Is it luck or am I doing something right?

F

Fad

I have started using a practice account with £5k starting capital. I am by no means an expert in trading, in fact, I'm a complete noob but I have always been drawn to it for some unknown reason because as I have learned, it's an adrenaline inducing hobby to have. Anyway, I decided to just do what came naturally to me, which was dipping in and out of markets making small profits here and there. After realising that this was working for me I decided to do some research and discovered that what I was doing is known as scalping? OR is it? (if someone could clarify that first question that would be great). Now I will get to my main question, hopefully some of you have stayed with my ramblings. I started with this 5k as mentioned above and turned it into 25k in a day, all my trades were made on the DAX, DOW and FTSE, is that realistic? the app I'm using tells me that had I been using a real money account, the profits would have been the same, obviously taking away the fees that come with a real money account. Basically, what I want to know is, are my results realistic or at least if I'm making 20k in a day, could I expect to see reasonable/similar results with a real money account?

I thank anyone with advice on this matter in advance! You legend(s)!
 
Fad it is probably both...luck and you are being spirited away in a sort of delusion with ...probably everything ...from thinking you have found something "significant" to escaping whatever you are going through in life. It looks like you have a good investigative mind but your learning curve will be very long and painful. Take a search through here and you will see the "millions" of such good inquisitive enquiries into this game and there will be some clear repeated answers from some of the people who do trade for a living (not that many to be frank). It is easy to get side tracked by those who want to leverage your inexperience and fleece you off in their delusion in order to make a buck out of you. I am not a legend , but thanks ! lol.. :)
Scalping it is. But look this up also...go your own path but beware this is a very slippery slope...again read , read. It will save you thousands...
cheers
 
Fad said:
I have started using a practice account with £5k starting capital. I am by no means an expert in trading, in fact, I'm a complete noob but I have always been drawn to it for some unknown reason because as I have learned, it's an adrenaline inducing hobby to have. Anyway, I decided to just do what came naturally to me, which was dipping in and out of markets making small profits here and there. After realising that this was working for me I decided to do some research and discovered that what I was doing is known as scalping? OR is it? (if someone could clarify that first question that would be great). Now I will get to my main question, hopefully some of you have stayed with my ramblings. I started with this 5k as mentioned above and turned it into 25k in a day, all my trades were made on the DAX, DOW and FTSE, is that realistic? the app I'm using tells me that had I been using a real money account, the profits would have been the same, obviously taking away the fees that come with a real money account. Basically, what I want to know is, are my results realistic or at least if I'm making 20k in a day, could I expect to see reasonable/similar results with a real money account?

I thank anyone with advice on this matter in advance! You legend(s)!
More...

Its not realistic (turning 5k into 25k) via what you've described without the specific details and because its not real money. What you've done in your practice account will give you no clues of what will occur when you go into real money trading especially if you calculated yesterday's crazy trading day into your results.

Backtest your trade method on the DAX, Dow and FTSE assuming you're talking about the futures. Backtest on historical data going back many years.

Use a real simulator that's the exact same trade execution platform that you'll be using for real money trading.

Compare the above results...backtest versus simulator. Keep repeating until your simulator results are comparable to the backtest results.

Yet, the above will still give you no realistic results but it will show you that you need to be more prepare than what you're currently doing if you plan to traverse into real money trading.

If you still don't get it...start a trade journal here and post the simulator timestamp trade fills in your broker trade execution platform so that others can see what you're doing and can then chime in to tell you what your doing good or bad prior to any real money trading...its the only way for the others to see if you're doing something right unless you're prepared to start posting videos on Youtube (live stream) of your trading on the simulator.

Only use the same amount in your simulator that you'll be using in real money trading.

Reality, if you can not do any of the above (backtest, simulator, screenshots of timestamp trade fills in broker trade execution platform...worthless to ask someone if you're doing something right because they truly do not know without those result details.

Simply, stay away from real money trading unless you're enjoy losing a lot of money and just keep playing with your practice account and make believe hypothetical returns as if you can do such every day...everybody is allow to dream...right ???

wrbtrader
 
Last edited:
beginner66 said:
Fad it is probably both...luck and you are being spirited away in a sort of delusion with ...probably everything ...from thinking you have found something "significant" to escaping whatever you are going through in life. It looks like you have a good investigative mind but your learning curve will be very long and painful. Take a search through here and you will see the "millions" of such good inquisitive enquiries into this game and there will be some clear repeated answers from some of the people who do trade for a living (not that many to be frank). It is easy to get side tracked by those who want to leverage your inexperience and fleece you off in their delusion in order to make a buck out of you. I am not a legend , but thanks ! lol.. :)
Scalping it is. But look this up also...go your own path but beware this is a very slippery slope...again read , read. It will save you thousands...
cheers
More...

Thanks for the reply!

Have no fear, I am smart enough to realise the sheer amount of organisations charging people to the hills to "turn them into millionaires" is staggering and quite annoying to be honest! Nobody will be fleecing me, I'm very new to this game but I intend to use my own mind to learn it and if I am going to get serious (years away anyway), I still won't pay some buffoon selling a pipe dream. Anyway, I'm not really in it for money, I enjoy the risk, the excitement when you jump into a trade so I would happily trade away with very small amounts.
 
wrbtrader said:
Its not realistic (turning 5k into 25k) via what you've described without the specific details and because its not real money. What you've done in your practice account will give you no clues of what will occur when you go into real money trading especially if you calculated yesterday's crazy trading day into your results.

Backtest your trade method on the DAX, Dow and FTSE assuming you're talking about the futures. Backtest on historical data going back many years.

Use a real simulator that's the exact same trade execution platform that you'll be using for real money trading.

Compare the above results...backtest versus simulator. Keep repeating until your simulator results are comparable to the backtest results.

Yet, the above will still give you no realistic results but it will show you that you need to be more prepare than what you're currently doing if you plan to traverse into real money trading.

If you still don't get it...start a trade journal here and post the simulator timestamp trade fills in your broker trade execution platform so that others can see what you're doing and can then chime in to tell you what your doing good or bad prior to any real money trading...its the only way for the others to see if you're doing something right unless you're prepared to start posting videos on Youtube (live stream) of your trading on the simulator.

Only use the same amount in your simulator that you'll be using in real money trading.

Reality, if you can not do any of the above (backtest, simulator, screenshots of timestamp trade fills in broker trade execution platform...worthless to ask someone if you're doing something right because they truly do not know without those result details.

Simply, stay away from real money trading unless you're enjoy losing a lot of money and just keep playing with your practice account and make believe hypothetical returns as if you can do such every day...everybody is allow to dream...right ???

wrbtrader
More...

Thank you sir!

Very informative response!

I will start off with the backtest idea you've put forward and see if my methods from today pay of against historical data.

With regards to the simulator, My broker tells me (via in app chat) that the practice account is of the exact same execution platform that they use for their real money accounts. They actually told me that those profits I spoke about from today would have been the same or slightly less with a real money account. Suppose they would say that though because they want my money, for reals!

As I said in my above reply, not really in the game for the money, more the thrill of the trades, large or small profit, as long as it is profit! :)

Just wanted to get an idea from people that know this world, how realistic these results were from a practice account. Yes, I will continue enjoying my practice account but there is no dreaming involved here, I just enjoy a bit of strategy and a bit of risk. Trading gives me both at the same time, even if it is fake.
 
Dump your demo trade list out to us.

If your trading with Zero fear and $100 per point with 5K and increasing position size to use 90% of the account, then yes possible, keep doing that and 1 bad trade will new spike against you wipe out you entire account sooner or later.

Still means your showing good trade picking skills mind, so back off the get rich quick drop to $10 per pt and get rich eventually instead of bankrupt sooner or later.
 
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Fad said:
...Just wanted to get an idea from people that know this world, how realistic these results were from a practice account. Yes, I will continue enjoying my practice account but there is no dreaming involved here, I just enjoy a bit of strategy and a bit of risk. Trading gives me both at the same time, even if it is fake.
More...

If you enjoy a bit of strategy and a bit of risk...

Talk about the specifics of your strategy if its not proprietary or deep secret. Yet, if you want to truly know if you have an edge (statistical proof)...that's the purpose of the backtest.

Next, the simulator trading account of your trade strategy of several months minimum, comparison to your backtest results, screenshots of timestamp trade fills with a trade journal at this ET forum...you're going to get very good replies that may help to improve your trade method prior to any real money trading when that thrill becomes real.

You'll then be able to see the reality in your trade strategy.

wrbtrader
 
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I have done that many times with real money
but next day I lose it all
if you can do it two days in row... then yes you are doing something right...markets are not the same two days in a row

use the same strategy again and if you do it again..... then it is right....
 
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