This is something that we who have never made more than a few hundred k have a hard time understanding. I have a friend like that. If in any given trade there is not a realistic potential to make a few grand then he feels it's not worth his time. It's really not that difficult to understand: If you had $50M and only another 30 years to live, would you engage in any activity whose only purpose is to make money if all you could expect to make was $20 an hour?
Lobster That is a good point in how different people who have no worries about money and those who still worry about money think. Unfortuantely I still worry about money.
So do I. Probably a lot more than you. But I have one advantage compared to the average guy: I am not what the talking heads on TV would call a "sophisticated consumer", i.e. I don't buy things I cannot afford.
After reading your post I thought why wait? The $10 commission was the brokers default rate for Globex trades. Since I never made one before, they didn't bother to adjust it. They're lowering it to $5.79 r/t starting today inc. all fees. Seems ok for a full service broker to me.
Thoughts Went over the 3 trades yesterday again. The first 3 executions looked good. The last 3 were all early (early exit, early open, early exit). I was focused more on making the 4+ pt goal than trading well and made some mistakes. I'm going to try and concentrate on trading well and let the final numbers take care of themselves today. Also noticed if I hung around during lunch yesterday, I could've dumped my last bad entry and improved it by at least a point. I'm going to hang around today and have a pizza delivered to see if there's any lunchtime opportunities. I traded all of 2003 again on my laptop simulator. I improved the overall results by about 30% from Tuesday. One thing I noticed was I have no clue around the open. It looks like that's where there's lots of big moves but I couldn't do any better than guessing. I read in other threads about 10am reports moving the market. I wonder if that's why the early price action looks so random. Yesterday was a inside day. In other markets I usually see a bigger directional move after inside days. Lets see if it happens today.
Money, I'm glad you mentioned this.. because I too suffer from the same problem.. I have a goal of 2 pts. a day.. which I feel is very attainable. And I find myself trading to meet the goal.. Getting out of trades early because I may have exceeded it by a small margin.. and then taking mediocre trades thinking all I need is 2 pts.. Was reading Trading in the Zone again last night.. and Douglas states.. focus on trading well.. on good entries and exits.. I'm working on that.. but it sure is hard.. Good Luck to you
moneymoneymoney, What are you looking for, to get you into and out of your trades this morning? I saw your 1023a trade as well but don't see the exit unless you were just targeting a certain price. Thanks for contributing. You are obviously an experienced trader and I'm still learning, so I hope you don't mind my questions. jd