Opened a paper account with TOS 1 year ago and traded some options. Started with 100,000 and ended at 97,000. Not sure what happened or how I lost it. Fast forward to Late December 2016 and I decided to give it another try by with ETF's and Futures. I've also added some other platforms, Ninja Trader Demo, IB demo, and about to try infinity as well. I've made a several trades the past week and broke even or lost like $10-$20 bucks on a few. Today I put on 2 postions one in ES and one XLF. Made $3 with XLF and $262 with ES. I just now figured out how to go long and then add another position to protect the position with a sell stop order. Then sell a limit at a higher price to lock in any profits I may make. Not sure if this is the best method. Will find out later. Have no idea why I got in them really. I've been using Tradeview as my live chart, with Scotchastic, MACD, Volume indicators. Bought both looking at dips to come up. Both long positions. All were made while at work from my TOS Phone app. Been reading 3-4 hours a day of countless topics along with all of the above. Long Long Long way to go!
I swear I studied options for 3 months and then tried the whole theta decay deal or whatever and it didn't work. Lol, that's all I remember, and when I came back to trading this time and saw the phrase "sell a put", I was like nope. Not messing with that shit. Maybe later!
Actually, a 3% annualized loss is not so bad for someone who didn't know what he was doing. You seem to be exploring all over the place with products and platforms. Get to learn one product (not a derivative), trade it directionally and develop a method. That means understanding the risk / reward of your trades. Hint: Long only stocks beats all. But, you have to start and finish on the right years.
Well, a future is a derivative. So is an option. So is pretty much anything that represents an underlying asset.
Yes. It is just leverage. It doesn't add value, yet. A stock in your profession is the best learning tool, though not the best for diversifying risk. Risk/Reward is a percentage game. Get it stable and predictable, then you goose your absolute returns with leverage. Don't get me wrong, it opens up a plethora of strategies. Start with a few basic ones that make money for you and fits your temperament. Can you handle small losses while waiting for the big winner? Or, do you like frequent wins but sometimes get your teeth kicked in? You should be able to handle both situations and perhaps run both types of strategies concurrently within a risk budget. Also, you should always know why you lost money. But, don't over think it.
Your issue is that you've got a weak model of behavior. You need to build a trading strategy that gives you firm rules for entries, exits, and overall risk management. It sounds like you're good at cutting losses, which is awesome, but you need a better mental model so you know exactly what you're doing and why.
Can you explain R\R? Do you mean risk $50 to make $100? I also don't understand why when I buy one thing it's +1 share, but on another it's +100. I feel like that's something I need to understand better. Also, can I not look at the risk just before I place a trade?