I should have listened to my own advice and avoided fast moving GC! I was making steady money in NG because it's slow moving. Then WHAM! Today GC wiped me out!
what can I say..same old story..i don't post that much now as too busy testing and practicing..it takes a good while to get everything set up correctly so that you can trade effectively..it is not easy..but it is very boring!!! you are still all over the place..last post I remember from you was the one about how you made some nice money on a cruise holiday..only to give it back before you left the ship..i think it was you anyway? you are doing the same thing over and over..so..you can expect the same results..i have traded for years..made and lost a nice bit of money..and after a break am still in the returning process..as I know only too well what "will happen" if I do not stick to my plan..which I am happy to say I am doing..and will continue to do no matter what I don't really care what anyone else says or does..as it will have no affect on my outcomes..so be careful what you think about what others post..most people mean well..but unless you know a good deal about trading then listening to what others say can be a costly mistake!! one thing I have re-discovered..is..until you get to the stage where it has become boring..and you fell that you don't even want to trade most of the time due to the boredom of waiting for the right setups to present themselves..then you can take it that you will continue to get sucked in and more than likely lose money..one needs to decide..does one want excitement and felling good about oneself..or does one want to make some money..we all know the answer..but very few have the ability to stick with what is actually required spend your time wisely..do not waste it on things that do not really matter!!!!!
Hey ETers: I've been consistently profitably. I'm at a stage where I only dreamt of years ago.Yes, there were some outrageous down days(GC I lookin' at you). But since then I have just banging it out consistently. So, my next question how do I SCALE this up without affecting my psychology. Someone taking the exact same trades as I've been trading but upping their size would have done really well! I'm trading way below what I could be doing. What should the scaling plan be? Double the size? 25% increase in size? at what intervals do I increase size.. Thanks! @ironchef @Overnight @Giddiyup @sillyw10 @murray t turtle @MarkBrown etc
it is hard for someone to get inside someone elses head..but..nothing ventured..nothing gained:: firstly..I would not even consider taking on more risk until you are 100% satisfied that you know exactly why you have winners and losers..this eliminates the luck element of your trading strategy..and makes the only luck..and bad luck..you have to deal with is being in the right place..or wrong place..at the right..or wrong..time!!!! then..if you use the emicros..you can buy 2 to 5 MES contracts which equates to one fifth to one half of a full ES contract..no need to elaborate on this!! the best way to increase profits is to only take on more risk when the market has a higher chance of moving away from its current price fairly quickly..it can keep moving..or reverse and go back the other way..which is why you need a strategy that allows you to trade what you see..and not..what you think!!!
in pain there is gain. so when you have a losing streak and feel all beat up that is the time to add on. if you are insecure and have doubts, take action. to quantify this get a spreadsheet "i may have one" that you can put all your trades into and then your looking for better than average performance to lighten up contracts and worst than average performance to add on contracts. using excels formula quartiles.
The only person who can figure this out is you, on the psychology front. Once you figure out the psychology bit for yourself, you will have a better angle on how to approach your future futures trades. For example, I have told you a few times that if NG is where you are making your bread and butter, then stick with the NG wins, and stop letting GC tease you with occasional wins, only to take away all of the GC wins, plus NG wins, and you end up worse off. I.E. If you wish to dabble in gold, then do it in the MGC. As you try to learn gold, which I told you was it's own animal, your losses will be small. Your wins will be just as small, sure, but we need to focus on controlling the losses, not the wins. A great example on the psychology front is how I held a bad long on the MNQ entered on Aug 21st, and was applying my analysis on market recovery north over past market behavior after it started tanking. It's max drawdown was about 250 points IIRC. Some in here have chastised me for holding a swing through 200, 300, 400, 500 points. Some would have bailed at the peak of BE in the range. Others would have bailed at the bottom of the range. I held fast, and let my own psychology do the work, and decided that on Friday, with the entry in the Federal Register about the tariffs going into effect, I feard the gap down, so I closed the position at 90 points loss. I am so so tried of gap downs, lol! Sure enough, it gapped down on no Trump repreive. It can recover, sure. But I exited my position at a loss early so I could regroup my thoughts over the holiday weekend and start fresh. That is the psyhology I face. It will NOT be the psychology YOU face, because you are the only one in your own head. You will just have to trust me... Stay out of room 237! Don't over-extend yourself in markets you do not understand. Stay OUT! (I.E. Sure, scale up one contract in NG, give it a whirl.)
You should ask for mental trading coaching in order to address your specific psychological challenges.
Hi...Haven't talked to you for awhile. Got Firefox and had to regain a lot of info. If you don't mind me asking...How much of your time (money) in on consulting (bird in the hand), and how much is on day trading? It seemed like you needed to settle on that old issue, before you would consider ramping up the expansion into more full time day trading...
I daytrade about 2 hours in the morning. Because I on the PST time zone, it works out to 6:30am to 8:20am. Then rest of day is for "work" and non-trading activities(family, errands, etc.). Now that my trading has improved there are days where my daytrading profits is greater than my daily consulting gross. However, I think that's a very misleading stats becaue there are days I'm down, flat, or make very little. And there are days I'm so busy that I don't even get to trade. I will only get excited once I get to year end and see the total net amount from trading vs work/consulting. In between is just noise. But I know that's not a fair comparison since I only daytrade 2hrs in the morning and work the rest of the day. Not that trading more hours will always necessarily equal more profits. Maybe I trade more and lose more. I dunno. So, check back on Dec 31, 2019 or sometimes early Jan 2020 and I can do a recap. Hopefuly it will be a lot better. How have you been?
I'm good. Getting older (turned 64)...Medicare here I come!! Playing with a grandchild, another one on the way. Still do my boring covered calls on stable stocks (think Schwab, ADM, PG, Exxon). Waiting on SSI and talking with my CPA on how to move money around (without getting clobbered tax wise). Have two rentals and a 20 acre farm we lease out in Stanislaus County. Farmland has gone through the roof here in the Central Valley!! The State of California has "nationalized" water. Those who have it will be big winners. Much of the farmland (like Kern County) will be going dry in the next few years...See "Chinatown" with Jack Nichelson to get an idea. Much of the state will turn into an Owens Valley. Here is a good read from Wiki on Owens Valley...We are seeing it before our eyes. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiuzvrogKflAhVIF6wKHfXJAv8QFjAAegQIABAB&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owens_Valley&usg=AOvVaw2FSBpTiR-yGC5GMFgF4IR_ Also have been going through a Christian 12 step for certain drugs and anxiety...Doing better there. "One day at a time, one moment at a time". Later, Cabin111