Thx for the advice guys. I went out for a jog to clear my head, can't believe i blew all that cash in just a couple weeks. Days actually... but I won't stop trading. I won't be taking ridiculous gambles. I need to go back to the way I was trading 3 weeks ago, before I started losing. I started opening up stops more and more these past 2 weeks, going for homerun plays, and it's hurt me alot, and sent me spiraling. Tomorrow I will (hopefully) stay the course and just come back eventually. Stay tuned...
On second thought, I'm going to paper-trade tomorrow and take an early weekend off of the markets. Anytime I ignore good advice, including my own, I get burned. I'll see how I feel on Monday. I just need to post a profit tomorrow and hopefully gain some confidence back.
Observations: (for what they're worth) Today before 2PM was a nice easy time to make money --- the YM (which is the only thing I trade) drifted upwads casually (no violent swings) all morning I made money and got out the period from 9:30 - 2PM EST was somewhat atypical in the last 30-40 trading days --- because it was so 'gentle' compared to recent price action I got at at 2 and paper traded the fed news ---- made 200 bucks on paper but had to watch my paper account swing -1500 bucks to get it I prefer the 9-2PM price action --- -no home runs just easy singles
If the map you have in your hands is for LA, no matter how many times you turn it downside up/upside down, it will never get your to NY.
Traded only a couple of hours in gold today. Paper trading is really boring, but I used realistic stops and fills. Simulated results: 6 trades, 2 losses. Gold, +1110 1 trade. ES, +12.50 Not sure if the profits are realistic, but today was a very trendy day. I'm going to go out n pick up a couple of trading books today. Also going back to live-trading tomorrow if the trend is right, if not I'll simulate another day.
you are coming to your senses blu,glad to see it ,kind of represents a mental bounce back from the trouncing u took,hang in there,there is a lot more to trading than opening an acct, as u well know, try swing trading by jon d markham,easy read,there are at least 3 great traders and their methods in that book
thanks ammo, u've been a great help. i'll see if barnes n nobles has that book. i think i have a slight edge over the markets already, if i stuck to disciplined trading. problem is when i take a few normal hits, discipline goes out the window and it mighta paid off like once.
if u paper trade til u start to see 1 and than 2 things that work 75% of the time ,and that might only set up twice a day,at first,u will be able to trade enuf to make 300 a day and that will keep u in biz til u learn more,if you r not seeing setups yet ...wait til u do, trendlines are easyto learn, start with dailys draw channels. then intraday draw 30 min,then inside of those draw 5 min,think or swim has interactive charts for free with an acct,i think the minimum to open is $3500
I use Infinity Futures for futures trading, I think it's pretty straight forward. No access fees...but analytical or good charts eitehr. You get good bang for your buck with IB but they have no good charting or analysis, I closed my IB account few months ago. I for charts and stuff I use TS.
I'm going to keep usin IB unless i stop meeting the margins, right now I'm safe because I have a more than in the account than what I'm using in this journal. I found Quotetracker to meet all of my needs as far as charting goes, and it's free. I picked up a TA book, a chart patterns book, market wizards, and swing trading. And checked out a few more from the library. Going to digest as much of those books as I can this weekend and start live-trading again this Monday. I kept out of the water on Thursday because Gold was not trending well, and didn't quite want to paper trade the ES because, frankly, paper trading is boring and the ES was grinding it's way up slowly. I've devised a new set of rules to follow until I change the rules. This way atleast I can record how many times I break my own rules. Game plan for next week: Going to stop trading excessively until the account returns to a healthy amount, or anywhere above 7K. Standard 100-150 stops will be used. Going to try to spot 1-3 entry points a day, and paper trade all impulse-entries. The trick here is to preserve my capital and let it grow with the highest probability. If I lose $500, that's my stop for the day, no more trading. I realize now that losses snowball into more losses because my mind starts going numb. If I hit 0 in the account, I will papertrade for a month before starting again. I have reserves that I'll decide what to do with after that. I'll only be trading on "trendy" days, meaning I'm staying out of choppy markets all together, save for papertrading.