Hi Matt81, Thanks for your interest. I'm glad to know that you're doing the similar thing. Normally, I set a target and take profit if it hits. Occasionally, I'll modify the target manually if I sense a strong price move before it hits the target and let it run. Very often, I found the price changes the direction too soon, and I don't like to have a profit became loss. I set a daily goal for myself: $300/day. Not too much but good enough.
I ll be following you with interest but the above statement is wrong-you should stay with the trade as long as it's possible. Maybe eventually you graduate into 2 or 3 contracts then take one off at pre defined level and let the other run with a trailing stop. Setting a daily $$ limit has two drawbacks 1. forced into taking trades when you dont see opportunities 2. small relative profits on big opportunity days like today and yesterday
Hi GG1972, I think you made a very good point here. It's almost impossible for me to make $300 everyday. Losing days are part of trading life. I have also asked myself this question: what to do if I didn't reach my daily goal? Here are some calculations and an answer for myself: $300/day, that's 6K/month, it'll be 72K/year. I'll not evaluate my trading performance on the daily basis, but monthly. As long as I can make 6K/month on average consistantly for a year, I will make my final decision to switch to full time trading. Again, this is only a plan and i'm sure it's not that easy to get there. I appreciate your input. Thanks.
10% is still too big a drawdown. There is a stat called "Risk of Ruin." (RoR) and is near 100% for almost everyone. The bigger your drawdowns & your leverage, the much more likely and rapidly you will learn what RoR means...