This thread seems to have gotten a little stagnant. I want to try and add to it. This is my first post on ET. I have studied the markets for a litttle over a year, and have done a little trading during that time. Made a lot of the rookie mistakes. In fact I am still making a lot of the rookies mistakes. I quit my job a month ago (don't worry I have enought saved to live on and trade with). I decided it was best to start simulating before risking real money. I agree this is the best way to go about it. Besides, I have traded with real money and simulated, and they both feel the same to me. I think it is because of pride. I hate losing fake money almost as much as real. I will be trading the YM (only 1 contract for now) with IB's simulator. My goal is to catch 1-2 moves in the morning (9:30 - 11:30) and 1-2 moves in the afternoon (1:30 - 3:30). I don't want to overtrade, so I want to only make 2-5 trades a day. I am finding that to be easier said than done (today I made 8). I read a great quote on here from Johnny Rotten "The goal is not to be a clever dick catching every turn â it is just to make some money." I have a stop loss and take profit automatically entered when I enter a trade. These are not set in stone though. My goal with the take profit is to exit when the market tells me I should, but I am aiming for 10-40 points per trade. More if I can get them. I don't want to risk more than 15 points per trade but preferably less than 10. I will get out sooner if I don't like what I see. I will be simulating for at least 2 more months but probably longer, unless I miraculously become consistently profitable. I will try and post a little detail to my trades, but that probably belongs in a different thread. So for today here are my results, 1 contract (2W, 5L, 1BE) $50 including commissions. I am assuming $5/RT, even though it is around $4.60. It makes the math easier.
My worst day since simulating by a lot. Should have been an easier day, but I kept trying to fight the trend. Embarassing. (0W, 9L) -$405 I think I may have to increase my winning percentage. I don't know what do you guys think.
total for the week: +$681 total since posting (15 weeks): $432 total number of trades: 114 number of winning/losing days: 25/28 number of winning/losing weeks: 6/9 best/worst day: +$711/-$314 best/worst week: +$681/-$317