Increasing size is the goal of every future trader, that is the reason we play this liquid market I think it is important to differentiate when talking about ways to increase size. For a beginner it is not so clever to increase size from a 1 lot to a 5 lot if his risk per trade increases, say from 1% to 5%. That risk per trade should stay nearly the same, so size only increases proportionally to account size. But if you just want to try how it feels and test your emotional resilience when putting on size, you can of course do some very selected trades with five times the normal size. On the other hand, if a pro like Cutten decides to trade 100 lots from now on, he might have a sound risk management and knows from experience that his style of trading produces very small max. drawdowns. In this case he can lift his trading (income) to a whole new level in an instant. But this requires rock solid confidence and a very consistent daily performance.
It could be dangerous game you are playing. I'm sure you know, trading is a risk control game, not a conviction game. I am assuming stepping up your size was consistent with your risk control plan. If not stepping up size based on conviction is, I believe, planting seeds for future trouble. The most common way to eliminate fear in trading is to change your beliefs/attitudes towards the market, by creating new more purposeful beliefs through positive experiences. Step by step. Then it is not a matter of jumping in and being brave and fighting your fear. You just do it. Because thats who you are. Is your trade of 100 lots a "belief to prove yourself" expressing itself? If so, congratulations for identifying it. Examining it and creating new more purposeful beliefs to help achieve your goals could be in order. That is what successful traders do. If not congratulations for your achievements.
Cutten, You're a really bright, knowledgable guy. But to take a 3 or 4 tick risk for a 4 or 5 tick profit seems questionable at any size. I would just make up your mind what percentage of your capital you want to put up on any given trade, and stick to that (taking into account: price, multiplier, and volatility). As your capital increases, your size will increase proportionately. The worst thing that can happen with larger than usual size is that you take a larger than usual loss, and then feel obliged to repeat the process in order to get your money back fast. saxon
@Cutten Like Tradersaavy I'm interested in your fills: looks like you got partial fills at your open, the market were trading between 92 - 94 then. How many fills at what size? Many Thanks Bernd Kuerbs
Cutten, you have balls and I respect you for that. It seems like you may have a greed -and ego-problem though. I really can't see why it would be someone's objective to trade huge size. I don't think that was a good trade you let a 5 + tick profit vanish. To me that would be inacceptable. Remember your next 100 lot trade you may be down 3 ticks in a flash. I probably will never trade 100 bunds and I am quite happy with that; IMO there is no point doing this if you don't scale out. 10 or 20 on 1st tick 20 at 95 20 at 97 20 at 98 and the rest on the way back down
He just tried to let it run. Average daily range in the bund is around 40ticks, so I don't consider 5 ticks an huge profit that he should have necessarily taken. At the time he bought the range was only 20 ticks and the trend of the last few days was up, so it was not a bad decision to try to get more of it.
I understand it was getting close to the top of the range but he started thinking about a bigger move. The goal is making money it's not about making a killing or being able to tell everybody at the pub that you trade 100 lots
What an absolute chump. Your thought process betrays you. It is surely just a matter of time before I dance over your carcass. Never sit with size when money is on the screen. Buy ones and sell nines in 10 hours? Not for me sir...... Buy ones and sell fives 10 times in 1 hour. Go home, paint the fence. Shopping. Cinema. Meals out. Easy women. Crack. Yours 200 lot Bund Trader