Account dipped below $25K Real-time Account Net Worth $24,900.97 Real-time Realized P/L (Today) ($58.00) Real-time Unrealized P/L ($51.00) This morning sold off 100 and then another 100 shares of QQQQ pre-market as CPI numbers numbers started to scary the street...had I held it for first 1 hour of trading could have closed all positions at 51.60 or 51.5xxx my net cost of my original 400 shares planned for overnight and swing are 51.45 still holding 100 shares. Will take things a little easier...re-read Mark Douglas's 'Trading in the Zone' certain section for reinforcement and confirmation of mistakes...disappointed but not broken by account falling below 25K benchmark....means I have to continue to work on my strategies...on Wednesday 12/12 I had perfect set up and shorted SPY at peak 150.85 but got mixed up with TradeStations OSO feature and TS covered few ticks above entry...just to see it go down to $147 and retreat... But all of this "shouda couda" crap wont help just need to write and strategize entry and exits. When opened position in QQQQ on Thursday was little up and breakeven before market close but did not close all positions only 100 and held 300 overnight...as I was expecting CPI number to be a an upside surprise...did not work that way. On the Fed announcement day I had segt short positions in both QQQQ and SPY few ticks above price level at 2:13 EST 2-min before Fed annoucement as I expected it'll be .25 points and markegt will sell off as everybody expecting .50 points...riht after annoucement things tanked whithout even hitting my short entry target... againg "shoulda coulda" shorted before FOMC and put a tight stop in case market jumped up and moved against me...but did not occur to me...not sure why - note to myself need to be watching these annoucements and plan short/long with tight stop if moves against me. Some say to wait until annoucment which is a valid statement but in my observation most moves and largest and sharpets moves occur right at the moment. But again I need to optimize this approach there is really no "back-testing" to this particular strategy...or at least none I know of.. Like when I bot FXI on the sharp down day and with nature of FXI expecting it to open sharply higher or move higher the next day...but my stop was too tight...got wipsaed ... FXI moved up $10 that day...see that days post. Well will have to do some thingkikng this weekend...dont really regret that account fell below $25K though have feeling of being left out...I had a chance to close above the limit by a margin today if held..or on Thursday before market close but.... There are other concerns I have...in my long term 'investment' account one of my holdings mutual fund American Funds EuroPacific fund has been going down unusually shrongly...Wednesday was down $4, next day $1, today agian $1 - ticker AEPGX. Based on technical analysis it was in a up trend with regular current market jitters but ... I am still holding...anotherone of my other holdings is Megellan Fund (FMAGX) and Brandywine Funds have been very dispointing...but I have a 3 to 5 year outlook and I've been buying in and selling out of these funds for about 7 years now...but recent jitters make a bit nurvious. Friend my trades commodity futures only...corn, lean hogs, soybeans, I am developing interest in futures. commodities..Somebody was writing in my posts that when ones account drops beflow $25K he goes to trade futures since no $25K rule...well, I was planning to open and trade futures regarless as I plan to trade YM, NQ, ER2, ES anyway eventually...not because of account droping below $25K... As a first step I did open futures account with TS but have not funded yet...I started papertrading YM and ES in my IB account but don't have anything to report right now. But I remain fascinated by commodity futures...I will not be day-tradings commodiyh futures...strictkly swing and position. Well this is it for now. I welcome any constructive criticism.
here we go... if you don't have an edge, experience, a trading plan, or some sort of methodology, you will get killed pretty fast in futures. plenty of futures traders here in YM, ES, NQ, ER2 who would love it if you put money into their market. seriously, before you get killed, slow down and get profitable first. the market will always be there. your money may not be. swing trading futures overnight??? without a plan??? get ready for some serious swings and losses.
bandit77 is right, you will be killed in the futures market. You don't know how to drive a Honda Civic, how can you drive a race car?
Stopped out remaining QQQQ at $50.44 Real-time Account Net Worth $24,849.81 Real-time Realized P/L (Today) ($102.00) Real-time Unrealized P/L $0.00 Account dipped below $25K...I did a poor job managing it when it above $25K last week.. I'll try to manage with the current amount without additing anything to make it bring up to above $25K...
Since no real emotions tied to paper tradig I find it useless really...plus TradeStation does not offer papertrading. My IB account offers good Papertrading but I no longer wish to use IB platform.
Modify, revising and writing out my trading rules, giving Anek and Kaiser credit since I am incorporating some of the rules I read in his thread and in a compiled document. Long Entry Conditions: 1) Long â Long-term chart UP 2) Long â Price trend above along MA 3) Long â Price pierced, at, above MA 4) Long â 2HH, 2HL. 5) Long â DB in UP trend I'll be posting more as I complete the rules list.
Seriously, go back to paper trading. No point in throwing away your stake before you even figure out your system. You should be making money paper trading, and then move onto the real time, and expect less profit than the paper trading. But if you are not making money paper trading, then there is no point in doing it for real.