A day in the life of a real trader

Squeal Trader said:
...my stop is now at scratch...
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Does "scratch" imply your stop was at a price that covers the cost of your trade or is it just a price that correlates with your entry so that readers can use it as a reference point ?

I ask because most traders don't treat their trading as a business. Thus, they have not calculated the true cost (expense) of a trade that's more than just commissions. Further, everybody has a different true cost because everybody has different yearly, monthly expenses to be a trader for a particular trading instrument. This is something an accountant and tax accountant can help a trader determine when a profit is really a loss and when a profit really is a profit.

Simply, a trader can go broke when he/she takes a profit if those profitable trades are consistently less than the true cost of the trade.

I'm just staying in the theme "a day in the life of a real trader".
 
Ive just come out of my bund short with a small profit. Price found solid support on 20th high @14608 and my profit target was just below that. now that we are back up here i no longer want to be against this trend. This might lead to a sell off in equities so will look for any opportunities in those products.

As for this euro. I want to get short it but feel its got more upside to go so will stay out until i see it losing interest.
 
wrbtrader said:
Does "scratch" imply your stop was at a price that covers the cost of your trade or is it just a price that correlates with your entry so that readers can use it as a reference point ?
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When I say my stop is at scratch it means i place my stop exactly on the level i got entered. so if I get stopped at scratch i am at nil minus my fees.

I get charged $3.50 per round trip per contract and rarely trade a product more than 3 times a day so as long as i keep my size consistent the fees to me are negligible.
 
Squeal Trader said:
When I say my stop is at scratch it means i place my stop exactly on the level i got entered. so if I get stopped at scratch i am at nil minus my fees.

I get charged $3.50 per round trip per contract and rarely trade a product more than 3 times a day so as long as i keep my size consistent the fees to me are negligible.
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Do you know what your overhead expenses are per month or per year so that you can know how much profits you need to make to cover your expenses to be a trader ?

I'm not talking about only commissions/fees

Also, I'm not asking you to tell me that number. I'm just curious if you do know your expenses outside of your broker commissions. If you don't know, this is something an accountant and tax accountant can help you determine so that you'll know when a profitable trade is really a profit instead of a profitable trade being a losing trade because the profits < true cost of the trade.

This is something that every business owner (including full-time traders) should know.

These comments by me was prompt by your comment that nobody ever went broke taking a profit when in fact most profitable traders aren't really making money by the time they file their taxes due to the fact that most of their profitable trades were less than the true cost of the trade.
 
wrbtrader said:
These comments by me was prompt by your comment that nobody ever went broke taking a profit when in fact most profitable traders aren't really making money by the time they file their taxes due to the fact that most of their profitable trades were less than the true cost of the trade.
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My whole trading and profitability is based around having a Risk/ Reward of at least 2:1. you will never see a RR less than that on any of my strategies. Yes while technically you can go broke by taking a profit, this was a case where i wanted out of both trades and instead getting stopped out at scratch i was at least able to walk away with a few ticks. both Cable and bund retraced back up to entries so it was a decision to lock in a bit of profit rather than none at all. I've yet to secure any decent moves this week and have found trading to be quite muted but with me exiting these trades that inevitably would've stopped me all at scratch i have managed to secure 15 ticks this week which i feel is pretty decent.

It all comes done to everyone's individual attitude to how they like to manage risk. My risk appetite always starts to evaporate after a few hours in a trade but someone else may be different. Keeping my psychology in check is the most important thing to me. As long as my trading doesn't compromise my emotion i am able to keep trading the charts separate to my P&L.
 
just had some bad durable goods orders and weak gdp data from the US. a predictable euro spike up which has entered me in short here up at the highs.

I get confused these days if good news = bad and vice versa. i delayed getting entered when price first tested as wanted to see the levels hold but feeling better about my short from here now. Data was bad but bad enough to push this euro out of its range? we'll see. Cable also shown great resistance at 16990 which give me more confidence about this euro. 13638 and 32 are big support levels here. so might take some size off early to lock in that profit. Will be interesting to see how equities respond to this at CO
 
Ok we're hitting first signs of support here so my stop is now to scratch. it could really go either way from this point so am glad i got entered at 13651 but if price bounces back up from here then i will want out. Theres still the US session to trade as well in 15 mins so feel theres plenty of opportunity for today regardless.
 
I've closed out this trade for 11 ticks. This is frustrating as this means im currently working with a 1:1 RR which in my opinion no trader can maintain profitability in the long term. The only way i am able to stay above water is if i lock down these big winners. Those dreaded losing streaks are always around the corner and its the big profits that see me through them. I don't care what anyone says - there is not a single trader that has a system or style that makes money in every market condition. I just have to stay focused on maintaining focus, discipline and most importantly consistency is executing every strategy i get as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

Still, 1 of the key lessons i learnt many moons ago was that you cannot force the market to give you money. There are days when the market gives, days when it will take - and days it will give you a sore ass. Our job as traders is to identify which day it is and trade the markets accordingly. You try and dip your hand in to take by force and the market will punish you for it. The market is a tough teacher - and she doesn't spare the rod!

This is the hardest most miserable job there is, it never gets easier and just when you think you've cracked it, the market teaches you otherwise and reminds you who's in charge.

Rant over!
 
Morning,

I have just been entered long this SP at 1950. This SP doesn't want to sell off. Everytime a sell off happens it is immiediately bought back up. Every selling push is another excuse for the BTD (Buy The Dip) crew to jump back in. my prediction is we will see 2000 by the end of July.
 
Im exiting this SP just before chicago pmi data. my stop was thoroughly tested before it found good support. Scrappy profits here but they slowly add up.
 
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