how big or small $$$ is your account..this would reveal a lot of how and why you trade...please advise...
My 2c 1. You need a high winning %age 70% is a reasonable target. 2. Trade 1 instrument in minimum size until your can consistently win greater than 70%. 3. Never let a winning trade turn into a loser. 4. Don't waste your time paper trading or backtesting. 5. Once you are winning consistently play around with position size, scaling, etc. 6. Keep reading everything you can about the markets and trading. I'm just a small time trader but in the last couple of months thanks largely to the advice/info on this forum my trading has started to become consistently profitable. Happy trading
Thanks for the replies. I have to agree with dropping the ER2 and trading 1 lot YM's if at all. Before I traded real money I doubled the ToS Sim account 3 times consecutively within ~5 months. Although the default Simulation balance is 100k, I assumed a 10k account and traded 1 lot ER2 and 2 lot YM's always taking worst case bid/ask fills. I was not under the illusion real trading would be that easy. I think that a big part of the problem is the ever present realization that my tiny account (tiny even at 30k starting equity) could be near wiped out or worse with any serious market event. Even though I'm flat everyday to reduce this risk and always use hard stops any serious event could hurt before I got filled. 100k I'm probably fine as long as flat everyday...30k or less and somewhere in the back of your mind you fear the worst case scenario. Pretty tough to relax and master trading psychology in that situation. Futures are such great tools but I'm obviously struggling with unnecessary fear. RiskyMove, your reply reminded me of the first 6 months of trading where I would momentum intra-day trade front month options on very liquid stocks, Q's and the DIA's. My technical analysis was probably decent and I would place intra-day momentum bets of ~500 on front month options with roughly a -200 stop. I had piece of mind since no matter what the market did that session I was guaranteed a maximum risk of $500. Consequently, I had the balls to keep my stops and even patiently hold many strong day long trends. Come to think of it I don't remember ever holding a futures trade for the entire day, even if my gut screamed to hold it and maximize the gain in such a strong trend. Am I wrong in thinking that day trading highly liquid options markets such as the DIA's, Q's, SPY, and IWM is just as profitable if not more than than day trading stocks? Also, less equity exposure. Upon daily review my setups for the futures markets are correct the vast majority of the time. Like I said, I just don't stay in the trade. One solution is to use my current trade triggers and just use front month options with comfortable bet sizes and reasonable stops.
Some good replies in my opinion. When I read the original thread, the two things that immediately struck me were 1) you should trade only one market and 2) yeah, your stops are way too tight. Learn one market and cut the size to allow for a proper stop. Then reading through all the replies it seems that this is what all the other guys are saying too, so it's a high probability that this is your problem. With your account down by two-thirds you have to change something, so start there. Good luck...
In case it was misunderstood, I was cancel/replacing my original stop orders and closing the trade in those 4 examples. The reasons why in my recent reply. Any further thoughts always appreciated.
You might want to think about your methodology 2 good value guys you can get a start from who arent out to rip you off are Frank Butrea at Balance trader who teaches Market profile and another guy is Ryan Watts both are pretty decent guys in a market filled with snake oil and deciet. They bith have an active base of followers who maybe helpful as well. Cheers
Yes, I agree, Ryan Watts is pretty good. He's a good guy and the system is straightforward and well documented.
It takes a lot of capital to scale-in into futures, he mentions his capital is down to 10k. Not even the YM would be adequate with this balance. At the same time, as you mentioned in a previous post, it takes a high degree of price action understanding and discipline to apply this correctly or it becomes a catastrophic method. Just thought I would clarify before the OP gets hurt. Anek