Basically, your 40 contracts are about as likely to lose money as they are to make money, especially at the open.
%% LOL, never thought of that. Some like making more than $ 00. 10. But i did pick up a dime ..... past 20 days
Trading is a profession, just like engineering, medicine, law, etc, which may take a few years to learn. Here is a fresh poll on years taken by day traders to learn : https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/poll-how-many-years-needed-to-learn-day-trading.306659 A few natural traders may take less than one year, and they may learn without any formal training in trading. Others may take a few to many years to learn based on factors like whether they are self learning or taking a formal training, how much time they spend, how passionate they are for trading, creativity, etc : https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...enough-to-live-on.306459/page-11#post-4403875 Here is my thread intended to give a basic day trading guidance from psychological view point and with a complete day trading strategy for case study : https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/day-trading-basics.305348/ If you understand that trading is a profession then you would also understand that trading can be learned either through comprehensive/extensive self study or proper training and that it cannot be learned through bits and pieces of advises. Can other professions like engineering, medicine, etc, be learned through bits and pieces of advises? More than 90% of the traders lose money because they actually don't treat trading with due respect as a profession and think that a quick study, couple of secrets, a few short cuts, nice advises, some luck, etc, will help them succeed in trading. Is this the way to learn a profession? Sooner or later they lose money and blame that trading is gambling. New traders who have natural trading skill will have ready insights of what is important and what is not so important in trading which helps them to shrink the learning curve drastically into almost less than one year. For other new traders every single aspect has to be tested while learning which will take many years to identify and prioritise various aspects of trading. On the other hand the new trader may opt for learning through adopting a ready wheel (ready strategy) instead of re-inventing a wheel (self study) which may save his learning period by about 50%.
%% Congrats M.....T. For starter$, Mark Weinstein won the options trading contest, BY NOT increasing his size; Take [trade] part of those profits+ buy or borrow[LOL]Jack Schwager's older trading books- the one with Rich'' turtle'' Dennis, 2. Actually, believe it or not you can actually limit losses with some derivatives; wisdom is profitable to direct+ good move on $50 level. Its a miracle i remember that number#50-mTT