ES Journal Archive (2011)
- Thread starter Buy1Sell2
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And the tax implications?
FoN
Not that it matters too much, but I have traded as many as 5 contracts before. I typically only trade 1-2 tops. I never enter both at the same time, either. I will start looking for an entry with 1 to get a "feel" for the market. If I feel like the price point I was looking for was right, I will enter a second one sometimes at the same price or as close to it as possible. If I feel like I was early on an entry but my bias is correct, I will consider adding a second contract for a better average fill.
My target is either 3 points or 6 points depending on the entry. That never changes, and I do everything in my power not to scale out. I've backtested my "one trick" pretty thoroughly, and have confidence that if I've read the market correctly I am going to at least hit the 3 point mark.
I traded 5 cars on my 3rd day of trading when I first started. I shorted right into a gap down and got smashed pretty solidly on a gap fill (This was in very early '09). I was a deer in headlights for almost 10 minutes, and when the carnage was over I had lost 50% of my account before lunch. You can bet that was a confidence builder
My target is either 3 points or 6 points depending on the entry. That never changes, and I do everything in my power not to scale out. I've backtested my "one trick" pretty thoroughly, and have confidence that if I've read the market correctly I am going to at least hit the 3 point mark.
I traded 5 cars on my 3rd day of trading when I first started. I shorted right into a gap down and got smashed pretty solidly on a gap fill (This was in very early '09). I was a deer in headlights for almost 10 minutes, and when the carnage was over I had lost 50% of my account before lunch. You can bet that was a confidence builder
I'm guessing the taxes are worse for stocks since they don't get the 60/40 split, but it's probably an insignificant factor for a casual investor playing around with a contract or two. If there's more to the taxes than the 60/40 issue I'd like to know about it since this is the first year I've ever dealt with futures, but I won't be doing the research myself on a Friday evening
Quote from bigsnack:
I traded 5 cars on my 3rd day of trading when I first started. I shorted right into a gap down and got smashed pretty solidly on a gap fill (This was in very early '09). I was a deer in headlights for almost 10 minutes, and when the carnage was over I had lost 50% of my account before lunch. You can bet that was a confidence builder
wow--how did you recover from that b? psychologically i mean
And what steps did you take to ensure it would not happen again? Like, reduce your size, be more choosy in trade selection, etc.?
It opened my eyes to how little I actually knew about the market and how it moved. Honestly, I think I was in shock for months and just bled out even more for a while, just completely dazed. I remember going beserk in a hotel room on a business trip, just completely melting down and reaching my breaking point!
Finally I put a lock on my account, and SIM traded for 6+ months until I had my own ideas about trades/entries/management, etc. I fired up a blog and just tracked my own personal progress as often as I could. Finally I refunded and started slow. Once I noticed that my entry IDEAS were actually good, it got a bit easier to start trading real $ again. I would still lose, but at least I would see why would lose. Then I started breaking even, and finally making consistent money. I've never forgotten that day though, and there are some days that I just physically CAN'T click the mouse. That's why I fire up the SIM without hesitation, just to purge the stress!
Quote from bigsnack:
It opened my eyes to how little I actually knew about the market and how it moved. Honestly, I think I was in shock for months and just bled out even more for a while, just completely dazed. I remember going beserk in a hotel room on a business trip, just completely melting down and reaching my breaking point!
Finally I put a lock on my account, and SIM traded for 6+ months until I had my own ideas about trades/entries/management, etc. I fired up a blog and just tracked my own personal progress as often as I could. Finally I refunded and started slow. Once I noticed that my entry IDEAS were actually good, it got a bit easier to start trading real $ again. I would still lose, but at least I would see why would lose. Then I started breaking even, and finally making consistent money. I've never forgotten that day though, and there are some days that I just physically CAN'T click the mouse. That's why I fire up the SIM without hesitation, just to purge the stress!
Thanks for the honest and insightful look at your past bigsnack! When you started back did you trade 1 contract or more? I also have had a mini-meltdown as well and it was not easy to overcome.
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