Quote from James:
Thanks for your advice. Do you think I would be able to make enough to live on this way trading based on the 60 minute with one contract? Because the problem is it takes a while to get a great trade to line up on the 60 minute chart and oftentimes it happens when I am sleeping. I usually trade off the 5 minute and have the 60 minute chart up because the different time intervals mirror each other in some way, shape or form. Anyway I will keep your advice to heart. I am still going to paper trade what I have come up with and I will also paper trade the 60 minute and just continue to scalp with real money based on the 1 minute (that's the chart I use to scalp).
James, my son,, my son,, listen to thee...lol. As Shakespeare said< "outliers, they are but a must"... just kidding he didnt say that, but that is how important they are.
The scalping world is taking over by HFT, bots, algo, so if you dont have those, make it easier and much more profitabale for yourself trading larger time frames.
For example, on a scalp, (which i did for years), bad fills are an issue., Your trigger long will be .02-.03cents late and your exit will be .02-.03 cents short. instead of going for the .10 ticks etc. , you will walk out with .07 approx,, bad fills is synonmous with scalping, thats why the scalpers used to trade 100's times per day to make up for it.
Dont think i am saying this from some theory view point or some "weekend 401k trading warrior", i have been in your shoes, and would love to have my money and time back from those early days. I have 5 systems going on now at all times, and not one of them is under 15mins, and guess which one is the most unrealiable,,,, yep the 15 min.
Whether you will make enough to live on a 60minute, ??. Your gains will not be a daily thing, and BTW, stop looking at your P+L so much, focus on your methodoligies and mechanics more, your p+l will take care of it self.
ONe way to look at a 60min time frame is: you are in a hunting comepetition, you need to bring in 100lbs a meat by the end of the month. You can grab your pistol and shoot 50, 2lb squirrels, and if you hit 50 of them, you probably made 70-80 shots.
OR, you can lay in wait, take a rifle, watch and shoot two hogs at 50lbs a piece. maybe shooting 3-+4 times all month. YEs, its not a daily thing, maybe your first shot was the first week, and second shot was end of the third week, etc... there is patience involved.
But which one would you want to be.... i hope you are choosing the right one. ??
JUst try some 30min charts with your system now. See how they would of worked the last 6 months, (really need much longer).
You need outliers, you just really do. its a simple math equation, real world math. my systems get those outliers, and spend the other trades trying not to give them back before the next outlier comes. Period, simple.
Its not how often you are right that is the most important thing, but how much you make when you are right./
Have patience you arent going nowehere, nobody is chasing you, learn to make the large gains, with 1 ct, is perfect, and this can be a very, very rewarding biusiness for you.
Man,,lolol,, there is so much damn free good advice here,, this Karma thing better come back to me and help me,,,haha,,, just kidding. I have been 20yrs old before James, and i have already traded my first year, first 5yrs, first 10yrs in this business. Take my advice with some depth my friend... the guys at GS and JPM do well because they sit them with senior traders, this is our version of that at ET..
think in dollars you make dollars, think in pennies(scalp), you make pennies---Tudor Jones.
EF
