lose a lot per day, help!!

Discussion in 'Index Futures' started by davidscal, Nov 12, 2009.

  1. davidscal

    davidscal

    Hi guys, I am totally new trading this mini s&p 500, lose so much today. It seems at any time the market can go against your bet. Please any suggestion??? Greatly appreciate.
     
  2. What were your credentials before trading futures? Do you have any background at all? Have you sim traded before? Finding edge is what trading is about. I find it through algorithmic trading, and you might give that a shot before gambling.
     
  3. Answer these questions:
    1) Do I have a plan for entries/exits and is it specific enough that I could write it down and give it to someone else to use?
    2) What is my risk management plan? How and when do I adjust my position sizes when facing a drawdown?
    3) Am I adequately capitalized to trade the particular commodity I am trading?
    4) Am I keeping a record and analyzing each and every trade (especially losers) to determine if I can improve on some aspect of my plan? What mistakes am I making over and over without realizing it? Can you tell me exactly what you traded 3 weeks ago, what your entry was and why you entered and the result?
    5) Am I overtrading?
    6) Am I trading with "Scared" money or could I survive it suddenly evaporated?

    Remember, trading is like playing football (American style). You have to call the correct play (trade setup) based on the game situation and execute that play (order entry/exit, position size, stop placement) correctly. If you can do that on a consistent basis, chances are you will be wildly successful in the long term.
     
  4. davidscal

    davidscal

    Thank you so much for the posting. I am absolutely new, no background, no simtrade. I admit that today I am purely gambling the up and down. would you please give me more detailed info about these techniques such as finding edge? Some reference are even better!!Thanks!!
     
  5. First recommendation is to stop trading live...period. If you don't, you might as well close that account and donate it to charity, because at least you'll get a tax write-off.

    I usually make reference to the Anekdoten (search for his username) thread, because that's one I've been browsing recently and he's got a lot of good info there, but I'm sure you can find a bunch of others.
    Trading style is very particular to each individual, so it's almost impossible to point to something and say "Go DO," but like many things you can give an example and perhaps someone can modify it to suit them.

    You'd be wise to do some searching for Money Management and risk control as well and I believe there are some threads on ET for that.
     
  6. Suggestions:

    1. Stop trading.
    2. Develop a COMPLETE trading strategy including entry, exit, stop loss and money management.
    3. Test your strategy in simulation mode.
    4. After you are consistently profitable in sim mode, trade one contract with real money.
    5. If you make consistent money with real money, then congratulations -- you are a trader!
    6. If you are not making consistent profits in live mode, then go back to step 1. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

    It took me two years to get it right. I hope you can do it faster.
     
  7. You are quite a few years away from breakeven.

    I can hardly believe you are even telling the truth here, few new posters can be THAT clueless... I vote that you are another face of one of our multi-alias people...
     
  8. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that maybe you need to STOP LIVE TRADING.

    You don't know what you are doing and if you want to stick around long enough to give yourself a chance, you can't wipe out your trading acct now.

     
  9. gaj

    gaj

    stop trading.
    sim trade smaller size.

    watch, write down what you see. repeat and wash on a daily basis.

    read, although there are tons of crappy books out there, there's also a wealth of great information, most now on the net.

    oh, and if it wasn't clear - STOP TRADING.
     
  10. If you want specifics, you need to ask specific questions. These forums are great for clarification or deeper explanation of something you don't understand. Blanket questions such as "I don't know what I'm doing and I lose alot of money" will just gather snide comments or blanket replies ("trade in sim", "learn money management") which do you no good.

    It'd probably help if there was a New Guy section with some threads that everybody asks about (how do I select a broker, what is an option, an intro to risk management, etc) and you get a link to this when you sign up for your account.
     
    #10     Nov 13, 2009