you must be rather brave. I wouldn't touch NQ simply because its movement is rather chaotic. There are lots of false signals and you will get stopped out easily. There are other index futures that are more trendy and less erratic.
I was following this real time. What a motherfucker (in a good way), being able to make that call on the dip. I was already suspicious about what you were alluding to: some people just like to complain about the difficulty of trading that they think it’s just impossible. They have so many reasons in their head why trading is a losing proposition and then they share these ideas with each other, creating a circle of mediocrity where, if one of them has success, he is shot down because “that’s not the way we do things, we’d rather just lose”. This thread exemplifies it marvelously: you trying to share a day of your trading for people to follow along and learn. But quite quickly, people started to hate and hint you’re a fake. Being a beginner, that is so annoying: I see those messages and think: “trading may be a fucking lost cause”. But then someone like you comes along, posting their winning trades and then I think to myself, again, “actually, there is indeed money to be made”. Which inspires me to continue chugging along, learning better strategies and getting better at trading myself. So, again, thanks for the thread. I may want to explore trading futures now, to see whether I find an edge there. I am curious, we will see! (I am still on the promiscuous exploration phase, trying a bit of every trading style)
its true what you said and trading is a lonely endeavor. getting successful at trading is the hardest thing i have ever succeeded at in my life. mainly because you are at battle with yourself and any outside issues may manifest in your trading. but it is a skill more than brains. i do roughly 4k to 5k roundturns a month which seems big but its still very small overall. es can swallow my month of volume up in 1 minute. i could actually do all the volume in 1 minute in the es for my entire month! y must know the mkt. know your self have plans move quickly between plans and keep moving through out the day because once u have edge you cut losses because u know you will get ut back and letting losses run is not detrimental to your account for 1 extra hour or a day but its a lot of wasted work risk n energy to get back to even. so u cut losses when u have edge because u make money. u dont mecessarily let profits run thats even harder manually than cutting losses. there is instant gratification an instant success of everything you work for in that 1 win. its a 1000 likes eventhough it may be 2 ticks!! but u won. u were right and holding for 100 ticks profit sadly doesnt feel much better than 2 ticks profit. but on the loss side a 2 tick loss just to see mkt whipsaw back in your direction and ur out and you lost n paid fees n slippage thats painful so you avoid that pain because again you arent studying learning risking money n lost time to get out with a 2 tick loss! nope now in the next second es vacuums lower..4 points now against you. 200 bucks a contract. ur thinking whoa thats a big loss..um it should come back maybe i should add another one i bekieve in this trade! but u dont add which is good. however the mkt goes elusively back to your 2 tick loss point from 1 min ago. you should be so happy. u made up 175 dollars per contract in 1 minute but nope. u still dont sell...u say well it just came back up 4 points. its in a small uptrend im now going with the new trend and it looks ok on the chart. but then down 8 points 3 mins later. you start cussing. 400 dollars down n u still dont exit then finally down 4 .5 u had enough you exit and if course just then in 20 seconds the mkt indeed rallies higher without you and ur now more mad u missed the rally. thats your focus missing the rally when it should be exiting a loss. preservation of capital. slow it down waut for the best trade. snipers lie n wait for hours sometimes days for that 1 shot thats all they usually get. just 1 maybe 2 shots be patient be patient be patient. when you pounce believe in it know it will it to go your way gently and whoosh once its goes up and your surfin that frontside or backside wave then you can imolement your exit plan which should again already have 3 scenarios. 3dimensions of trade no matter what time series. there is more money being made right now in futures than ever in the history of futures.
i got off topic but in the end when you take a big loss instead if instant pain n hurt you feel relief. no more stress no more mkt monitoring. yiu yell shit n move on..but the reality sets in an hour later. u stopped out or exited out took sizeable loss and that pain is still less than being wrong right away . its your time interval. usually the longer you hold a loser the less pain you feel no matter how much u lost. its still pain level vs time. the $ amt doesnt matter much. but its way more painful to get in a trade and then 2 seconds later get out at a loss! if u figure this out and you will be a winner i did and thats all it took but make no mistake about it. i struggle with it daily as well. its always tweaking stuff . and being in the mkt rmfor the right moves entry and exit. i had a great 3 days i didnt get lucky wel some luck played my plan. i stick with it but i got out n lost or held losses at times. but overall very happy with trades
lets review 1. taking a fast small profit is like getting a bunch of likes or congrats or ur a great trader talk very rapidly. it also licks in your winning feelings but they quickly turn into omg ibeould have made 500 or 5000 or 50000 if i held for another hour or 2.