I've been a little slow in getting blogs done.

The late nights staying up trading the Dax then trading the Aus market have kept me busy.

I've also just had a small chunk cut off the top of my head to get rid of the beginnings of a skin cancer.

Must be the early morning sun out surfing. Not that there has been many waves lately.

When trading the Dax it is important to know key levels not just on the Dax but also on the S&P 500.

The advantage that it can give when positioning trades is huge.

The Dax today had key areas in 25 point ranges.

When the ES pushed down to a support area at 1056-1058 I had a perfect area to close shorts and enter long on the Dax at the 5600 matching support area.

Earlier I also was able to take a short trade on the Dax at 5675 as the ES bounced off resistance at 1069.

Alexander at tradewithpride.com is very skilled at putting these areas in context and basing a trading approach on these zone scenarios.

We keep in regular contact since my time trading at his firm in Atlanta and his morning prep is a great start for trading on the ES futures.

We have a project we are working on which I will give details on as we move closer to the end of the year.

Dax prep.jpg (258.40 kb)

ES prep.jpg (198.13 kb)

What does a trader see and do that makes him successful on a consistent basis?

It comes down to trading an edge. Knowing when the odds are favoring a greater reward than the risk you are taking.

My edge is based on 2 main criteria.

Failed or successful tests of highs and lows. Trading off zones.

Confirming directional movement on expansion bars.

As long as my execution is good and my read on price movement is good, over a sample size I should be profitable.

Dax 11-8.jpg (124.92 kb) Click to enlarge

Dax 11-8b.png (43.20 kb)

Today I wanted to get a different trade perspective by looking at Alexander at Pride Trading's trade sequence on the ES.

He focuses on his key zones to trade off.

In this example you can see how effective this is.

TradesES.png (58.57 kb) Click to enlarge

Red dots are short entries.

Blue dots are long entries

The numbers show how many contracts held (-9 limit is 9 contracts short)

As you can see a very profitable day with limited high quality trades.

Traded a nice Dax and ES setup at major support.

The morning prep from Alexander had major support at 992.5

I traded 4 Dax contracts and 5 ES contracts.

The Dax at the time was just above major support so I had to trade it and scalp a portion to lower my risk.

As the pump fake set up I was able to add back a position.

I scaled out into first resistance.

Fdax 6-8.jpg (106.02 kb)

Fdax 6-85min.jpg (103.16 kb)(Resistance Zone)