The Blog is Back!

Thanks to all who have written regarding the blog. Unfortuntely, access to this blog in China was blocked (still love the country!). All trading activity and performance results continue to be posted on the www.twcfutures.com site. Check there daily for results as well as supporting trade commentary on the blog. The site is also going thru a big transformation visually and look to have that launched in the next few weeks.

Most importantly, the trading setups are producing some nice consistent returns and I'm looking forward to introducing TWC's risk indicator to the performance results section. We are finally excited about our vision becoming a reality with the latest technology that will enable our retail clients to improve their performance results while taking the guesswork out of their entries.

Michael Toma, CRM
Dir. Risk Management
TWC Futures Group

October 16 & 19, 2009

No trades today. - outside work. Hypothetical backtested results -1.50.

October 15, 2009

No executed trades today. Hypothetical goal for today's price action : +2.00

October 14, 2009

Early day today due to afternoon committments. One am trade with a 2.25 winner. Technical setup should have rewarded those 4.50+ points for those with patience and availability.
Will monitor setups in after hours for the next 3 business days.

October 13, 2009

Interesting day with low volume but tradeable swings if one had lots of patience and did not cave in on probes...and there were lots of them. Total of 6 trades, a bit much for our style, but 4 needed to be scraped at minimal loss or gain. Two runners accounting for 5.50 ppc. Nice way to end a short week for the group. Morning session only tomorrow and travel thereafter.

Note: will provide simulation results for Thurs/Fri/ and Mon. Pls check in daily!

Monday, October 12

Holiday trading volume and range. Managed a breakeven after 1W and 1L. Reminder to self to not trade next Columbus day. Too thin volume. Move into Tuesday.

Note: No formal trading on Thurs, Fri, and Mon. Oct 15-19 (travel)

Friday, October 8, 2009

Horrific price action ala day before July 4th. Only difference is it the day before Columbus holiday. Futures markets will be open on Monday but it appeared the pit boys went home early. Only two trades today and one of them pre-market. Fib confluence acting very well of late, particularly since the CME unbundling of tick feeds and our modification to a 1280 tick chart. Will continue to do so as long as the results are still there. Backtest showed our original 512 tick chart proved more erratic since the CME change. Will take the 2-0 and 3.25 ppc to the books on an underperforming but positive week.

October 8, 2009

Abbreviated trading day but managed two setups, for a 1-1 w/l with a +3.00 ppc. Early loss followed by an initial target of +5.00. Fib setups really working well and considering greater weight on such intra-day confluence.

October 7, 2009

Normally, 'inside' days where price action is contained within the previous days range is not beneficial to most of our setups where we attempt to take advantages of trends. This day was no exception however we kept our trades close to the vest and managed a slight -2 ppc. Usually inside days are followed by wild trend days and the early futures are already indicating such. Looking forward for some nice ranges tomorrow and as always, sticking to the plan.

October 6, 2009

Certainly get the feeling of chugging along the mountain with these markets. Challenging price action and the victors are the ones who put emotion and bias aside and just trade the setups. Booked a standard 3 points per contract however risk reward would demand slightly higher results. Need to see more of those +5's and +7's in the long run. We continue to forge ahead into the trading week with earnings season kicking off with Alcoa.

October 5, 2009

Whipsaw day to say the least. Managed to squeak out 2.5 pts. per contract but it certainly was easy or pretty. Had to double check account after hours just to be sure it wasnt a minus 2.5. Either way, its in the books and we'll take it into Tuesday.

October 2, 2009

Nice way to end the week. All started pre-market with a trend short after the horrific employment rate number. (Good to have set targets as as rule during pre-market). Reversal long setup shortly after the open. Some chop the rest of the way thru resulting in a +6.25pts per contract. Excellent way to end the week. End of week results +15.50. ppc.
Great weekend all.

October 1, 2009

Crazy way to start Q3! Lots of chop and shakeouts but could have been worse. Will take the b/e less commissions on a day that should have been a very profitable trading day. Sometimes the exit rules just clip you out and it happened twice today. Rules are rules and they are there to protect you, however sometimes it prevents gains. Move to unemployment Friday with protect the green mode fully in place.

September 30, 2009

Wild day in that the morning session allowed us to grap 7pts on that 14 pt runner. Some other 2-3 point trades were nullified by one of our larger stopout. Will still take the points on the last day of the quarter. Consider it our own personal window dressing.

September 29, 2009

Challenging day to say the least given our setup strategy. Good thing about our setups is the relatively low exposure to risk and the ability to capture big gains. Market just did not provide us with either and ended up with a small loss. (-1.25 pc). Frustration set during the day when a target was hit but not filled and reversed and exited our trade with a stop out. It's trading and will happen from time to time but that still does not make it any easier. More convinced that using MIT orders will be the way to go. You give up a tick here and there but they save you over the long haul, not to mention lock in profits on a trade that has hit target. We continue tomorrow.

September 28, 2009

Unexpected trend day up. Another reason not to have a bias. Implmented plan effectively and captured 5.50ES p.p.c. with only 2 setups. Will take it going into Tuesday. Curious if they hold these levels with minimal pullback. Until the market tells us otherwise, we lean long on pullbacks, including the scary ones. Hope all had a good trading day and caught some of that a.m. move.

September 25, 2009

Shortened session for the group with a +3.25 on one trade and two b/e results. Setup#2 to be the primary focus going forward starting next Monday. Easy to learn, easy to teach, good transparency and only requires 1 contract, for which we report on. Multiple contracts will just have the same results exponentially which is easy for member adminstration and compliance. Looking forward to the new TWC!

September 24, 2009

Very nice trending movement in the markets. Traded minimally due to other obligations. Took the 1-0 +4.5 and booked it. Trading tomorrow will also be limited with next Monday back to normal trading activity.

September 23, 2009

Overall extremely dissappointing trading. Not reflected in the journal per-se but missed tremendous trading opportunities on the board. Trading remotely and had limited charts and a DOM. Decision to only trade market profile setups due to limited data feed. Resulted on one of the biggest trend days (both ways) in the past 3 months. Will accept as part of trading and move on...I hope.

September 22, 2009

Few valid trading setups with potential target in site. Good move since they would have results in some breakeven or slight negative results. Selectivity was the theme for today. Two trades only going 2-0 and 3.00 points per contract. Expect similar cautious trading until fed decision due out at 2:15pm EST tomorrow. Trading with confluence and caution.

September 21, 2009

Interesting waves to start the trading week. Lots of almosts, ticks from targets, etc. Still ended up with a +4.25 day per contract. Can't complain for a Monday. Still agitaged that the runners came so close. Until tomorrow.

September 18, 2009

Always difficult trading options-ex. Combined with protecting the weekly green, we kept it extremely light today. Managed 1.75 pts per one contract. Can't complain given the circulstances. The setup of the day came at 3:50 PM est. - 10 min prior to the close. Would have managed a 5 pt target trade. At minimum, gives us confidence for Monday. Good weekend all.

September 17, 2009

Nice volatility with good opportunities abound. Fib numbers still working well as confluence now that the markets have nice flow. Will continue to use them more promiently as a confluence with our setus until the market tells us otherwise. 4-2 with a 3.25 pt gain per average contract. 4x witching tomorrow so may keep it light and trade the ranges once the expiration and IB have been completed. Note to all: please stay out of trouble tomorrow.

September 16, 2009

Short trading day today. Reason twofold. Prior committments this afternoon and most importantly - daily target hit. +5.00 per contract. Nice way to bounce back from a slight losing day. Continue long bias until market tells us otherwise.

September 15, 2009

Difficult to get any traction on today, particularly in the afternoon session. Will take a -4 pt giveback into tomorrows session. Market continues to make new highs in the auction. Will continue our bias in that direction until otherwise advise by market profile. Have a great day!

September 14, 2009

Extremely lethargic price action after the 1st hour. Managed to get two brief trades in the muck with a 2-0 result. 3rd attempt ended up in a scalp gain. Any Monday gain is a good gain. PPI tomorrow.

September 11, 2009

Slow price action this afternoon but still managed to catch a 4-1 trade total within scalp mode. Market profile served better in earlier days this week so the move to scalping was proven a successful strategy. Good to see $TICK fades as confluence back working well after the summer.
Have a great weekend all.
M.Toma. Dir. Risk Management, TWC

September 10, 2009

Market continues to buy on any weakness and the bias can only continue to be long until proven otherwise. Market profile setups were minimal and for the most part kept us out of trouble. Lots of swings in the that caught us for a few stop outs which were mitigated in the pm session. Taking the small loss to offset the earlier week's gains. Just a dent. Staying out of trouble tomorrow. In protect the green mode.

September 9, 2009

THE CRAZY TRADING DAYS ARE BACK! Today, without question, confirms that the volatility is back in the markets. runnup of over 13 points in the ES only to be followed by a 6 point fade at the highs with lots of longs getting trapped. Leave it to the market to shake them out and resume the upswing late in the day. Market profile setups worked well and even some fib players would have managed their own. Taking 7 points conservatively for each contract traded.
Welcome September!

September 8, 2009

Sloppy trading action all day and little room for any recognized swing trades. Losses were kept small which was the key to today's trading. Small net gain of 1.5pts for this Monday and look for more larger runs throughout the week. Any green on Monday is good green.