Liking this S&P action here. On vacation in Europe and back to break even for the year today. Let's hope it doesn't get messed up tomorrow 
Half way through life and not close to being consistent
- Thread starter gamblingman
- Start date
Nothing wrong in celebrating this. However, you must remember that to truly be a successful trader (trade for a living), the most important thing is consistency. Without consistency there is no career.
Ideally, if you can be +ve, at least 17-18 days of the 20 trading days in a month, you will see a huge difference in your P/L.
Concentrate on your risk management before you work on bigger profits.
Good luck.
Finished the week up 7k3. Unfortunately still 2k down for the year but at least significantly less of a roller coaster than the previous weeks (due to reduced leverage).
Had some internet trouble from the hotel yesterday which impacted the first hour of trading (more of a mental issue if you can't log in or look at your position than actually impacting P&L). Going to stay one more week out of the country with limited trading, I hope I can have a couple of these weeks in a row to gain some confidence back. Have a good weekend !!
Had some internet trouble from the hotel yesterday which impacted the first hour of trading (more of a mental issue if you can't log in or look at your position than actually impacting P&L). Going to stay one more week out of the country with limited trading, I hope I can have a couple of these weeks in a row to gain some confidence back. Have a good weekend !!
Had another terrible week, down 9k1.
My automated trading didn't do well this week, the remaining loss came from S&P and Nasdaq rally. I'm sick as a dog, I caught some virus on the plane and it mirrors my P&L.
My automated trading didn't do well this week, the remaining loss came from S&P and Nasdaq rally. I'm sick as a dog, I caught some virus on the plane and it mirrors my P&L.
You are doing something wrong. If you are trading futures, you should have almost everyday being profitable.
If you are taking such large losses why are trading such size? How about open an account with a futures discount broker and trade just 1 - 2 contracts max. Make the account no more than $ 5,000.
Know in advance you will blow out this account, but the purpose is to learn from your mistakes by keeping a journal and then once you figure out what you are doing wrong, add money to bring the account back to $ 5,000.
Even your name is wrong, trading is not gambling. It's watching the markets every day till you find a profitable edge and then waiting patiently the next day to exploit that edge again.
Most trades that I do which are losing trades are because I did not follow my plan. Know what type of market you are trading, does it RTM or trend more.
Cutting your winners is fear that they will turn into a loss once you are profitable. Letting your losses runs means you are not having a stop where the market will prove that you were wrong to enter the trade. Profits should be taken either at a point where you do not think it's reasonable for the trend to continue in your favor or based on other variables like time based stops, or having a stop level slowly be raised as price moves in your direction.
Stop trading right now. Open up a daily chart for the instrument you trade. Look at the previous day. If you can't recognize certain periods of that day where should have gone long or short, you need to stop and continue to study the charts each day till you see a profitable setup. This does not mean you will be able to replicate it real time, the next day, but you should determine if not why not?
For example, I had only 1 losing day this week. I did not take the time to determine the current trend and traded against it. Before taking a trade, you need to study the market to determine what price has been doing before you woke up. Then if you don't spot a setup, you need to wait for one. You don't even have to keep looking at the charts, do something else for a little bit on the computer then look again. However, don't do something were you can't look back in 10 min or so. You don't want to spend an hour away from the chart. Also, something else I do is if I have emotional issues while I am in a trade, I will just take a walk or watch some TV and then come back to the computer to see if my target or stop was hit.
You also sound like you are over trading maybe gambling trying anything to make back your losses. You need to determine how many times a normal profitable setup will on average appear on a chart. If it is 3 times per day, you need to not take 10 bad trades trying to guess where the market is going. Sometimes the market is going sideways and should not be traded since you are going to just keep getting stopped out.
Today was my best day, I took a perfect setup, but did not let the winner run because I wanted to win for sure today instead of taking a loss into the weekend. So that was my mistake for the day. Fear affects all of us. However in my trade journal I wrote down that at least I did take a perfect setup and that I was able to recognize it real time at the hard right corner of my screen.
If you are taking such large losses why are trading such size? How about open an account with a futures discount broker and trade just 1 - 2 contracts max. Make the account no more than $ 5,000.
Know in advance you will blow out this account, but the purpose is to learn from your mistakes by keeping a journal and then once you figure out what you are doing wrong, add money to bring the account back to $ 5,000.
Even your name is wrong, trading is not gambling. It's watching the markets every day till you find a profitable edge and then waiting patiently the next day to exploit that edge again.
Most trades that I do which are losing trades are because I did not follow my plan. Know what type of market you are trading, does it RTM or trend more.
Cutting your winners is fear that they will turn into a loss once you are profitable. Letting your losses runs means you are not having a stop where the market will prove that you were wrong to enter the trade. Profits should be taken either at a point where you do not think it's reasonable for the trend to continue in your favor or based on other variables like time based stops, or having a stop level slowly be raised as price moves in your direction.
Stop trading right now. Open up a daily chart for the instrument you trade. Look at the previous day. If you can't recognize certain periods of that day where should have gone long or short, you need to stop and continue to study the charts each day till you see a profitable setup. This does not mean you will be able to replicate it real time, the next day, but you should determine if not why not?
For example, I had only 1 losing day this week. I did not take the time to determine the current trend and traded against it. Before taking a trade, you need to study the market to determine what price has been doing before you woke up. Then if you don't spot a setup, you need to wait for one. You don't even have to keep looking at the charts, do something else for a little bit on the computer then look again. However, don't do something were you can't look back in 10 min or so. You don't want to spend an hour away from the chart. Also, something else I do is if I have emotional issues while I am in a trade, I will just take a walk or watch some TV and then come back to the computer to see if my target or stop was hit.
You also sound like you are over trading maybe gambling trying anything to make back your losses. You need to determine how many times a normal profitable setup will on average appear on a chart. If it is 3 times per day, you need to not take 10 bad trades trying to guess where the market is going. Sometimes the market is going sideways and should not be traded since you are going to just keep getting stopped out.
Today was my best day, I took a perfect setup, but did not let the winner run because I wanted to win for sure today instead of taking a loss into the weekend. So that was my mistake for the day. Fear affects all of us. However in my trade journal I wrote down that at least I did take a perfect setup and that I was able to recognize it real time at the hard right corner of my screen.
Just under 2%
I agree with your first statement, the second one depends on how you're using futures.
I don't day trade them, I use them as a directional replacement. I rarely initiate a trade with futures, but I replace a bunch of directional risk in options with futures if it reduces my margin. Here's an example of a single trade gone bad where I ended up with short futures.
Last year we had huge stock gains, so in early February the market pulled back a little (bout 5%). On 2/7 we had three "up" days in a row and hit the 20 sma as well as a previous support level. I was already very bearish but I thought this would be a good time to initiate another bearish trade. I also wanted to make sure I leave a little room for error, so I sold a bunch of March SPY 182 calls (2 lots with 15 contracts). The next 6 days we closed higher and I had to hedge my position by selling out of the money puts. Since I was still very bearish those puts were far away and offered little help. On some I was more aggressive and locked in a loss. By the time March Expiration came around (3/21) I was assigned 20 of these options and was short 2000 SPY shares. 2000 SPY is the same as 4 E minis, so rather than carrying the 2000 SPY shares I closed them out and went short 4 E Minis, I didn't really change my position just replaced the short options/stock with futures. Then I left those 4 E minis alone and sold put options against it since my short bias has not changed. Those 4 E minis were June contracts, by the time June rolled around E minis were trading about 100 points higher. Since my short bias has not changed, I rolled my June E minis to Sept.
Hope that explains my use of futures.