My account has been in a downtrend since its inception and it's damn frustrating. Look on the good side, eventually you have to run out of money.:eek:
I recognize something in GG that I see in myself. I really want to do it on my own..my own way. This is stupid and I'm trying to get past that. It must be at least partly an ego thing. g
ges, That's exactly how I feel and why I'm so frustrated. Although you have a year or so on me (I started in '99"), I really can relate. So many times my friends did stuff but I stayed at home and stared at charts, made an Excel spreadsheet, or read a trading book. You really just get an empty feeling when you think about all you have done and realize it hasn't amounted to anything. Actually, it even seems less than nothing if you've lost money, too.
He may have a good system and yet be a poor trader. Having a good system does not automatically make you a winner.
I am sorry for him but I have already seen several of his posts and it's always the same old song. He is telling us that he is struggling but is sure that he will make it one day. When people ask him about trades/systems, he rarely seems to be open for any sort of help.
Gorden, my two cents from someone who has been through the mental wars. You must create a mechanical system that works, and first master that. You need to remove the impact of any emotionalism on trading. Find or create a system, and trade the signals, and only the signals. If you don't have a system that can prove itself in backtesting and trading, that is simple, logical and makes sense, then in my opinion you need to ask yourself "What the hell am I doing trading futures??" I say this in the best spirit of trying to help. Step back and be honest with yourself. You may have learned a very valuable lesson, which so many great traders have had to learn. The question now is, are you going to use it and move forward?
Gordo has been one of the the most successful elitetrader member. This person has a unique edge to start a thread that easily extends almost 10 pages in less than 12 hours. Think about it and find something to do where you can use such an edge, Gordo. Well, maybe you are already doing or wanting to do such a profitable job. Let me give you a hint. You see, for example, if you become a salesperson to sell mechanical trading systems, I assure you will be more profitable than most users. Yourself is a live example to encourage people use mechanical trading systems. Good luck
Gordon what is your freaking problem!!?? I'm sorry but if you're not stupid as you claim (and that assertion has yet to be proven wrong!) then you are majorly DUFELESS!
GG, have you ever tried to become a scalper? I don't think the ES or NQ would be the optimal instrument for that, and now that the NYSE is trying to become illiquid, I can't even recommend you take a look at that, and it wouldn't work for you anyway (due to the stupid PDT rules). But it sounds to me like you are sufficiently disciplined, and since you have been seriously studying the markets for years, you probably already have the little bit of gut feeling required to be a scalper. All you have to do is try (which might be a problem, since you can't really test a scalping system on a simulator), but anyway you might be surprised how easy it is to make a little bit of money (but very consistently) if you sit in front of the screen all day and pay close attention. Just try to buy when someone's sell stop goes off and sell into someone's buy stop. The trick is to avoid panicking yourself and getting out at the market, but at the same time have the disciplin to 1. take scratch trades or slight losses while you can and 2. in the rare instances that you can't, get out early enough. By that I mean something like 15 or 20 cents on an average NYSE listed stock. That's kind of the only thing that works for me on some level: I do a couple of hundred shares per trade. Since I am rather new at trading and not a very good trader yet, I usually trade 10 to 30 times a day, with lots of scratch trades and small winners/losers, a few big winners (15 to 40 cents) and even fewer big losses (when I get out at the market, usually for a loss of anywhere between 10 and 40 cents). It really looks like a bad system when you compare it to what others here do and what you "should" do, but on the average day I make 70 cents gross and 40 net, and that's enough to pay the bills while I learn to become really good at it. Now the one problem I still have (and have been trying to eliminate for months now) is plain and simple lack of disciplin. Every few weeks I just refuse to take a loss and ride it for a full point or more. So what I get is something like 2 weeks of +0.40 days followed by one -1.50 day or something like that. It's not bad enough to destroy my bottom line (anymore), but it's the biggest problem I'm working on now. You wouldn't believe how hard it can be to set and observe a simple "catastrophic stop" when you are in "scalping mode", always trying to somehow get away with a scratch or near scratch when you are wrong. I think that's because you basically make all your money from people who do exactly that (observe their stops), so you don't want to be like them, but of course we all know that everyone sometimes has to. In this post I really come across as an idiot, don't I? It's probably the fumes from the silicone spray I use to lubricate my rubik's cube...
If you can't trade worth shit, don't play with futures. If you hang around a firing range everyday for 4 years, and know the ins and outs of how a gun works, but everytime you pull the trigger you shoot yourself in the foot, what would you do? Continue to shoot yourself until you die? Step back from the plate, get some training (either from a mentor or self taught), come back and trade on a simulator to prove that you are ready. Why can't you swing trade? Why do you have to be a daytrader? Because you can make more money daytrading? How is that working out for you? Personally I would rather trade 10 shares of SPY and hold for a couple of days and make a few bucks, then trade futures and blow out right away (which you are going to do btw).