My Experimental Trading Life

Quote from illinimatt81:

Hi there,

I'll be watching your thread with great interest, I am doing a similar thing trading futures at night and when I can during the day.

Its a good way to build confidence before taking a stab full time.

When taking profits are you using a protective stop once you hit your target and letting the winner run at all or are you just looking to scalp a few points daily?

Good idea to work with just one contract for now as you are doing.

Good trading to you.
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Hi Matt81,

Thanks for your interest.

I'm glad to know that you're doing the similar thing.

Normally, I set a target and take profit if it hits. Occasionally, I'll modify the target manually if I sense a strong price move before it hits the target and let it run. Very often, I found the price changes the direction too soon, and I don't like to have a profit became loss.

I set a daily goal for myself: $300/day. Not too much but good enough.
 
Quote from ToBeMyself:



I set a daily goal for myself: $300/day. Not too much but good enough.
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I ll be following you with interest but the above statement is wrong-you should stay with the trade as long as it's possible. Maybe eventually you graduate into 2 or 3 contracts then take one off at pre defined level and let the other run with a trailing stop.

Setting a daily $$ limit has two drawbacks
1. forced into taking trades when you dont see opportunities
2. small relative profits on big opportunity days like today and yesterday
 
Hi GG1972,

I think you made a very good point here.

It's almost impossible for me to make $300 everyday. Losing days are part of trading life.

I have also asked myself this question: what to do if I didn't reach my daily goal?

Here are some calculations and an answer for myself:

$300/day, that's 6K/month, it'll be 72K/year. I'll not evaluate my trading performance on the daily basis, but monthly. As long as
I can make 6K/month on average consistantly for a year, I will make my final decision to switch to full time trading.

Again, this is only a plan and i'm sure it's not that easy to get there.

I appreciate your input.
Thanks.
 
Quote from ToBeMyself:

Thanks for your kind input.

Yes, you're right that 54% loss is way too big. Lesson is learned. Everyday, I remind myself not repeating the same mistake.

I always ask myself: what makes trading so tough?
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10% is still too big a drawdown. There is a stat called "Risk of Ruin." (RoR) and is near 100% for almost everyone. The bigger your drawdowns & your leverage, the much more likely and rapidly you will learn what RoR means...
 
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