EminiAcademy.com » Market Forecast Videos

How To Stop “Hindsight” Trading & Think Like A Chess Player…

Chris Dunn — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:23:42 +0000

New to trading? Start with this free step-by-step video series! (Don’t forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel)

Some members of our MAP Trading Program have been killing it lately in our trading room. It’s great to the benefits of combining a true rules-based trading strategy with trader discipline. In today’s video, I’m going to take you through some signals generated by the MAP Trading Strategy, and show examples of student trades from our trading room…

How to think like a chess player:

Trading is all about anticipation – in other words, thinking two or three steps ahead of your opponent. This starts with having a solid approach to day trading, and ends with developing the ability to “see” the future possibilities and probabilities. In other words, knowing all the possible outcomes, and what’s most likely to play out.

08:41:11 {Steven_U} thanks champ, luving it
08:44:38 {Ross_E} thanks guys, worked great
08:56:55 {Kevin} very nice
08:56:56 {Ross_E} great Kevin
09:28:58 {Steven_U} great job guys, great to be back!!!!
09:29:05 {Marc} Group trade!
09:29:14 {EA_Chris} BOOM!
09:29:55 {Kevin_B} I’m 3 for 3 this morning and loving it!
09:38:31 {Steven_U} awesome Kevin!!!!
09:38:42 {Marc} Great job Kevin
09:38:49 {Kevin_B} Good job everyone!!!
09:38:55 {Chris_2} beautiful!
09:39:38 {Heath} still in this gold trade, took 1/2 off at +20
09:46:42 {Heath} I enjoy watching the trade here almost as much as making money…especially when I have made money on the trade no matter what
10:03:31 {Chris_2} Mine was identicle to yours Steven
10:26:09 {Marc} Nice work Chris H.
10:28:03 {Marc} Nice work Kevin
10:28:31 {Kevin_B} Thanks Marc, 4 for 4 this morning.
10:37:44 {Chris_2} Great trading week. Thanks a million Chris(s). See you all soon.

Meet Mr. Johnny Hindsight!

Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda… These are three common words spoken by “hindsight traders”. Put another way, traders who use examples of historical charts to justify why they “should’ve” taken a trade, or how you “could’ve” made a ton of money if you “just read the market in a specific way”.

This is how some gurus string traders along… They’ll lead people to believe, “I’ll become a ‘master trader’ if I can just trade like so-and-so.” Lately I’ve been overwhelmed by people who’ve wasted time chasing this madness. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – if you’re subjectively trying to “read the markets”, you’re open to a MASSIVE amount of human error.

At E-mini Academy, our message has been constant – Trade with a fully-testable, rules-based strategy, and develop the ability to anticipate the possibilities and probabilities. That’s it.

Surviving with Piranha, Anaconda, and Cannibals… oh my!

During our trading trip to Central America last month, we spent time exploring Medellin and the Amazon Jungle. While in Medellin, we flew Mike Carter down who won the trip to come trade with us for a week.

Then we headed down to the tri-country boarder of Colombia, Peru, and Brazil… and headed off deep into the Amazon Jungle. This trip was nothing short of amazing. During the day we tracked jaguar, went fishing for piranha, and climbed through the Amazonian Canopy.

Check out this compilation video of our trip…

Stop Wasting Time With “Trading Gurus” and Develop Confidence in Your Strategy

Chris Dunn — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:49:16 +0000

My motto is “no ego, no snake oil, and no BS“. In tonight’s trading class, I’m going to talk about the “guru paradox”, and why most trading education services are a complete waste of time. I’m also going to talk about the 3 step process for testing and executing a trading strategy – and how to develop confidence.

Click here to reserve your spot for the trading class Tonight at 8PM ET

Now, on to the markets…

Bulls have been steadily driving the indices up since the first trading day of the year. And despite what the talking heads on CNBC are saying, there hasn’t been any sign of a slowdown yet. Granted, I could care less where the markets are headed long term. It’s just nice to see volume holding at steady levels.

This week has been interesting to say the least. Even though the markets have been relatively flat (except for today’s breakout), we’ve seen a good Average True Range (ATR) on the S&P 500 e-mini. On average, we’ve seen about a 20 point daily range since contract expiration earlier this month.

Here are some trade signals from today and earlier this week:

Indicators vs. Strategies – Trading Class Recording & Trade Setups From Today

Chris Dunn — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 17:09:27 +0000

Strategies, indicators, and systems – What Really Matters?

Last week I did a webinar with our trading partner, NinjaTrader. My presentation was all about “How to Find Confidence in Your Trading Strategy“. And my main goal was to help traders understand the difference between a strategy and indicators – and how to quantify and validate your strategy.

We’ve gotten some funny emails lately from traders who’ve seen some “gurus” copying our indicators and call it a strategy, even though it’s nothing more than a subjective way of “reading the market”. In the end, this will just leave you confused and frustrated. The only thing that matters in the “post-high-frequency-trading-era” is if you have a testable strategy and the skill-set to execute your approach.

Last year, we went through a 9 month GRUELING process of back-testing, forward-testing, live market testing, and optimizing our rules-based strategy. The result was the next evolution in our MAP Trading Strategy and the 5th version of our trade signal software.

If you’re interested in learning more about our strategy and trading program, I encourage you to click here to learn more about a trial of the MAP Trading Program.

Check out the recording of this webinar that will give you some insight into the “3 Keys To Finding Confidence In Your Trading Strategy”.

(The audio may be a little off from the screen, but stick with it – it’s good stuff!)

How To Trade Around “Contract Rollover”

Every 3 months, the e-mini futures go through “contract rollover”. This week we switched from trading the March contracts to the June contracts. As day traders, it doesn’t really affect us other than the fact that the market is usually a little choppy around this time.

Here’s some information on contract rollover - http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/equity-index/rolldates.html

However, because the volume and volatility has been rockin’ lately, contract rollover didn’t affect us too much. As a general rule, we stay away from the markets all-together on “rollover day”, which was yesterday.

Today’s Market Action & Trade Setups

Today (Friday) has actually been an incredible day for trading and learning. In our live market class, we talked through 3 setups on the e-mini S&P 500 and the Russell 2000.

As of lunch time today, we’ve had two setups on each market with a 75% potential win ratio. There was just one failing trade on the TF (russell 2000).

Here are some charts from the trading room today…

Next Week’s Market Forecast

Most traders should be trading the June 2013 contracts by early next week, which could mean even higher volume and volatility.

In the chart below, notice how the market has been holding the daily lows every day since we gapped above the strong resistance level around 1,520. If this bull rally continues, we could see 1,560′s in the next few weeks.

However, we’re day traders here at the Emini Academy, so longer-term direction doesn’t really matter. We just want to anticipate future volatility.

Range Trading – How To Trade When The Market’s Consolidating

Chris Henry — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:43:54 +0000

The morning started out inside of a tighter range than we have been used to the last few days. However, we still had some pretty decent setups in a few different markets.

Also, the S&P 500 emini daily chart has been squeezing in between support and resistance and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a pop in the near future.

Check out this video where I show you the different opportunities we had this morning while inside a tighter range using the MAP strategy.

Monthly Trading Wrap-up (many lessons & trade setups)

Chris Dunn — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:52:46 +0000

As this week comes to a close, all I can say is, “Wow”. After a pretty slow January, the markets are back in full action. There are many different ways to trade the markets, and our e-mini day trading strategy gives the most trade setups when volatility is higher.

This week I covered many lessons about staying flexible with changing market environments, quantifying your strategy, and developing a strong mental psychology.

One of the biggest talking points this week was how not to be fooled by “cherry-picked” trades or gurus who promote unrealistic results. “Look how many thousands of dollars you could have made today if you just made all these lucky decisions”, they’ll say. I’ve said it a thousand times, and I’ll say it again - looking back in history and finding lucky trades is NOT how you quantify a strategy, even if you have “setups”.

I encourage you to read these new blog posts:

Why all indicators are useless (and the ultimate key to finding confidence in your trading strategy)

The Dynamic Trader – Switching Between Base Hit & Grand Slam Trades

Why the market causes pain (and how to potentially profit from it)

Now, let’s dive into the markets and talk about what’s happened this week, and why there were way more opportunities over the past 5 days than the entire month of January.

Notice how the market was stuck inside of a slow over-exuberant bullish channel from January 2nd to February 17th. Then, as soon as we sold off outside the channel, bears drove price down to the 50% fibonacci retracement.

This sell-off stopped out many long swing traders, and sucked in some short sellers into the markets. Next, the market made a quick rebound to retest the monthly highs around 1,520.

Taking a look at the volume indicator on the bottom of the chart, we can see that the average volume spiked after February 19th. And one of the reasons why the market traded like it did is because of the pain the market caused with the panic and rally. It’s incredible to see how much heavier the market trades after sticking in a slow range for a while.

Trading Lesson #234,997,238 – Press The Gas When The Market’s Trading With Strength & Press The Brakes When It’s Not!

In our trading room, we’re constantly monitoring live market conditions to determine in a market is “tradeable” or if we should just sit on our hands. This month, we had a healthy mix of both scenarios.

Here’s an example on live screen capture of how to “press the gas” on multiple markets at the same time. Notice how our trading strategy confirms our valid setups (no hindsight cherry-picking), and see how Chris Henry pre-determines his targets and risk.

Also, click on the thumbnail images to see some recent trades submitted to our trading room:

(Market Recap Video) – The Biggest Trading Day Of The Year So Far!

Chris Dunn — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 21:12:23 +0000

I can’t help but say I told you so. After 45 days of a slow bull trend, we’ve been expecting the market to panic. And as day traders, we LOVE when the market sells off.

Why?

Because the market crashes a whole lot faster than it climbs, which means more trading opportunities.

Today was the biggest trading day of the year so far because we had over 2.5 Million contracts traded on the ES, with a trading range of about 40 points!

The MAP Trading Strategy gave us about 8 setups on the e-mini S&P 500.

I highly encourage you to get a 3-day trial of the MAP Trading Program so you can learn how to trade e-minis with a disciplined approach.

Check out today’s video where I walk you through today’s action – And excuse my voice, the cold has beaten me up a little bit today.

NOTE: This video is best viewed in Full Screen and set on HD

Show Me The Money! (Bull Markets & Russell 2000 e-mini trade)

Chris Dunn — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 17:11:29 +0000

Since the first trading day of the year, the markets have been in a slow bullish trend. In my last post, I talked about the 3 phases of market conditions and why a panic is likely to come soon.

As our MAP Trading Program members know, these are the best markets to learn to trade. Why? Simply because they’re moving slower. It’s best to prepare now so you can “press the gas” when high volatility sets in.

This morning we had a beautiful long setup on the Russell 2000 e-mini, that ran to our target of about 2 points ($200 per contract). We helped our traders anticipate this trade in our live training room.

Click to register for “The 3 Keys For Finding Confidence in Your Trading Strategy”

The Dynamic Trader: Switching Between “Base Hit” and “Grand Slam” Trades

Chris Dunn — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 19:30:57 +0000

If this past year has taught us anything about the markets, it’s that traders need to be flexible with changing market conditions.

For example, in highly volatile markets we can see average profit targets on the E-mini S&P 500 (ES) at about 3.5 points, or $175 per contract. However, in consolidating markets it can be a challenge to get your average above 2 points, or $100 per contract.

One of the biggest goals of the MAP Trading Strategy is to give traders a practical way to manage risk. With hard stops in place, we look for dynamic profit targets based on recent volatility. In other words, we look at the short and long term views of the market to determine the most appropriate profit targets.

When market volatility is low, we typically look for “base hit” trades. When market volatility is high, we’ll look to hold for much larger targets.

In my last live market trading workshop, I talked about the “3 Phases of Market Conditions” that have repeated every year for the past 5 years.

The process goes like this:

Phase 1 - Slow bullish trend with tight intra-day ranges. This makes for easier swing trading, slower day trading, and a great “learning” environment.

Phase 2 - After the slow bull trend, the market tends to panic and give back its recent gains in a fraction of the time. This has happened over a half dozen times in the past few years, and makes for great day trading conditions because of the elevated volatility.

Phase 3 - Once the market starts to hold a bottom, we’ve seen an average of 4-7 months of sideways, choppy volatility. While this creates difficult market conditions for swing traders, day traders have a field day! After all, day traders thrive on market panics and volatility.

Here’s an example from 2012. Notice how we had a 3 month slow bullish trend, followed by 60 days of panic selling. Once the market bottomed, there was a couple months of sideways choppy volatility.

Again, one lesson our MAP Trading Program members know is to adjust our trading according to how the broad market is behaving. This is something we hammer day-in and day-out in our Foundations Classes and Live Market Training Room.

Now, check out how the market kicked off the first month of 2013. It’s almost a mirror image of January 2012, where price gapped up on the first trading day of the year. Then, continued a slow bullish trend into strong resistance. The only difference now is that the market is challenging 5 year market highs, which is creating a lot of resistance at 1,505 on the S&P 500.

Our plan of action is to keep looking for “base hit” trades until the market goes parabolic or panics. At that point, we’d adjust our management to possibly look for larger targets.

Also, feel free to join me during our next live market workshop. You’ll see our strategy in action and get an expert’s perspective on how to approach the e-mini futures markets.

[Market Alert] Bullish Targets Hit & Today’s Setups with step-by-step charts

Chris Henry — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 18:11:32 +0000

On December 6th, I was calling for the e-mini S&P to hit the mid 1,440′s. And yesterday we hit those longer-term targets. The stock market has given a mix of market conditions favorable for both swing and day traders.

After two big up-trending days, the ES was consolidating this morning, which gave us a few setups accross the indices. With oil contract expiring tomorrow (and quadrupel witching on Friday), we’ve looked to stay away from commodities today.

VIDEO 1 – Here’s my analysis of the longer-term movement & market conditions

VIDEO 2 – Here’s Chris Henry’s step-by-step analysis of today’s day trades

12/12/12 Mid-day Trading Update (strong long setups from this morning)

Chris Dunn — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 18:21:51 +0000

As I talked about from Friday’s “Show me The Money” video, I was expecting a slow, bullish trend today…

As expected, we had some nice long trade alerts off of market open on the e-mini S&P 500 (ES) and the e-mini NASDAQ (NQ). Right now during lunch, the market is flat on low volume, so this trend could reverse at any point. With more news later this week, I think we’re going to see more volatility, even if volume is a little low.

Make sure to register for the live market demonstration tomorrow, Tuesday at 2PM ET. You’ll see why I think combining the art-form of real-time market analysis with rules-based trading strategies is VITAL in today’s trading arena.

Also, make sure to watch Episode 1 and Episode 2 of “Show Me The Money”, where I help you find trading opportunities by looking at the current state of the markets, what’s in play and working now, and do specific trading lessons to help you become a better trader.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE LIVE MARKET TRAINING EVENT