more often. I compiled here a list of more obvious signatures of sham so that you can protect yourself better from the people who are hell-bent to get your money or at least to waste your time with the products that are much less than genuine.  [read more...] Emini Systems: Simple can often be better I would like to present here a very simple system that I call PAB (whatever that means). The system is based on three pillars that every sound trend-following system should rest on: [read more...] Emini Systems: Reality check or can you count? Let's analyze System1 from this page . As you see, in 2005 this system  made 159.75 ES pts. It accomplished this with exactly 497 trades, which amounts to about 41 trades per month on average. The profit I quoted is hypothetical. Hypothetical profits are for vendors (that's where the word 'hype' derives from). As traders we should be interested in actual profits. Let us estimate it then. [read more...] Emini Systems: How to choose a trading system? If you are new to system trading, after reading the previous article you might feel a bit uneasy about the whole business. That's good because you should. There is a vast wild jungle out there with swamps scattered all over rather generously. One false step and you just said good-bye to a nice chunk of dough. [read more...] Emini Systems: Seen a Holy Grail lately? The Holy Grail in trading is understood as the system that never fails. Not even once. It just keeps on piling profits, day in day out. A system like that obviously does not exist, which somehow does not prevent people from trying to find it. [read more...] Emini Systems: Free trading system: BC This is a very simple mechanical system that uses no oscillators. The only indicators it employs are those of the moving average and bands variety. [read more...] Emini Systems: Why mechanical systems fail For two main reasons. Either the market refuses to cooperate or the developer refuses to accept the trading reality. It is the latter case that is much more serious and can do more damage to your account than the former. [read more...] Emini Systems: Equity curve simulation One of the few positive things that came out of the research on nuclear weapons was the development of computer simulations that came to be known as Monte Carlo simulations. [read more...]  Emini Systems: Trading systems terminology Trading systems have their own terminology that defines the parameters determining the system quality. [read more...]  Emini Trading: Rollover and expiration days It just happened that September 1st, 2006, was a Friday. (And for those who are interested in historical trivia, September 1st, 1939, the day WWII started, was also a Friday.) [read more...]  Emini Systems: A system or a method? On this site I offer a few trading systems and two trading methods. The systems are purely mechanical and you can use them to trade ES or ER2, two very popular emini instruments. One of the methods is for trading stocks, the other for trading breakouts in ES. All have been originally designed by me. [read more...] Stock Trading: The securities fraud The securities fraud is an act committed by an entity intending to manipulate the market through deliberate concealment, or distortion of information. [read more...] Stock Trading: The best way to trade stocks With the stock market reaching new all time highs, you are probably wondering if it is a good time to be in stocks. [read more...] Emini Trading: The allure of daytrading chatrooms Many people dream about becoming day traders. Many have tried to make money this way trading individual stocks or emini futures. Most have failed or will fail. [read more...] Emini Trading: Do you need a high winning rate? It's certainly good to have a trading system for your favorite emini futures market which boast a high winning rate. Say, over 60% or even over 70%.  [read more...] Emini Trading: How many trades a day? How many trades a day do you need to take to make a decent living? Let's see...   [read more...] Emini Systems: Which emini systems for 2008? I started trading emini markets in 2002, in the second half of the year that coincided with the height of the post dotcom bubble recession. I focused on ES, the emini of the full futures contract of S&P 500.  [read more...] Emini Trading: Too much self confidence trading eminis? Well, I don't think there is such a thing as too much self confidence. Most people would probably agree that if anything they need more self confidence rather than less.  [read more...] Emini Systems: The butterfly effect in emini trading systems Emini futures, commonly referred to as simply eminis, are among most popular trading vehicles out there. Their popularity is particularly high among day traders, especially those on tighter budgets. [read more...] Emini Systems: Albert Einstein and emini trading systems Albert Einstein was born in 1879 in a small German town of Ulm. He died in 1955 in Princeton, a small town in New Jersey, USA. He was a theoretical physicist, first and foremost, although it is not so unusual these days to see questions "what would Einstein do?" related to things that have little to nothing to do not only with theoretical physics but with science in general. [read more...] Emini Trading: Can biorhythms help you in trading eminis? Do you believe in biorhythms? Should you? Is there any advantage to taking them seriously? Would they help you in your day trading of emini markets? Or in your life in general? That's what we will address in this article. [read more...] Emini Systems: Are simple emini systems of any value? According to Comrade Napoleon, a chief character of "Animal Farm," a famous Orwell satire, "all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than other." [read more...] Emini Trading: Basic introduction to day trading emini futures Have you ever thought about day trading for a living? I am sure you must have at least heard about it, right? Yes, there are people doing it for a living, some making big bucks in the process, others losing their shirts, trophy wives, and mortgages. Not necessarily in this order. And I am quite positive that you would rather be in the former category. [read more...] Emini Trading: The essential ingredients of successful emini trading Day trading emini futures markets can be a very lucrative occupation. And while you can do this from the convenience of your home, it's very important to approach it as a business and not just some costly hobby. In fact, only those who treat this occupation strictly as a business truly succeed in it as opposed to getting lucky for a while. Even a longer while. [read more...] Emini Trading: Is trading emini futures for you? No, it's not. [read more...] Emini Trading: Using simulators for trading emini futures Emini futures, or simply e-minis, are smaller-sized contracts of "full-grown" futures contracts that have been around for decades. Unlike the latter that have been traded on physical exchanges, eminis have always been traded electronically, allowing retail traders with access to the Internet to compete against institutional traders from the comfort of their homes or home based offices. [read more...] Emini Trading: How to start trading emini futures Emini futures, or just e-minis, are enjoying an incredible popularity among small traders, the real "moms and pops" of the modern trading scene. To those new to the subject, eminis are simply  smaller-sized contracts of "full-grown" futures contracts that have been around for decades. Unlike the latter that have been traded on physical exchanges, the former have always been traded electronically, which explains what the "e" stands for. [read more...] Emini Trading: The failure to cut losses short revisited To those unfamiliar with these trading instruments, emini futures, or simply e-minis, are smaller-sized contracts of "full-grown" futures contracts that have been around for decades. Unlike the latter that have been traded on physical exchanges, eminis have always been traded electronically, allowing retail traders with access to the Internet to compete against institutional traders from the comfort of their homes or home based offices. [read more...] Emini Trading: What exactly is emini day trading? Emini futures, or simply e-minis, are smaller-sized contracts of "full-grown" futures contracts. While the latter have been around for a few decades, the emini products are relative newcomers to the trading scene, having been around for about 10 years only. Moreover, unlike their older "siblings" that have been traded on physical exchanges, e-minis have always been traded only electronically. That's what the "e" in their name stands for, namely "electronic." [read more...] Emini Systems: The logic behind emini trading systems I could equally well call this article "The lack of logic behind emini trading systems" as, in fact, sometimes such lack illustrates better what the proper logic should be. And that's what this article will focus on, the lack of logic in emini trading systems. We hope that exposing the lack of logic in such systems will enable us to come up with the right logic, the logic needed to design good, robust emini systems. [read more...] Emini Trading: Discretionary versus mechanical emini trading Similarly to many other trading vehicles, emini futures can be traded in two significantly different ways: through mechanical systems and by using discretion. The difference between the two is not always quite well understood by beginning emini traders. [read more...] Emini Trading: Should you use indicators for your trading? Let me be brief, so you don't waste your time on some people who happen to fall into two camps. The camp that says that indicators don't work and the camp that says that you can trade using only indicators without even looking at the price bars. [read more...] Emini Trading: How to use indicators for your trading? You can trade emini futures using indicators. You can also trade eminis without them, meaning by relying only on the price action and, perhaps, some simple tools like straight lines. [read more...] Emini Trading: Is discretionary emini day trading right for you? There are two distinct styles to trade emini futures. One is purely mechanical, the other is purely discretionary. It's possible to use a hybrid approach, but in reality, this is often not that advisable as you simply end up with what is just more complex mechanical emini trading. Some people prefer a mechanical style, others feel better with the discretionary approach to emini trading. Both are fine, but one is clearly better than the other, especially for retail traders. It is the discretionary trading style. [read more...] Emini Trading: How I lost $10,000 in one day trading eminis and what I learned from that Well, I really didn't. I never lost that much in one day. Ever. And I don't plan on that either. Trading eminis or not. But I thought that this would make a perfect, catchy line. To grab your attention, that is. You know, marketers do this all the time. Except that they never admit that this is only a fib. Wouldn't it be nice if they once, for a change, admitted how full of it they are? Yeah, I thought so too. [read more...] Emini Trading: The secret meaning of the marketing speak Have you noticed how often Google ads contain the word "secret." That's also true when it comes to ads dealing with emini trading systems or strategies. Yes, apparently there are some secret things out there. Well, that may be true. It's conceivable, I would say. Sort of. Except that these secret things are very unlikely to have anything to do with the markets, but a lot to do with marketing. [read more...] Emini Trading: The dumbest way to start trading eminis You want a short answer with that? Well, here we go then. The short answer first.  [read more...] Emini Trading: The worst thing that can happen to you when trading eminis Incidentally, that applies not only to trading eminis, as emini futures are often referred to, but also to trading stocks, or currencies. I suspect that you will find that this applies quite well also to many other situations that have little or even nothing at all to do with trading.  [read more...] Emini Trading: Trading eminis with right expectations Emini futures, often referred to as simply eminis, are very attractive day trading instruments. You can trade them with only $3,000-5,000 in your account, assuming you want to do this with 1-2 contracts, which is about the right size for the beginners.   [read more...] Emini Trading: On uses and abuses of emini trading systems - Abuses Let us start from the abuses. If only because they are more common.  [read more...] Emini Trading: On uses and abuses of emini trading systems - Uses In the first part, we discussed the abuses of the idea of the trading system. And while we were mostly interested in emini futures trading systems, the problem of abuses is pretty much common also when it comes to stock and Forex trading systems. [read more...] Emini Trading: Starting in emini futures trading - ES or YM or perhaps something else? Emini futures contracts have become a trading instrument of choice for many traders, especially day traders. The field that barely existed only 10 years ago is now booming with new traders joining the older ones every day. With many brokers, their numbers growing as well, dedicated primarily to serving this class of traders, this trend is likely to continue. [read more...]
	Disclaimer: HYPOTHETICAL OR SIMULATED PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE CERTAIN INHERENT LIMITATIONS UNLIKE AN ACTUAL PERFORMANCE RECORD. SIMULATED RESULTS DO NOT REPRESENT ACTUAL TRADING. ALSO, SINCE THE TRADES HAVE NOT BEEN EXECUTED, THE RESULTS MAY HAVE UNDER OR OVER COMPENSATED FOR THE IMPACT, IF ANY, OF CERTAIN MARKET FACTORS, SUCH AS LACK OF LIQUIDITY. SIMULATED TRADING PROGRAMS IN GENERAL ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO THE FACT THAT THEY ARE DESIGNED WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFITS OR LOSSES SIMILAR TO THOSE SHOWN.