NetPicks e-Mini Futures

Today, our eMini Futures trading was perfect with all winners across the board.  This, on the heels of a difficult prior session.  No surprise there!  Just to quickly recap, we won two short trades on our Russell emini 233 tick with the UMT Core for a nifty +3.6 points.  That put us very close to our all time equity highs.

Our other Russell emini, the 292 sharebar using UMT Advanced Tactics, also staged a perfect session with a short and then a long trade.  We netted a very attractive +3.9 which not only competely erased last week’s losses, but also put us up by an equal amount.  In other words, from the beginning balance of last Monday, we were down -1.8 by the end of Friday.  After today, we are UP +1.9 from last Monday’s opening balance.  On just two trades!  Pretty cool, huh?

Same with the Nasdaq emini. We ended the week down -8.5 points.  Today, we gained it nearly, all the way back, picking up a strong +8 points on just two trades.

That’s how it works.  Two steps forward and new equity highs in sights across the board.  I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s session.

Get your copy of the Ultimate Swing Trader while it is still available here.

Get your FREE money management software here.

We had a hard week for sure.  Friday was particularly tough as we ended down on our three main strategies.  Still though, as I often say, we have to mind our forest from above and not get too caught up amongst the trees (the individual trades and trade sessions).  Here’s why:

Russell emini 233 Tick with UMT Core had to trade through 5 trades and wound up Friday down by 1 point.  To put salt on the wound, earlier in the week, we only practice traded the FOMC Wednesday which would have resulted in 2 perfect winners.  We would have finished the week up + 6.7 which is not bad.  Instead we ended the week up + 3.3.  BUT, we ended the week up!  The fact is, we are sitting a few trades below our all time equity highs.  Not to sound like a broken record but I’ll risk it anyway — Keep things in perspective.

Russell 292 Share bar with Advanced Tactics also had a hard week.  Especially Friday.  We ended the session down – 2.9.  In fact, we lost 3 out of 4 sessions this week and like the 233, FOMC day would have produced 2 perfect trades and the most productive session of the week, had we traded it for + 3.2.  Instead, we did end the week down, -1.8.  Is that such a big deal?  We have won 85.7% of all weeks traded since we introduced this strategy to the room, Feb 2nd.  We are a few good trades below our equity highs as well.  In fact, this past week we dropped a few points below 100.  Anyone think we won’t get past it?  I’d be putting my money on 200 net points before too long.  You heard it first, right here – in this post!  Will you be on board for the drive to our next +100 winning points?  It’s going to happen with our without you.  I’d prefer it to be with you.

Nasdaq 144 tick also struggling.  Again, a tough Friday. We were up throughout the week and the practice FOMC session would have produced a nifty perfect score with 2 winners, no losses and +7.75 points.  Instead, we’ll take a small bruise to the shins and a -8.5 points on the week.  But we still have our legs and we are right below our equity highs.  We have won 75% of all our days and 81.8% of all our weeks since April 13th when we introduced the strategy to the room.  Had we counted FOMC this past Wednesday, we would have only been down 3/4 of 1 point, just 3 ticks on the week.  Can we please keep it in perspective?  Our veteran traders know this already but I repeat the perspective thing for those who have not yet witnessed or experienced the grand scope of what we’re doing.  In short, we are moving our equity curves up at a nice 45 degree angle to the right, with a one step back and then a 2 steps forwards dynamic, over and over and over … 

The one step back is part of the winning formula.  You can not divorce the two.  You’re better off embracing it as a natural function of your doing business.  Whether you embrace it or not won’t make a difference to anyone or anything (including the markets) but you.  You’ll either embrace it and prosper, if you keep to our design, or, you won’t embrace it and you’ll lose your money.  The choice is yours alone to make.  When you finally do decide to embrace it, you will finally see your account begin to grow, two steps foward, one step back, two steps forward, one step back.. 

I’m looking forward to Monday’s session.

The Nasdaq eMini Futures contract we are trading keeps on rolling and has been very profitable for us.  We are 1 point shy of our first net 100 points.  Considering we are trading a fast 144 tick chart and taking small trades with an average risk of just 2 points (give or take) — and — the fact that we are quitting with our power of quitting rules, gaining 100 net points in such a fast amount of time is a true testiment to just how effective the UMT is, when combined with poq.  We only just began trading it April 13th!  It may not sound like much, but 100 points is $2000. 

What’s more is that anyone with a $5000 account could have done that by trading just one contract and risking less than 1% per trade.  Now, go ahead and put on 2% risk and you would have gained about 80% (before commission and costs) in less than 2 months!  Even if you factored in the worst case scenario, and added a full $10 per trade per contract to cover costs, you still would be up 40% or so in less than two months on very minimal trading. Net!  Moreover, the NQ would have forced you to have become an expert trader by now, due to it’s fast ‘keep you on your toes’ personality.  How much value is that?

I might suggest at this point to actually look at a higher time frame.  Not too much.  Maybe a 200 tick or 233 perhaps.  Make sure you test it thoroughly.  By going to a slightly higher time frame, you should get slightly larger trade profiles.  If you find a time frame hitting better the 60% of the time (the 144 is currently at 62.5% with 104 trades) the trade costs would represent a smaller percentage and your net would be quite a bit higher.  It’s certainly worth looking into, I think.   Trading the 144 is a great way to master the system.  You can grow your account while not getting hurt too badly when you make the inevitable mistakes.  But consider stepping it up a bit once you get it down.

After a nice winning streak, and hitting all new equity highs on Monday, the Russell 233 tick UMT Core put in its worst performance this year, the very next day, yesterday.  I know that some of you were freaking out over that.  If you are still stuck amongst the trees, then I could see why.  We must elevate ourselves above and remember we WILL always have days where we sacrifice trees but from higher up, we can clearly see our forest growing despite that.  Today, we hit two winners and no losses.  It required expert precision to catch the 2nd trade but hey!!  That’s trading.  No one ever said it was easy.  We gained back nearly half of yesterday’s losses and in fact, we are positive for the week, by 1 tick.  Are we freaking out?  Are you?  I sure hope not.  We’re going to new highs again.  Any doubters?

The Russell 292 Sharebar AT did hit new equity highs today.  We only took one trade for a nice +2.1.  We are just 3.4 points shy of our first net 100 points on this chart as well.  We have a treasure chest and we are unlocking it on a consistent basis in our trade room.  Soon I will post all trades so far for 2009.  If you’re new, you can look on the Dec 29th post to view all 2008 trades.  Hopefully, that will give you the confidence and encouragement to get with our program and follow it as intended.  You too will be hitting new equity highs, with us, over and over again.  Or, you could keep doing what you’re doing.  That’s fine too.  Isn’t it?

Over the next couple days I’ll be hosting my boot camp.  Coach Ron Weiland will be covering the trade room.  He seems to bring the midas touch whenever he fills in so I believe everyone will be in good hands.  Good luck!  Stick to the program..  I’ll see you on Monday.  TJ Noonan

TJ’s Boot Camp 

Get the UMT Original (Core) Now While it is Still on the Market Here. 

Get UMT Information here.

Sign up for FREE webinar here.

Sign up for UMT (Cheapest Option) Here

Sing up for UMT (Payment Plan Option) Here 

UMT FX LIVE training has begun and is available.  Download your FREE video trading report, “The Insider’s Guide to Achieving the Trading Edge and find out about Netpicks’ exciting new FX LIVE here.

TF 233 UMT Core Poq Page

Our eMini Futures strategies keep winning, namely our trading results for the Russell emini and the Nasdaq emini continue to post new highs.  Despite a tough session or two from time to time, our trading has been nearly picture perfect.  Of course we’re going to hit some losses sometimes.  We’ll even have a losing week.  We had a losing month on the S & P last year, despite a trade set up that was winning over 70% of the time up until that point.  Just for fun, I pulled up that old trade set up and looked at a random day, 10 sessions ago.  Together in the trade room we looked at 9 trades.  We spotted one loser!  The other 8?  Winners!!  That just goes to show that IF you stick to the plan, you will succeed. 

Sticking to the plan means NEVER over committing your capital to a trade.  Always stick to the 2% rule.  That is, you should not risk more than 2% of your trade funds on any given trade.  What does that mean, exactly?  The point of entry to the stop loss is what you stand to lose on a trade.  It should not exceed 2% of your trade account.  That is a basic guideline.  For my own trading, I typically apply that to the average risk per trade.  Some trades the set ups might be a little larger.  If so, trade a smaller position on that trade to keep your risk below 2%.  If you do that, you’ll survive the inevitable 1 step back that always comes around.

If you are sticking to the plan, then the tough sessions we had towards the end of May would be water under the bridge right now.  Specks in the rear view mirror.  We are on some serious winning streaks again.  Didn’t I just say that would happen a few posts ago?  I’m looking at my Nasdaq emini results right now.  The last losing trade we took was on June 2nd.  After a 5 trade losing streak, we have now won the last 12 out of 13 trades!

I could say the same thing for the Russell emini trades we’ve been taking.  On the 292 advanced tactics, we won the last 12 out of 14 trades after a tough two sessions.  We hit new equity highs today and are less than 4 points from our first net +100 level!  On the core 233, we won 10 out of the last 14 and are also at new equity highs. 

That’s the theme of what we do.  Don’t freak out over some losing sessions. If you keep your risk where it needs to be, you’ll be at new equity highs soon enough. 

I will be posting all of the 2009 trades called so far, shortly.  Keep your eyes out for them.