Im going to be factual, even if it sounds harsh. The reason you are not successful is because you havent done one single thing required to become successful in the game. Forget the chat rooms, forget all the services, definitely forget the idiotic indicator crap. Do not trade for at least the next 2 years. You may start trading when you come up with an objective set of rules that you have tested so well that you cannot prove they do NOT work no matter how hard you try. You better be able to answer the following quetions using a sample set of 1000 trades or more, evenly spread over the last 5 years minimum. 1) What is the win% ? 2) What is the profit factor? 3) What is the max draw down? 4) Are you using 2 ticks of slippage to come up with your results? (if trading futures), use 10 cents if trading stocks. 5) Is the equity curve, smooth, and trending upward? 6) Are you 100% sure this is not curve fitted? Be able to prove this. If you dont know how to do that, dont trade! If you cant answer the above, you have no business putting money on the line. Most people will never be able to answer the above, and thus should not be trading. When you can answer the above, you have made it. Start trading your system. The next step is mastering your emotions with money on the line so you can follow your own rules (assuming you are not automated) I bet 99% of people on ET cannot answer the above, and thats why this site is full of so many clueless people.
Ah ha. Thats exactly what I suspected. Trading on the 10 tick chart is a commission generator. I've tried it and it never worked. It always seems to work when back testing but the slippages will kill you. And you try to trade the russel and ym on a 10 tick chart? I hear the spreads in those things can get pretty nasty when compared with the es. Just as any time frame, any indicator, the 10 tick also works only in trending markets. There has to be volatility, otherwise no indicator or time frame will work.
1) trend is the first sign of entrainment 2) accelerated price increase on a long term timeframe is the second sign of entrainment. ie bubble. 3) harvesting of the bubble ie plunge large sums of money cant make money unless this is done.
Why don't you open an account with a UK financial betting firm, some do open accounts for US citizens and are all licensed and regulated, not like Forex. Like yourself I attempted scalping and was totally crap at it, I lost a lot of dough, a lot more than you have. It sucks big time, but instead of quiting I decided to reduce my $ stake per point (after all real money trading is better than a simulator), so instead of wagering 25 Euros per DAX point, I now wager from as low as 1.5 Euros per point AND with a whopping 2 point spread, instead of 0.5 Come on over to my thread & maybe I can help you with something. Don't get me wrong, I am no pro, but I realised that the only way I can beat the "manipulators" is to change the strategy. There are lots & lots of little fellas out there like you and I, we are all doomed, unless: 1) we stop marking stops within the daily range; 2) become great daytraders with phenomenal entry points; 3) etc. I am a pure technical trader, using very basic techniques, very. Anyway, here is my thread http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=87370
mutliple small losses plus a large win. this theme is repeated over and over..... why?, chop chop chop chop .......gap range range range......breakout its hard for many to even go through the chop chop admitting constantly they are wrong, and then missing out on the breakout. Dramatic increase in size on the breakout makes up for the chop chop multiple number of times. Trade small till you know you can't lose. sorry i keep going on and on about this.. entrainment entrainment entrainment.. harvest....
Gosh, Try puretick.com, if you take all of Alex calls you can make some money and learn at the same time. They trade the YM exclusively though. I highly recommend them.
Dont beat yourself up too much... The russel has been nothing but ridiciolous the past 3 weeks. I had my worse drawdown today in over a year( a lot bigger then $600). I usually achieve 80% or better on my trades and I had 8 losers and 2 winners. It is just a really tough market right now. Look and see when the last time the er2 had an average true range of less than 7 points.... Stick with it. Your going to get punched in the stomach in this business.
=============== Gtrader; Well you got plenty of action in the e mini russell; have traded that one enough ,to much prefer ES intraday Probably could make a MACD work, since i find moving averages useful especially before the market opens.Dont have much time to look at lots of intraday stuff like MACD, Dont know how anyone would have time to process price with lots of indicators using tick charts??????? Never saw 12 trades per day in any emini derivatives; however i dont use MACD or RSI so this sentence may not apply to you. And while i admittedly am not a high frequency trader; i remember covering a short emini russel & almost having most of my profit disappear,doesnt happen like that in any of the other contracts. Wont blame Chicago,Gtrader , but some extreme action packed contracts may not agree with some personalitys.
<i>"I bet 99% of people on ET cannot answer the above, and thats why this site is full of so many clueless people"</i> I can
The randomness of the markets is something traders need to understand and work with. As one progresses in other professions reliability of outcome grows, but the markets never become predictable- if they were then any trader who could predict would be a billionaire within a very short time. Thus the experienced trader puts stress on money management and is thinking how to protect what he has- not dreaming of profits. I think most technical traders are looking for trades based on momentum break out; or getting in on a trend; or trend reversal; or range trades. I take trades based on all these but what I try to remember is that I can't know whether the market is in a range, about to reverse or whether the trend will continue. Knowing that I can't know, it is easier to get out as soon as the market shows that I am wrong, and doing so without mentally knocking myself.