Hey Fudd, practice for at least 6 months, until you triple that account, that would be a wise way to go. You have a nice attitude, good writing style, based on post, looks like the odds are in your favor ; the only key missing, is making the time your ally by spending more time, and holding yourself back from real money, for another 6 - 12 months. (look at it, as you were improving your resistance against FOMO, after all - markets aren't going nowhere) In the beginning, very few unicorns are resilient to Dunning Kruger effect, while most of us falls for it and that might turn into disaster. Don't want to see or hear about promising lad being ruined. Best advice - slow down with the real money, but keep this fire and enthusiasm while using paper accounts. Invite your friend here too, and both stick around, - lots of professionals to learn from. Watch out for that fomo, it might come in any shape or form, thus, be quick to recognize it. Timestamped:
Really appreciate all the great responses and support - was thinking I was goofy. Had a great opening today - trading (INO) - a really acitive un-shortable stock - spread was flying off the end of 100 line static DOM faster than I could reach for the "center" button - got some great moves (note:still got my "training wheels" on - traded with small positions). Wow - just wow - so fast - unbelievable! After the first couple of trades I got a bit rattled - excited - adrenalin - let my mojo slip and hesitated - one second is an eternity. Learned a bunch today about emotion/hesitation/knowing when to quit...! Wife saw my face and asked "lose today?" - "no, did okay..$1000 day if trading at fully weighted positions" - but - I fudged a couple of exits - let that voice in my head distract me. At his point the market was slowing down and I decided to pull out of trading due to a lack of composure - needed to chill. Looking forward to tomorrow - focused on keeping a cool head and a quick eye. Thanks again to all for your kind replies - cheers!!
This is just from my personal experience,but if you are going to scalp something like the ES on small time frames, you absolutely must use volume. Move on up to higher time frames, and its less important (for me personally). When you get good enough watching how price and volume reacts, you will be able to cut your losers quickly so they don't turn into a full loss,while letting your winners ride. Win percentage becomes less important when I am cutting losers at 1 or 2 points, and hitting 3-5 point winners.
Thanks again to all the members who have posted these very kind replies. This thread is stale, but I would like to wrap it up with this epilogue. My first journey into the world of trading has taken me down a path that has shattered my beliefs - in a good way. Today I played very close to the price - no plan - no expectations - frontal lobes "turned off" - chill - got my mojo back. Began shotgunning orders above/below price - cancelling orders left unfilled - laying down new orders ready to be gobbled up as the trades bobbed and rumbled along - buy-to-sell difference $0.10~$0.15 - more or less. ~60 trades in a 15 minute run of (NCLH) - not tedious - not stressful - it was kind of like fly fishing - quick, tight roll-casts up under the boughs of trees where fat, hungry trout lay along the shaded bank, ready to rise to the drifting fly. I was a bit disingenuous when saying there were no videos showing the style that I had accidentally discovered - there is a video - but I could only find 1 - just 1 video on youtube. Please note that stocks don't move as fast a futures - but the approach looks the same. Once again - a very sincere thanks to all! Oh yeah - it's the craziest thing - 15 minutes of "mindless" trading gave about 7% gain on basis. Cheers!
Yeah I trade like that. It's also like music to me, like a symphony being played, you just have to figure out the rythm. I've been trying to analyze it or put it into words, make it logical but found out it's quite impossible. Best way I can put is dancing to the rythm of the market. I think trading at its core is actually simple, but for some reason most traders just like to complicate things. Maybe they like to pretend it's a complex craft so they don't get compared to the the craft of the guy selling watches in the street, but they both have so much in common. So pretentious. Funny thing is this effort they put into making things complex is what kills them. People around here and in the trading community will tell you that: - What you are doing is not possible - You are competing against HFT - If you can't explain your strategy in simple words then you have no edge - The DOM is useless And a bunch of nonsense BS mostly coming from traders that don't actually trade. If you want one good advice let me tell you don't ever pay attention to anything any of these traders say or tell you. Ps: you will love futures.
Thank you - your reply means so much to me! Had to run to the next room and show wife/kids - they have given me some strange looks lately because of my incessant rambling about "dancing with the market" - said to them "see...I am not nuts!"