Just a quick thought that might help struggling traders: You know when you are turning PRO as by that time, the quest for what works and what not will have turned already in a quest for what feels comfortable and what doesn't. Cheers
Your methodology is proven and sound, hence the mechanics of risk control and profit taking are what matter. Can you stay in that profitable trade 10 more minutes for those extra ticks? They add up to quite a bit... Can you acknowledge and cut that loss earlier? Those ticks add up to quite a bit as well... These are not "comfortable" things to do so to speak. Some more ideas: Are you comfortable/secure with your original assessment of the market AFTER you take the trade? Does an initial adverse move against your position make you anxious or insecure? Can you trade out of the red indifferently? Does being in the red make you uncomfortable? Do you trade differently after being up a lot early in the day? Mike
You will if your broker goes down, you don't have a 2nd broker to offset your position and you can't get ahold of anyone on the phone... Then you will feel very uncomfortable...
Well anyone taking this business seriously would use multiple brokers. Personally I use three, two on a daily basis. Good point though Anek
AverageDownKing would feel the most uncomfortable knowing he was buying into what could become a falling knife...lol...
<i>"You will if your broker goes down, you don't have a 2nd broker to offset your position and you can't get ahold of anyone on the phone..."</i> What professional trader would stay with any brokerage that is woeful enough to be described above? My first time experiencing that would be the last. Ever. One good broker is plenty.
Disagree, two brokers would give me a faster solution in case of emergency than relying on picking up the phone and calling them directly. Time is money (and I dont mean the US$, more like Euros) in trading is gold or oil since it's so pricey right now, take your pick Anek
<i>"Disagree, two brokers would give me a faster solution in case of emergency than relying on picking up the phone and calling them directly."</i> Time is money, and money is money. Two brokers = equal margin $$ at each to potentially offset one another. In order to trade that capital efficiently, every single day you'd need operate two platforms side by side. Either that, or you have dead money sitting idle at the backup broker. Not sure about anyone else, but trying to manage platforms for the ES and ER alone today, one broker was plenty hectic enough :>) I'll stick with one solid broker and make the very, very infrequent phone call when needed. I've never had an outage (none) yet (knocking on veneer wood) in nearly three years, which is something the IB guys may not be able to say.