Why don't you try equities? There's a lot more opportunity there IMO. A lot more things moving everyday even when the futures are moving sideways. I don't know anyone that has ever been profitable day-trading SPY. Just my .02.
I'd like to become a better trader
- Thread starter PO
- Start date
Why don't you try equities? There's a lot more opportunity there IMO. A lot more things moving everyday even when the futures are moving sideways. I don't know anyone that has ever been profitable day-trading SPY. Just my .02.
This is a key to success.
I've spoken with a few such traders and you're right, they "cheat" using their various advantages. whether it's leverage, being on the pulse of the action, or playing the spreads. The ones I've spoken with don't understand technical analysis nor price action, they don't need to.
Quote from PO:
I don't even know why I did it, I was so disciplined for months...
May be it's because I thought that this time was different, I was so sure we were going to get a pull back and there was no way we will trade to 1330 without a pull back and many traders I respect agreed with me
You are respecting the wrong traders. If you were swinging a short expecting a pullback, you were ignoring the technical picture on the daily chart. Once price broke through the 4/19 high of 1309.50, the next train station stop was the 1319.25 lower high from 4/15. Once price broke through that level, the next stop on the track was the previous high zone around 1336.00.
None of this guaranteed, of course, but it's highly probable.
I'm not sure how it was for other successful traders, but there will come a point when you are truly afraid. It's a dark, scary, lonely and depressing place and all you think is "I can't do this". When you have made bad mistakes again and again, always certain that "this time will be different", I liken it to an alcoholic or drug addict "hitting bottom".
At that point, you realize that you have to learn how to trade. You have to learn to do what all those traders who took the other side of your big losers did. You learn to read price action, trade all high probability setups, manage risk without worry, and allow winners to reach target. You learn to do the opposite of what has been losing you money. You learn to take the other side of your own inexperience and failure.
From that point, it can still take a long time to get it.
And no matter how much you understand intellectually, there is still no guarantee you will be able to translate the "it" that you finally got into reality.
But I promise you this:
If you have those "Aha!" moments and learn to translate them into the scary new reality of trading that way, the payoff is tremendous, the stress melts away completely, and trading becomes an ordinary day job where you know you have a river of opportunities and feel confident that you'll collect a decent paycheck each week.
ADD: By the way, where's RN these days???
good point.
people lose is because they donot want to learn and they donot want to work, they are lazy. they always have many reasons to say: they are small retail trader, so they can not beat ; they are not lucky enough, so they lose; they are not smarte nough, so they lose; they donot have good computers or news wire pipelines, so they lag......
losers have millions of reasons to lose, that is why they lose.
winners only have one way to win:learn how to trade seriously, practice it,perfect it, improve it, execute it, love it, feel it, sleep on it,work on it. that is the secret formalu.
totally agree!
people lose is because they donot want to learn and they donot want to work, they are lazy. they always have many reasons to say: they are small retail trader, so they can not beat ; they are not lucky enough, so they lose; they are not smarte nough, so they lose; they donot have good computers or news wire pipelines, so they lag......
losers have millions of reasons to lose, that is why they lose.
winners only have one way to win:learn how to trade seriously, practice it,perfect it, improve it, execute it, love it, feel it, sleep on it,work on it. that is the secret formalu.
totally agree!
How`s your progress been lately?
I share your sentiment with regards to focusing on one instrument. Personally, I might have traded CL instead of ES if I could consistently trade the open.
ES is a tough instrument to trade, but it is certainly possible to make money there.
Did you test any other instruments before settling with ES?
NoDoji, I think you are correct, I listen to the wrong people, they could be good traders, but their opinions are often wrong too. I need to look at the price and follow it, not expect the price to behave a certain way, not try too hard to understand why the price moves where it does. I often read traders who are saying that they see a distribution in place, the price is too high and pull back is very likely, etc. All these comments distract me from reading price action, which should be my focus.
thank you for your comments, I definitely can relate to that. It looks like hitting a bottom is a process to me, I keep hitting it again and again and again. It's only human to make mistakes, I need to forgive myself and move forward towards learning how to trade.
The progress is not so good, ups and downs. I'm back in the sim learning. I've tried stocks before, but I never liked it. I tried NQ because I thought that it will fix my issues, which it obviously didn't.
I can see you are progressing nicely. Way to go! I need to learn from you to better manage my trades and to pay less attention to what I think and expect, and instead pay attention to what actually is.
Today's trading - 1.5 points:
1. enter on BO pullback. Good trade.
2. was a mistake trade - buying BO close to the top of the day, also first BO from Barb Wire usually fails. Should have waited for BP pull back.
3. buying strong BO from day high. It failed - stopped out.
4. Sell at failed BO - stopped out because my stop loss was too close. Also, the bull was strong, so I should have wated for second entry short.
then I missed the long at 1352 when we held YC.
5. stopped out on my BO pullback - I was buying too close to the top of trading range during lunch hour.
6. flipped short and added 1 short when we broke 53 support
covered 2 at 51, stopped out at b/e for the rest
7. reentered short and covered because buyers came in at YC.
It was a mistake not to enter long at 53.
8. BO pullback long - stopped out at b/e. I moved my stop to b/e too soon.
overall not a great day. Read the day ok, but execution could be better.
1. enter on BO pullback. Good trade.
2. was a mistake trade - buying BO close to the top of the day, also first BO from Barb Wire usually fails. Should have waited for BP pull back.
3. buying strong BO from day high. It failed - stopped out.
4. Sell at failed BO - stopped out because my stop loss was too close. Also, the bull was strong, so I should have wated for second entry short.
then I missed the long at 1352 when we held YC.
5. stopped out on my BO pullback - I was buying too close to the top of trading range during lunch hour.
6. flipped short and added 1 short when we broke 53 support
covered 2 at 51, stopped out at b/e for the rest
7. reentered short and covered because buyers came in at YC.
It was a mistake not to enter long at 53.
8. BO pullback long - stopped out at b/e. I moved my stop to b/e too soon.
overall not a great day. Read the day ok, but execution could be better.
Slow down.
Eliminate countertrend trades. Relax. If you hit every trade that goes with the trend you will make plenty of money, assuming you have a way to determine trend and triggers that make sense.