Am I doing something wrong? Making money can't be this easy...

[tycoonman]

Quote from HedgefunTrader2:

I went through this exact things some years ago. It's not as easy as it seems. You just have not experienced a different cycle yet.

I had an 83.4% confidence level that it was going to hit 1329.00 at the time it did based on a calculation involving average market volume, volatility, and max/min for that time interval during the last two weeks. And it has been right 83.4% of the time. I have the day split into 2hr time intervals for when the market is open and 4hr time inervals for when the market is closed.

and no, i haven't encountered a different cycle yet, thats why im going to stay on sim for the next 3 weeks. But people saying im doing things arbitrarily are off.

Ive made two live predictions as everyones behest (which I enjoy btw, cuz it keeps me focused), and they have been right to the +/-10minutes.

I just don't get the unproductive comments. Not just for me, but for other noobs wanting to learn. I've already gotten some emails new traders asking questions about sim, which im POSITIVE they are too scared to ask here because you guys will just flame them for not being "Elite Traders"...whatever the eff that means...

 

[tycoonman]

Quote from volente_00:

Fundamentals mean nothing in ES. You best plan is to keep a calender of all economic and earnings releases as this is when you will get most of the unpredictable action in ES.



How many contracts do you plan to trade with 5k ?



One problem I see if you are targeting 1 to 3 points on these trades but you are using a mental stop of 5 points. When you hit a drawdown and make 3 losing trades in a row it will take more winners to get you back to breakeven. I would say use no more than 3% of total account for your stop. Mental stop also leave you with a deer in the headlights look when you get caught offgaurd. You should use a hard stop on every trade and enter it as a bracket order so it is valid as soon as you get in the trade.

i thought you can only hold 1 position/contract with $2500. So i'de only have one position open... is that wrong info? I wouldn't trade 2 cars.

I think ill go with 3%... although, i have only been in the red over $100 once since last week, and ive probably traded 30 contracts since then.

 

[volente_00]

Quote from tycoonman:

i thought you can only hold 1 position/contract with $2500. So i'de only have one position open... is that wrong info? I wouldn't trade 2 cars.

I think ill go with 3%... although, i have only been in the red over $100 once since last week, and ive probably traded 30 contracts since then.

Are you talking about daytrade margin or margin to hold overnight ?

 

[tycoonman]

Quote from volente_00:

Are you talking about daytrade margin or margin to hold overnight ?

OEC told me that there is a minimum of $5000 to open an account and the margin to trade the ES-mini is $2500/contract. And there is a $1.45 commission to trade a contract per side.

Am I totally off here? Please correct me if im wrong so I can call them and figure it out exactly. Thanks.

 

[volente_00]

Quote from tycoonman:

OEC told me that there is a minimum of $5000 to open an account and the margin to trade the ES-mini is $2500/contract. And there is a $1.45 commission to trade a contract per side.

Am I totally off here? Please correct me if im wrong so I can call them and figure it out exactly. Thanks.

To hold overnight margin is $5625 for ES


Daytrade margin varies by broker.

$500 daytrade margin is standard for 1 to 50 contracts


$4.90 commission is too high


Velocity will give you ~4.10 rt using strategy runner on 5,000 account

http://www.tradewithvelocity.com/commissions/product-commissions.aspx?productID=46


I'm sure others will do around that as well.

 

[tycoonman]

Quote from volente_00:

To hold overnight margin is $5625 for ES


Daytrade margin varies by broker.

$500 daytrade margin is standard for 1 to 50 contracts


$4.90 commission is too high


Velocity will give you ~4.10 rt using strategy runner on 5,000 account

http://www.tradewithvelocity.com/commissions/product-commissions.aspx?productID=46


I'm sure others will do around that as well.

Thanks for that.

A few questions if you don't mind:

what does it mean to hold a contract over night? Isn't the futures market 24/7 minus the maintenance time for an hour? so a $5625 overnight margin would mean that I can't have any positions open at night because I only have 5,000 in my account to begin with, correct? and by the same logic I can have 10 contracts open during the day @$500/contract if I have a 5k account size.

I will check out velocity, thanks again.

 

[volente_00]

Quote from tycoonman:

Thanks for that.

A few questions if you don't mind:

what does it mean to hold a contract over night? Isn't the futures market 24/7 minus the maintenance time for an hour? so a $5625 overnight margin would mean that I can't have any positions open at night because I only have 5,000 in my account to begin with, correct? and by the same logic I can have 10 contracts open during the day @$500/contract if I have a 5k account size.

I will check out velocity, thanks again.

It means to hold through the maintenace period and over weekend you have to use higher margin.


daytrade margins apply to positions closed before maintenance period happens.

Once globex reopens you can reopen the positon with daytrade margin.


Before you start getting dollar signs in your eyes. I would not advocate using less than $5000 per contract as a rookie until you build your account up some.


You will not be able to handle the emotion of trading higher leverage with a $5000 account when you hit a drawdown.


Velocity is good, another good one is global futures.

 

[achilles28]

Quote from tycoonman:

Cool so you think risk-management and studying the chart in real-time is enough for the ES?

For a discretionary speculator, yes.

Quote from tycoonman:

what are all these softwares everyone is talking about ie., eSignals, and tradestation etc...?

Those are third-party charting and execution platforms your brokers data feed integrate with (presumably).

Quote from tycoonman:

What limitations am I encountering if i just use the DOM and the charts provided by OEC's platform??

Not sure. I have never used OEC. DOM isn't necessary, but can be a profitable tool. Before high frequency trading, scalpers made good coin trading the DOM. Indicators are useless, imo. The sooner a trader abandons all indicators (except for horizontal and diagonal trendlines), the better. It's rumored some traders are profitable using a simple MA, MACD, CCI, or RSI. Possible. More than one way to skin a cat. But as a general rule, indicators lag price. The best way to trade price, is price. Which is what you're doing. Which is why I encourage you to continue in your original direction. The total universe of trading MIS-information is so large and vast, most newbs get distracted and tangled up before they find something profitable. Years go by, and they eventually give up. That's the general story of losers. Be very careful you don't venture off the well-beaten road to profitability: price action, support and resistance, some patterns, and some trendlines. Good luck.

 

[intradaybill]

Demo trading vs. actual trading is like a flight simulator vs. flying a real plane through bad weather during the night and be responsible for the life of 200 people.

Actually it is bad to demo trade because you develop cognitions that are the opposite of those that are required during real trading. This is a reason 99.99% of demo traders lose. Actualyl, and I think someone said that already, demo trading conditions people to lose.

 

[tycoonman]

Quote from intradaybill:

Demo trading vs. actual trading is like a flight simulator vs. flying a real plane through bad weather during the night and be responsible for the life of 200 people.

Actually it is bad to demo trade because you develop cognitions that are the opposite of those that are required during real trading. This is a reason 99.99% of demo traders lose. Actualyl, and I think someone said that already, demo trading conditions people to lose.

not if you play by the rules.