Hi just funded my TOS account for 5.5k, I plan on trading futures and some options. I know I'm undercapitalized and over leveraged (even trading eminis) but so be it. my rules I plan to follow: -Don't trade every tick. Trade what you know when you know. -Take and accept losses. No doubling up the next trade. -Never, never make a trade because you need some quick $. -Accept losing trades. As long as you follow money management rules you only need to be right 51% of the time to be profitable. -Remember trading futures and forex are zero sum games. It's all about outsmarting the other guy. I'm going to post right after every trade I make. Nothing looks trade able right now but I am eying google call options. If google falls much farther I'll probably pull the trigger.
marvelous. Now papertrade your trades for 6 months and DON'T TOUCH your real money until you can prove profitable on paper. That is step 1. If you cannot make fake money, you will never make real money. 95% of new traders lose their money. You are not different. That is step 2. This is the only way to save your $5.5K account. It can disappear in weeks.
You scare me, KXvid, just by your intro you need to step back and sleep on your cavalier intentions....forget all the mumbo jumbo you have espoused. You need to articulate a trading plan and then apply it to paper trading/sim until you have got it down "pat"....and if you ignore this advice, please send a check to the Salvation Army for $ 50 up front, before you lose your money. Good luck.
Buy 1 YGZ8 @ 820. Thats one mini gold future December expiration. Rationale; Inflation is at 13%+, this a relatively low cost basis for gold; Gold may go down to 777.8 or so, but if it stays there all physical will be sold out and futures prices will have to adjust to physical demand; I figure there is a very high chance that gold will be above 820 between now and the end of december, because of some bank failings, concerns about bank solvency, another bear stearns, fears about inflation, sellouts of physical gold causing gold futures to adjust, etc this is my first trade ever btw im 18 been watching the markets since the days of googles ipo good luck traders
hmm well im debating if i should scalp it for a profit of $72 or let profits run... i think ill let it go awhile looks like its going up and its fun to watch
Great call on the Nat-Gas at 7.85 on Labor Day. Now trading 7.16 and you are DOWN 10% in one day! :eek:
Looks like the smartest thing you have done so far is post your thoughts here. you have received some VERY good advice and you should take it. Start paper trading. You have now said two things in two different posts that tell me you will lose your money. 1. I am up so now I am happy. You should not be happy or sad based on PnL. You should be happy or sad based on trading your plan and following your rules. If you follow a winning plan than it doesnt matter if a trade is good or not as the average will take care of itself. 2. you dont know if you should take the profits now or not because you do NOT have a plan. Your 18 yrs old and you think you can just read the same old news and numbers as everyone else and YOUR going to know better than everyone else and take money out of other peoples pockets. Do you think that the other traders that your going against are worried that someone without a plan and is basically blind and walking around without a cane is going to beat them in a game that they make a living at??? close out your trade, start working on a plan that tells youwhen to buy and when to sell based on back testing. Then paper trade that plan to your blue in the face and have a few months under your belt. After all that you will most likely lose your money but you will last longer than you will now and you will probably learn a lot more as you will have a better understanding of what is actually happening. I was once 16 and trading. I sure wish I had someone back then to help me from losing and losing and losing. Regardless if you do the right thing and try to learn from others or if you are arrogant enough to think you know it all I wish you the best of luck. You have a lifetime to figure it out.
Made 3 profitable trades today, all short on dow minis. Total account equity: 4,612 , 16% drawdown @1Reason; Ive done paper trading over at cboe.com. They have a thing that allows you to paper trade futures, options and stocks. I managed to turn 16k into 60k papertrading during the commodities boom. Also Ive done backtesting, using wealthlab software. I coded a few systems, and learned alot. Ultimately, I gave up on it but glad for what I learned. As for not having a plan, your right. I expected to leave the trade on for a few days, but when I was up $72 I felt like just getting out. It was my first trade, okay? I didnt know how I was going to react to profits/losses. In hindsight I should've gotten out then since gold continued to tank and that was the only moment the trade was profitable. As for being smarter than everybody else, EVERYBODY who trades zero sum games thinks they are smarter than the other guy. Yeah Im 18 years old. Ive been watching the markets for a looong time. There is a bit of a transition from watching the markets to participation. Some draw downs will occur. The markets have no direction now. This is a hard time to be trading for anyone.