$$ Example of Pulling the Trigger

Quy wrote:

"I'd love to see you posting your trades so we can learn how & when you pull your triggers."

Thanks for your question, Quy.  While I have written about many of the things I look at on this blog, I have not disclosed:

1.  My actual trades,

2.  The details of my algorithm for producing buy or sell signals,

3.  The actual buy and sell signals in real time,

4.  How I implement those signals, or pull the trigger as you say. 

I doubt I will ever disclose #1 & #2.  Depending on how things go, I might disclose #3 in the future.  But let me give you an example of #4.

Assume you received a sell signal based on the October 21 close.  For October 22, you would place a sell stop order at the low of the October 21 candle at ~1171.

Point of clarification:  clearly you can't trade $SPX.  I am just using the $SPX chart as an example.

October 22 did not trade below 1171, so the order was not executed. 

For October 25, you move your sell stop order to the low of the October 23 candle, or ~1179.   October 25 did not trade below 1179, so that order was not executed.

For October 26, you move your sell stop to ~1185, the low of the October 25 candle.  This order gets executed on October 26, and when it does you place a stop loss order at the top of the October 25 candle (~1196) in case you are wrong.

Further, because price is above the 10-day exponential moving average when the trade was executed, you would take a smaller initial position than you would if price was below the 10-day moving average.  If you catch the corner and the trade starts to go your way, you can add to your position later.