Any advice for a soon to be full-time trader?

[Howard]

It's a fair point.

But here's why I'm telling you this.

It's not a matter of comparing apples to oranges.

It's a matter of warning you what the next step is.

So let's say you join the ranks of professional trader.

Awesome.

You want to know what a nightmare is?

When you can turn consistent profits, year after year? Money finds you. It just does. I wish I could explain it. But other Money Managers have said the same thing. Especially is this true in private relationships.

A nightmare is you've got a great track record, and you raise even more capital. And in the midst of this process someone comes along and wants to deploy $25 Million, and asks if you can prove you've done scaleability testing on your process?

And you don't get the allocation, because either A) You can't scale up, and you know it or B) You haven't tested scaleability, so you lose the money that way.

And you get to watch $25 Million go somewhere else.

Not ...

Fun ...

I understand where you're coming from and I hear you there. And I do not doubt it's true that money finds you if you're consistently successful in trading.

But at the moment, I do not have ambitions to trade OPM. My desire and wish is to be as independent and free as possible. Maybe that will change at some point in the future and I will of course make sure to track my performance with that outcome as a possibillity.

I did choose futures and particularly ES with scalability in mind when I chose a market many years back now. I'm not worried that I'll outgrow it anytime soon.

Appreciate your comments and interest.

Thanks.

Howard

 

[Pkay]

The OP is not trolling. That being said, I am trading futures with $110,000 in my account, am profitable and would not consider going full time given my capitalization (i.e. full time as in my trading would prohibit me from earning money from other sources during normal business hours). I have a friend who has close to $200,000 and day trades and is not leaving his full time job until he can average $1,000 per day. Going full time with $15,000 is doomed to failure.

Good points, but curious to know how your friend can day trade with a full time job?

 

[Pkay]

Don't day trade index futures, you're going to lose. Even if you win, it's foolish to pursue as a main/only strategy because the edge available there is miniscule. You'll either be grinding out ticks with insane costs and risk of ruin, or sitting out 90% of the days waiting for good setups, thus wasting your time.

Keep working, save 30-50% of your income and swing trade to compound. If you cant swing trade off weekly charts with 2-4hrs/week of work you sure as hell won't make money day trading index futs.

Don't day trade index futures, you're going to lose. Even if you win, it's foolish to pursue as a main/only strategy because the edge available there is miniscule. You'll either be grinding out ticks with insane costs and risk of ruin, or sitting out 90% of the days waiting for good setups, thus wasting your time.

Keep working, save 30-50% of your income and swing trade to compound. If you cant swing trade off weekly charts with 2-4hrs/week of work you sure as hell won't make money day trading index futs.

Nice points. Are you referring to swing trading futures here? If so, what sort of setups would you be looking for and, more importantly, what instruments would you swing trade? Thanks.

 

[Pkay]

Your trading capital must be less than 20% of your total savings or investments

I didn't realise that this was a hard and fast rule? Only joking, I think people are free to spend some or even all of their savings on trading of they want to.

 

[Pkay]

Good luck. It can be done. I started with 50k 5 years ago,now make more than 500 a year. Traded for 10 years before going on my own. Doubled the account in 3 months and was all uphill from there. Didn’t pull anything out first 6 months.

Wow that is phenomenal. Prior to going full time 5 years ago were you swing trading futures? And what instruments did you day trade when you went full time? Thanks.

 

[fan27]

Good points, but curious to know how your friend can day trade with a full time job?

He works from home most of the time.

 

[Real Money]

Hey, capital concerns aside, just a couple things then.

Make sure you watch the index spreads YM/RTY, NQ/YM. You should also be watching the ultrabond / S&P spread.

I would also be charting the FTSE, DAX, Eurostoxx50 and even NKD during the early hours of RTH.

The rates market can drive or kill moves in the S&P, and the big futures prop traders love to trade the spreads I mentioned. That trading can trigger ES moves because it can push the market.

 

[Specterx]

Nice points. Are you referring to swing trading futures here? If so, what sort of setups would you be looking for and, more importantly, what instruments would you swing trade? Thanks.

I personally swing trade futures, spot FX, and equities. Futs and FX are preferred for reasons of margin and risk control (less event and gap risk), but it's often worthwhile to take setups in equities. As to setups - look for price/volume patterns characteristic of turning points, ideally where a successful signal will cascade up several time frames giving you huge reward (like 5x-10x) relative to risk.

The most important thing in trading as a business, rather than as a glorified trip to Vegas, is to have an approach which focuses on long-term sustainability grounded in realistic expectations. Most trade 5-10 times too frequently, taking tons of marginal setups rather than focusing on the rare fat pitches, and regularly assume 5-10 times as much risk as they should - practically guaranteeing a catastrophic drawdown from even a modest run of bad luck, slip in personal performance, or moderate system degradation etc. Many of the comments in this thread are coming from a totally different universe.

 

[legionx]

For all who says that 15K is too small, I am guessing that you all are swing traders? If I had 15K in my account and risk trading 2 lots while risking 400$/per trade or less and the margin is 500$ each, that equates to 35 chances as long as my daily loss limit is 400$. It can be done!!! BTW, I am funded @ OneUPTrader for the past 6 weeks, my longest ever! Something must be going right .

 

[yc47ib]

Negativity around here is not good, it can be done, there he can do it, hard work obviously.

Go demo first decide on your method, practice then live.

You've accepted you might fail but want to try so get trying.

Adding my two cents, 99.9% of the times you do well following your discipline, it is that 0.1% time that you will blow your account. Take care of that 0.1%, no matter what is you way of doing that, you will be fine with 15k account, otherwise, 150k will not help. Best of luck, even though this might not be your last time trying full time trading, hopefully it is not far from your last time. Never give up!