Hey Guys, for those of you following my futures trades, you'll notice I picked up a short position on MES futures when the futures market opened today about a half hour ago. (The futures market normally opens at 3pm PST on Sunday - Thursday).
It's kind of interesting because I already have one long position on MES futures, and yet today I just traded a short position. I've been asked this question:
"Is it even possible to have a long and short /MES position at the same time in one account?"
The answer is that I place the order exactly as shown for each position. In my account, the net position for /MES does indeed end up "washing out" after I enter the short/sell position, BUT I still have the exits for both positions open. So for example, if the price goes up and hits the profit target on my original "buy" position, I will still sell when it gets there. And at that point my net position will be short, and the only positions left will be the short "exits" (and I will exit if either of those gets hit).
It may seem perplexing at first, but as long as each trade gets set up and treated individually, then each one is simply its own unique trade setup. I don't think too much about the net position. I'm more focused on ensuring I follow the rules of each individual position.
By the way, short positions don't show up too often with my futures trading. This one fired because the price has extended so far from the upper Keltner channel that it might be due for a pullback. Back tests show it might have been profitable more often than not to short when the MES futures price goes up this far this fast.