Didn't you say you only have a few grand in your account or did I misunderstand?
FastTrader Futures-Trading Journal
- Thread starter EMini-Player
- Start date
- Status
Didn't you say you only have a few grand in your account or did I misunderstand?
To be serious for a moment, here are a couple plans I suggest to you short of halting your trading until you have more time.
1. You can work on developing a swing method that encompases trades lasting a few days. I honestly believe it is easier to come up with such a system that makes money than trying the shorter time frame of day trading.
2. Find or develop a method to determine the probable move for the market for the next day. Enter your trade early the next day or preferably on the the close the previous day or overnight. Enter OCO stop and target orders and just let the trade do its thing for the day. Repeat as your method generates signal days. You might even use DB's average daily range of the last 10 days to arrive at your target area.
I think you could make something that would work doing one of these. Who says you have to be a day trader and watch the market all day. Until a few years ago NOBODY could get quality quotes and low commish to daytrade unless you were on the floor. Traders held positions for days or weeks! Fathom that!!
Wally
1. You can work on developing a swing method that encompases trades lasting a few days. I honestly believe it is easier to come up with such a system that makes money than trying the shorter time frame of day trading.
2. Find or develop a method to determine the probable move for the market for the next day. Enter your trade early the next day or preferably on the the close the previous day or overnight. Enter OCO stop and target orders and just let the trade do its thing for the day. Repeat as your method generates signal days. You might even use DB's average daily range of the last 10 days to arrive at your target area.
I think you could make something that would work doing one of these. Who says you have to be a day trader and watch the market all day. Until a few years ago NOBODY could get quality quotes and low commish to daytrade unless you were on the floor. Traders held positions for days or weeks! Fathom that!!
Wally
I was just messing with Wally...and I said I wanted a 6-figure ($100K) account but was off by a few grand
-Fast
Quote from Fast_Trader:
I was just messing with Wally...and I said I wanted a 6-figure ($100K) account but was off by a few grand
-Fast
Then, save what I said about underfunding, everthing else should still be valid.
I've been reading the journal over the weekend. This trader has OK instincts but has little vision. Looks way too much at his charts. You can get a chart to say ANYTHING. Also is trading the wrong product. Should be trading a software or semi equity. Your strategy bounces around too much. Pick an equity, say BRCM or whatever, learn it, trade it, prosper. I used to use a product called NTIQ (I think), it weighed all the technical indicators to advise you to buy or sell or hold. It almost never gave a clear picture, on one hand you should ,,,,, but on the other hand you should,,,,,,. yada yada. Learn an equity. Be equally comfortable going long and short. Use your technical indicators to help, but use your instincts and market vision. It matters not whether you trade an hour or the whole day.
Best of Luck and thanks for sharing your moves.
Best of Luck and thanks for sharing your moves.
Trading part-time is not a problem. Maybe, it's an advantage. I trade full-time and find it very boring.
You are able to trade the first hour and generally very good moves occur during this period of time.
Your main problem is that while the market was going from 51 to 60, you were only shorting.
Your main problem is that as every newb, you are watching every tick, see trading opportunities everywhere (often after the fact), are mad at yourself when you have missed a move (a good trader would have shorted there!!!) and dream of making 20 es points per day every day.
That's not what serious trading is about.
Develop a mechanical system which trades the open and goes with the trend. Don't add any discretion to your trading until you are a little bit profitable and more experienced.
You are able to trade the first hour and generally very good moves occur during this period of time.
Your main problem is that while the market was going from 51 to 60, you were only shorting.
Your main problem is that as every newb, you are watching every tick, see trading opportunities everywhere (often after the fact), are mad at yourself when you have missed a move (a good trader would have shorted there!!!) and dream of making 20 es points per day every day.
That's not what serious trading is about.
Develop a mechanical system which trades the open and goes with the trend. Don't add any discretion to your trading until you are a little bit profitable and more experienced.
Take a look at the bonds (zb) and 10 year notes (zn), there is often a great trade between 830 and 10 am E.T. Also, these have been trending much better than the stock indices lately, so no need to make so many entries.
Use the search function here on zb or bonds, and you will have a good start on info.
Use the search function here on zb or bonds, and you will have a good start on info.
Guys, thanks for all your input...I really do appreciate it. But, I will continue to focus on trading futures since that is the direction I would like to take. I may look into bonds later on, but for now, I need to focus on futures only. I've traded stocks and options with some success but I find futures the best instrument to trade for now.
On a different note; I was expecting a pullback on the DAX since it had rallied over 100 pts with US not really moving up much at all. But waking up at 2 AM is such a b*tch and I couldn't get up. Sure enough, the DAX popped a little at the open and then went down 40+ pts.
I won't be trading at all this morning. Might trade the afternoon.
-Fast
On a different note; I was expecting a pullback on the DAX since it had rallied over 100 pts with US not really moving up much at all. But waking up at 2 AM is such a b*tch and I couldn't get up. Sure enough, the DAX popped a little at the open and then went down 40+ pts.
I won't be trading at all this morning. Might trade the afternoon.
-Fast
Fast,
The bonds others are refering to are the t-bond futures. The bond futures have historically trended much better than the stock index futures and is a very active contract. In fact the 30yr T-bond contract used to be the biggest contract before the index contracts where invented.
As a stock broker in the late 70's everyone looked at the bond futures in the morning to get an idea if the stock market would open strong or weak. We didn't have overnight index futures to give us direction. And London/Europe/Asian markets had little impact on U.S. markets back then.
I thought about trading the bond futures but where's the challenge in that?? I would be lost if it were easy to make money every day.
Wally
The bonds others are refering to are the t-bond futures. The bond futures have historically trended much better than the stock index futures and is a very active contract. In fact the 30yr T-bond contract used to be the biggest contract before the index contracts where invented.
As a stock broker in the late 70's everyone looked at the bond futures in the morning to get an idea if the stock market would open strong or weak. We didn't have overnight index futures to give us direction. And London/Europe/Asian markets had little impact on U.S. markets back then.
I thought about trading the bond futures but where's the challenge in that?? I would be lost if it were easy to make money every day.
Wally
I found the bond futures (ZF/ZN) easier to trade than ES and NQ.
- Status