Not only do you have no idea what you are leaving behind, you also have no idea what you are not seeing. Dude!
Ummm, i havent read much past this, im sure someone already mentioned this, but if you are actually trading 150 contracts on the ES when its in a 4 point daily range you are going to get absolutely raped, yesterday was the first couple of ES trades i placed in months and they both ended up being scratches,(On a fed day where there is supposed to be range) you cant trade something that isnt there dude, tuesday was the smallest range in the ES in history, why would you want to trade that with ridiculous size? If you are actually trading the ES at 150 contracts per clip, and you are learning to trade the ES while its in a 4 point range, you are going to get blown the fuck out the first time the ES makes a legitimate move, cause its going to cruise through your levels for 50 points one day like the flash crash.
Look if you are legit i apologise for the snark, but i have a tough time believing someone goes from paper trading to 150 contracts live, unless they are just absorbing shitty range bound trading, and averaging down...... That only works until it doesnt. On most days im happy if i capture a quarter to a half of the range of anything im trading, if i catch 75-100% of the range im ecstatic which means if you drill the absolute top at best you are going to capture a couple points when its in a 4 point range, and thats only your winners, then you have your losers plus you have commissions. There is simply no way to make that work. Yesterday was fed day so it moved a little more, but the ES has been so shitty that even on a Fed day it didnt even have a half percent range. The ES has literally gotten itself to the point where the range is so small that one of these days they are just going to agree on a price before the day begins and it wont even move at all from that point it will just trade at 1 price all day. If this is the environment you are learning to swing 150 contracts in you will get massacred if volatility picks up.
I did look you up on the web. You have something that is worth more than gold! Lease a seat on the exchange and find a mentor. Why would someone mentor you? Because you are an above average joe with a huge bargaining chip. Use that chip to build relationships with those who are successful in trading.
I admit to slightly mixed feelings about posting in this thread, but I'll try to offer a couple of brief, constructive suggestions, anyway ... 1. Look at index futures other than ES. You might find that some of the principles of what you've learned to do are applicable to them just as well as (or even slightly better than) they are to ES, and that might enable you to have larger targets. I won't trade ES, myself, as it feels to me like watching paint dry (that puts me in a minority, of course). I prefer NQ (the e-mini Nasdaq) and some other instruments; 2. To minimize the effects of dealing costs on your overall turnover, see if you can do fewer, longer trades on a slower time-frame (you might be able to apply the same or very similar TA techniques to them, as charts are largely fractal, but you certainly have a long learning-curve and research-process ahead of you ... on the plus side, as a serious blackjack player you clearly understand results-variance to start with, which potentially gives you a considerable advantage over most aspiring traders); larger-sized trades (in terms of numbers of ticks/points) with smaller position-sizing, maybe trading 20-30 contracts instead of 150, might make a lot more sense in the long run, and you could even end up making more, overall, from smaller position-sizes than you've been managing so far.
the problem forget your a big time gambler here you're a dumb fuck that can't trade. you are not entitled to make it big at trading because you made it at gambling. trading is like chess and music, you do it because you love it - not money. your risk reward is stupid you need to aspire for a much higher profit factor. if you risk more than a small fraction of one percent on a trade you have no clue. the platform you are using is shit. your clearing is shit. probably the data feed is shit. All this shit reminds me of a song "man in the box" everything is rigged against you. the fix get multicharts and hook it up to tt xtrader now you fix software and data problem. now shop for clearing services if they don't provide tt go somewhere else and try to get the cheapest rate you can if you have the money lease a seat. stop trading the noise - you can not compete on that level "yet" you have been gambling. start your new career as a trader "think lion laying in grass waiting for a wildebeest". study perry kaufman, toby crabel and larry connors you are looking for only two things expansion and contraction everything else is stupid noise. get help to automate as much as you can alerts will discipline you when to act. trading must be precise to be profitable and timing perfect for low risk. ps learning market profile will help you understand when the market day rotational vs trendy. the dalton and dalton book is the best on this subject. if nothing else focus on the value areas and point of control.