To Osorico's point and to try to keep the thread on track, I tend to use a 1:1 R:R and makeup for the losses by pressing my advantage when I see extreme conditions in the market place (like what we have now). austinp is also a good trader and you would do well to search out both of their posts on this website as you begin you immersion into futures trading EminitraderDM. I know you want the money, but you can't get it by chasing it, like Osorico says, it's all about discipline and money management. Speaking of 1k per contract, while I could have gotten $1k today, I didn't, but I did do well ($900+ on one contract). But the average take historically for a good trader is more like $100 to $200 per contract, averaged out on a monthly basis, per market traded. It's a long road and has been previously mentioned, more often than not is a journey which takes years to reach some level of accomplishment. Good Luck, JJ Edit: I had to figure out how save the blotter as a PNG vs a bitmap for it to upload. But you can see the stats that I refer to in my text.
That really depends on my mind set for the day. When my mind set is level, I kick ass in the simulated account. When my mind set is off(and I know when its off) the market definitely kicks my ass.
Do you mind posting your result in my other forum? http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=139871 I can certainly do it if you'd rather?
Longer than I care to count with too many relationships that I have let slip by along the way. About four years and counting. Before that I was into trading stocks, and before that I invested in mutual funds and real estate (the ex-wife is doing very well these days ... ) ... typical story. *** As far as trading goes: 1. You have to study your markets (that means knowing what the initial balance is, the maintenance balance, the overnight margin and the daytrade margin) for starters. 2. You have to study price action up the wazoo. 3. You have to become familair with basic compounding and money management. 4. You have to sim your account until you can triple it three times using the exact same criteria that you will be using to trade live. Lastly, don't be in a rush ... belive it or not, the markets will always be there.
LOL, you're emgarrasing me (it takes a lot I know). I put it up here, so I don't mind if you repost it. I did it for the purpose of teaching you something, and I see that your other thread is designed along that same thought process. But I need to be a lot bigger trader to start posting my blotter consistently and saying that I make Big Money (LOL), because there are too many size traders who post in the PnL Thread and can blow me out the water! But have fun.
Sim trading is worthless. It is only good for getting used to using a trading platform. It will give you a false confidence that will set you up to fail greatly when you go live. You are better off just trading 1 lot with strict discipline and money management from the start and avoiding the trap that sim trading will put in your mind. How you handle the EMOTION is the difference between winning and losing in the end.
This is a debate that goes back and forth between traders ad infinitum. But if you've ever played sports or performed any other activity in the professional arena (I have), you know the importance of practicing your technique until you've perfected it, developing your discipline and going over the playbook that you use so that you can do it in your sleep. There's a reason I only took short trades today ... it's because those are the only trades my system allowed me to take. Good Luck.