shorts are much more difficult than longs. I only put out short
trade setups if they are really outstanding. shorting is a
different animal, much tougher than longs for most people
Shorting some individual name is one thing ... but shorting the
market is another one ... especially after the GFC ... it's a
loosing game ... the amount of liquidity and passive buy
keeping a bid combined with algo trading it ... the market
natural direction is up ... so if you keep pissing against the
wind, you'll definitely get wet
I didn't used log chart on purpose ... shorting the market
is like picking up pennies in front of a steam roller ... hedging
yes ... shorting ? be quick ... lol ...
Posted by mammon531 on 15th of Apr 2026 at 03:22 pm
Hopefully something will happen soon, I'm officially lost
everything from the previous longs and then some. I don't
have a big enough portfilio to buy many MES and keep open longs and
shorts at the same time. I'll probably pass on the
next shorting opportunity as well.
Posted by elementsix on 15th of Apr 2026 at 04:00 pm
Position size is EVERYTHING with the Systems.
I learned the hard way as well when I ran out of $$ to make
the necessary subsequent entries. I couldn't turn the losing trade
into a winner. I now keep enough liquidity to handle 3 entries on a
minimum of 2 systems. I try to make that for 3 systems whenever
possible (so 9 potential entries).
1st entry the ETF, 2nd the 2x ETF, 3rd the 3x ETF. I shy away
from using options for the Spy System because the decay often
killed the trade, even when it worked using ETFs.
wow sorry to hear that. that said, realize that one mean
reversion system is short while technically 3 other systems are
long on the MES side of things, and on SPY there are no open
shorts, instead two systems are long and have been long and
technically a 3rd via the breakout. not including the
breakout 4 systems are long and 1 is short. If one is following the
mean reversion systems they would technically be net long not
short.
when trading the mean reversion systems this is why I give
signals to all, in case one gets stuck -they others diversify and
offset it and that's what has occurred this time - if one followed
the systems exactly they would be net long not short. While
the short would holding back some of the gains from the longs,
still one would be overall net long
these systems are math based and one kind of has to follow all
the entries to get this offset. Otherwise you might find
yourself in a position where you didn't take longs or skipped
trades but went heavier into the short. They are designed to
follow them in this format so that you get this protection, if you
deviate then you don't get the protection offset like this time. If
one was not in the open longs or only very light but heavy in the
short where they had more net short than long - that's not
following the systems
and of course KISS systems a lot of these went long a week or
two ago, and trade ideas I'd day 95% of ideas have been long
on a smaller account - my suggestion would be not to do futures,
do ETF's. And....you kind of have to do some homework and
determine if you have the account size to take all the individual
system trades - times when the market sells off like we saw and we
had multiple systems in 2nd and 3rd entries. For example if one had
a 50K account, 10K into each system trade is too much because
that's only 5 entries and we had 4 systems in 2 and 3 entries at
the same time for a while
I think the most number of entries I've seen is 12? if you
account for bunch of sub systems all in trades overlapping.
Posted by mammon531 on 15th of Apr 2026 at 04:24 pm
I will also say at the time I transitioned from longs to shorts
the market indicated it was the best option at the time. It's
not all gloom and doom, I typically will wait after the systems
initiate because they enter early a lot. So with the MES
shorts my baseline break even is 6839 but not sure the market will
get back to that point. I also have bought some SPXU
(minimal amount) which isn't helping either. The
biggest drawback right now is that as the market goes up, the 38%
or 50% pullback point also goes up which means I probably won't get
the full amount back but there should be some reward on a
pullback.
I find doom and gloom most of the time resolves big to the
upside. It's hard but we gotta trade the charts, the news
will cause us to do the opposite of what we should.
it's almost always baked into the chart as well, much easier to
follow the charts and try to ignore the news
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I'm never shorting again.
Posted by pep8261 on 15th of Apr 2026 at 02:46 pm
I'm never shorting again. I'm never shorting again. I'm never shorting again.
Trade light
Posted by cart3375 on 15th of Apr 2026 at 03:31 pm
Lose a little and keep skin in the game. I understand there are a lot of buy limits the MM want to harvest.
Experience is a cruel mistress!
Posted by auni on 15th of Apr 2026 at 02:52 pm
Experience is a cruel mistress. She'll test you first, then teach you after.
this is you every night
Posted by matt on 15th of Apr 2026 at 02:52 pm
this is you every night looking in the mirror
shorts are much more difficult
Posted by matt on 15th of Apr 2026 at 02:48 pm
shorts are much more difficult than longs. I only put out short trade setups if they are really outstanding. shorting is a different animal, much tougher than longs for most people
Shorting some individual name is
Posted by mla127 on 15th of Apr 2026 at 02:53 pm
Shorting some individual name is one thing ... but shorting the market is another one ... especially after the GFC ... it's a loosing game ... the amount of liquidity and passive buy keeping a bid combined with algo trading it ... the market natural direction is up ... so if you keep pissing against the wind, you'll definitely get wet
I didn't used log chart
Posted by mla127 on 15th of Apr 2026 at 02:59 pm
I didn't used log chart on purpose ... shorting the market is like picking up pennies in front of a steam roller ... hedging yes ... shorting ? be quick ... lol ...
Hopefully something will happen soon,
Posted by mammon531 on 15th of Apr 2026 at 03:22 pm
Hopefully something will happen soon, I'm officially lost everything from the previous longs and then some. I don't have a big enough portfilio to buy many MES and keep open longs and shorts at the same time. I'll probably pass on the next shorting opportunity as well.
SPY System Position Size
Posted by elementsix on 15th of Apr 2026 at 04:00 pm
Position size is EVERYTHING with the Systems.
I learned the hard way as well when I ran out of $$ to make the necessary subsequent entries. I couldn't turn the losing trade into a winner. I now keep enough liquidity to handle 3 entries on a minimum of 2 systems. I try to make that for 3 systems whenever possible (so 9 potential entries).
1st entry the ETF, 2nd the 2x ETF, 3rd the 3x ETF. I shy away from using options for the Spy System because the decay often killed the trade, even when it worked using ETFs.
Stick with it!
wow sorry to hear that.
Posted by matt on 15th of Apr 2026 at 03:37 pm
wow sorry to hear that. that said, realize that one mean reversion system is short while technically 3 other systems are long on the MES side of things, and on SPY there are no open shorts, instead two systems are long and have been long and technically a 3rd via the breakout. not including the breakout 4 systems are long and 1 is short. If one is following the mean reversion systems they would technically be net long not short.
when trading the mean reversion systems this is why I give signals to all, in case one gets stuck -they others diversify and offset it and that's what has occurred this time - if one followed the systems exactly they would be net long not short. While the short would holding back some of the gains from the longs, still one would be overall net long
these systems are math based and one kind of has to follow all the entries to get this offset. Otherwise you might find yourself in a position where you didn't take longs or skipped trades but went heavier into the short. They are designed to follow them in this format so that you get this protection, if you deviate then you don't get the protection offset like this time. If one was not in the open longs or only very light but heavy in the short where they had more net short than long - that's not following the systems
and of course KISS systems a lot of these went long a week or two ago, and trade ideas I'd day 95% of ideas have been long
on a smaller account - my suggestion would be not to do futures, do ETF's. And....you kind of have to do some homework and determine if you have the account size to take all the individual system trades - times when the market sells off like we saw and we had multiple systems in 2nd and 3rd entries. For example if one had a 50K account, 10K into each system trade is too much because that's only 5 entries and we had 4 systems in 2 and 3 entries at the same time for a while
I think the most number of entries I've seen is 12? if you account for bunch of sub systems all in trades overlapping.
Just the way the market
Posted by mammon531 on 15th of Apr 2026 at 03:51 pm
Just the way the market goes and just roll with it for now. I do trade ETF's in my 401K (can't do futures) so its a mix.
I will also say at
Posted by mammon531 on 15th of Apr 2026 at 04:24 pm
I will also say at the time I transitioned from longs to shorts the market indicated it was the best option at the time. It's not all gloom and doom, I typically will wait after the systems initiate because they enter early a lot. So with the MES shorts my baseline break even is 6839 but not sure the market will get back to that point. I also have bought some SPXU (minimal amount) which isn't helping either. The biggest drawback right now is that as the market goes up, the 38% or 50% pullback point also goes up which means I probably won't get the full amount back but there should be some reward on a pullback.
I find doom and gloom
Posted by matt on 15th of Apr 2026 at 04:39 pm
I find doom and gloom most of the time resolves big to the upside. It's hard but we gotta trade the charts, the news will cause us to do the opposite of what we should.
it's almost always baked into the chart as well, much easier to follow the charts and try to ignore the news