short es now 2 point stop

3 thrust hi , macd cross 1m and 2 m bb very tight

answer is i will risk $200 to make $1000 but not 1:1,  and will not risk 2.0% of account on a trade.

so how does the switch from horses to stocks work for you, is there some crossover?

 there are a hundred answers to this and i bet i have not thought of all of them but the simple one to start with is- what suits your or my situation.

when i started learning to trade i had a very busy work life and not much time for trading and the first course i bought was very big on "getting to know the instrument you trade" as in how it moved daily ,weekly, yearly. so i did and have since , so i am much more comfortable knowing a couple of indexes well, than trading a new stock every couple of days. i also concentrated on swing trades that lasted a week or three and therefore took less time to manage. i still do that but when i have time now can comfortably trade indexes for just a day or two as well. 

so to your specific question, yes an index may move slower than stocks but i tend to look for longer trades anyway and no you do not have to place a larger bet if you use instruments with leverage as in futures or CFD's. you sure do not have to be right more often.

when you say "bet" i assume you mean how much money you need in your account to make a trade NOT how much we are risking.

if i had $5000 in my account i could trade $10000 worth of stock , if that stock moved 10% i make $1000.

with $5000 i can trade 1 mini s&p futures contract- it makes me $50 for each 1 point the spx moves. to make $1000, spx needs to move my way 20 points. a 20 point move in spx is around a 1.5% move at present. so i need a 1.5% move in spx to make the same profit as a 10% move in a stock.

another thing to take into account is that indexes are not as volatile as, especially small stocks. once moving in a direction they are more likely to continue, smoothly for longer. that is a generalisation, but if you think about it it makes sense, they are slower because they represent a collection of many stocks, and because of that they do not jump around as quickly as some individual stocks can.

like it or not it moves the market so i am finding all the attention it gets here  is useful. for me ritchie i trade indexes just about exclusively and at the moment aapl has almost an unhealthy influence on indexes.

the only time i even look at the trade ideas section is when i am frustrated cause i have not found an index to trade for a week or two.

especially the possible failed 5th i had completely forgotten.

another thing i watch is a few gann time cycles, the sp500 loves doing 90 calender day cycles. not all the time but more often than most people would think. you count them off recent highs or lows and when they appear they can be perfect.

long story short gann divided everything by 3 and by 8 so you divide 90 days by 3 and by 8 and start counting, 90 / 8 = 11.25 days, 22.5, 33.75,45 and so on. 90 /3 gives 30 and 60.

so from a new top i just watch 11 days down, if you get a high or low day, then watch 22.5 days, if it hits again and then again on 30 chances are you are running a 90 cycle. as i said it happens more often than you think, i never really expect to hit every division but if you hit the big ones , like 30,45,and 60 you have a strong chance of a trend change around 90.  i never trade this alone but use it as another indicator.

so the point here is i have been counting from the 1474 high and there has not been much to hang your hat on at this stage. but it may be worth counting from the 1470 high oct 5th as well given it may be the real top,,and that gives mon 19th as 45 days. these 90 cycles do not have to be 90 in one direction, they often split 60 one way and 30 the other, or 45 down and 45 up. so for me, given all the other oversold indicators, if monday showed a big volume panic down day,, and i am still in the trade i would exit.

but just before you do can i offer a few things to think about.

1. how many sites you been to where you get offered a phone number that easily?

2. what are these guys actually trying to sell you? no software, no training course, no magic system or solution, no holy grail?????? cause there is no h.g. all they are selling is this service. this means they have no barrow to push other than a good newsletter service and i can assure you it is good. this means they are free to tell you what they are doing and what works for them rather than be limited to trying to sell you whatever they may be trying to sell.

so in my long and chequered experience this service is the best i have ever seen if you want to learn to make some money for yourself, by your self. by which i mean you never ever get given a trade here, you get given ideas and you get given training on how to use those ideas, or you use your own methods to make the most of those ideas. But you need to do the work to win and you take responsibility for that.

and really the best thing is that if you do not have other friends who are trading , or people who you can discuss ideas with, then that is what this place provides, which i find hugely valuable.

finally Matt and Steve, every time you guys have one of these days i feel guilty as people never take enough time to say thank you for all the good things that you do. i honestly do not know how you keep it up, for the subscription price your output is ridiculously high and my biggest concern is that you may just throw your hands in the air one day and go "why the f@#$ do we bother."

please do not.

cheers andrew.

p.s. by way of support i will make more of an effort to add to the blog.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-13/understanding-the-gfc-with-clarke-and-dawe/4260276