Crappy week because I lost some money, but very minimal compared to the amount that I made the first 2.5 weeks on the month. Just crap to not come out ahead after working all week but that's the nature of this business I guess... unless you are one of those gurus that makes money every single day. I made some classic mistakes like not letting some winners run properly and because of this I did not come out a head. Since August 1st my futures account is up 43% so the month is still going very well. In term's of simulator, I see no value in it personally. I'd rather lose but learn some lessons along the way... the level of focus that I am able to exert and the lessons in stress management that I am gaining are priceless. This is something that would be missing from sim unfortunately. I have a history of doing extreme sports and the way you learn is by practice practice practice, you hurt yourself, get up and try again over and over and over until you get it. I see trading as very similar. To me the markets are not some math puzzle, its something you need to interact with over and over until you figure out the ebbs and flows and also how your own psychology / physiology reacts to it. You dont learn to skateboard, snowboard, mountain bike, climb, ride motorcycles by playing video games and reading books... you learn by doing.
eug, this was a tough week. Very choppy all week with exception of Tuesday perhaps. Very difficult to trade the aimlessness, a random number generator couldn't produce a worse chart. Hang in there, and DO use the SIM. A great tool to learn without risking but place yourself with mindset that it is real money on the line. I use one all the time, and I use replay feature to rewind the week, and practice trading it all over again. What did I do different this replay as opposed to what I really did do. A great way to question "why did I trade this trade here", what did I miss first time around and where can I do better. Losing days are (almost) impossible to avoid imo.
The obvious counter argument to this is that anyone who limits their drawdowns to days isn't taking on reasonable exposure to maximize their gains...and thus should work on their trading strategy. Risk and reward cannot be separated. Not to say either is correct, just different strategies.