That's a large stop for a day trader - especially if it's hit. Is this more like a disaster stop or do you actually take a 10 point stop-out? If you have a high win percentage it should/could work, but make sure you get out before it's hit if you find out your trade isn't working out as planned. With 2 of those in a row you need a 'miracle' just to break-even on the day. Do you have a daily loss limit also? 30 points per contract is a fairly large drawdown, IMO. I'm using 10 point initial stops, too, but they're more like disaster stops and I usually don't take a full stop. I will also breakeven my entry or tighten my stop as soon as the trade goes well in my favor. Rationale being I don't want a winner to turn into a (big) loss and figuring I could always re-enter if stopped and the original trade idea is valid. This can be challenging in a fast market, but as a general principle I try to do it. The reason I'm using such wide stops now is because I usually have a good grip of where the market is going - broadly. But my entries aren't always the best, i.e., I can be a bit early at times and the market may have another 5 points to go before turning. And I've lost count of how many times my 'read' was correct and I got stopped out for multiple 3 point hits before the market left the station without me (or with me in a 6-9 point drawdown). So, wider stops have been beneficial to me, although I am taking on a bit more initial risk too. Personally, I believe the solution is to clean up and improve my entries. There truly is areas on a daily basis where you actually can enter with a 3-5 point stop and it will never get hit. The key then is of course to be very selective and only enter at those key areas. And avoid entering trades where 10 point stop is required. No easy answers here. Sorry if I sound like I'm preaching, but it's something I've been thinking a bit about myself lately.
I believe e2t (just recently) allows NT to be used instead of rithmic. You'll have to get the code from e2t.
I've also been tinkering with a 5-point stop. The fact that my system was really good about not violating the trailing DD much proves that my entries for the most part are fairly risk-averse. I'm also a fan of wider stops to avoid getting "shaken" out of my position. One step at a time I guess. The first one being actually respecting my stops. Agreed. No easy answers which is what I love about this game.
Sorry it did not work for you - With this experience , whatever money you have spent on resets, could you have been better off by doing the following A) With same rules ( % wise) use the Micro contracts and trade your own money ? although smaller amounts at stake t is still real money at risk OR B) first try SIM and then Option A) and then only consider these "Pay for test" options? Please don't misunderstand my question... I am not asking this to rub salt in to a wound but with the honesty you have shown about p/l would you mind looking at this also
I tried E2T and LeeLoo Trading and I'd recommend the latter over E2T. LeeLoo's $74 ten day challenge is inexpensive and there's no additional "subscription" BS. If you bust out, you can reset for another $74. Of course, read all the rules. Like E2T, there are a ton on 'em. One major consideration is you've gotta trade 10 days straight. If you don't hit the profit target you can convert to a regular account with a subscription. For me, as things went along Leeloo's $6K target was clearly going to be unobtainable, and I busted out twice late in the game increasing size to try get there in the ten days rather than spend the money to convert the account. I had terrible lag and connectivity issues with E2T and busted out early because the interface with MotiveWave led me to believe I wasn't flat when I was, so I exceeded the maximum number of ES contracts. The E2T Rithmic instance would continually hang at the 5 second mark so I only had the connection with MW to know what was happening. Yep, my fault, but of course E2T wouldn't do a courtesy reset, so good-bye forever. Rithmic worked great with LeeLoo so I could always see what was going on under the hood. Of course, had E2T not charged $4.44 per RT for micro ES contracts (are you kidding!) I'd have been scaling in and out with multiple MES contracts to remain below the threshold. My overall experience with both companies led me to add some new money to my existing account. I found I immediately more relaxed without the additional psychological overhead to "perform" or to overtrade. Live and learn . . .
I truly hope that Earn2Trade (as it is right now) is not forced to shut down their operations -- as I do believe they provided a really good opportunity for traders