Your 1 pt stops will get tagged, relentlessly. Your 3/4 point stops, forget about it. And stock777 is right, at this point you will probably lose everything no matter how big your account. Work full time + save cash + free Ninja Trader + Market replay + practice = a chance of success down the road.
Realistically, should be trading a couple of shares of SPY at a time, but PDT was meant to 'protect' you from stocks...and instead throw you to the sharks in ES if you want to learn live and with minimum bankroll.
How's a guy supposed to get experience without the experience? 5k over the course of your life is but a drop in the bucket of your financial life. 30k? Not that much more but for 30% of USA that a years salary. So nothing to sneeze at in the bigger picture of an adult with responsibilities. But if you're a young guy? Go for it. Just piss away money anyhow. However the experience of trading with real $ is still the same whatever the amount. No matter if you have an "edge" or not. So... better to lose 5k vs 30k while feeling the "heat" in trying to find your "edge" Sex analogy: You can watch all the porn (paper trade) in the world but the first time you're with a real woman($ on the line), I dont care who you are, you're going to feel some nervous energy. Trading is exactly the same. Paper trade if you want but there's nothing like the reality of risking $ Some people with an "edge" still cant handle it. Ever see poker tournaments with heartbeat monitors on the players? Even the big swinging dicks pulse shoots up when they're in a hand under the gun. Might as well get used to it now, with a small (but real) amount. For example tell me the OP isnt calucalting right NOW how with 3k and .5 margin he can trade 6 cars right off the bat and of course his first 10 trades with be winners and he'll double up his equity. Nonsense. Thats human nature. Fear and greed. OP has got the greed covered wanting to trade so quickly. Now it's time to feel the fear. Otherwise you're just in a rush to blow your wad. Even 1 ES car at 3k is over leveraged. But if you want to live the dream, dream big I guess.
Plenty of sharks in the spiders too. And him mentioning trying to trade profitably with a 1pt stop on a 3k account validates stock777s post. It doesnt matter what he trades or where he trades it, at this time hes going to lose it all.
You must be really good to want that kind of leverage, but then again if you are, why you have suck a piker size of 3000 cash ? Ridiculous.
Yeah, I just meant he could take heat with 3k trading a couple shares of SPY, you can't take much heat in ES with 3k, you're right to the tick or you're done. Perfect entries. Probably best to build up 25k first.
His 3k will be gone in a week. Not much time to gain much of a life lesson, if anything it will just encourage the gamblers mentality side of trading. OMG I HAD THOSE 2 WINNERS, JUST NEED TO PUT ANOTHER 1K IN AND I CAN MAKE IT ALL BACK, GOTTA MAKE IT ALL BACK.
If the OP insist on trading live he can swing trade a few shares of SPY. Price action is price action, and taking real heat is taking real heat, the timeframe is irrelevant. At least that will slow down his losses and maybe he can pick up some knowledge. I still say he should park most of his cash and paper trade, spend the rest of it hanging out with girls and having fun, he is a young dude.
Just graduated and your applying at Jamba Juice! What did you major in? Communications? Art history? Damn, this job market sucks.....poor guys id be surprised if this post is even real.....theres been so many of these dumbasses on here lately(last 5 years) trying to get everyone wound up and most of them turn out to be frauds in the end thinking it was funny. But hell, if this is real, your young, dumb, and full of cum so go out and blow that cash clicking a mouse.....how much is jamba juice paying, $6 an hour? So your willing to risk pretaxes 500 hours on this?! And nobody works there fulltime bc they dont want to pay benefits, so say 30 hours a week ~ so about 4-5 months of pay edit: After seeing your other posts i guess this is real.....you said in one that you wanted to trade stocks at a prop firm but all the ones around you trade futures! So why not go over there then if that's what you now want to trade? Although i dont recommend it but it's probably better than trading with 3k. At least there they might train you depending on the shop. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2904314#post2904314
I am with stock777 here, these guys are hilarious. There is very little difference in a 3k account vs 6k it's small player cash and it's that simple. That being said if you haven't already demo'd try it out.. if you can make money in demo then take that 3k live. If you lose it oh well good thing it's only 3k. On a side note you can trade fractions at oanda.com (currency and spot gold) you can trade all day long with $30 bucks $300 or $3,000 and not lose a cent by trading fraction.. and slowly increase size as you win. Good Luck.. TT