Interesting day today - not always for the right reasons!

Had an initial trade at 09:30 (that's 3:30 Chicago time), a short filled at 2557.50;

E-Mini NASDAQ futures;


I was looking for a sell off, it never came, stopped out for a 2 point loss.



There were 3 opportunities for trades today, that was one of them, the next came at 12:35, I wasn't watching the market at this point, I checked about 12:39 and spotted I'd just missed a buy signal.  I was using my mobile to monitor for signals (as I was away from my desktop) and it can be quite challenging to monitor.  A source of frustration since the signal was spot on.  I've highlighted the signal on the chart below, using a green up arrow (just to left of centre of chart).   A buy signal for me is when the market diverges away from my indicators (the black signal line beneath the chart, and the other separate one sectioned off below).  So you can see here the market made a lower low whilst my indicators both made higher lows, that's my signal to go long.  Anyway I've made it a general rule these days not to discuss signals not traded on my blog, but thought I'd highlight this one as a good illustration showing what I'm looking for when I'm trading.  It can be a source of frustration to not be active watching the markets when a quality signal is produced although it's tempered somewhat by the fact that I'd rather not be surgically attached to the markets for the whole entire day!  From the point of the new low I wait 3 minutes for the market to confirm it (by moving in concert with my indicators) then I trade it.

E-Mini NASDAQ futures;


The other reason I mention this signal is because I've actually been highlighting all signals that occur everyday on the NASDAQ and copying the charts to

                      Pesavento Patterns on the NASDAQ 100 futures



Green arrows denote signals that lead to a 10 point move in the right direction, black arrows denote failed signals that would result in a stopped out trade and white denote signals that would result in a breakeven.  I'm also using Pesavento's patterns (Fibonacci retracements) on those, so once there is enough data there I may be able to see some patterns emerge either solely with the Pesavento Patterns or perhaps in combination with the signals my own indicators generate.

(This is distinct from the the green/red triangles that appear on the charts.  Green triangles pointing to a part of the chart means a long orders filled, red triangles means short orders filled )





I had another signal at 17:28 to go long, filled at 2561.50 (latter part of chart);

E-Mini NASDAQ futures;



There wasn't much on the data front today, after I went long the market developed into a sideways chop, and moved 5 points in my favour so I moved my stop to breakeven then my system crashed...

When I restarted I saw that Multicharts seemed to have duplicated all of my existing orders in the market, so I cancelled these "duplicate" orders (or so I thought) however when the market traded above my exit point of 2671.50 the order didn't get filled. 

I closed the trade out manually for a gain of 10 points, however my system still showed active orders in the market and I was unable to cancel them!   Tried restarting Multicharts and again same issue, existing orders in the market and I wasn't able to cancel them....just prior to a weekend close.....****!

Well that was the first time I've had to call the emergency trade desk in Chicago for Mirus Futures (my broker) and they were excellent, confirming that I was both flat and had no orders in the market (contrary to what Multicharts was telling me).

My partner explained that I'm probably pushing my computer too hard, what with all the real time data I'm streaming from my broker, I often watch BBC / RT / CNBC and also have the excellent Ransquawk service giving live market news and commentary.  This seems to be a bit too much for my little machine it gets hot under the collar, the fan starts going and then it...well crashes.  Doesn't happen that often, just often enough for me to now be considering buying a completely new machine just for trading, much higher spec in terms of processor, memory, cores etc.


Not the most tranquil days trading...