TradingBillion's Successful Futures Trading Adventures

Discussion in 'Journals' started by TradingBillions, May 4, 2007.

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  1. Surdo

    Surdo

    Wazzup Jameister?

    It's been relatively quiet in SPAMLAND!

    cheers,

    el $urdo
     
    #21     May 5, 2007
  2. Yeah, there've been a few traders popping in there and trying to talk common sense, but it just falls ...

    Me, I've been too busy trading to worry too much about what goes on around here that much.

    It's like I just stop in for a diet coke these days, instead of stopping by and hanging-out for a few rounds.

    For the OP to actually get what he needs from this process, it will either be through extraordinary effort or sheer dumb luck ... I'm voting for the dumb luck factor.

    Later,

    JJ
     
    #22     May 5, 2007
  3. KS96

    KS96

    and what exactly your contribution to society would be?
    (don't tell me "give back to local charities")

    Trading for a living is parasitic. That joker Socrates
    should have told you this, kiddo.
     
    #23     May 5, 2007
  4. "Trading for a living is parasitic." If they are successful, they'll create jobs. The blind lesbian on SSI who wishes to experience childbirth is parasitic.
     
    #24     May 5, 2007
  5. Socrates, I would love to thank you for your candor and willingness as well. I believe we will grow from these posts and so many will benefit.

    I agree with the sex analogy in trading. I practiced a little thing called "Pickup" a while back and realized that the only way I would be successful with women and sex is if I didn't show or act desperate. Very well said!

    Now onto futures trading,
    I usually hold onto my trades anywhere from 15 minutes to 8 hours rarely more than that. I try to catch the big moves and that's about it. I do want to achieve that lifestyle of upper middle class living but most importantly become a well seasoned trader.

    I started out in Equities and I learned how to trade those through a service called Investools. I wasn't as profitable as I should have been but I did learn a lot about the basics of technical and fundamental analysis. I learned things like: how the news effects price, human psychology plays a huge role in the markets, support and resistance, etc.

    Overall, my trading performance in equities/options has been subpar. I have a lot of my account in options due to not really doing all the work I should have done and improperly managing my risk. I entered the equities world and options world haphazardly.

    I am ready for whatever changes need to be taken into effect for the world of futures and plan on making this what I do for a living..

    ~~TB
     
    #25     May 5, 2007
  6. I think the simple truth here is that you arer expecting too much from futures daytrading, given your experience, finances, and goals. It is encouraging, however, that you can hold all day. I recommend that you keep working, build up your trading account, and concentrate on swingtrading with holds in days or weeks. IMO the patterns are not all that different from what you see intraday, so that would give you experience reading patterns. You can still use futures for leverage.

    I recommend that you ditch the forex and the oil and go to index futures. They trade overnight with adequate liquidity and spread during large moves driven by foreign markets, and they give you an out if a swing trade goes horribly bad.

    I counsel patience. The market will still be there when you have enough money that trading can be relatively stress free. I am willing to be that you, like me and a lot of ET, are really a gambler. You like the thrill of the pace of intraday trading, and the hideous risk of loss if connections go bad.

    Please feeel free to satisfy Optioncoach's request and describe your methods. He can probably help you better on that than I can. Best regards.
     
    #26     May 5, 2007
  7. Hey bro, don't give up on this journal already.

     
    #27     May 5, 2007
  8. TB-
    What happened to your job at the prop firm? Did they have no one which could mentor you?
    http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=89207

    Just a thought--mentoring for day trading on a message forum seems near impossible. You need a chat room or something similar. Or, you need to switch to swing/position trading.

    You said earlier you started with $2k. Are you expecting to earn your "upper middle class" living on that (particularly in Connecticut)? I'd suggest having at least 100% in the bank above what you'd like to make per year. This will give you room to lose, and won't force you to leverage the hell out of your account while you still are bad at trading.

    If you do not have this safety net, pack it up, get a job, and save until you do. Paper trade in the meantime.
     
    #28     May 5, 2007
  9. I've had a "online" mentor for about 8-10 months at this point. I can honestly say that the hardest part has been understanding... sometimes that just doesn't occur because he says something so obvious to him but its not obvious to me. So I ask again, etc.

    Anyways, it's worked out for me. It's helped turn me away from gambling and helped start a positive trend in my account.

    By the way, as far as the age thing. I started from the get-go when I was 18, so age shouldn't be a factor for you billions either way... no one took me less seriously/more seriously given my age as far as trading goes.

    Forgot to add that I'm a swing trader and hold a few days if things go bad or I dont feel comfortable, or however long it works out to be if things go good.

    I've been incorporating same stuff I've learned lately smaller time frames, but I do think the only way I learned was because I decided with my account size I could only make money doing day-week swing trades.

    Last thing... he gave me a lot of literature that he himself has read and thought would make a difference in my trading. So it does help to be on the same level as far as knowledge and psychology.
     
    #29     May 5, 2007
  10. OK TradingBillions, your best bet now would be to give kidPWRtrader a PM to pursue the matter further with him, since he already has the direct experience of being mentored online, and it sounds like it has definitely helped him with his trading.

    Beause if you're going to be wating around for OptionCoach to teach you how to trade futures, per Socrates' comment, you're going to be waiting for a long time.

    Good Luck,

    JJ
     
    #30     May 5, 2007
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