"Then again why should he do what everyone else does if the norm is that most fail? " Hmmmmm... if the norm is that most fail.. I'm thinking that not trading, much less STARTING trading, during a holiday week might just be a pretty good reason.
If your stops work for you, please excuse my comments. No harm intended...Best wishes..If you stay committed, there is no doubt you will succeed. I worked for a man who spent hundreds of thousands trading only the Emini S & P 500 futures contracts, and he fizzled, slowly but surely because he would not accept input from his employees, and he had a great system?? Ran his stops too wide, and gambled with multiple contracts, when his system was not proven..He said if we captured 5 points each per day we would all get rich...He was correct...with multiple contracts ..I am scared of this business, but know that I have a system that works realtime. I won't share it with the public, and maybe no one but I would use it.. When you arrive at the final system to begin trading with, please use extreme caution, go to breakeven on good runs if you want more, or become very adept at trailing the stop. I think I remember your comment that 2 contracts to enter, exit with point target of 2 or 3, the bring the 2nd contract to breakeven for bigger points...Perfect strategy after you feel confident with your system and 1 contract, unless you have an enormous amount of trading capital and losses don't matter to you..If you can't tolerate losses emotionally, then please forget this business. That is where a system you believe in and have proven will keep you trading. The constant remarks I've made about stops is a result of many stopouts just before the move continued in my favor. My system most of the time will allow 3 or 4 point stops. Realtime price moves can leave you wondering what happened..
porgie, I assume that by you making these comments you have found that by analyzing your MAE you have found that it is most profitable to have a stop this large and still retain a good system at the same time. If you have not done something like this then I highly suggest you do. By simply eyeballing charts and deciding that you need wider stops because on some trades the price kept going without you is a worthless way of approaching something. Tons of research has been done in areas like this and it has been routinely found that our brains remember the times where price kept going without us much more than the times when our stops kept us to trade another day. That is why I do not worry too much when I get stopped out and a move continues on without me. The only time I have found that I need to substantially widen my stops is during the first hour of trading or so. With a 3-4 point stop what type of profit target are you looking to make on a trade ? What is the percentage of times that your system wins ? I am just curious, I know you do not want to share your system but I would be interested to hear how some parts yours works.
Trading the e minis have been harder than I had thought! I started trading them 1 week ago and down -$1500.00. Shame on me for being honest and posting that I have a loss. Seems like all you see is everyone posting how much they have made and never a loss. I'm not sure if the e minis trade this way all the time or the last week an exception. Basically I will enter a position with 2 contracts and set a stop loss for 1.75 points. Needless to say that my stop losses have got taken out. Overall I have had close to 80% winning trades; its the couple of ones that I decided to pull my stop loss when I saw it getting close to being taken out and averaging down with 4 contracts that has actually caused me to be negative after a week of trading. For me, I feel comfortable with 2 contracts. I get more nervous holding 4 and I had 6 one time and just about couldn't breathe. So I'm going to try and continue to apply better money/risk management and then get into more contracts when I feel more confident. Yet with discouragement that I have after last week, I can see that there is a large reward if one can manage risk well in regards to futures. So any advice from anyone who has done well off futures? Am I on the right track? I guess time will tell.
I never widen stops. I usually set 4 point stops and adjust toward breakeven as move progresses...THIS IS A RUTHLESS BUSINESS....4,000 hours of studying 400 charts have shown me where the stops should be set. If the trade is strong, the safe stop points are easily recognizable and rarely will be threatened. I use a point target of 3 or 4 points unless indicators tell me the run is strong and then I move to breakeven and wait for exit setup. There is a much better way to ride the LONGER runs than trailing the stop, although I will trail loosely if several points appear and run is strong ....I never see a pattern that is not extremely familiar, but, all patterns are not relevant...... The system tells me when the move is strong or weak, without volume or any other outside indicators. I know I am setting myself up for ridicule, but here goes.....Trade real money only when you have complete confidence in your system, disregard external information ...CNBC...GREENSPAN, ETC...TRADE when your system says ENTER/EXIT..... breakeven is good, especially if trade weakens or changes to ugly. My system is dependable. I have confidence in it....it didn't happen overnight. Trade WITH the trend, and know when the run is over. NO ADVICE INTENDED. ONLY MY IGNORANT OPINION...
2 will work for some and 6 will work for others. I am not knowledgable enough to advise....I guess I just see some going through what I've experienced, and wish them well. Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas. But how can your system know if the move is strong or weak? And why not trade the news flow? Some times the eco news makes som very strong movements. You can go with it or wait for the rebound.
I have a problem with anticipating the move when my mind is biased in a certain direction. I finally quit doing that.....I trust the system more than I trust me. So many times the initial move is the opposite direction short blip before the real move.. I guess it is natural to assume when bad news comes, the market goes down, and vice versa..Maybe, maybe not....If the system tells me to buy/sell/exit, then I should do that. Plain and simple. Greed, fear, bad systems, biased minds, and mistaking paper trading success for reatime success are some of what we must get past. Please don't trade based on anything I say...I just make comments, like everyone else. I wouldn't tolerate the verbal abuse on these boards if I wasn't lonesome for interaction with others with the same passion I have for trading this stuff. I had a neighbor who lost $4,500 his first week out.Paper trading told him riches were at his fingertips..he traded loose stops, no proven system, and shot from the hip..He soon lost twice that and now says there is no way to make money in this business..He didn't have a dog's chance to make it. I encouraged him not to trade...He wasn't prepared for realtime... Excuse my weekend rambling.......I wish all traders good luck.