Sorry i didnt take the time to read all the pages but basically all i needed to read was that you were trading 40 lots. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? Given your situation i would have been trading 1 contract at a time. Thats right 1.
It is true I went overboard with 40 lots....and my account suffered dearly for it. If you had read some of the posts of recent you would know that I have had a great comeback since then. My account was brought down to just under $5000 from $40,000. I have made a lot of money back over the last month and a half or so (now up to $35, 000+. I had a bad day today but I don't think I'll be having any more "devastating" days because I am very quick to cut my losses and very slow in taking profits..... Only GOD knows what is in the cards though..
WOW. What an unbelievable month. I made so much money buying bonds this month I am surprising even myself. I won't even say what my account balance is up to now. Needless to say, I am very very happy.....thanks all for hearing me out on this thread.
Hey LivermoreRisen / Truthseeker, What's your account up to now? I would like to know if you don't mind. Also, when you talk about trading # of lots, are you talking about scaling in and out and the # as a total for the day or are you talking about 40 lots per side at any given time?
I've been scaling into positions with my max position at 6-lots. get out if my initial 1-lot goes bad on me...add more size if position goes for me and let the profits run.....that's basically what i've been doing....
If I hired traders, I would hire you in an instant [from the little that you have shared here] Someone with enough balls to trade their own money this way can probably make a shitload when they learn the way the game is really supposed to be played. Along with your capacity for reflection, all you need now is "technique" and experience. You can't teach guts and reflection. The things you are lacking can be learned. nitro
Do what this guy says. No you don't have serious issues as others have stated. Everyone loses. Read Market Wizards, EVERYONE loses or blows out an account at some stage. I love newbies who think trading is so easy because they put on one or two winning trades... if only they knew what was in store. I know one guy who made 25% in his first month, so he quit his job, bought some fancy setup and started 'trading' fulltime. By the end of the next month he had pretty much lost everything, and had to find another job. Anyway, it's good to see you are committed, but as JSL_Capital said, just take some time out and do some reading and paper trading. The market isn't going anywhere, and if you trade now, you'll probably lose again. It's obvious you need to do some reading, and for starters I'd also recommend Van Tharp, and Trading in the Zone by Douglas.
Thanks for the positive comments. I appreciate it. While I'm up so much money in my account now, I have to be very careful that I don't let it get to my head. I need to just keep on doing what I've been doing these past few months and not let my performance affect my decision-making. Every day I remember what it was like trading on the brink of a complete blowup and this makes me more conservative in my day to day trading. I never want to see my account go down to $5,000 or less again and I must do everything I can to make sure i prevent that from happening....having been there makes me all the more determined to never find myself there again....
When I read this I thought "how can you trade 40 lots on a 30k account" but did some checking and found that the margins on ZN and ZY are only about a third of the margin for ES. Why are the margin rates on these contracts so low?