Am I ready to go live?

I love reading all this common wisdom from everybody on how to trade. I do the opposite of what most preach around here.
 
Papertrade and triple- three separate times, $8 bucks a trade is way too low, I only have automation and scalping I do $12 to $35 per. And last system I backtested had over 20,000 sample size of each signal over fourteen years of tick data, but least amount I would consider is 3,000 sample size. Anything you can dream up, programmers can write code so long as you have some type of rules. What you rather trade one market a dozen contracts or watch 40 markets at one time? Name of the game is make on consistent basis and don't take it personal, system makes or losses. Good luck, but 31 days of trading is like a vacation and you want to turn Pro? Anyone else would never take you serious testing so little.
 
I haven't read all the posts so forgive me if I am repeating someone else.

My experience is that 11 trades a day average is way too many. I believe you said your average per trade is $7, so that reinforces the idea that you are basically scalping noise.

I have offered this advice to many newbies here over the years, and generally get mocked for it. After all, they killed it on a sim. Yet I am still here and most of them are long gone.


Your results came in a period that, from my personal trading, I would call exceptionally favorable to futures day traders. It was not at all reflective of what you can expect going forward.

I believe you said you have a 25k account and use 8k per contract on your sim. I consider that very aggressive for an experienced trader. For a newbie it could be disaster. Honestly, my advice would be to divide your money in half and put half somewhere you cannot access for trading. Trade one contract with the remainder. Then if you lose it, which is highly likely, you can decide whether to continue, but you will have to make an affirmative decision to do so. Perhaps you are very successful. You will have lost the profits off a couple of contracts, which is unfortunate but not life altering.

I hope I don't come across as a dick but I have seen a lot of smart people get chewed up by this business. Good luck.

Tks AAA, I appreciate and understand what you are conveying. I'll try to keep a lid on it.
 
doug

I even have a better idea

there are plenty of successful traders around here,

why not post your trading screen for everyone to
see,

those of us who have a moment or two, to rest
our sore eyes from our own multi-level monitors,

might come in momentarily to see what you and your
smart spouse are cooking....

and perhaps provide a pointer or two,

only if you so wish and so incline to expose
yourself and your ego and your trading setups
for us to enjoy....

what do you say, doug?

nakachalet that's a cool idea. I do send a screenshot to my mentor. As for seeing my setups, it would be difficult. I watch a screen that has three time frames - 500 ticks, 1500, and 4500 ticks, a screen that has all three combined, and the DOM. When the indicators show agreement, then I execute & enter a stop. I record my trades only on the 1500 tick bar chart, otherwise it takes too long. But, seeing how many comments this thread has generated, I'm sure posting my screenshot would also generate some laughs, etc.
 
Anyone notice that the OP has dropped out of the discussion? Seems like we are more concerned about his success than maybe he is

I'm still here! I thought I caught all the wisdom in the first flurry of replies. Was shocked to see all the additions. Busy taking notes of the nuggets here.
 
Am I ready to go live?

...More like...Am I ready to go Jive o_O

This question shouldn't even have to be asked; the mere fact that you have to ask it...is proof enough you are Not ready,

Like alot of things in life...when you are ready or sure, you will know it -- Without having to get reaffirmance from other people,

This kind of reminds me of the movie Iron Eagle,...the boy was absolutely positive he could fly a fighter jet in battle, after so many hours on the simulator, (and he was right)

I appreciate the thoughtful comments here. No offense, but y'all are back up. I will make my own decision (together with my wife, obviously ;) )
 
Thanks! Exactly the kind of feedback I was seeking. FWIW, I actually started paper trading February 23rd. But, til May 18th I was just getting a feel for the whole thing. Since May 18th I have been much more consistent. My wife and I agree that I will paper trade one more month & evaluate again.

When you can conclude, "you know what you're doing", go live trading only 1-lots. You'll learn some things trading with real money that trading sim doesn't reveal. IOW... it's easy to be non-disciplined and sloppy when "it's only paper trading".

After you've had some success with real money and the confidence that brings, you can always bump up your size... and then again later when success warrants.
 
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doug

I even have a better idea

there are plenty of successful traders around here,

why not post your trading screen for everyone to
see,

@nakachalet

I will try to post a screenshot of yesterday's and today's trading (it will be 1500 tick bar chart with Barry Taylor's "Better Indicators" - all mistakes and poor trades are mine, not Barry's), I will also try to post snips of my spreadsheet tracking my results.

7.5.PNG
7.6.PNG
7.6 results.PNG
7.6 eval.PNG


Obviously yesterday's trading was much better than today's. With the exception of a couple of partial fills, the trades for these two days were three contracts each. Prior to that I was trading all singles.

Let the BBQ begin!
 
Numbers are looking good Doug. I am not familiar with Barry Taylor or his method but I use the 3000 tick as my smallest TF and it prints a lot less noise but that is absolutely a personal thing.
 
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