I started a series of online articles on money management. I think it can help many beginners out there who are asking the same question. http://www.daytradingbias.com/?p=623
OddTrader knows very well the answer to his rather sarcastic question. He is just playing mind games eeer like most.
AFAIK, there are always some hidden rules on et board. Anyway, FYI: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=74615&highlight=stages Q 1. We accumulate information - buying books, going to seminars and researching. 2. We begin to trade with our 'new' knowledge. 3. We consistently 'donate' and then realize we may need more knowledge or information. 4. We accumulate more information. 5. We switch the commodities we are currently following. 6. We go back into the market and trade with our 'updated' knowledge. 7. We get 'beat up' again and begin to lose some of our confidence. Fear starts setting in. 8. We start to listen to 'outside news' and to other traders. 9. We go back into the market and continue to 'donate'. 10. We switch commodities again. 11. We search for more information. 12. We go back into the market and start to see a little progress. 13. We get 'over-confident' and the market humbles us. 14. We start to understand that trading successfully is going to take more time and more knowledge than we anticipated. Most people will give up at this point, as they realize work is involved. 15. We get serious and start concentrating on learning a 'real' methodology. 16. We trade our methodology with some success, but realize that something is missing. 17. We begin to understand the need for having rules to apply our methodology. 18. We take a sabbatical from trading to develop and research our trading rules. 19. We start trading again, this time with rules and find some success, but over all we still hesitate when it comes time to execute. 20. We add, subtract and modify rules as we see a need to be more proficient with our rules. 21. We feel we are very close to crossing that threshold of successful trading. 22. We start to take responsibility for our trading results as we understand that our success is in us, not the methodology. 23. We continue to trade and become more proficient with our methodology and our rules. 24. As we trade we still have a tendency to violate our rules and our results are still erratic. 25. We know we are close. 26. We go back and research our rules. 27. We build the confidence in our rules and go back into the market and trade. 28. Our trading results are getting better, but we are still hesitating in executing our rules. 29. We now see the importance of following our rules as we see the results of our trades when we don't follow the rules. 30. We begin to see that our lack of success is within us (a lack of discipline in following the rules because of some kind of fear), and we begin to work on knowing ourselves better. 31. We continue to trade and the market teaches us more and more about ourselves. 32. We master our methodology and our trading rules. 33. We begin to consistently make money. 34. We get a little over-confident and the market humbles us. 35. We continue to learn our lessons. 36. We stop thinking and allow our rules to trade for us (trading becomes boring, but successful) and our trading account continues to grow as we increase our contract size. 37. We are making more money than we ever dreamed possible. 38. We go on with our lives and accomplish many of the goals we had always dreamed of. UQ
Thats excatly why I said you know the answer. ET is just a medium to pass time. All the items you have listed are the phases that successful self-made traders go through and usually takes 5/6 years to get to point 38 which I guess OddTrader is operating at.
Obviously you don't know yet this hidden rule: A successful profitable trader would not spend time posting on et! D:
Why not - if you make your decesions at the End of the Day or End of Week - there is plenty of time to play on ET. Its not everyone who trades in nano-seconds on the emini index casino thus has no time to socialise during so called market hours.
Surely the amount you risk should be based on your longterm expectation. If you have an edge then you should risk a proportion of your bank relative to that edge. Therefore if you dont have a positive expectation you should not trade at all. Trading is no more than gambling, so its best to look at books and academic papers in that area for your answer. I can recommend 'The theory of gambling and statistical logic' but I'm sure there are plenty of others.