You are awesome man. My problem is number 1 and number 3. I tend to let my losses ride just as much as I let my profits ride. I have to learn to just cut the loss and move on. I can't make excuses like: well I'm paying $4.00 in commission per RT. I never take gains way too soon. Losing 10-15 times in a row is not something I'm really prepared for. I have to work on that as well. Thanks so much for your help
lol. I think I've learned my lesson on that one. Having the experience of losing in the way in which I did, I don't think that I will ever let that happen again. I will stick with 6-lots probably until I get back up to $35,000. You are right, Trading bigger size when you lose is gambling. This was my downfall
I certainly wouldn't go to any prop firms telling them you blew up a 30k account. That wouldn't help you I'm just saying, right now, you are showing some of the very many similar posts I have seen that people have failed. So you either got to stick to it, or accept it. You came into this game wanting to make money. When what you should have done with that 30k is made it last for years and years for you to practice with. I had 4k last me for my education. I blew my futures account once, and refunded it, and then slowly started losing more and more money. If I had 30k, I'd have plenty more chances to refund that account and try working at it again. The fact you blew up 30k in what I assume is a shorter amount of time than a year is kinda insane. You should take that last 8k. Because I know that even though everyone here says it's doom and gloom, you are going to try it anyways. That is the way people work. They try no matter what just so they can say "at least I gave it a shot" Well if your going to give it a shot. Take that 8k, and make it last for as long as humanly possible. Trade 1 contract. Once you do good with one contract... and I mean, really good. I mean for at least a month straight, being fairly consistent in your equity curve, then move up to 2 contracts. If things keep going well keep doing that for awhile, if things get rocky, jump back down to 1 contract. This is how we should all learn. When I first funded my futures account, I traded 2 contracts. Because I felt I could easily get out of 1 contract and hold the other one to let it ride... it didn't work out, it took away twice as much money. If you have a string of bad trades, trading 6 contracts. Compared to trading 1. Just think about it, do some math. You just lost 6 times more money then you should/could have if you only traded 1. Don't think about making money. Think about being consistent. Just realize, if you made even 50 dollars a day, that is way more amazing than making 1k one day, then losing 2k another, and then making 5k another day, and then losing 4k the next. It's not consistent. Look at the trader P&L thread. Look specifically at someone like Red_Ink_inc's blotter. He posts all of his stats. I have looked at all of his blotters. I'm dead serious, I have viewed every single one since the day he first started. I notice he is consistent. I even PM'd him and told him that it looks like when he tries to do 5000+ shares on average, his P&L suffers it seems. But I learned a great deal, that he is consistent. So maybe you could try that, just view all his blotters, and notice how he does. I only say him because he posts the stats with his blotter as well, no one else does. You can see what it takes to be a great trader. You have to be consistent. Doesn't matter if you are doing it with 40 contracts or 1. If you can't be consistent with 1 contract, you will never be consistent with 40. But if you are consistent with 1..... there is a hell of a lot more of a chance you'll be consistent with 40 then....... and only then. You should trade 1 contract. You are down to 8k. Do you really want a few days to be all you get out of that money for your market education. Realize you just blew 33,000 down the drain which you could still have a substantial amount of right now if you just traded 1 contract. So just take that advice..... how you use it is up to you. But you need to make big changes. I had to make changes because I didn't have much money left to lose, and I had to make them happen fast, and I did. So you must do the same. Adapt... Change... Do whatever it takes... or just be one of the 95% that fail. Do it at all costs or nothing will help you. But realize this... and you MUST accept the fact that you have a gamblers mentality. You need to start asking people how to get out of that mentality fast. You need to write down rules and look at them every day saying you will not trade more than one contract, and you need to set a stop loss that you will abide to no matter what. If you fail to follow those rules, you better torture yourself, or something to get you to follow those rules. You have to step up your game right now if you want to do anything.
That's what I've been doing all along. I found that with 40-lots, there was no wiggle room so I had to be right on target every time i put a trade on. By averaging in, I don't have to be 100% right on my entry. So i sell 2, if it goes against me maybe sell another two. and if it goes back down below my initial 2-lot order I sell another two. This way I have three tick wiggle room. Sometimes if my initial 2-lot goes against me I will just exit the position and not add on any more size; i usually do not like adding size to a losing 2-lot position. This strategy seems to work most of the time but sometimes I see that the 30-years don't move that much in a day and so those 3 ticks may be like 30% of the move for the day. I'm thinking about moving to the ten-year since I've been watching it for a while now. Averaging in is key though; i know that. Thanks
My plan is to trade the economic numbers. That is basically what I've been doing. On slow days, usually mondays, I use basic support and resistance levels.
But... why would you stick to 6 contracts? You do realize that is gambling? If you don't get anything out of my posts, you better do some basic math. 6 contracts or 1 contract. You get more time to learn with 1 contract if things go wrong. You get less time to learn with 6 contracts if things go wrong. You have a gamblers mentality........ which one would make sense to do. Are you really that focused on making that money, that you will still trade 6 contracts?
averagin' down is not key it is plain wrong if are inexperienced'n'have taken a a string of losses..an unexpecetd event will wipe u out again but for good this time. addin' to losers can be done but not as main strategy just cuz u see u can often end up positive; u shud add up to u winner not martingalin' ad infinitum but i can see u won't listen'n'i frankly don't care anymore, it's u money'n'u life.. gawd willin' u'll wake up sooner or later.