this is an outdated trading system, now it changed a lot.
How do you guys prepare for you intraday trading ?
- Thread starter cashclay
- Start date
this is an outdated trading system, now it changed a lot.
If you're currently not trading, this is fine to ask, but if you're actually live trading and even with money on the line, this paragraph alone tells me that you're far from being equipped to be a day trader at this point.
You shouldn't get a 'feel' of the days trading from glancing at charts. Forget about 'feelings' and 'trading in the zone'. You should start concerning yourself with facts instead and put together a methodology that's not discretionary.
Good. In that case, you're smarter than most, including myself. Most people need to lose a lot of money to realize that.
Forget about simulator trading. Start doing market research and put together a methodology based on historical prices. Remove as much discretion as possible. Trade it in simulator. When the results in simulator mode are promising, go live with a very small amount of capital and trade minimum size. Increase size according to a well thought out system if profitable. Go back to simulator trading if not.
If you're day trading, I recommend you to focus on one single instrument and learn it very well as each market has certain characteristics.
Estimated time for the task: 2-5 years.
Forget about simulator trading. Start doing market research and put together a methodology based on historical prices. Remove as much discretion as possible. Trade it in simulator. When the results in simulator mode are promising, go live with a very small amount of capital and trade minimum size. Increase size according to a well thought out system if profitable. Go back to simulator trading if not.
If you're day trading, I recommend you to focus on one single instrument and learn it very well as each market has certain characteristics.
Estimated time for the task: 2-5 years.
Asking questions is good - never stop
And you'll undoubtedly receive very good answers
Problem is - you've not lived the experiences that make those answers invaluable..., nor likely even understandable
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Mkt has an uncanny way of doing that
RN
Good. In that case, you're smarter than most, including myself. Most people need to lose a lot of money to realize that.
Forget about simulator trading. Start doing market research and put together a methodology based on historical prices. Remove as much discretion as possible. Trade it in simulator. When the results in simulator mode are promising, go live with a very small amount of capital and trade minimum size. Increase size according to a well thought out system if profitable. Go back to simulator trading if not.
If you're day trading, I recommend you to focus on one single instrument and learn it very well as each market has certain characteristics.
Estimated time for the task: 2-5 years.
May i ask what instrument do you like using the best and why?
I'm a loser, so you shouldn't really pay any attention to what I'm saying, BUT, I think I'm more honest than a lot of people here and I can assure you that most people severly underestimate what they're up against when they want to learn day trading.
So, even though I have extensive experience both with market research, reading books, reading charts, trading live, trading simulator and so on, I'm now expecting to use as much as 12 months before I'm ready for live trading. Hopefully I can get it done in 6 months as I've done quite a lot of work already, but bottom line is that I'm not doing it until I'm ready.
I've decided to focus on ES.
I think any instrument that's liquid and volatile is fine, but ES seems more orderly than other instruments to me. It also happen to be the only instrument I ever really focused on, so I know quite a bit about it already.
I look at the latest valid signal that matches my trading plan (usually this has occurred within the last couple of 5-min price bars) and see if there's an opportunity to get in on it. If there is, I look at five or six other charts (1-min, 15-min, 30-min, 60-min, daily, weekly) and tally up all the reasons the trade I'm contemplating will fail and all the reasons it will succeed. This usually confuses the heck out of me and wastes valuable time, causing me to miss the proper entry because I didn't place an order as soon as I saw the valid signal. Then as price immediately makes a quick, strong favorable excursion right after moving through where my order would have been filled, I emerge from my analytical reverie, shout "Doh!", and chase price right into where my profit-taking order would have been filled, then watch as price stalls, and then turns the other way right through my stop loss.
This generally wakes me right up and I'm ready to start my trading day.
That's a good one. I'm a fan of going through the markets as they open, putting out orders in the ones where I see the set up, then as the market comes near the open order I start coming up with reasons why I shouldn't take the trade, as it gets real close I now completely talk myself out of the trade and cancel the order. The market then hits that area, sits there like a bus with passengers getting on, then the bus gets going again and arrives at Exit Profit level and everybody except me gets out with their profits in hand. Usually those trades are easy winners....no heat. Luckily this doesn't happen at all anymore as I think less and just pull the trigger. When I first got into trading back in the stone age it happened a lot. In my opinion missing a winning trade is much worse than taking a loss in a trade you were suppose to take. Losses never get to me, missing winners does.
Dirk Nowitzki (NBA star for The Mavs) once said the more he thinks before taking a shot the worse off he is. Once a player starts overthinking every shot they are done. I think its exactly the same in trading.
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I totally agree with that aspect. JUst put in the trade and let it ride. Unfortunately when money comes into play a lot of us are too scare to lose. I think you just have to focus on making a good trade and trying to win the market, sort of like game, where every trade is considered a game that youre trying to win. Then i feel like trading might be a little easier on the mind.