Friday, February 20, 2009

** Change in Plans; Heading to N.Y. **

In light of the tax issue and since my broker will be in New York this weekend, I've decided to treat my wife to a weekend in the big city and will heading there late tonight & stop by the Expo on Saturday and Sunday.

For interested folks, we could schedule an impromptu get-together in the lounge if you'll be there.

More shortly, but right now I have to book some last minute travel.

** Will update more on the train ride to NY later this PM **

10 comments:

db said...

cool. hope to see you there

Get In Get Out said...

Don,

Guess you are taking a train into Grand Central Station instead of flying into jfk or laguardia. Anyways, Wanted to know for interested people who follow your blog, you mentioned a get together at the Marriot Lounge area, will you be conducting a brief 30-minute seminar as a guest speaker on the E-minis or is it just a quick hand-shake to say Hello & Thank You for helping so many of us out while trying to learn the ins & outs of this Biz?

trader said...

Do you think that the day trader will disappear if the tax has been passed? If so, we will lose our jobs!

Get In Get Out said...

Don,

Wanted to know, When you scale in & out of a position is there a specific system. For instance when you are going Long on a reversal short trend fade, but since no one is perfect at picking the bottom to get in, Do you only scale in on a long position when the position is in your favor,going your way, or do you still scale in while the position is going against you to average your trade. I know there is different ways of scaling in & out of a position and that certain traders would only scale in on a long position only when the trade is going there way instead of scaling in when it is going against them. Wanted some clarity on this & of course your professional advice. I hope to get a chance to say hello this weekend. Thanks Don

Severino said...

The only pace I found today was located in my fridge…

Felt like a hamster on a wheel. Did a lot of running only to end up where I started. I guess that is better then ending up on some cats menu.

Have fun,

Severino

Ps I hope the trade show is not the only show you take your wife to.

Don Miller said...

GIGO - Penn Station actually. No guest speaking!!! ... I'll be the quiet guy smirking in the corner.

Trader - I'm not too worried ... see today's later post.

GIGO - I pretty much scale in around wholesale levels and scale out as the market moves back toward retail levels. No system or magic ... just an interepretation of market action as it unfolds.

Don

Don Miller said...

Severino -

Sorry to hear ... it depends on how we're wired, as I found the PM session to perfectly fit my style.

Hang in there.

Don

Benjamin said...

Don, if i could ask a follow up question to the scaling in/out topic. if the position starts to move your way do you start scaling out when your best priced contracts are in the money (whereas your initial entries may still be out of the money) or do you wait for the average price of your total position to move into the black. hope makes sense. thanks don.

regards
Benjamin

Don Miller said...

Great question Ben -

I suppose it depends on how well I time the attempted wholesale entries and the type of sequence.

For example, if I'm trading counter trend fade scalps, I'll typically indeed exit the best priced (last) entries as it begins snapping back ... especially if the earlier "still unprofitable" entries were mistimed, which happens frequently. [Remember it's NOT "doubling down" against the trend as I'm consciously scaling into a full wholesale position and am rarely fully committed even after concluding the entries.]

Yet in all cases, I always know my average entry price as the TT DOM highlights what my average is as I add or subtract positions, and of course the final average exit has to be better priced than the average entry prices.

Most importantly though, and if I'm on my game, the market should be telling me when to exit ... not my initial or average position ... for where I got in and how strong my entries were should have NO BEARING on when I exit as the market doesn't care. And that's one reason why I think many traders fail. It's not about where you got it ... it's about when the market says it's time to get out ... and that may very well be for a loss if you misgauged things on the way in.

One trader's perspective as always.

Don

Benjamin said...

Thank you Don