Is this real money or paper trading? I seemed to remember this handle asking some questions recently about getting started, perhaps I am remembering wrong?
It's real. The thing is- I use to lose a lot because I held on to my winners for too long. I was always looking for those few big moves throughout the day, but never took profits quick enough. Now, I take profits too quickly; anywhere from a tick to 1.5 points in a volatile market where I could get much more. So I'm making more money than I ever did, but it's far from optimal. I basically went from one extreme to another and need to find some kind of balance.
Good point, if on paper it means nothing. If live, that's pretty nice profit to be new to the game. IMO.
Considering you could have just hold through the afternoon's down move and made 30 points I wouldn't say it's "optimal". The real issue here is whether you can do this consistently or not. Let's just say that if you're able to consistently scalp 12 points a day off the e-mini's you're in a very very good place.
I think you know the problem already. You're overtrading. What happens is you take plenty of quick profits which add up as long as you're mostly right. And you might be mostly right, especially if you hold your losers a little too long. But what happens is that when the time comes to lose, you lose a pile...like that $450 you're talking about in one trade, 3 losers over $250. Your profits have to be in some relation to your losses, otherwise, you'll have several days of the type you've experience, only to wipe a number of them out in one bad day. OldTrader
I agree. That $425 loser actually went $800 against me at first. I held it till it came all the way back to -$75. Of course, I didn't punch out and that sinking feeling got 10x worse when it started going back down. I oughta just punch myself in the balls for every loser that's larger than my biggest winner.
I'd stop short of "punching myself in the balls". LOL! Nothing like trading bad and having sore balls to boot. OldTrader
<i>"Now, I take profits too quickly; anywhere from a tick to 1.5 points in a volatile market where I could get much more. So I'm making more money than I ever did, but it's far from optimal. I basically went from one extreme to another and need to find some kind of balance."</i> FWIW, I'm evolving from infrequent intraday swings trading to a much more active trade style in the ES specifically myself. What would your trade summary look like if you did this: 1) Initial stop -2pts from entry fixed 2) Trade goes +2pts in favor, trail to entry = par 3) Trade goes +3pts in favor, trail to +2pts from entry 4) Trade goes +4pts from entry, Trail to +3pts from entry 5) Trade goes +4.5pts or greater, trail to +4pts 6) Manage occasional bigger gains trailed every +2pts beyond * Forget about all the little trades that would have been two ticks here, 1.25 handles there. Look at your run sheet, apply this basic management approach and recalculate results. Out of 67 trade entries, some of them (by random chance) had to be on the correct side of big swings / trend moves. Any mud in the middle results in small gains or loss accordingly. Today the ES dropped more than -40pts in the final ninety minutes of trading, straight down move in harmony with current trend. Short and holding for any type of substantial swing couldn't help but win solid. It will be extremely hard to sustain success at +$9 per contract net on a trade. Again fwiw, my contract average today was +$64 net after costs. Yesterday was (coincidentally) $63+ per contract net. I consider +$25 per trade net average acceptable, which would be something like +$30 before costs gross or 15% of trade average paid out in costs. My advice? Hold at least some (if not most) of your trades for bigger targets. The market is flying all around. Big moves will show up. You cannot help but hit a few of them if your entries are any good at all. Hope this helps
Thanks for the advice. Your trade management rules make sense. I'll continue trading the way I am currently, then crunch the results EOD against the rules you listed and hopefully get closer to the sweet spot.