Investing is easier, but boring. No challenge for me. I shorted during covid and bought stocks at the exact low in 2020. I sold some stocks way too early after( I didn't think we would hit all time high immediately after unfortunately). I am also heavily long bitcoin/ethereum from March 2020 and that's where most of my capital is. Futures on the other hand- like I said- I had no respect of risk management for futures trading prior to a few months ago. I did not know what the eff I was doing. I wasn't even using a legit futures trading account. I've learned a few things however. And this is just the documentation of my process of my own challenge.
That’s your investing account? Good work. Nothing wrong with trading small money then in which case. As Hilmy said, if you turn the £1k into £20k then just utilise the capital and keep working.
Success in trading is defined as making money, not by making the maximum amount that it is possible to make. The market is a big ocean of money. We just need to take a small amount of it at regular interval. To many times, guys are saying 'I should of..' because they let money on the table. Letting money on the table is normal. The goal is to make money, not to make all the money on the table. You make money, you succeed. You lose money, you fail.
Hilmy83, Exactly. Also, the fact that he states he's been focusing on risk management and then states he will increase his size when he reaches 5k... Later planning to quit his job when he reaches 20k... He does not understand risk management. Simply, as you noted, if someone can make 20k trading the markets while holding down a job at the same time... Keep that job and continue growing the account because shit does happen and when it does...a person wants to have that security blanket of a job to cushion the fall sort'uv speak. wrbtrader
Agree. Depending upon your vehicle and good fortune, you might turn $2k into $20k... but that's most likely to occur when the "bull market wind is at your back". That's the easy part. You have to cope with and live through the tough parts, too. Give yourself time to experience and learn that before making any "job" decisions.
A trader wants to get these right, but shorter term charts are valuable for better entries/stops.... and by "shorter term" I mean 5/10-minute and shorter charts. Recommend using longer term charts to show you "where" and shorter ones to show you "what". (I understand most of what I post is poo-poo'd, but I do it anyway for the "sharper knives in the drawer".)
Competitive how so? I guess I'm dense, but I never really understood that statement. What prevented anyone to go long the Open today with 1000 contracts? Surely the liquidity to do so was available? Agree on the ticks, though. Better to focus on capturing a larger chunk of the currently very big swings which are on offer on a daily basis. There was a time in the past when ES was moving very slowly and as such was not an attractive day trading instrument. Not so in recent history. So far today: + 30; -11,50; + 18,25; -10,00; + 9,25 for a total of 80 points. And today was a slower session past noon and we're not yet finished. The only thing that's preventing anyone from accessing those points is methodology, lack of experience and other short comings. I don't see that there's any competition and especially as a retail day trader.
Day 2: ES missed the 3809 bottom as I was playing around on Tinder waiting for setup. Market internals gave me a clue but again, I was playing around on tinder looking for poon and not $. Stupid Net gain of 5.5 points MES - Was a choppy auction open- thus played around with MES than ES as odds were not in my favor. I should have traded once and not multiple times. Net loss of 17 points. I should treat MES as equally as I would trade ES and be more selective.
Day 3: No trades taken. Open was pretty choppy and didn't want to chase once it broke out as that's not in my tradeplan. There were a few areas I could have technically shorted and bought and I would have been green but too much chop on the 1min for my liking. I see that NQ is also choppy, and later today it might breakout- but that's fine. I don't have a need to make money. My only focus is to trade well. Punting a few times will always make me want to punt. I need to remain disciplined to wait for the setup in my trading plan.
Day 4: Non Farm Payroll #'s came in around expectations but below ADP's #. Not sure what to make of it. Personally I thought it was bad-as market could have been pricing in a big beat due to ADP. But I trade off price action and not what I think... Account balance is now over 2k. I am probably done for the day unless I see an A+setup come my way before time for dayjob. ES- Net gain 3.75 points MES- Net gain of 5.25 points