Another update. This week has been tough! I gave back a lot of gains and some! A lot of learning experience. In December and January, I was trading options actively and was on a nonstop winning streak. But this week I made a series of clerical mistakes on Robinhood and also I traded stuff with just wide bid-ask spread that I got filled at the worst possible prices! I was down thousands just getting filled?!! Painful lessons learned. Despite these losses, I'm still up more than double from my lows. This happens everytime I trade a new asset class. Before I was really bad with stocks and now I can trade that with size with ease. Then futures I was bad but now a bit better. Futures it's hard you gotta be fast. Yesterday I was up over $1K,which in the old days was a lot but nowadays i'm used to bigger swings and I let it sit there. This morning markets reversed. Unbelievable. Gotta have profit taking targets too. Now I'm actively trading options. Dec and Jan were just too easy. I was basically printing money everyday. But the mistakes this week made me rethink how my approach. I still have 10 months to go. Can't give up now when I have a few viable edges. Just need to refine and add more learnings to my arsenal. Gotta go to work!
Trading is a business or job where you cannot say that you have done a lot as you are just a smallest part of a big network. You just need to do as much as needed. Do not try to do something special as this market is cruel for smart people. You have to respect it!
Steady goes it. This week been making $1K-$2K a day with just an hour in the morning of trading. If I don't try to swing for the fences and just do my regular trading I should be fine. Next step is to make it consistently so then steadily scale it up. I want my average day to be $5K-$10K. When I achieve that then I'll be confident that I've made broke out of the Matrix and become consistent. Until then, I gotta head to work now.
trader99, Why you keep switching assets after you start making money ??? You battle hard to start making money in stocks including getting to the point that you can trade it with size and its easy. Oddly, you didn't just stick with that. Next, you moved into Futures and it was bad but now better. Next, you moved into Options and stated it was just too easy (printing money everyday). Why not just stay with Options and keep printing money everyday ??? If not, what do you plan to trade next...Forex ??? Seems like you can't sit still or not satisfied with printing money everyday. You must have brokers everywhere. wrbtrader
wrbtrader, That's a good question. When I started out in prop trading years ago, it was all stock. I was a beginner trader so I still new to the game and didn't do well. Then I went back to Corporate America. I traded futures with had lower margins requirements. The results were mixed. But net down. Then things came together and now I'm doing better. I started trading actively options late last year. The reason I like options is the fast moving nature of it. I've seen options doubled or more in a matters of hours. But like any new asset class, there is a learning curve. So Dec and Jan I was printing money. Feb I took a big hit due to misjudging liquidity of small cap options. I've learned my lesson. Now in March I'm up nicely MTD but still recovering from Feb losses. Now I tried to trade more liquid options like QQQs and GLD etc. With those you can swing size and still be able to get in and out without getting killed. That's the plan going forward. But to be honest, the patterns and price movements are fractal and same across asset class. The nice thing is now I can trade multiple asset class with ease. I read about BPTH stock. I wished it came up on my scanner. For that instance, I would have loaded up on BPTH and sell intraday(never hold something that crazy. the next day it was down 45%). BPTH doesn't have options yet. But on 3/7/19 it went up so much that there's no need for options leverage. LOL. And on days when my scanner doesn't pick up a crazy mover like that then just trade options. If nothing else is moving then futures. BTW, I also have traded cryptos successfully. More arsenal in the toolkit. Some people like to focus on one instrument. I tried that and found that difficult especially when your one instrument is not moving. I like to hitch on a ride of a fast moving thing. Different style.
seems like you are all over the place...which is why your results are the same...the human mind is much better suited to limited concentration...but hey...do not feel bad about yourself...as you are doing exactly what most do...when the markets opened up many years ago...new strategies had to be conjured up by the cozy cartels as they had lost their guaranteed percentages...cannon fodder had to be maintained at all costs...and I must say...they have done a very good job of it!
interesting question...some say a chart is a chart is a chart...I don't think anyone who tries to make money trading VIX future spreads might agree with that statement...which leaves another big question...what are the best markets to trade and how does one know which market is best suited for oneself?
Perhaps. Nowadays, I'm exclusively trading stocks and options since those are the only ones available on Robinhood. Wait til 12/31/2019 to tally more results. This year will be the breakout stellar year...
For a lot of future indexes some days they just oscillate in range and there is no much movement; but stocks/options are a different story and you can always find something to trade; besides, a lot of stocks just follow their own movement path without being influenced by the general market conditions, which makes it easier for trend trading. Almost for any hour, you can find something to trade, so you can set your own trading hours, so you have more control in your trading in term of active trading window.