40yo's new career or bust

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Originally posted by John Q Public


I wish that there was a way to explain it. I wish that there was a way for you to realistically simulate it, but there isn't.

Aphexcoil is also a very sharp young man, and had given alot of thought to his entry in to the trading world. The main difference between the two of you is that he was trading because he wanted to make money. You will be trading needing to make money. That's what they call scared money.

Another problem that you share in common is the unnecessary and therefore foolish need to do this publicly. This adds additional pressure. pressure that will only compound all of the other unexpected pressures that paper trading and daydreaming cannot prepare you for.

I do not wish you ill. But your over-confidence, and unhealthy need to do this in front of everyone concerns me. Most of your support on this board comes from young hot shots. They ain't in your shoes guy.

Go slow, and give some real thought about going in private. Boast to the world if and when you pull it off.
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Let me guess. You're not a motivational speaker, are you?

--Db
 
I am excited for you, and do keep us posted about your progress. However, speaking from my experience, trying too hard is not necessarily a good thing. You easily get bogged down in the noises, wiggles and whipsaws, thus losing sight of the whole picture.

Trading the market is more like fishing than studying for an exam. Working harder (Overtrading) doesn't necessarily mean you'll catch the fish, whereas working harder for your exam usually gets you better grades.

Good luck,
stock.
 
40 yo,

I read the first pages of your thread and like everybody I am very impressed by the amount of work and preparation you did before trading real money. I wish you good luck. I think you need to keep in mind that your paper results are not an accurate indication of how well you'll do, successful trading is mostly mental and no system can do it all for you. The market changes all the time what works today won't work as well tomorrow what hasn't worked for a while can work again for a few days ...
Also consider the fact that most people who trade for a living have (and need) other sources of income . Why do you think all the famous traders have an advisory service or try to get into other businesses once they can ? Many get a steady stream of management fees too. Then like pro athletes
they need to keep what they earned and grow it with no exposure to the market.
 
reduce all your numbers to reflect what 1 ES contract is supposed to generate. Trade 1 ES.

same principles to make money with 1 as with 100.

Make a plan for each trade and stick to it. The moment you don't trust yourself or system it's over.
 
Congratulations!
You have developed a very good system and the results speak for themselves. It appears to be a 100% mechanical approach or close to it?

The only problem I find in the system is the lack of trades. You plan to sit in front of your computer(or your wife) for 6+ hours, watching your 5 minute chart, each trading day waiting for one signal to buy or sell?

Ah, that is the downfall of your method.

You will go nuts within two months doing this...believe me.

Here is what you need to do:

AUTOMATE YOUR SYSTEM.

I would suggest something as simple as a macro program, like
www.macros.com Macro Express to carry out the automation of any signals.

In this way, you DO NOT have to be glued to the monitors all day. You do need to be around to make sure everything is functioning properly, but do not have to be there for the actual signal when it comes, since the automation will place the order!

Like you said, if others have done it then I should be able to. Well, I have done it, so you can also.

Oh yeah, and when you automate, you don't miss any system signals....no more envelopes to put in the mail :)

Best of luck,
 
One trade today. Short from 878.50 exit at 871.75. It looks like the parabolic factor used was .04. The trailing stop triggered a exit as soon as it was calculated and a new bar popped up. This has happened many times before. In those cases I could see it was likely, so I was waiting with my finger over the submit button for a market order. It's a pain because I have to cancel the old trailing stop fast or else it could get hit as well. Hopefully, someday I'll figure out a way to avoid this situation.
Money Management increased the number of contracts in this trade due to yesterday's decrease in range (two days in a row).
So far we're up over $16k this month on paper trades. 3 more days until the real thing. Nerves aren't a problem...yet.

Last night took alot out of me. I'm taking the rest of the day off to recharge my batteries. I'll do some work on the trading plan later.
 
Originally posted by rtstrading

The only problem I find in the system is the lack of trades. You plan to sit in front of your computer(or your wife) for 6+ hours, watching your 5 minute chart, each trading day waiting for one signal to buy or sell?

Ah, that is the downfall of your method.

You will go nuts within two months doing this...believe me.
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Another naysayer? Everybody has a peice of advice. I would wonder how many came to the table as fully prepared as 40 appears to be? And how many actually follow the advice as put forth?

Did you read the part where he said he has been doing this for about 6 months (albeit w/o real money) why now with real money would he and the wife go crazy?:confused:

My only desire in this is to see it proven correct and silence all the negativity!:)

Make 'em pretty, Chris
 
(sniff, sniff, sniff...) Am I smelling a system for sale?

Nah, I must be wrong. It's perfectly reasonable that an unemployed, 40 year old Wharton MBA, with a wife, and two teenage daughters would just show up out of nowhere, hang on the board day and night, and be as pure as the drivin snow.

It's perfectly reasonable that a guy like that reads Market Wizards, buys a system, and without ever having made a trade in his life, sits down and designs a money machine, and wants to share the good news with all of us.

Yep, it's all perfectly reasonable, if you ask me. So I must be wrong, I can't be smelling a marketing effort. I must just be one of those naysayers,

Of course, stranger things have happened around here before.
 
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