Crazy paper trading day

F

farmerjohn1324

I've been waiting for this day ever since I moved over to NinjaTrader. This was the first major news release day since moving there and having the increased leverage of $500/ES contract during day trading hours. (As opposed to the $14,300 I had at Schwab).

I basically bought 100 contracts ($50,000) and made about $60,000 profit real quick. Then I lost it all and then some on the pullbacks and started panicking and chasing it up and down. I learned that lesson a while ago but apparently forgot it. I should have let it go for a few minutes to let the noise settle down.

Anyway, I made it back with an eventual profit of about $18,000 except that on one trade I would have margin called if it were real money.

I agree that this was just chaotic and not a good strategy, but it was exciting! I think I could tone down the leverage and be more realistic about it.

Also, I missed the last half of the day where I would have had opportunity to gain from more large gains in the S&P.

To clarify, this was all fake paper trading. But fun nonetheless.
 
My next chance will be Thursday for the CPI release. That will just be paper trading as well. I'm really hoping to eventually make a real money strategy out of this.
 
farmerjohn1324 said:
...I'm really hoping to eventually make a real money strategy out of this.
More...

It is never going to happen for you. When you went apeshit and made that 60K you should have shut your machine off and been done. You doubled your account in a single trade.

But you could not resist, and admitted you would have been margin called. That would have ended your trading career right there. Don't try to "have fun" in paper trading, because when you finally do it with real money, it ain't fun. It's real.

100 contracts on 50K is just stupid. Don't do that again on the CPI number on Thursday. You are prepping your brain for a false narrative, and it will get you into deep deep trouble with real money.
 
event trading is a real thing you know lol there are guys who only trade that stuff. but then again not everyone has hunter on speed dial.
 
Overnight said:
It is never going to happen for you. When you went apeshit and made that 60K you should have shut your machine off and been done. You doubled your account in a single trade.

But you could not resist, and admitted you would have been margin called. That would have ended your trading career right there. Don't try to "have fun" in paper trading, because when you finally do it with real money, it ain't fun. It's real.

100 contracts on 50K is just stupid. Don't do that again on the CPI number on Thursday. You are prepping your brain for a false narrative, and it will get you into deep deep trouble with real money.
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You're right. I should have shut it off after $60k win.

I'm wondering what if I have 2 orders, one above and one below. One cancels the other, and which ever it hits, that has a profit target 10 points above/below.

If anything can be predicted about those news release days, it's that the markets will move a lot in one direction.
 
MarkBrown said:
event trading is a real thing you know lol there are guys who only trade that stuff. but then again not everyone has hunter on speed dial.
More...
I like to see it like this...
News can cause market Moves.
Market moving 'news' is often Scheduled.
Market moves can produce common price action Patterns.
Scheduled Market moves. Patterns.

What's better than scheduled times to be front and center to help find the "new
true" value of a product simply by reaction to the patterns that print on the chart
at scheduled times during which good market action often happens? Why predict
and get a tiger by the tail? There's plenty of setups generated for fast chart traders.
Did I say Scheduled? lol
Here's an example ...
https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/charts-for-no-reason.344272/page-25#post-5609680
 
easymon1 said:
I like to see it like this...
News can cause market Moves.
Market moving 'news' is often Scheduled.
Market moves can produce common price action Patterns.
Scheduled Market moves. Patterns.

What's better than scheduled times to be front and center to help find the "new
true" value of a product simply by reaction to the patterns that print on the chart
at scheduled times during which good market action often happens? Why predict
and get a tiger by the tail? There's plenty of setups generated for fast chart traders.
Did I say Scheduled? lol
Here's an example ...
https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/charts-for-no-reason.344272/page-25#post-5609680
More...

I always wait until after the fact and try to ride the wave. I don't try to predict.
 
farmerjohn1324 said:
...
I'm wondering what if I have 2 orders, one above and one below. One cancels the other, and which ever it hits, that has a profit target 10 points above/below...
More...

Sure you can. But you have just seen something you cannot unsee. What you did with the 100 contract "play money" is now going to be eating at your brain.

You totally fucked your mind up when you did that. I really wish you had not done it. I would strongly suggest that you go back to one contract, right now and stay there for a few weeks, and really try to forget WTF happened to you.

You have been traumatized, unless you are a robot. And I do not think you are a robot.
 
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