Think like a businessman: first build a business with a good margin on your sales. After that try to reduce your cost. What you do is: build a business with a very small margin on sales. After that you try to make your business profitable by eliminating the cost as much as possible. A good business has a very profitable margin in the first place. That's the essence of doing business. Margin on sales.
<i>"In that respect you're right. Unfortunately, unless I change my strategy or lease a seat at the exchange I don't really see any way around it"</i> At your stage right now, there is nothing other than gambling and random fate. If/when you reach $2,000 or greater balance, then methodical skill application can come into play. Out-of-sample example, my ES trades today were: short 1336.50 = trailed out 1332.50 / +4pts or "handles" short 1334.00 = trailed out 1330.00 / +4pts or "handles" long 1333.50 = trailed out 1335.50 +2pts / "handles" short 1331.00 = trailed out 1329.00 +2pts / "handles" Done by 10:38am est ** Initial stop on all of those was -2.5pts or slightly smaller. Then left to do what the market naturally does... move up or down. Out of the 100s trades taken by OP, no doubt many of those covered at least two handles to ten handles' distance after a hasty = scalpy exit. Just no <b>perceived</b> ability to weather -$100 trade "heat" along the way. As agreed at the beginning of this thread, you are trying to gamble your way into a "safe" account balance. From razor-thin start to at least $2,500 involves little skill and much luck. If the threshold of $2,500 is reached, you can apply skill to one ES contract risking -$100 per trade seeking +$200 to +$400 per trade gains. No retail trader with any exceptions succeeds long-term at microscalping. It is something just about every emini trader has to try at least once and experience on their own. The reality of understanding never comes thru outside advice: only from internal realization. Best wishes in your quest to go from razor-edge gambling to methodical trading. Many of us are rooting for you, and everyone else to succeed.
If your hard stop is 3 tics and if your strategy is built on trading the morning session between ... and ... and if you make between 7 and 10 trades on average; and if every 20 trades give you more or less the same stats as 50 trades and 100 trades; and if these stats are wins >75%, breakeven +/- 1 or maybe 2 tic max > 20%; and if 2cc loses account for less than 5%; and if 3cc loses are < 1%, then survival and maximum drawdown are not a part of your vocab. f9, I thik you just proved my point.
... and it takes years to break the information down to this level and then reconstruct it so that you are able to make intelligent trading decisions, consistently. But I believe that is what the OP is striving for, and I wish'em luck. The lower margin contracts will aid in his survivval while his higher mind is processing the information.
I have been trading in one form or another for twelve years ... started with Fx, and onto indexed futures and finally only ES. There are three distinct periods. First seven years were typical of a traders startup .. make some, lose some and eventually crawl onto the right side of the ledger. My results were beginning to show good consistency. Next three years, the penny was buzzing around my head there had to be a better method. All the time my strategy was becoming more refined and my numbers were improving. Two years ago, the penny finally dropped. I discarded everything except for the screen images of the ES price burnt deep into my slow-to-learn head. When I say "burnt" I mean burnt from thousands of hours of watching the price. I went back to the tic and reformated a very very simple strategy ... heavens, even I can follow it. Now when the ES turns, my little old limit is sitting right there waiting patiently for it. For the most part, I am pulling tics from the noise. I like the the noise, I feel as safe as one can feel trading ES. When the price drops , I am all over it. I love the drops, they are fast and relatively secure. When price is climbing I am very nervous because this is where the black swans nest and lay their eggs. Quite the reverse of most postings here on ET I am sure. However, when you prepare or review your list of all the things that can go wrong, you will notice that it is asymmetrical. Fear outweighs greed always. And so I ratchet up my account each day as best I can. Anyway, I pass this on to those who are interested for what it is worth. regards f9
Whoa, talking about wise words. Thx, F9. I inserted the above quote into my "trading wisdom" database that I'm maintaining.
i agree with rice rocket but where are you receiving these margin figures from? as for your question. You are doomed with 2k and you do not have a prayer