CL Redux
- Thread starter schizo
- Start date
---- Day end Summary for: Thursday, October 06, 2011
(This is a paper account started with $20,000 on Monday Sep 26, 2011
I follow the margin rules for IB.
I try to post my trades in advance when possible and with graphs.)
Overnight Maintenance Margin $6,240 * 3 = $18,720
Close 82.60. I Sold two at close for margin requirements.
(I'm using FIFO not the avg cost the broker would use. This gives the same net equity but shows it more conservatively on the cash balance.)
Sld 1 at 78.40 @ 10:10 Wednesday, October 05
bot 1 at 82.60
-4.20 * 1,000 =-$4,200
Sld 1 at 79.49 @ 13:12 Wednesday, October 05
bot 1 at 82.60
-3.11 * 1,000 =-$3,110
-$4,200-$3,110=-$7,310
Opening Cash Balance today $33,780
Change in Cash = -$7,310
Closing Cash Balance $26,470
Holding at the close 3 short contracts:
Sld 1 at 79.74 @ 14:44 Wednesday, October 05
Sold 1 at 80.76 @ 11:40 Thursday, October 06
Sold 1 at 82.00 @ 12:53 Thursday, October 06
average cost= 80.83
Open Equity =-1.77 * 3,000 -$5,310 (from 82.60 close)
Closing Cash Balance $26,470
Net Equity $21,160
No Open orders.
(This is a paper account started with $20,000 on Monday Sep 26, 2011
I follow the margin rules for IB.
I try to post my trades in advance when possible and with graphs.)
Overnight Maintenance Margin $6,240 * 3 = $18,720
Close 82.60. I Sold two at close for margin requirements.
(I'm using FIFO not the avg cost the broker would use. This gives the same net equity but shows it more conservatively on the cash balance.)
Sld 1 at 78.40 @ 10:10 Wednesday, October 05
bot 1 at 82.60
-4.20 * 1,000 =-$4,200
Sld 1 at 79.49 @ 13:12 Wednesday, October 05
bot 1 at 82.60
-3.11 * 1,000 =-$3,110
-$4,200-$3,110=-$7,310
Opening Cash Balance today $33,780
Change in Cash = -$7,310
Closing Cash Balance $26,470
Holding at the close 3 short contracts:
Sld 1 at 79.74 @ 14:44 Wednesday, October 05
Sold 1 at 80.76 @ 11:40 Thursday, October 06
Sold 1 at 82.00 @ 12:53 Thursday, October 06
average cost= 80.83
Open Equity =-1.77 * 3,000 -$5,310 (from 82.60 close)
Closing Cash Balance $26,470
Net Equity $21,160
No Open orders.
i agree about being too high but I was say 3 max on 30K
naturally I was planning to close the two I opened today so I would be back to 3 but I was hoping to close them at a profit
-- "O contrare mon vieux" LOL
Really the mistake - IMO was my trading of yesterday which was abysmal. My notes had UP day and I traded short.
I seem to go into a daze - or something -
I even have signs
"UP buy only!"
(I forget to put them up before open - as I should.)
...still learning..
That's the best advice and ONLY thing which really matters- Minimum Leverage. Due to leverage i have made 40k in a day and lost the same.
NO way to sustain trading on a long term consistent basis.
Show my up!
Start with 20,000 in a sim account on Monday.
Post your trades in advance as I do.
Include a chart as I do.
Stay withing the margin rates as I do.
Intraday Initial Margin 4,212
Intraday Maintenance Margin 3,120
Overnight Initial Margin 8,424
Overnight Maintenance Margin 6,240
Unasked for advice is unwelcome advice.
When you get to $100,000 and I'm still at $20,000 then start with the armchair quarterbacking.
Quote from aquarian1:
Show my up!
Start with 20,000 in a sim account on Monday.
Post your trades in advance as I do.
Include a chart as I do.
Stay withing the margin rates as I do.
Intraday Initial Margin 4,212
Intraday Maintenance Margin 3,120
Overnight Initial Margin 8,424
Overnight Maintenance Margin 6,240
Unasked for advice is unwelcome advice.
When you get to $100,000 and I'm still at $20,000 then start with the armchair quarterbacking.
I think you are taking it the wrong way, I think he was just relating a personal experience to emphasize the importance of leverage. We are all in the same boat, trying to learn from each other.
No one is discounting your trading abilities.
Nonfarm payrolls rose 103,000 the Labour Department said on Friday, while the unemployment rate held steady at 9.1 percent as an increase in household employment offset a rise in the participation rate.
Economists had expected nonfarm employment to increase 60,000 last month and the jobless rate to hold steady at 9.1 percent.
Economists had expected nonfarm employment to increase 60,000 last month and the jobless rate to hold steady at 9.1 percent.
aquarian1,
It may help to think of your account as two piles of money...initial capital and working capital. Initial is what you start each day with and working is how much you've currently made for the day. With initial capital, only allow yourself to trade your normal contract size. With working, you can add to a winning trade or use previous winnings as "stop money" to fund larger initial entries.
For example, if you're up $700 for the day and your stop is 20 ticks, you can trade up to 3 contracts as an initial position if you want.
At the start of each day, you have $0 working capital so you cannot risk more than your minimum lot size. In your case, that would be 1 contract.
You can leverage up in any one trade so long as you will not allow your loss to grow worse than what you would be willing to lose in a normal trade. This will basically force you to get out at breakeven if, on your first add-on, you are down 10 ticks total (= standard 1 contract 20 tick loss). When you get good at adding onto a trade in a strong trend, esp. on the CL, you will find your chances of making $1200+ go up once you get past the threat of b/e on 2 positions.
If you follow these guidelines, it will be impossible for you to ever lose more than you smallest amount possible (in this case, $200) per trade if you are not trading well because you are still under the "initial capital" trading conditions. That's another way of saying that you confine your large account gains and losses to what you're able to achieve during each trading day. It takes money to make money so it makes sense to only risk larger sums of working capital when you have already proven that you're trading well for the day.
Another example. I trade 1 contract, catch a strong trend, add 3-4 contracts in that trend and I close the trade out with a $5000 profit. I stop trading for the day. The next day, my working capital is $0. I can only trade 1 contract again. The $5000 from the prior day was swept into the initial capital pool of money and that cannot use size to trade, only the minimum amount of risk I'm willing to take a trade and can only lose my normal stop loss amount.
This is how I manage my account. Just because I may have made 5K-10K for even an entire week, I must prove (to myself) through growing my working capital that I am enough on my game to be able to "get large" at any point during the day. I can emotionally handle losing $2000 if I am already up $4000 for the day, but I would (eventually) be an emotional wreck if I allowed that kind of thing to happen with initial capital.
It may help to think of your account as two piles of money...initial capital and working capital. Initial is what you start each day with and working is how much you've currently made for the day. With initial capital, only allow yourself to trade your normal contract size. With working, you can add to a winning trade or use previous winnings as "stop money" to fund larger initial entries.
For example, if you're up $700 for the day and your stop is 20 ticks, you can trade up to 3 contracts as an initial position if you want.
At the start of each day, you have $0 working capital so you cannot risk more than your minimum lot size. In your case, that would be 1 contract.
You can leverage up in any one trade so long as you will not allow your loss to grow worse than what you would be willing to lose in a normal trade. This will basically force you to get out at breakeven if, on your first add-on, you are down 10 ticks total (= standard 1 contract 20 tick loss). When you get good at adding onto a trade in a strong trend, esp. on the CL, you will find your chances of making $1200+ go up once you get past the threat of b/e on 2 positions.
If you follow these guidelines, it will be impossible for you to ever lose more than you smallest amount possible (in this case, $200) per trade if you are not trading well because you are still under the "initial capital" trading conditions. That's another way of saying that you confine your large account gains and losses to what you're able to achieve during each trading day. It takes money to make money so it makes sense to only risk larger sums of working capital when you have already proven that you're trading well for the day.
Another example. I trade 1 contract, catch a strong trend, add 3-4 contracts in that trend and I close the trade out with a $5000 profit. I stop trading for the day. The next day, my working capital is $0. I can only trade 1 contract again. The $5000 from the prior day was swept into the initial capital pool of money and that cannot use size to trade, only the minimum amount of risk I'm willing to take a trade and can only lose my normal stop loss amount.
This is how I manage my account. Just because I may have made 5K-10K for even an entire week, I must prove (to myself) through growing my working capital that I am enough on my game to be able to "get large" at any point during the day. I can emotionally handle losing $2000 if I am already up $4000 for the day, but I would (eventually) be an emotional wreck if I allowed that kind of thing to happen with initial capital.