Oh Zbear......you are going uncurl his handlebar mustache! Ok, Bob told me if he can't be towel boy, he will open across the street, offer cut rates and put you out of business......he is just that kind of guy.....plus he will throw in two free equity trades
Well,,,,,,,,,,,ok..... .....but for what it's worth,,,,,, It was the Equity Trades.....( I couldn't resist ).
I am a fairly new futures daytrader. I am almost out of capital. The problem is probably not new, but, I am hoping that at least one reply to this may click in my neurons: I take profits quickly and my losers are bigger than the winners. I play reversal patterns and flags intraday on 5m charts. In review, the patterns/entries that I have picked went in my favor for several points. I JUST CAN'T LET THEM RUN. It's tough because I am playing one lot. It's hard to let 1 lot run. Ya don't want a profit to turn into a loser. I suppose if I had 2 lots I could take that initial thrust and then feel secure to let the other lot run. Anyone been here, done that, and gotten over it ?
Yes, I've been there and there are five things you should definately do. 1. Stop trading. 2. Tell your broker to close your account and send you all of your money. 3. Don't think, read of watch the market for at least a month. 4. After 30 days, review all of your trading activity, why you took those trades, how they worked out for you and why. 5. Create a new trading plan and start testing it out. Let us know how its going.
Tradersavvy ---- Spreadem offers excellent advise. For at least a month DO NO TRADING AND just WATCH ES and/or NQ, every tick, every day. Do paper trade (either in your head or on a simulator). With no money on the line and no emotional attachment to a position, after you've watched many hundreds of moves you will begin to imprint on your subconscious just how costly it can be not to cut losers (especially in any futures contract) very, very short and to let winners run. You'll eventually see directly just how many points (and it will be a huge, huge number) you are giving up on both sides of the trade ---- defense and offense ----by not being ruthless in cutting losing trades and letting winners have their head until the trend has clearly turned against your position. Jesse Livermore said it best: (paraphrase) The typical (losing trader) hopes prices will turn around and come back when he has a losing position and fears prices will reverse on him when he has a winning position. The correct (and mandatory) psychology of the winning trader is, of course, exactly the opposite: fear, really fear, being underwater at all, and hope, really hope, that a winner will extend itself. After all, the foundational law of good trading is Newton's first law: A body in motion *tends* to remain in motion. Tends is the operative word: it's not always true, but if you bet that it will be true over a series of plays, the probabilities are overwhelmingly on your side. Convince both your conscious and your unconscious mind that's it's true and you're on your way to consistent profits.
Yeah,,,,,good advice above. The problem is "Getting out of the Hole". Your thinking about dealing 2 contracts and scalping the 1st one.......is sound, .....if......you are good at picking the turn. That will give you a little cushion. Paper trade for awhile and see how that works for you. Everyone has to find their own route. Patience Patience..... the need for it never ends.
Another idea may be for you to read through some the money management threads to get some idea of how much money it takes to trade. Many people who are new to trading don't realize how much money it takes to trade. Anybody who thinks that all you need to be a futures trader is $2000 is going to be sadly disappointed.