Steve I admire your discipline it has been well earned and is taking you far in your goals.
$2,000 to $200,000 in 2020 at 2.00% per day.
- Thread starter sstheo
- Start date
I believe that less is more.
One better has to trade less size,
And oriente his trading towards swings.
There are really nice moves nowadays,
Would be stupid to trade 10 lots for 10 ticks.
Anyway ... For each his own style.
But in the absolute, risk less to earn more.
** I won't ask a fish to climb a tree **
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I really appreciate your comments. Days like this really test me. Fortunately, I do have several well-wishers here and elsewhere.
Speaking of discipline, one of the best guys on ET is reading this journal, and he sent me this link because the video reminded him of me and my 2% goal.
Notice that the 10% per week goal mentioned in the video is almost identical to my 2% average daily objective.
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I'm with you @sstheo on reducing contract size in volatile periods. If to achieve 2%/day you need 30 points on MES, then you don't need more than one contract. So I humbly suggest that you decide number of contracts using a formula based on ATR and # points.
So if balance is $2000, then 2% of 2000 is $40 which is 8 points of MES. Current ATR of NES is something like 100 points. You only need 1 contract to hit a single 8 point range in that entire bastard of a range.
Comparatively, if ATR of MES is 20, which it will be again, then 8 points of 20 is nearly 50% of the entire day's range which is tough. I would personally try to only nail 20% of the day's range tops which is 4 points of MES. In order to reach 8 points target (for 2% of $2000) you should then trade two contracts of MES.
This way your contract size automatically adjusts for volatility without you having to second guess. This is the method I use personally. And most crucially, allows you to continue compounding while keeping market context in mind.
So if balance is $2000, then 2% of 2000 is $40 which is 8 points of MES. Current ATR of NES is something like 100 points. You only need 1 contract to hit a single 8 point range in that entire bastard of a range.
Comparatively, if ATR of MES is 20, which it will be again, then 8 points of 20 is nearly 50% of the entire day's range which is tough. I would personally try to only nail 20% of the day's range tops which is 4 points of MES. In order to reach 8 points target (for 2% of $2000) you should then trade two contracts of MES.
This way your contract size automatically adjusts for volatility without you having to second guess. This is the method I use personally. And most crucially, allows you to continue compounding while keeping market context in mind.
You might want to quaint yourself with "rate of change."
Two weeks ago I was able to use 8 tick stops confidently but now I am using 200 easily just to withstand the volatility with a core position.
Steve are you still using 40 tick stops? You have good entries if you can with this huge ranges.
Steve are you still using 40 tick stops? You have good entries if you can with this huge ranges.
200 tick stop is mighty big, but mighty fine in this environment. I am still trying to get out as quickly as possible when the trade is bad, but the emergency stop is 60 ticks right now.
I have been fine-tuning the entries for a long time now, but sometimes the market doesn't care how "perfect" they are. The algos are going to play some heavy metal, banging drums and screaming on the electric guitar.
How I saw the market today:
