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

[MercForHire]

You mention you have an account 20K but don't plan to use it, instead of using TopStepTrader,
Your real profits are about $43000 from Sept to Nov (19K+26K+8K), so that profit of about 43K is on the TopStepTrader account or from your 20K own account? Just curious.
By the way, your system is discretionary, not automatic, correct?

I would say it's fully non-discretionary when it comes to entering a trade, some discretion is required for setting the stop loss and making sure it's not too tight(my system produces multi levels of S/R and the rule is to pick a level that's one level away from the current S/R as the trailing SL).

 

[jl1575]

I would say it's fully non-discretionary when it comes to entering a trade, some discretion is required for setting the stop loss and making sure it's not too tight(my system produces multi levels of S/R and the rule is to pick a level that's one level away from the current S/R as the trailing SL).

It all makes sense now, your paper trades and and hypothetical profits and the system. Good luck.

 

[MercForHire]

It all makes sense now, your paper trades and and hypothetical profits and the system. Good luck.

Thanks, haha if that was real profit and everything is working as planned. I won't be here posting looking for friends. lol

 

[Howard]

Sorry I don't want to hijack Howard's thread. Everything I done so far has been paper trading and sim account.

That curve was entirely hypothetical assuming perfect execution and fills and $4 per round trip trade. For each of the paper trade, I marked the exact point where I take a position on the chart based the indicators and my rules. These rules sometimes take more than few seconds for me to process in my head which can erode the actual result. After each session, I take the screenshot of the chart and record all the trades.

I tried TST for a month and decided it's not worth it, I am cancelling end of this week. I am paying a fee to play in their sim account trying to meet some goal and their loss limiting rules actually make me more stressed than trading real $ with micro contracts.

Don't worry about hijacking it.

As you're now discovering - there's a difference between backtested/hypothetical results on a dead chart with no money risked versus a faster, live chart and having to make fast decisions on the go while risking money. It certainly changes things a lot.

For me, I've often gone live only to discover flaws in my system which were not apparent during backtesting/checking. So, then it's back to the drawing board, more refinements, etc. Try again with live trading - discover another flaw and then back to the drawing board. Rinse. Repeat.

When are you planning to go live with real money? I see you dropped the Combine.

Maybe just trade live with micros for a while or seriously in a simulator account just like you would real money?

I will start trading 1 e-mini contract in January and will start scaling my account as soon as I can prove consistent profitability.

 

[MercForHire]

Don't worry about hijacking it.

As you're now discovering - there's a difference between backtested/hypothetical results on a dead chart with no money risked versus a faster, live chart and having to make fast decisions on the go while risking money. It certainly changes things a lot.

For me, I've often gone live only to discover flaws in my system which were not apparent during backtesting/checking. So, then it's back to the drawing board, more refinements, etc. Try again with live trading - discover another flaw and then back to the drawing board. Rinse. Repeat.

When are you planning to go live with real money? I see you dropped the Combine.

Maybe just trade live with micros for a while or seriously in a simulator account just like you would real money?

I will start trading 1 e-mini contract in January and will start scaling my account as soon as I can prove consistent profitability.

Looking forward for you to start your trading career. Have a great holiday!
I am starting to trading 1 MNQ next week. I don't regret spending 2 month on the Combine, it's been educational and felt like the real thing. It just felt empty at the end of each day regardless of winning or losing.

 

[Howard]

Looking forward for you to start your trading career. Have a great holiday!
I am starting to trading 1 MNQ next week. I don't regret spending 2 month on the Combine, it's been educational and felt like the real thing. It just felt empty at the end of each day regardless of winning or losing.

That's just part of the process. No shortcuts for anyone there.

In hindsight, for me, I've lost too much money on the 'educational process' and discovering flaws in my system which could have been avoided by simulation trading or at least minimum size.

Likewise!

Howard

 

[ironchef]

I would say it's fully non-discretionary when it comes to entering a trade, some discretion is required for setting the stop loss and making sure it's not too tight(my system produces multi levels of S/R and the rule is to pick a level that's one level away from the current S/R as the trailing SL).

Wow! Your results are impressive. I never had such good results even when backtesting or with real money. Of course I swing and not day trade. If you are truly non discretionary, your system should be as good going live.

 

[MercForHire]

Wow! Your results are impressive. I never had such good results even when backtesting or with real money. Of course I swing and not day trade. If you are truly non discretionary, your system should be as good going live.

I found a way to export my chart and signals into a text file. I can make a parser that turns it into object oriented programming classes that I can perform logic on. I can create a desktop app that constantly monitors the latest price/signals data and replace orders real time using REST API.

Thanks for the automation suggestion. Looks like I found my project for 2020. Time to put my software engineer skills to good use

 

[Howard]

Trading plan completed including money management rules, clearly defining all my signals, systematizing all my knowledge/statistics, all operational guidelines and pre-market/market/post-market routines. In addition, I've been testing my methodology and getting back in tune with the market after having less exposure and screen time at the end of 2019.

Going live tomorrow.

Howard.

 

[MercForHire]

My bot had its debut day today on paper account. 11 points profit, 14 trades. Turned it on at 9 am and came back to check it at 4pm.
Difficult to profit on these ATH low volatility days.