Crazy paper trading day

farmerjohn1324 said:
I didn't become a millionaire by trading.

And, yes, a millionaire would test out things on paper trading lol.
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How did you become a millionaire?

Unless it was by luck or inheritance, why not keep doing that?

Plenty of millionaires and billionaires who lost their fortune by attempting to trade. In Norway there's at least two who did exactly that. One had little to none experience with trading and the other actually was a seasoned trader.

Short term trading ES futures profitably is probably one of the hardest way in the world to make a buck.
 
At the risk of being overly generous, it is paper.
  • It is not like he is trading crazy (his description) for months.
  • Everyone tests the limits to see what is possible and see what they SHOULD not do.
  • He can "afford" to have a 6-digit loss. It would hurt, but he can return to try again.
A lot of really successful traders have blown up, several times. To me being too paranoid about blowing up, was not good. It crippled my ability to take reasonable-measured risks. And, of course, that is what we do, take risk.

Lastly, who knows, maybe this is his path. Just as trading styles differ, so does everyone's path in trading. Sometimes people have to learn for themselves, several times often, before they can really live the lessons. Is there not some old saying that "failure is the mother of invention"

Best of luck

PS: all that being said, it seems he has a way to go... But he is doing it :fistbump:
 
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Bad_Badness said:
At the risk of being overly generous, it is paper.
  • It is not like he is trading crazy (his description) for months.
  • Everyone tests the limits to see what is possible and see what they SHOULD not do.
  • He can "afford" to have a 6-digit loss. It would hurt, but he can return to try again.
A lot of really successful traders have blown up, several times. To me being too paranoid about blowing up, was not good. It crippled my ability to take reasonable-measured risks. And, of course, that is what we do, take risk.

Lastly, who knows, maybe this is his path. Just as trading styles differ, so does everyone's path in trading. Sometimes people have to learn for themselves, several times often, before they can really live the lessons. Is there not some old saying that "failure is the mother of invention"

Best of luck
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Thanks. And I've already failed many times with real money between 2019-2022 before I decided to stick to ES only. Most times after failing, I swore off trading "for good" only to come back to it after a few months.
 
farmerjohn1324 said:
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.
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Hello farmerjohn1324,

Yes sir, this is how it is done man.

Good work.
 
Bad_Badness said:
At the risk of being overly generous, it is paper.
  • It is not like he is trading crazy (his description) for months.
  • Everyone tests the limits to see what is possible and see what they SHOULD not do.
  • He can "afford" to have a 6-digit loss. It would hurt, but he can return to try again.
A lot of really successful traders have blown up, several times. To me being too paranoid about blowing up, was not good. It crippled my ability to take reasonable-measured risks. And, of course, that is what we do, take risk.

Lastly, who knows, maybe this is his path. Just as trading styles differ, so does everyone's path in trading. Sometimes people have to learn for themselves, several times often, before they can really live the lessons. Is there not some old saying that "failure is the mother of invention"

Best of luck

PS: all that being said, it seems he has a way to go... But he is doing it :fistbump:
More...

This is basically what I've been posting on this thread from the beginning but he got mad at me because I said it with some hyperbole and authority. You sugar coat it and get a new but-buddy... go figure.

I suspect @farmerjohn1324 is just not that confident and needs a pat on the back. But, not being confident is a big problem. And, unfortunately, no one has mentioned the means by which he can gain such confidence (e.g. tests of statistical significance).

So, if you think you can pull it off @farmerjohn1324 go for it. But just don't come back here crying if you lose tons of money. You were advised by many people it's not easy and that you should probably wade, rather than dive, in.

There are professionals just waiting to take money from so-called "whales". The challenge is to become professional and participate in a mutually beneficial manner. And, there's no magic secret to that... just years and years of hard work.

I think it was in "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" where I read that trading is one of the hardest ways to make an easy living one can imagine. There's certainly truth to that. Switching careers after already becoming a millionaire just doesn't sound wise to a lot of people.
 
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