Okay. Another one of these threads??? You've seen this movie a hundred times. You know how it ends. The good guy gets shot dead, the screen goes to black and everyone goes home crying. Right? Not this time. So I've been investing for quite some time. I am knowledgeable in options. I well versed in trading stocks. Now it's time to dip my toe into the Pacific Ocean. More specifically, I'll be diving into the Mariana Trench or the Futures Market as it's known. I wanted to throw some money into this account to see how the futures markets work. To see what I'm up against and mainly To determine if I should add more funds into the ring in which professional boxers have the ability to knock me out in a given moment. I decided that $5,000CAD would be a good start. But then I thought, what happens if I do something stupid? So I decided to start smaller and depending on how things go I'd have more money to deploy. $1,000CAD would be my initial seed money. After foreign exchange and wire fees from the banks, I was left with $648.00USD to play with. That's not a lot. In fact, most people would say I'm wasting my time. To them I would say, "You're right. I am wasting my time." and just ignore their comments and move on. Now that the money was deposited, I decided to set a very lofty stretch goal. LET'S DOUBLE THIS ACCOUNT! Not in a "Let's put all the money on black" type of goal, but more of a "Okay, lets really try use to leverage to make some serious returns". Fast forward two weeks, here is where I sit: Some would say that I was off to a really bad start. Not me. I'd say I was off to a great start. I learned really really quickly that this market is like Clint Eastwood. It will shoot you down before you realize the gun battle has begun. It moves fast, it's relentless and it's unforgiving. It took me five days to hit the low watermark on the account. During those five days, I over traded. At it's peak, on April 27th, I made 58 trades sinking the account down to a low of $187.21. 58 trades?!?!?!? The only people making money were the broker, the CME and the smart people who took the other side of my trades. Throughout this whole process to then, I've been visiting this site (and the other one) reading journals and trying to learn. The first thing I did on April 28th was get smaller with my trades. I also decided to trade less. What I was doing previously was obviously not working. It was also going to guarantee the need for me to refund this account a second time. And on the 28th, the Gods and Deities of the market looked own upon me and smiled. I was back in the game. The account was at $550.37..... but was I really ready? I started to slip back into my old ways (were they really old ways? I just started!). I was over trading and buying selling way too many contracts at a time. Okay.... I may seem like a mule, but if you beat me I will learn. I made some rules about trading. I implemented stop losses (and stop gains). And because of these rules, I've been "flattening the curve" with respect to the losses. In fact, today we ticked up! Now some of you are betting on me failing. Good. Some of you are rooting for me. That's good too. But at the end of the day, I'm using this thread as a way to learn, to grow, and to develop. If you made it this far, well you must have a lot of time on your hands. But hey, seeing that you're down here with me and have some time, shout it out with me. Little Orange Line! Little Orange Line! Turn Up! See you tomorrow.
Oh right. I was letting a good story get in the way of the actual granular details. So I'm working with the Micro E-Minis. MES and MYM to be specific. I decided to play these due my background with stocks and options. I don't have the understanding yet (or the nerve) to go anywhere near the grains, the softs or the metals. It will be a while before I even look at those.
I have not looked at the micro Nasdaq contracts yet. It is an option in the future, but for now I'm cutting my teeth with the micro Dow and micro s&p futures.
Here are my trading rules as of 2020-05-06. Trading Times: Trades can only occur between 9:45am EST and 3:25pm EST. Stop Losses: On the MES, all opening orders must have a Stop Loss attached to it with an exit at -16 ticks ($20). On the MYM, all opening orders must have a Stop Loss attached to it with an exit at -40 ticks ($20). Furthermore, once a trade is profitable by at least 10 ticks, the stop loss will be raised to my entry price + 2 ticks. Contracts: All opening positions must be made with *1* contract only. I will add a *2nd* contract if there is heavy movement in my favor and the original trade is profitable by at least $15.00. Trading Limits (Total trade): I can only make a total of *5* trades per day. If I add a second contract to an initial trade, that will still count as being part of the original trade. For example, if I am on my 5th trade of the day and it is profitable by $15, I can still add a second contract to that trade and have it be considered part of my 5th trade. Trading Limits (Profit): There is a $20 daily limit to the maximum downside per day. There will also be a limit to the upside. No new trades can be placed once a $35 daily profit has been made. The only exception to this rule is that if I am already in a trade (before the limit up is hit), and that trade continues to be profitable beyond the limit up marker, I will let that trade run. Once the position is closed, no further trades can be made for the day. I will report back at the end of the day. Little Orange Line! Little Orange Line! Turn Up!
Okay. I'm done for the day. I made a total of 4 trades and was profitable. I felt that I was in and out way too fast, so I opted to not continue with a fifth trade or try to hit my limit up marker. Here are the trades that took place: Trade # 1 - Entered into my short position. Once the trade was profitable by 10 ticks, I raised my stop loss to breakeven + 2 ticks. The position turned around and my stop was hit. Trade # 2 - Re-entered the short position. When it was profitable by 10 ticks, again I raised my stop loss to breakeven + 2 ticks. Once I was profitable (and the momentum was on my side), I added a second contract.... however my break even + 2 ticks was pushed up by the system and I got stopped out. My big mistake here was to add that second contract with such a tight stop. Trade # 3 - Re-entered my short position in a position between the two contracts from trade # 2. It worked out better. Once I hit $20 in profit, I decided to sell it and lock in the gain. Trade # 4 - Market was coming off again, I decided to sell with the momentum. Trade was profitable by about 15 ticks, I was going to let it run. It started to turn around and I decided that I wanted out because I didn't like my compulsiveness with the amount of trading that I have made. Only 25 minutes have passed to this point. I need to get my nerves under control. I AM DONE FOR THE DAY.... i have the urge to get back in, but I won't. I'm shutting down the trading platform and am off to other things. Either way, that Little Orange Line! Little Orange Line! Turned Up! today. I am done See you tomorrow.
great mister. today trade is quite straight forward. Russell 2000 went down first. Then ES. It took quite a while for NQ to go down. I trade quite differently from you. I do scale out. ie I enter with many lots. As price move in my favor, I take profit.
4 Trades in today and I hit my hard limit down on dollars lost. Trade 1 - This trade alone should have allowed me to hit my limit up for the day. I spent the better part of the morning looking at the charts and following the price action. As soon as I entered the position, it was ticking up (which for me is usually a good sign). It got as low as -4 or -5 ticks at one point. It rallied back to +10 ticks and started to fade. I got out at +3 ticks. Within second, the volume came in and ran it up 30 ticks. I nee to start being more patient with my trades. In fact, I should just set my limits and walk away. Trade 2 - Decided to get back in and around the area I entered originally. It started to tick down right away (which isn't a good sign for me). It didn't work. The trade itself was limit down, however I still had a tiny itsy bittie touch of wiggle room to play.... Trade 3 - I figured I would switch to the MYM and take a punt. Trade ran up +10 ticks, I raised my stop limit to breakeven. MYM came back and stopped me out. Trade 4 - Okay, I got the direction right and would take another punt. Got stopped out right away. This portfolio is taking two steps forward, one step back. For tomorrow, I plan on only making *2* trades. I want to make them count and I don't want to rush into anything like I did today with trades 2 through 4. We want to make sure that Little Orange Line! Little Orange Line! Turns Up!