1. MM, MM & MM 2. Discipline 3. Turn your emotions off 4. Test your TS in historical data 5. Keep enhancing your TS constantly.
The best way that I've always known if I'm in the right position size to account size is to be worried enough, yet calm or bored enough, to have a healthy zen like focus. If you are too worried you will get shaken out of trades prematurely and you will be looking for every little reason to exit your trade. If you are too calm and bored it can detract you from keeping a responsible eye on the position and it can also mean you are not utilizing your money line to its fullest potential. So which ever position size puts you in an alert, focused, state of mind. This does take practice to find the right emotional "zone" but it makes a huge difference on your trading. If you are in the right state of mind you can really see the market and its future direction MUCH more clearly. Also, I realize that some traders are numbers people, (I have a friend like this and he likes to argue with me over this from time to time), and they prefer to use exact numbers, (percentages, volatility, past price action, etc.), to gauge their position size. I have always been more of a discretionary, eye ball it and watch my emotions, kind of guy. Queuing off of my emotions is actually part of my methodology now and I am always surprised how much more my subconscious or "sixth sense" seems to know compared to what I consciously believe to see. Each trader needs to find what suits him/her best but emotional awareness is key either way in my opinion.
Have they heard of risk/reward ratios in Zurich? If a trade makes 50 times your risk, I'd say that is a pretty significant gain.
Come on you guys don't give me this "you should never be worried about your position otherwise you are in a bad trade" bullshit. Everything we do is a risk in this business.........nothing is for certain and the trade could just as easily go against us than go with us. Its natural to worry and stress in this business (although at the tender age of 18 I feel like an old man sometimes). When the chips are down and you have to make split second decisions that might not be the most popular in the office, you have to hike up your skirt, grab your balls and make a decision. We play with real bullets here so its natural to worry and stress about what we do.
Zurich Axiom #1 Corrolary#2:- Resist the allure of diversification. I take this to mean, become an expert at one market, and master it. discuss
I recently switched to a new trading platform, totally different from what I was using. I demo traded for a couple hours one day and decided that was meaningless. It was so easy to trade recklessly knowing nothing was on the line. So I spent a week trading live, making mistakes, stressing out over live positions that appeared "out of nowhere" and ended the week down a few hundred dollars. My husband asked me why I didn't spend the week demo trading and making my mistakes there instead of wasting real money. YT, you nailed it. If you make a mistake and nothing's on the line, who cares? If you're trading your real money, and you're suddenly short at major support when you thought you were long, you find out just how clear-headed you can be in a pinch. (I hiked up my skirt, but wasn't sure how to manage that second part)
haha im glad you understood what I was trying to get across. This is a very tough environment we play in. And to think that you can compete in this arena without any stress you are sadly mistaken. Im glad you decided to trade live though, vs with a demo. There is absolutely no value in demo trading. It is so far away from the real thing that you will learn nothing. Gotta put your own dollars on the line and then, only then will you truly start to learn. YT