help - index trading sucks so far, page-17

Matts:

Thanks, yes I had honsetly considered that on Friday night on my 4th straight losing trade on the Dow! Losses only a few hundred dollars because I've been using minis as practice/learning.

I normally dont use stops on stocks because (a) I only have to watch them during trading hours, (b) I keep a close eye on them and I usually trade in very defined trading ranges for individual stocks and will sell out once it goes above or below my defined trading range, with pretty solid discipline. Result - lots of small profits, few losses but also missed on out some very large gainers. But much more reliable than when I used to chase the big gainers and all I got was big losers.

Tadewi:

I've used the standard toolkit of TA tools which I've come to rely on, including bollinger, MA's stoch, MACD, RSI and momentum indicators, using the same rules, and I'm just getting different results. At my next non-theoretical try I will consider multiple contracts and see how I go - that has been something I've used with stocks that I havent tried here yet.

GM2407:

I think you've hit the nail on the head - I have found myself thinking differently because of the points versus dollars perspective. It appears to be a slightly different psychology that I still have to get my head around.

You've all been great guys with such a quick response and so many suggestions already. Thanks again.