How much should I be earning

Originally posted by Kymar


If that's true, that they're really profitable AND really so dense, then there's really no justice in this game.
More...

This is utterly impossible. Not a chance in a billion years. Even if someone had after hours trading after collapse of the whole universe this combination is unimaginable.

But I'm O.K. with this. :)

Now ...
 
Thank you very much, all the comments here have been very useful to me.

When I started this thread I thought I had to get much more aggressive. After reading the cautions and comments I have decided to move slowly.

My trading style is so unsophisticataed that I am too embarassed to describe it, but I am sure I will pick up more competence as I gain more experience. My background was trading actual lumber, (not futures) and the one thing I learned is trends tend to reverse.

I really have only operated in a bear market, and so am probably not equipped, skill-wise, to handle a bull market, and this frightens me because I know one day the market will reverse.

Again thank you for taking time to post comments.
 
Sorry, I didn't understand your post Specul8tor.

One thing I do that I havn't seen mentioned on the board, is I use a TV for one of my screens, and I run it through a VCR to record my first hour of trading. This may sound dopey, but after close I go over my first hour to try to learn from my many errors.

Thank you.
 
What kind of setup do you have for using TV as a screen?

Kind of TV? Resolution?

Video card used to support this?

thx.

mktman
 
Forgive me, but I don't know what leveraged funds are, I only trade stocks and very rarely have positions exceeding $150K in value. I have never traded anything exotic like any derivatives.

As for the TV set up. I have a Dell with 4 video cards. Three feed monitors with my esignal charts, and one feeds a TV with my trading platform and a tiny bit of my esignal so I can tell the exact time later when I am doing an autopsy on my trading (comparing it to the charts).

The resolution on the TV is absurd. I keep the window as small as possible and then run a S-Video line from the card to the VCR and another S-Video from the VCR to the TV. It works but picture quality is not that good, but good enough. Its tough to use a TV for charts because of resolution, but for my IB trading platform it is OK.

Thank you very much for the question and I hope that helps.
 
Because you and I were in a similar situation, I'll give you some feedback. The first month of trading I lost 2K on a 45 k account x4 margin. Why did I lose just a bit? Essentially because I was scared to lose more than $200 on a trade. The problem was that I was not following my own rules...entering trades too late after a signal, then chasing them and having them reverse for a loss. Why did I finally become profitable? I accepted that fact that this is not an exact science and that the key to success (limited as it may be in my case) is to EXECUTE when your plan tells you to. It's very easy to second guess yourself throughout the day but ultimatley it is the kiss of death. I found by reviewing every trade that I made or didn't make, that if I made executed according to plan, I would have not lost any money during my first month. Easy to say now, but as they say disipline is key..not only for cutting losses but entering the trade. I can say that since the rock fell on Marblehead, I have been doing about 2K to 3K per week on ~ 20 trades. I only trade based on my signals and exit immediately if I am wrong. Best of luck
 
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