A Day in the Life of an Aspiring Futures Day Trader

Discussion in 'Journals' started by Bullz n Bearz, Jul 25, 2007.

  1. "Winning is the only option.."

    Take a second to look through my seeing glass of my world.

    I either make money in futures or I don't lose.. I have taken over 4,000+ hours to discovery this mindset only champion traders use..



    My world goes like this:

    I'm a young 21ish year old college drop-out who believes in smart work over hard work. I feel the only way to make it to the proverbial "top" of the financial pyrammid is to outsmart the rest of the competitors.

    That's why I left college. I feel like I have my own agenda and one that will eventually make me the money I want to support the life I soon choose to live.



    Futures... Why futures?

    Because I know futures are very liquid, very smart trading tools, and just cool to say you trade..

    Am I trader? Sure, but not a good one yet.. lol


    I soon plan on being a good one though..



    So, this journal will document my learnings through my mentor and my own personal discoveries about trading in futures and even i'll discover new truths that nobody has yet to discover about the market itself!

    Tony is my mentor, he provides up/down market style commentary(if bulls are up, stay long and vice versa).


    He has assisted me on having a $500+ day since last Monday. I believe I'm progressing nice and easy.


    So to finish up this first post, I will be documenting my learnings from Tony and my own personal discoveries as I progress along the path of learning in the futures market.

    God bless!


    PS: Choose your trades very wisely...
     
  2. Good luck, B&B - I admire your tenacity.
     
  3. Magna

    Magna Administrator

    Guys,

    Given past history some of us may be skeptical but let's give this journal a chance and see where it goes. Please, no abusive or off-topic posts. Thanks.

    Magna
     
  4. jwecme

    jwecme

    First of all if trading is what you really want to do then imho you are going about it the right way and starting young. If it does not work out you can always go back to college without the comittment of familly etc.

    PLease be aware that you have a very tough road ahead of you. First you must discover your edge then you must learn to master yourself through mistakes and setbacks.

    Once you get over the technial stage (about 3 years solid seems to be about what most poeple take). You should leave at least another couple of years to master the mental side so 5 years to get to a decent level is what I would think you would need which means you will be only 26 still which is good going.


    Good Luck on this most diffcult of journeys
     
  5. I thank you for the encouraging response both Magna and jwe.

    I will be as brutally honest as I know how to be with my trades and styles in this journal.

    Let me start on today:



    This morning I woke up at around 8:00 am est and turned on my laptop, opened up Metastock and watched the 30 year t-bills for a few minutes..

    I noticed that a lot of sellers were hitting the dow down. At the moment I was watching the chart of t-bills and the dow, I noticed the dow was starting to get pushed up a little by buyers. I automatically thought that the buyers were coming into the picture. I went short on t-bills because t-bills have a very inverse relationship with the US markets(ym, nq, es).

    Unfortuantly, price on the dow continued downward and my short on t-bills was soon relinquished.


    I spoke only briefly today with my mentor and said today the market's dominant theme is bearish. I wasn't yet sure when to enter or how to really play an overall theme for the day. Most would sell and hold.. I decided I wanted to try to play the ranges in the t-bills as I watched the dow's movement..

    I took a fairly large hit of -3,000 overall due to loss loss and some revenge..


    Today was my first down day.. Since last monday i have been profitable.. So, the lesson I learned overall today was follow the direction of the market and stay on board unless a convincing change occurs in direction.

    Tomorrow, depending on what clarity I get from seeing the pre-opening hours of the ym, I will decide whether or not I will be long or short.. or not take any position at all.. tomorrow I expect to be a lot better overall today, today i feel my emotions got in the way.

    Update: Market now has a bullish theme overall. Market tomorrow is believed to trend higher.
     
  6. Why are you still trading size that could lead to losses like this? Are you taking credit card cash advances to fund your accounts? Last time you blew your 5K account in two days? Now you magically have another account that you blew 3K in.

    You know they expect you to pay those cards back... regardless of whether you succeed in trading or not.