Wise- What bank do you work for? I hope its not PUB? I'm in exactly the same boat as you--same age, work for a bank in CT, considering trading full time. There is one exception, I wouldn't mind going to a prop shop. Depending on where in central CT you're located, see if you can find a prop shop in Mass--maybe a smarter route than risking it yourself. I agree the commute to Stamford/Greenwich is a bitch (I commuted to Greenwich for about two weeks before putting in my two weeks' notice!) but if you live north of Hartford, commuting to MA wouldn't be too bad. You can also trade remotely for some prop shops. Best of luck
How can JH be a scammer? He's not charging for anything AFAIK. There are plenty of scammers out there and they all want your money. Kudos to JH for sharing.
This is probably one of the best pieces of advice that I failed to listen to 6 months ago. I remember saying "i definitely don't want to stick to one instrument". YM futures are becoming more and more enticing to me after studying them religiously. Pivots, oscillators, trendlines.......all technical tools that YM traders use. And its very Ery how well these tools work when u know what to look for and know how other traders will react to these tools. I'm still trading stocks, but this week I was affected by the Tuco thing since I trade through JC Trading. I should be back up on running going through Genesis by Friday. But this week has definitely made me wonder why I bother trading stocks, when many of my long / short decisions of stocks like C, MER, LEH, ABK, depend a lot on what the YM technicals look like. Updates on my current situation for those that don't want to read the last few pages: 1) Quit job Jan. 24th.....waaaay before I was planning....reason being, I moved back w/ the parents so i could have 0 expenses, and didn't want to have to move back when I was turning 25. 2) Prop trading live since early February. Decided not to go retail. 3) Opening up a futures account this week, while still trading stocks. Will be sim trading YM, while trading stocks live. I won't be switching from stocks to futures only anytime soon. Definitely not until I'm profitable with stocks, but I want to have futures in my aresenal in case I see some good opportunities arrise that I can't miss.
For anyone that cares, I have an update on my status. All i have to say is WOW. What a difference 7 months makes ! I've made big progress since then, and now I look back at how freakin' naive I was. Lost my ass bigtime in those 7 months to the tune of probably $15-17k from Febuary to mid September. I started off as any newb would, experimenting with indicators and trying to find a holy grail from them. Then proceeded to say fuck indicators, and try to make it scalping off the 1 min charts on YM. Still lost my ass, but learned a lot. Finally came to the conclusion that the 1 min chart has too much noise to accurately predict where the market goes. Then a fellow ETer (YOU KNOW WHO U ARE!!) enlightened me to many things starting in late June and early July. Using only candlestick patterns, MA, and volume I spent a SHITLOAD of hours analyzing charts of bigger time frames. Without him, I know I would have failed as a trader. And don't bother asking me who it is in PM, b/c I am going to respect his privacy unless he comes forth in this thread. I used to scalp for 10 point moves in YM. It was very very pathetic. Now, I've switched to the ES intraday swing trading I like to call it that b/c I base trades off the 5, 15, and 60 min charts. 2-3 point stops and a R:R of always 1:2 or better. Dont stay in for 1-2 mins anymore. Holds are longer. I think I have a gift for this, b/c after so much chart study, when the market is moving, i can pretty much visualize where it will go (or at least the higher probability direction) based upon candle patterns of all the time frames and experience in reading charts. Its unbelievable how I'll see a pattern form, and automatically visualize its different possibilities which just pop up in my head. I've never been able to do that before. This has contributed a LOT to my success. I am assuming the successful traders do this as well. Its almost laughable how right I've been lately. How did the markets get this easy and why did I lose so much money in recent months ? LOL. It awes me to see how big of a change I've made since my days of struggling back in the summertime. Oh, and my system has setups in which the probability of success is over 60% for every trade, usually having 3-6 trades per day. I am not out of the woods yet, but so far, I've had 14 winning days in a row, last loser being 9/25. Last half of September, and so far all of October have been great. A flawless October would be great....no losing days ! That would be a great November birthday gift. You can make the argument that these markets are easier to trade as many days are trending. I will agree w/ u, but do not contribute it to my recent success. I used to go into the trading day HOPING I wouldn't lose and hoped I would make $50-$100. Now, I go into the day wondering how much $ I can extract. BIG change of mentality. It wasn't forced, it was due to gradual confidence in my abilitiy and seeing myself succeed continually. I'm no longer wondering if I will make it in this game. Now I am wondering how long it will take me to make a million dollars. Less is more in this game. I've been humbled many times, and that is what keeps me disciplined from now on Judging from my posts I've made in this thread in the past, you all are going to say I dont believe you've made it, you have a long way to go, you probably are exagerating, or yada yada yada. Truthfully, I don't care what any of you think. I know how ET gets. Many of the schmucks that are going to post in this thread, I can probably out trade anyway...which is a big statement coming from someone without a lot of experience, but thats not the point.....thing is, purpose of this post is to give some of you hope. If i can do it, it is certainly possible for anyone. It just takes a lot of hard work.
The markets are bigger than you, than me, than any of us. Ego is one of a traders ultimate demises. Keep your head in check and remember you do not have to prove anything to anyone.. Just IMO
Ahh yes. I remember being this cocky once I figured it out I could have thought I was the only one in the world making money in the stock market. Just realize there are guys pulling in millions in a single month in the market. We're all small potatoes comparatively speaking. I wish you well in your success and a little cockiness never hurt anyone in this game as long as it's based on self confidence and not false pretense. The real acid test is being able to do this day in and day out for decades and adapting along the way.
lol calm down trading god....you still live with your parents and you've had two good months, don't get ahead of yourself!
ITS ALRIGHT come work @ a fruit market and bag grocries for a living. 10 hours a day 6 days a week. by the way no holidays off. make good money but have no life. 9-6 5 days a week dont complain. if you want to trade move back home
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