Hello, I want to share my Journal here. I´m trading since 2007 with no success. Successful on paper, but the emotions with real money are really hard to control. I´m going to have 800$ and using a low margin broker. Using Ninja trader as Platform. I´m going to trade the Russel 2000 future with 500$ intraday margin. I´m going to have a very simple strategy. I´m going to trade on the 133 Tick chart and searching signals on 133tick, 1min and 5min chart. My strategy is going long/short when the 5-candle SMA is pointing up/down. Also looking for patterns like bottoms and tops on the 1min 5min 15min and daily chart. I like to have at least a 50$ - 100$ gain on the day with only 1-10 Trades during the day. My stoploss is going to be 100$, with longs a break under the last low and with shorts a break above the last high (1min chart). I´m going to look only for a very safe entry but this is goin to be a bit hard. I can only trade from 11AM to 4PM. My biggest problems are: Not using stops and then hoping for a turn in trend. Canceling stops when I´m wrong - the fear of having a loser. If I´m in a loss on a position I´m freezing at the PC and hoping. I have some problems of identifying intraday if we are trending or ranging. It would be nice to hear some opinions from other trader who have or had the same problems and how they have solved them! I´m going to update this here from time to time. If not then I have blown up my account.
Good luck on your journal. Keep posting to it and give the numbers. People will read your updates and give feedback. Don't post paper trade results because we all know how deceptive it is. If you paper trade, I suggest doing limit orders only. Market orders on the paper trade will give you prices based on the last trade so people know what they will get on an entry point. It makes it too easy. Do limit orders and see how good those predictions can be. I recall you mentioning on my journal that you use 1 min chart. It looks good but don't use it as your main chart. Use the 5 min chart. Price movements are too fast in the 1 min to control. Also support and resistance prices adhere to the 5 min chart better than the 1 min one. I started out using the 1 min and believe me it is very hard to be profitable on it. Keep your emotions in check. That is a problem for me too. That causes me to lose money and prevents me from making money. Easier said than done. Good luck. Keep at it.
I am guessing you already blew up your account? Your biggest problem is not what you have mentioned but being under funded, the stress of knowing you only have $300 over margin is a killer, especially trading the Russell. The size account you have is too small for up to 10 trades, even if you breakeven, the commissions/slippage will eat it down. And there is really no safe entries, all you can do is trade your well backtested method. If you can't identify trend or range, you shouldn't trade at all. In a split second you should be able to know one from the other. Start trading at 11:00 EST means you are start at lunch time which means much of the next 3.25 hours will be tight range, and expect to buy support/ sell resistance, you can risk less by doing so. Use 60 minute charts looking for longer range trendlines as a way to find better S/R for entering, but also when not to take a trade. Usually after 2:15 EST, lunch is considered over and I can expect either new highs or lows to hit the stops, so I divide up the day in 50%, if Price is above, I don't take sells until new high/low is made, but that doesn't mean when new H/L is made, Price will reverse, have to watch for lower highs/lows to tell downtrend. One way to correct your flaws at the PC, when you sit down to trade, visualize that you are a robot and you have a set of commands, you have to take the person out of trading and become more non personal. The system makes or loses money, not you. And when you do sim trading, unless you can make at least $100 per day for 13 out of 15 days, you are not ready to day trade. Good luck.
I would suggest reading trader28's HOF thread. The MACD/zeroline crossover is a good system which is something I use. Very well suited to trading the Russell futures. Look for a minimum 1:2 risk/reward. Very doable.
sfbayarea - Yes Yes not only the 1min chart. I take a position when the 5min 5period SMA is turning somewhere at S/R or heavy oversold/overbought on the RSI. I use the 133 and 1min for a tighter/better entry. And some more. I notice now that I should write down my complete strategy, so that I can trade only the right signals. Handle123 - Blew Up my account? Mhh a few times. This now was at 1800$ and ended up 2 days later at 200$. I have a fulltime job(another 3 years) but at the moment I cannot afford to give more than 600$ to it. But Yes you are really right this could be a big problem for me only 300$ out of the margin. I have to deal with. Thanks for the hints, nearly the same insight I have from day-trading, too. I´m going to be a robot, I open only a position, if my stoploss is in the range to 100$ and immediately set the stop loss. I question every minute my trade both sides long and short to see If I´m still right. If there is no movement in a specified time-period I get out even. lwlee - Thanks, I´m going to set it on my charts and test it for awhile. But I have the RSI and I want to have a simple strategy. I don´t want to add many lower study´s. I´m going to see If this is good how to integrate it into the RSI. Thanks for the good input. My bank wire got wrong and went in as a ACH, therefore my money is going to settle on the 28.. And here is my concern. Trading between Christmas and new year could be quite different to all other days of the year. My goal is the 1000$ at 01.01.2012.
I believe in the same philosophy. KISS, keep it simple stupid. It really doesn't get any simpler than when a MACD line crosses the zero line. Just now, the MACD cross the zero line at 12pm EST on the 2 min chart. It was worth at least 3 points and is still active. I decided to get out.
So yesterday was OK. I was a little unsure about the trend, quite all the day the market was overbought for me. But I like to call reversals on technical patterns. So I had 4 profitable long trades on a overbought down day. ;-) Began the day with 850$ +170 (commissions not included) Acc: 1020$ I think after commissions and a bankwire fee it´s 980-990$ more later ...
to write down what´s possible for me and to find out what my problems are on the long run. If there are some problems that I can´t beat and can´t find here or somewhere, I write it down to get some help from experienced trader. I also have an idea about trading with others over teamspeak, but that´s another story ...
MACD went over the zero line at 9:33am EST on the 2 min chart. I went long at price 736.2. I got out with after 15 min but if you had a trailing stop, it's still live. Most recent high was 742.20. Right there, at least 5 or 6 points. I usually use a trailing stop but the weak Nasdaq was a divergence I didn't like, otherwise I would still be long.