its normal when you are a novice or are trying out a new strategy, I blew my account the first time around, lost about $8k had about 130 loser and about 15 wins. but now when i look back i did not know even 10% of the things i know now. So it was bound to be a loss. As many say but its hard to understand when you have more than 3-5 losses a day call it a day and if you have over all more losers than winners in a weeks time then give it a break. Do something else for another few days. Revenge trading is the worst trading. Just accept the fact that you are not all there at the moment, rather then trying to prove a point by trying to force yourself to trade.
its doable but then chances are market might take back the profits since you will be going in for home runs rather than smaller trades.
margin $500 x 10 = $5000 2 points x 10 = $1000 $1000 x7 days = $7000. 2 points plus a day is doable atleast in es. gambler = cant do it consecutively. Trader = with proper risk management and entry exit doable.
Agree that "2 pts/day in the ES is doable and a worthwhile goal", but far from a "no-brainer"... and certainly not with a "78% lose rate".
just have to let it fly. the winners. average range these days are atleast 5 points. but keeping a check on emotions while trading lots with 10 contracts a bit difficult. not there yet.
I don't want to say never, because you might hit some crazy market that just goes up every day, but the chances of being successful trading on $500 margin are basically zero. Now maybe you have a $50k account and are just using the $500 for illustration, but otherwise it is not happening. The OP has a 60% loss rate and is already on a 14 trade loss run. If he is trading with a 1 point stop loss, that means, under the best assumptions, that he would be looking at a $7k drawdown. If he had a $10k account to begin with, he can't even trade his ten lots now, even with $500 margin. He never said what he is trading, but he mentioned the PDTR so I assumed individual stocks. I will say that my advice for newbies trading the ES is to have at least $10k of account equity for each contract, and $20k if you actually want to make it. Use big stops and trade one or two times day at most.
i gave an example taking into consideration op capital base. which was $26k. Even with a margin for 10 contracts @ $500= $5k he still has enough to cover for drawdown. But he has to use his wits and make sure his strategy is well suited for current prevailing market, I only trade ES and these days most ranges are atleast 5 points so i just gave a screen shot of my monitor along with the entry and exit strategy as per my calculations. Anyways i do not recommend anyone trading ES with under capitalization but i trade intraday so in never needed the full amount to hold the contracts. my stoploss are tight about 1.5 and i don't take all trades and any trade i take i offload 75% after a point unless i am very sure about the move ( which i probably 1 in 20) and exit all when i see first sign of reversals. i do not go for home runs even when the settings do indicate cos the stress is too much. i just am happy with a point or few points.