when did neke realize $100k to $600k? any thread? I think a good trader is not defined by how much money he earned or what return he received. this year I made some or got good return far better than the index, but I felt I am not a good trader. why? I may trade one tiny miny contract because of fear, then suddenly I may trade 10lots of full contracts and totally ignore the possible drawdowns, or I may suddenly decide to trade individual stocks I did not do any study with size varying from 50lot for a penny stock and 1000lot for a 150 buck stock, I sometimes use strict risk mamangement rules, sometimes just ignore them all and take it for granted" rules are nonsense, that hurts me".....subconciously those things will lead me into big trouble late on. so from whatever view, I feel I am a noob or not a mature trader. a good trader first he must be mature. as for money, that is the byproduct. I have a new friend, he earned almost 1m in dot com bubble (crazy buying dot.com bubble stocks like yahoo, amzn... using full margin, averaging up), everyone around him felt he was the king of the market. but late his 1m was quickly wiped out, and more, even his home equity loan. he never touched stock market again from then on. I just heard his story several weeks again in a church gathering since he asked me what I was doing, then he voluteered to me his story.
NoDoji, I wonder how you traded ES on friday. The market was so volatile, but still with clear direction ... Did you trade more than normal, or ...?
I posted my trade blotter on ES Journal and a few posts further down on the page, my rationale for the trades: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64965&perpage=10&pagenumber=8379 Because of the narrow ranges and low volatility over the past weeks I've been often trading 5 lots, but Friday only 2 and only if I could jump in quick and place a survivable stop because some of the 5-min bars now had ranges that used to be entire days. Late in the day I figured another push down in the trending range was easy money and possibility of a strong selloff into the weekend, so I put on 5 lots and turned a good day into a record day with a relatively small final move.
It was in his older threads from previous years. Actually after reviewing, it looks like he started with 76K: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=87977 What's interesting is when he was over $600K and everything seemed to be going pretty good (I think there were a number of good gain weeks in a row), it appeared possible that $1,000K was just around the corner. JJacksET4
Great advice... I remember when ammo PM'd me a few times when I first started trading ES.. He begged that I saved up more or really accept I could lose what I was trading with but I never REALLY accepted this. We lose perspective of what 10k is sometimes.. It is a lot of money. No matter what you may think about not minding losing what you have left you WILL really miss it... The remedy that so few can take is to take a break and fix what's wrong in the system.. hard to do as there is an obsession that keeps you trading.. and trading.. IF you must trade while fixing the system (hopefully you can see there is a problem), reduce exposure to 2 , maybe 3% TOTAL account risk for ALL positions.. Actually pause the journal if needed as I know the pressure of a Journal..
Hey Neke - I wish you well in your trading and hope this is a better week for you. I am curious if you're paying the full 10$ +.75/contract for options at Ameritrade ?
Is there any way you could now change the title of this thread to" taking 410K to 410 by year end" or something along those lines? Seriously what made you pick such a bold title for your thread in the first place?
You mean there is no way he could change the thread's title any more or else he would have done it ALREADY?