Honestly, Can You Be Successful Without a HUGE Account?

it all depends how much money you are willing to make in a day. it is much easier to get 1 point a day on the ES than 10 points a day. Therefore if you have a $50,000 account and place 10 contract order and get 1 point from it you get your $500 payment, close the PC and enjoy life. With 1 contract you need to be right 10 times to get the same amount of $$$$. So using probability it is much easier to be right 1 time a day than 10 times a day. Most people who have been doing it for a while can fish that 1 point. I personally have yet to fail to make money (1 point minimum) on my first trade of the day. What happens later is better left unsaid LOL, but that first trade so far has always gone my way. Also, remember that the first hour and a half in the market is always very much alive and if you can get the direction of the market you should get that point. I personally like to wait for the market for a firm move nad than wait for retracement. Using 123 method I either short it or go long depending on the signal that 123 system gives me.
So, in my opinion having a fat account which I think should be at least 25K makes things a lot easier. The perfect balance for a 10 contract player who is looking for that 1 point a day scenario should be 50K.
 
In general, I don't like having daily goals. It puts too much pressure on the trader. Some mornings you may make $250, some you may make $10 and be lucky to survive without a big loss. In any event, you cant squeeze something out of a dead lifeless market.


Quote from saxon22:

it all depends how much money you are willing to make in a day.
More...
 
This is very helpful to see her record. I am trading in a similar fashion--just a few ticks and a few contracts. When I create a track record that proves to myself that I can be a consistent winner, I will load the boat.

My account is small--5K, and that does change the R:R considerably. However, trading with a bigger account right now is simply not an option I wish to explore. I'd rather work on my skill, make pristine entries so I can tighten up my stops, and slowly build my account up to 9 or 10K before I start taking money out of it.

I think this is possible, and it sure requires patience and being a consistently well-focused trader.
 
<i>"When I create a track record that proves to myself that I can be a consistent winner, I will load the boat.

My account is small--5K, and that does change the R:R considerably..."</i>

No, that's not correct. The same approach that takes your account from small to larger does not change as balance grows. Gotta keep dancing with the one who brung ya, so to speak.

Scalping for ticks is viable. You might want to strongly consider trading for handles when volatility is normal to high. Friday and today didn't make sense to be scalping out ticks when wide swings were/are expected and predictable.

My ES trades today (from premarket) tallied -2pts, +4pts, +2pts,
+6pts and +2pts by 11am est and done. There were several more additional +4pt (or greater) swings in between that were missed or passed on.

Settling for two ticks when two-plus handles average gain per trade is very inefficient during conditions like this. Small (and large) accounts grow fastest when some fat gains are captured. Normal to high volatility conditions offer fat-gains potential every which way. Know when to fold 'em, but especially know when to hold 'em, too.
 
Can you enter a battlefield with your bare hands?
Or would it be better if you had at least a machine gun?

It's hard to say actually, one is a master of kung fu and
the other had never used a machine gun before.

But in any case, both would be crushed when the big tanks
(institutes) or airstrikes(fed) comes.
 
Not really a good analogy IMO.

With a small account (~25k in my case), goal is to pick up loose changes dropped on the ground by those big boys, not necessarily go head-to-head against them.

Even just picking up these "free" money from the ground, you can make over 200k per year.

You just got to know when to hide in the bushes and when to come out and pick up $$$.



Quote from virtualmoney:

Can you enter a battlefield with your bare hands?
Or would it be better if you had at least a machine gun?

It's hard to say actually, one is a master of kung fu and
the other had never used a machine gun before.

But in any case, both would be crushed when the big tanks
(institutes) or airstrikes(fed) comes.
More...
 
Quote from sunggong:

Not really a good analogy IMO.

With a small account (~25k in my case), goal is to pick up loose changes dropped on the ground by those big boys, not necessarily go head-to-head against them.

Even just picking up these "free" money from the ground, you can make over 200k per year.

You just got to know when to hide in the bushes and when to come out and pick up $$$.
More...

So, have you 'backtested' your hide and seek approach?

How do you watch your 'behind' when you come out of the bushes?
:D
 
Quote from Lorl:

This is very helpful to see her record. I am trading in a similar fashion--just a few ticks and a few contracts. When I create a track record that proves to myself that I can be a consistent winner, I will load the boat.

My account is small--5K, and that does change the R:R considerably. However, trading with a bigger account right now is simply not an option I wish to explore. I'd rather work on my skill, make pristine entries so I can tighten up my stops, and slowly build my account up to 9 or 10K before I start taking money out of it.

I think this is possible, and it sure requires patience and being a consistently well-focused trader.
More...
You have to study the markets and define the best moments to take the highest probability trades ...

... and when they setup, take them.

But if all of the peices of the trade are not setting up, don't take it.

This will unfortunately entail you spending a large amount of time sitting around and doing nothing. Furthermore, this is no gaurantee of success, it just means that you will win at least 3 out of 4.

Pretty boring stuff, yeah, I know.

But if you want to be a successful trader, get used to it.

Good trading,

JJ
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top