Hello everyone! I have been in this game for over 13 years now. Ever since I graduated high school I was faced with the reality of the biggest crash since 1929, the 2008 crash. I was fearful and upset that it was just my luck to enter the real world at the worst possible time. However I was curious as to how it happened and how I could have seen it coming....Ever since then, I got hooked into the game knowing that I can prevent myself from being a sheep and also profit from it. Long story short- I've had a roller-coaster equity curve this entire time. I've had success only to be knocked down quickly. Long story short, the problem was that I did not respect risk management nor aware of it even. I've since been more focused on risk management, discipline, etc....and now would like to publicly journal a challenge for myself.. The balance on my futures account as of the close 2.1.2021 is $1,593.44 The goal is to consistently make a few ticks a day until I get to 5k, where I will then start increasing size. Right now my main product of focus is the ES on 1min. I have an auto liquidation set to 30%. (However thinking of increasing the % a little bit). Right now the main problem I am having is that if I am green for the day, I don't take another trade for the "fear" of giving back all my profit for the day and going red. However today, due to this "fear" - I missed 2 entries that would have been about 8 points minimum. Every trade should be independent of itself and it is something I am trying to work on. P.S. If anyone can help me with this Excel file, it would be greatly appreciated. I need to change the gain/loss but it's not calculating correctly. I am an excel noob so please forgive me
Its incredibly difficult to successfully trade the ES 1 min. I can successfully do it but its stressful, time consuming, and takes a ridiculous amount of knowledge and flawless execution. I recommend trading 60 min, 120 min, or 240 min charts. You are trading the bigger moves and are basically entering where the big institutions are entering if you are doing this right. I know this will fall on deaf ears, but most of us that became successful in ES eventually trade the higher time frames. Much more profitable.
if you actually could turn 2k to 20k while working, why the hell would you quit your job? keep working and keep growing the account. You can can set max limit on the account growth and build separate funds to diversify. but don't be a retard and quit your job.
I will one day probably move to higher time frames, but right now with a small account - I have to be very precise on my entries. I have to have almost the perfect entries and this is my edge. The problem is let's say tomorrow, I wait all day and there is no setup....I need to keep my mental check that it's okay and wait another day for the trade to come. If I was trading the larger timeframes like you reccomended....my stop will need to be larger- and I could easily hit the auto liquidation %. The other thing is that I have until 1130am ET to trade before being slaved away into my dayjob....thus don't have as much time for the larger timeframes to setup.
I agree with you. I have other reasons that I have been planning to quit. Even if I do quit my current job, I will probably take the smarter trade and still work somewhere else while building the account consistently.
Trade the micros. You can use a 20 point stop, risk 20 points or $100. As position goes in your favor, add on contracts. Easily get a 2:1 RR.
"account to $20,000 and then quit job?" ---------------------- Let's assume your living expenses are $1800 per month. That means you will be required to generate $21,600 per year in profits just to feed and house yourself. This will require >100% CAGR (which would put you in the uppermost echelon of traders on the planet), and your $20,000 will not be compounding. This is just the bare necessary to survive and keep your account flat. The stress of this lifestyle will be overwhelming. Had a bad month and your $20,000 is down to $18,000? Sorry, but it's the first of the month and another $1800 needs to be pulled out. Now, you are down to $16,200. You better fix your problem quickly because 30 days from now (22 trading days) we are going to need to pull another $1800 out.....and so on and so forth. The math on this lifestyle is relentlessly against you. If you can generate the >100% CAGR that I described above (99% of traders cannot), you would be far better off generating a track record and then getting funded by a prop operation. You will have no trouble finding outside money to trade with those results.
1.593K to 5K is 68 points/273 ticks gross. So, if your goal is to take a few ticks per day, you'll not reach your 5K goal until well into next year. I don't think going for a few ticks is a good idea for a multitude of reasons. Best advice given to you is to trade 1 MES at most. Did you look into NQ by the way? I hear many people say it's a more favourable instrument for day trading/scalping.
I admire your tenacity to make this work. Even after you have blown up, had to payoff loans with a line cook job, you still keep trying. You can’t keep a good man down. Good luck in your efforts.
Typical monkey journal. Guy who somehow is obsessed with the ES tortures himself in public by trying to tickfuck one of the most competitive markets in existence...underfunded and with a retail setup. Stake some airdrops you got via promotions for free and 10x your account with zero risk while you hustle for some cash. 1.5k doesn't even cover the monthly fee for half decent frontend+data