Made a lot of progress, but feel like there's so much more to go...

[jinxu]

I think the concept of opportunity cost is learned in econ 101. But I can give you credit if you like! haha

I'm fortunate to be in a hot area of tech. So, I get recruiters calls every day(actually multiple times a day). I usually say no because the jobs are not in my geographic area. But recently I was presented with 2 high level(Director and VP) jobs in my area. I have been making excuses and not going through with the process(stalling the recruiters). Maybe in the back of my mind, I'm don't want to go back to Corporate America. My original plan was to do a job and trade around it. But I think at the level that people want to hire me it will NOT be a 9-5 job. Higher pay equals more work and stress. I don't know if I will have any time level to trade after that. Maybe early mornings or nights. I don't know. As expected. So, I'm still debating the merits of going back or not...

"Loss money are only losses if you didn't learn anything from it." That's a good point. Something to keep in mind.

thanks!

Nope. Having a corporate job is not compatible with trading. You'll have to choose what you want. For my situation. I am at a 1000% profit year to date.

And there is still more profit potentials. What limits me is being human. I am in trying to develop a trading algorithm based on my rules. Problem for me is I don't have any programming skills. I know data and how to use data. But it would be much better if I could find someone with much better programming skill to do the programming. However as of yet there is no one I trust.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

Yeah for futures I am fine with focusing on one future because I get a better feel than jumping all over the place.

I agree. Following multiple markets in a very short time frame presents too many zone interruptions.

 

[Van_der_Voort_4]

This a great point! Trade small and gradually compound.

Over 11 years ago i had a permission to visit prop trading floor any time i wanted.I knew the right people and thanks to this opportunity I talked to traders there and observed them.
I never forget this Bund trader one Friday trading against the trend whole session,lost 80K euro that evening.All from trades against the trend for some reason he thought prices should have rebounded the other way.
They did 2 weeks later.
There was this other guy who daily traded small size,was up,down some,same next day,next week.He could trade 1200 contracts in the Bund,but kept powder dry till the moment where some form of crisis was happening.At that point he switched to larger time frame and rode 800-1000 contracts for 100-200 ticks.
This is patience,making little to cover desk fees and some and doing "nothing" for 8 months a time.
Because these opportunities will present themselves and he was ready for them.

Trade smaller,because if things will not go well in the process you adjust before is too late.Same with loss limits,all those guys had daily loss limit with the firm they were trading,some even less than what risk manager allowed for.

 

[trader99]

It's like that concept "five feet from gold." Giving up now is like 5 feet from hitting gold. I know my old trading stats SUCK! But if I dug deep into it, it's due to just a handful of bad trades where I let the losses get out of hand. Get rid of those HUGE bad trades and my avg winners stats will go way up. What I'm saying is that even in the past I was making steady money until I got into these bad trades and didn't get out. I was holding onto losers. That was the past behavior. Not now.

Nowadays, I cut my losses pretty fast. And my winners are bigger than my losses. And occasionally I get those long tail big winner that are 30-100x my avg winner. Just to clarify. I'm not up 1000% like @jinxu. We are talking average winner vs rare big winners.

The question is if I just forget about the sunk cost(b/c in the grand scheme of things the money lost while not small isn't that big given my earnings history and what I think I can generate via trading now), would I still invest in a trader like me?

 

[trader99]

Over 11 years ago i had a permission to visit prop trading floor any time i wanted.I knew the right people and thanks to this opportunity I talked to traders there and observed them.
I never forget this Bund trader one Friday trading against the trend whole session,lost 80K euro that evening.All from trades against the trend for some reason he thought prices should have rebounded the other way.
They did 2 weeks later.
There was this other guy who daily traded small size,was up,down some,same next day,next week.He could trade 1200 contracts in the Bund,but kept powder dry till the moment where some form of crisis was happening.At that point he switched to larger time frame and rode 800-1000 contracts for 100-200 ticks.
This is patience,making little to cover desk fees and some and doing "nothing" for 8 months a time.
Because these opportunities will present themselves and he was ready for them.

Trade smaller,because if things will not go well in the process you adjust before is too late.Same with loss limits,all those guys had daily loss limit with the firm they were trading,some even less than what risk manager allowed for.

That's my long term goal in terms of trading style. The stupid countertrend trader who lost a lot of money was the old trader me! Can't believe what the hell was I thinking?! Hindsight.

Anyhow. Most recently, I caught a strong trend. I held overnight and was up $7K. And it came back a little though not much. But I covered and in the back of my mind I felt like I should held longer since the chart was still showing strong trend but I had to feed my daughter lunch. Had I kept it another 6 hours i would be up $17K on that one trade. Then at night I thought it was overdone and I should countertrend because it would reverse. But it would too late at night and I didn't want to get up, log into my computer, and put on a trade. That's another $28K from the bottom. Missed opportunity.

Then on a separate instrument I did countertrend but it was because it was a reversal from the bottom. Made another quick $3K.

So, in the span of about 4 days that would would have been about $48K of profits(that would have gone a long way at chipping away those losses) I could have made. But I made about $10K. Which is not bad since that's huge multiples compared to my avg winners.

I figured there's at least one of those big move per month.

Ideally I want to be make like $500-$1000 per day on average. And on good opportunistic trade with high edge make like $5-$20K on those good trades. If I can do that every month then I can kiss all the recruiters' calls for high paying corporate jobs goodbye!

But I'm not there yet...

 

[speedo]

I agree. Following multiple markets in a very short time frame presents too many zone interruptions.

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[Van_der_Voort_4]

So, in the span of about 4 days that would would have been about $48K of profits(that would have gone a long way at chipping away those losses) I could have made. But I made about $10K. Which is not bad since that's huge multiples compared to my avg winners.

This is why i suggested to do some charity work where you are personally involved,it will clear you mind from these kind of thoughts.Will help explain it to yourself to put these numbers aside.

When i am upset over something big I go to poorest part of my city and talk to some less fortunate and try to help by doing something,volunteer my time,it works

Good luck with trading !

 

[trader99]

Just closed out. $1400 on one lot! Overnight. Very little stress. I think swing trading would need a lot more patience(especially if it's not trending). But overnight is fine especially if you got in at a good price and just ride the trend. Of course, if you got in and it goes down then get out so you can get better sleep.

Had I held a little longer it would have been $2K. There was no pullback at all. I guess this is from my bad daytrading habits. Taking profits too soon. Just hold until the chart changes. If I can keep this up then I can whittle down that deficit!

 

[Sprout]

Just closed out. $1400 on one lot! Overnight. Very little stress. I think swing trading would need a lot more patience(especially if it's not trending). But overnight is fine especially if you got in at a good price and just ride the trend. Of course, if you got in and it goes down then get out so you can get better sleep.

Had I held a little longer it would have been $2K. There was no pullback at all. I guess this is from my bad daytrading habits. Taking profits too soon. Just hold until the chart changes. If I can keep this up then I can whittle down that deficit!

If you reframe your ‘deficit’ into ‘tuition’ then you are already ahead of most whom are burdened by educational debt.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda is a difficult game to play. Consider the opposite outcome to provide balance - each of your winning trades could have been a loser but wasn’t.

 

[deaddog]

You have X number of dollars in your trading account right now. I doesn't matter what you had yesterday or a year ago, what matters is what you'll have tomorrow. Look ahead not back.