E-mini Rookie Trading Journal

Bronks,

I think trading 2 contracts would benefit your trading. I'm starting it next week. For the first contract I will have a profit target of 5 points. As soon as that is hit I will pull up my stop-loss on the second part to zero. When in the money more than 10 points start tightening the stop-loss to 2/3 points.

Good trading today.

Ditch
 
Bronks,

My advice: stick with trading a one lot. Even that is pushing it. No matter how careful you are with entries, there will inevitably be trades that go against you from the get-go. When you are up to $10k or so, you can take on more exposure.

I am not a big fan of taking quick profits on one contract and letting another ride, despite the fact that it has intuitive appeal. I backtested that approach pretty thoroughly and found that it gave sub-par results, although I don't doubt there could be market environments that it would do better in. The reason I don't like it is that you are always taking the full loss on two contracts, but you are getting short-changed on taking profits on one of them. Over time, it adds up. Of course, that assumes that you ride your position for as much as it will give you and not take a quick profit.

You are right that this takes time. Trading futures is not about grinding out a profit day by day. It is about hanging on for weeks at a time, then suddenly hitting a couple of monster trend moves that make your month. That's why it is so important not to piss away your account trading too much on days when nothing is happening.
 
Originally posted by AAAintheBeltway
Bronks,

Trading futures is not about grinding out a profit day by day. It is about hanging on for weeks at a time, then suddenly hitting a couple of monster trend moves that make your month. That's why it is so important not to piss away your account trading too much on days when nothing is happening.
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AAA,

Like that monster trend move on 8/14?
 
Originally posted by Ditch



AAA,

Like that monster trend move on 8/14?
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I was out of town...so much for that month,eh? Marty Shwartz, Market Wizard and author of "Pitbull", said he made virtually all his money on 20 or so days during the year. Rest of time he broke even.
 
AAA,

If you read the postings on this site i.e . on that day, you would have noticed that most people have a very hard time making money on big trend days. Usually they occur 2/3 times a month. Given that, I wouldn't advocate a trading style that relies on big trend days for the majority of its profits.
 
Hey, everybody's makeup is different.

Some people are happy with small consistent gains and using relatively tight stops.

Other people can handle wider stops and go for the trend day when it sets up.

My opinion is you have to walk before you can run.

I'm sure some would say you can never really build the account without trading trend days for big moves,but small consistent gains with the leverage of the e-mini can pay off.

The Trend fader post on this thread on 8/01/02(4:28 pm) sums it up very well.
 
Originally posted by Ditch
AAA,

If you read the postings on this site i.e . on that day, you would have noticed that most people have a very hard time making money on big trend days. Usually they occur 2/3 times a month. Given that, I wouldn't advocate a trading style that relies on big trend days for the majority of its profits.
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Well, I don't want to be rude but most people here are not experienced, highly profitable traders. Wonder how Seanote did that day? I think many newbies way underestimate how hard it is to make moeny trading, and my experience is that you will not be a big winner unless you have a method of capitalizing on runner days.
 
I totally agree that most traders are not highly profitable, most of us are not Marty Schwartz. Therefore we should try to develop a style, that suits our capabilities. What I was trying to point out is that the average trader mentally is not able to trade a system, that hits homeruns on 20 days a year and breaks even for the rest. I used to lose on big trend days, now that doesn't happen any more, but still will take a while before I capitalize on them. You are obviously in another league. Good for you.

Best regards,

Ditch
 
Sometimes after a long day of work, I have a very hard time waking at 3:20 am to begin trading. For the life of me I could not get out of bed this morning, which in turn hurried my trading when I finally did. Fell into one of my chase the market around spells. I was down by 9.5 points and 7 RT's by the time I had to go.

However, I liked some of the price action which was happening before I left. I bought in one more time @ 1012.50 with a protective stop somewhere south of that. So...as of right now I'm still long 1 contract.

Like I said before, overnighters will sometimes appeal to me under certain conditions. We'll see how this turns out. I'm 1 and 1 afterhours (1 win, 1 loss).


-9.5 / 7 RT's
+2 (so far) afterhours
 
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