I agree with what you say about opportunities. Something I dont get is how traders can sit and watch the treasuries or Bobl or Shatz - especially those that trade purely off the ladder. I tried once and I very nearly came out of that experience completely cracked. I need something with life that I can wrestle and engage with.
Advice to make $3K/month trading
- Thread starter Evermore2017
- Start date
I agree with what you say about opportunities. Something I dont get is how traders can sit and watch the treasuries or Bobl or Shatz - especially those that trade purely off the ladder. I tried once and I very nearly came out of that experience completely cracked. I need something with life that I can wrestle and engage with.
Hmm, I think it depends. First of all, times have changed. There were maybe many point and click traders in the Bund, Bobl or even Schatz like 10+ years before. But times have changed. Volatility has changed. Orderflow has changed. I think today there are only very few left that still do this old business in these contracts. It is a different game. Somehow, the financial markets, trading, it is all an everchanging game. No special technique works for ever. Trading in the bond pits was the best thing you could do in the 80s. Where are they now ? They dont even exist anymore. One thing that will however exist for much longer time is the laws of demand and supply, of buying cheap and selling high, of human psychology, fear and hysteria. You have to adapt how you apply these basic principals of (financial) markets to the actual markets of your time. But the basics will never change I think. Thats one of the reasons why I was never a fan of these special gimmicks like rebate trading, spoofing,... these things worked, you could make great money with them, but they did not work for very long and if you intend to have a lifelong career in trading, I believe you must really get down to the basics and master them. How do you master them ? The same how you master all things in life... lots of dedication and practise, practise, practise. No tricks, no cheats, no gimmicks, no secrets.
Coming back to those thick markets... ok, Schatz is really too thick for my taste, and too little volume. You can use it as part of some spreading, but as a pure, outright scalping instrument, I see not much use of it.
Other thick markets like Bobl or ZN might also seem slow like a turtle at first, but if you really zoom in to the micro level, watch every change in the DOM together with all prints on the TnS, you will see there is plenty of action on many days even if you cannot see much happening on a regular chart. If you add a good DOM tool like TT MD trader, Rithmic Rtrader or Jigsaw that even show your position in queue, you can do plenty of small trades within a short time with very little risk per trade (scratch or 1tick). It is not fun on every day, but especially in ZN there are many days on which it ping pongs around with very high volume... the basic ingredients for a good scalping day.
But you have to really focus for such an instrument, at least I have to, because things are happening so fast, at such a micro level. Trading something like the FDAX or NQ is easier in my oppinion, I just follow it on a fast tick chart and on the chart it is really obvious when there is a good time to enter. Not so much concentration and focus needed for that, can even play Battlefield while waiting for a good trade
Damn, again I write too much, hope there is some useful info for you and you dont get bored.
Greetings,
CALLumbus
Ok, I have to add some more to your wrestling desires
I think many people are like that, I am similar, we have lots of energy, we want some action, we want entertainment. Thats fine, but does it really have to happen on your account ? I prefer now when my trading day is going pretty calm and unspectacular, better to slowly pile up those +1+1+2+1+2 tick gains than these crazy swings like -30 tick, +50 ticks, -40 ticks.There is still lots of action happing on the account just in a more steady, controlled way. If you need more action do something additional at the same time, but only if your really know your trading in and out. You could read a book, you could write a book, you could host a youtube channel, you can play Battlefield online, you can make phone calls. You can even do something to make additional income, an online business maybe, something like a fix small basic income that covers all your living expenses so that you dont have to rely on your trading to survive. That might take some additional element of fear out of your trading.
... or indeed backgammon ...
I think whatever helps you to make your (trading) day a good (trading) day. Away with all those rigid rules, you have to do this, you have to do that. Do what helps YOU, with YOUR performance. And do what makes YOU happy, brings YOU joy. And many times, dedication, joy and success will come hand in hand.
I personally try not to set monthly targets for myself, if I do I find myself chasing yield and thats how I get into trouble. I find it better to just trade what I like and just watch the pnl. I know its hard to do if you rely on this income, but thats what works for me and keeps me away from questionable trades. having a number in mind that I need to meet monthly is somehow very difficult for me.
I ended this month with $3237 in profits.
-Trading Stocks
-Position size $2500/$3000
-43 transactions
-60.47% success
-3.12 profit factor
-2.04 Risk Reward Ratio
Very nice
-Trading Stocks
-Position size $2500/$3000
-43 transactions
-60.47% success
-3.12 profit factor
-2.04 Risk Reward Ratio
Very nice
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it kind of is as long as you're a long-only SPX/ES/NQ trader
best comment so far
None of the ET Billionaires ever post realtime entries and exits.
Well, they do, but they always get deleted before we can see them
Well, they do, but they always get deleted before we can see them