I have switched to corn, and am trading twice as many contracts. It just looks smoother to me than soybeans. Even with the new corn margin requirements that were imposed this week, it is still more economical for me to trade more contracts using corn rather than soybeans, at least for today. I have also noticed that in the past week or so, the spread has widened on soybeans to two ticks, whereas it remains on tick for corn. This is significant, because if it costs me two ticks to enter my position and two ticks to exit, that is a cost of four ticks to trade soybeans versus two tick to enter and exit corn. While soybeans have greater volatility, this difference is negated by taking larger positions (with lower margin requirements) on corn. It tends to equal out somewhat, but the lower spread is an advantage that I consider to be worthy of the change -- for the moment.One of the reasons that I use the triptych with multiple time frames is so that I can see when prices are slightly over-extended -- on a short-term basis -- on a higher time frame. If price move too far away from the EMA and outside the Bollinger Bands, then I know that I should take partial profits before a snap back or correction occurs. Then, I can re-enter the market with both profits and at a more favorable price point for additional trading. However, I do not trade on the higher time frames. I merely use them as a frame of reference and to provide context to the market. If I tried to trade on these higher time frame (I use 3 min. and 15 minute), I would probably lose money. The tick charts are my preferred time frame to use, except during evening trading. During evening trading, I watch the 3 minute and tick charts equally.
