A Retail's Day Trading Experiment

[ironchef]

What is a mental hard stop?

Monitoring the price charts and other parameters closely for any indication of reversal. The down side is many in & out in a short period.

 

[ironchef]

Must have awful tight stops

Yes. Cut my losses early walking a very tight rope between it and letting profits run.

 

[ironchef]

tweaking is like optimization.......it will never end.....apologise for the bluntness of that comment

i know the agony of such an activity......i tweaked for 2 decades

It will end when I go live. Wins might also ends when I go live.

 

[ironchef]

Did you calculate commissions and fees? 1500 trades in 48 days would rack up a significant dollar amount, depending on the broker.

Paper trading is great to learn a platform, not so great for future expectations on live results. The emotion is a major factor on live compared to paper trade.

Schwab does not charge commission on stocks, only on futures and options and they even discounted those for me.

Agree regarding live vs paper and the emotion part.

 

[ironchef]

i agree if you cant make money in paper trading........then you cant do it live

there is another option you can look at and that is one road i liked for me personally......it gives you some incentive without risking much money.......it allows you to learn.....i am talking about prop firms like Topstep Trader and a few others......this is a compromise and tests you emotionally because get a big reward

Thanks for the suggestions.

I don't need prop firms, I have always traded my own funds.

 

[deaddog]

Monitoring the price charts and other parameters closely for any indication of reversal. The down side is many in & out in a short period.

Why not a stop in the market when you enter the trade?

 

[padutrader]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I don't need prop firms, I have always traded my own funds.

it is better than paper trading your welcome

 

[padutrader]

It will end when I go live. Wins might also ends when I go live.

you have to get in excess of 80% wins in paper trading.....than you may get 60% in live......slippage and spreads and brokerage all are significant in live ...but you know that

 

[Jzwu2017]

@ironchef,

If your winning strategy is truly a few big winners you may have a chance in real trading. The strategy can overcome slippages, etc. under real market conditions, as long as you can stick to your strategy and control your emotions when real money is involved.

One major human psychological problem is loss aversion. You may be able to get out of a losing trade quickly in paper trading, but it can become a barrier when your money is on the line.

Same situation on winning trades. In real trading you may bail out too early with a small profit on a winner when you’re afraid of giving back your profit on the first sign of market going against you. Don’t ask how I know. Hahaha

 

[ironchef]

@ironchef,

If your winning strategy is truly a few big winners you may have a chance in real trading. The strategy can overcome slippages, etc. under real market conditions, as long as you can stick to your strategy and control your emotions when real money is involved.

One major human psychological problem is loss aversion. You may be able to get out of a losing trade quickly in paper trading, but it can become a barrier when your money is on the line.

Same situation on winning trades. In real trading you may bail out too early with a small profit on a winner when you’re afraid of giving back your profit on the first sign of market going against you. Don’t ask how I know. Hahaha

Thanks, make me feel better.

After thinking over what you and the others posted regarding psychology, fill, lag, etc. the only way to find out is go live.

After 50 days, I will go live and follow your recommendation, do a 50X reduction in size to $1K per trade, so I will be trading for my morning joe when I go live.