Don't bother. Pilaging other people's trading accounts is NOT the way to earn a decent living... The Bible even warned of this evil. Look up speculation/speculator in the Bible...
Well why would everyone come here(or even become a trader) if they knew it couldn't be done? Obviously guys know it can be done otherwise we wouldn't be here. Can you explain what you look for when you scalp the 6E/A?
And there's the parable in the Bible about the father and three sons and how they invested their money given to them by the father. You might as well say corporations with financial arms and airline companies that buy oil futures contracts are the only ones who can trade. I attended a job fair for Pacific Gas and Electric once and the presenters commented how they had a bunch of investments and investing arms (probably hiring traders) to shore up their financial problems. The idea of futures has been around before the dark ages. Farmers had sold contracts and speculators are needed for liquidity to move those contracts around. Retail traders are a speck compared to firm and block trading.
3 trades? Of course not. You are not seeing the other fills on that screenshot because of the scrolling feature when you reduce the size of the Fill Window. Let me try to put the speculation as to the authenticity of the P&Ls and Fill Windows to rest again. I did that with with the comparison on Nov. 4. I am attaching the same P&L from the web portal for that day as well as the X_Trader Fill Window. Also, if anyone uses X_Trader, you know you can reduce the Fill Window and therefore it creates the scroll bar to move up and down to see the other fills. For ET postings in a public forum, I take the screenshot with minimal info! And believe me, I know what I set my self up for when I started this journal, but I thought we could reach a point where more benefits could be conveyed to others (and myself). I am not sure, but I think I will shift gears from here on to "how it cannot be done", followed by "how it can be done", or in the reverse order, and just start posting the blotters in the P&L Thread.
In today's economy, going to work at some factory and hoping the company has the funds to pay you your earnings can also be considered speculation. When I first started trading, trading was speculation, but after over thirty years, trading is not, it becomes like any other job, price patterns you have seen thousands of times before. Instead of what most do, open an account and start trading, if they studied for three years the price action of ES, they would see all the reoccuring patterns.
Very broadly: It cannot be done on SIM. SIM is great to get your feet wet, but you have to go through thousands of hours of riding the "trading a live account" emotional roller coaster, losing and making money. Then and only then, you have to strive to become "gross" profitable (profits excluding commish/exchange fees, etc.). For me, once I reached that point of "gross" profitability, things turned around! So, instead of trying to become profitable on SIM, start with very very small size/account and try to become "gross" profitable. One tick at a time, and it starts to add up at the end of the day, week, month, year, etc.:
applejuice 06-14-11 09:41 PM "Staring at orderbook for 1 year. Insane?" "I have a mind to stare at the orderbook of a particular product (eurostoxx 50 as it goes) for a few hours each day, for 1 year." booked 06-20-11 04:08 AM "I have done it, best thing I ever did. You should do it. Make sure you record everything, try everything and make as many trades as you can(if you're on sim) to gain as much experience as you can, sure it takes a long time but eventually you will start to see people and not just numbers." 31st July: Quit my Job 4th August: Became a barman 15th November: Funded Velocity Futures free X-Trader Account ($15,800) Been watching L2 orderflow, recording every session with Camtasia, and uploading videos privately to youtube along with my own annotations. Reading this thread with some interest.
Scalper, Can you elaborate on your statement "it became very clear which side needed the liquidity". Also, is there a reason you don't trade ES? Thank you
Can you elaborate on your statement "it became very clear which side needed the liquidity". -Took the words out of my mouth.