Do what you love to do. If you love being an employee and having bosses, then do it. Don't become a professional, independent trader. If you hate being an employee and hate having bosses telling you what you should do with your time, then become a professional trader, your style, day or swing trader, will reveal itself to you soon enough, like the karma waiting for you down the road.
Need Advice
- Thread starter trader99
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Do what you love to do. If you love being an employee and having bosses, then do it. Don't become a professional, independent trader. If you hate being an employee and hate having bosses telling you what you should do with your time, then become a professional trader, your style, day or swing trader, will reveal itself to you soon enough, like the karma waiting for you down the road.
As speedo said, it sounds as though you are shooting from the hip rather than trading according to a plan. You should be able to follow(not predict)the price movement just as methodically as it moves. And if you don't see how the price movement does move methodically, then additional study would be in order. Upon completing that, I think you will find that the problems you are having with entries, exits, and stops will be easy to solve.The second lesson is obvious but should be mentioned. Not all days will be trendy. Today was range bound. So trade accordingly. In then out then reverse. Then in and out. On trend days you can hold for a long time. For example, 12/29/2017, I put on a NQ short trade near the open and held all day til the close. Not all days will be like that. So gotta be flexible and constantly monitoring price actions to see which kinds of days it is and trade accordingly.
Lesson #3, even though the entry pattern might show a particular bias it pays to wait a little before entering to see how it unfolds. I was about to enter a position then I paused just for a second. Then I see it evolving. And it was not the original pattern I thought. So I saved myself. Even if I had put stops in, sure it will have cut losses. Why cut losses when you can avoid it all together?!
The next level of improvement would be once I see that it's not the original pattern(long or short) then I should go the other way. So for example I thought it was a short pattern, pause to see(seconds), then when it showed to be a long pattern, jump in and go long.
@trader99
Meant to add that as I have no idea how you determine a trend and then follow it, the 'methodically' that I mentioned may not apply to your approach.
As luck would have it, the Universe has provided with me a good biz opportunity. I'm going full speed ahead with that. I will only trade a few hours in the morning. I have other things to attend to as well.
And yes, what attracted to me in the first place to trading is the independence and not having bosses.
Over the years I have learned to adapt and work in Corporate America. But now given the chance to be independent I will take that over being an employee any day.And yes, what attracted to me in the first place to trading is the independence and not having bosses.
Me too; very much so in my case because I don't "play well with others" ... but ironically I still ended up taking an opportunity to be an employee, when a suitable one was offered.
Me too; very much so in my case because I don't "play well with others" ... but ironically I still ended up taking an opportunity to be an employee, when a suitable one was offered.
So, are you a full-time independent trader now? That's impressive. My trading is not good enough to support me! haha. I've started a business and focusing on that as the main thing going forward. I'll trade a few hours a day in the morning to continue to improve that.
When my trading generates what my old Corporate job paid(even half of that. haha) then I'll say I've improved. I got a long way to go. In the meantime, I will do what works. The business is still new and will take time to ramp up. But it's showing promising signs...
No - my journey was the other way round.
I'm an employee, now, after several years prior to that as a full-time independent. (I was unexpectedly offered a position that enabled me to continue to do almost exactly what I'd been doing independently, while being paid significantly more for it by trading OPM instead of my own.)
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That's a great arrangement to be doing what you love and getting well comp for it. Are you a prop trader or do you work for a hedge fund? It's great to use OPM instead of your own. A call option with unlimited upside and limited downside.
My career trajectory had many twists and turns if you read through some of my old postings here. Corporate America then unsuccessful prop trading, then when back to Corporate America, went to graduate school, back to Corporate America. Now with independent business plus side trading.
It's been an interesting ride with lots of ups and downs.
Small hedge fund ... I'd always thought I was better off trading my own account independently, especially after taking so many years, and so much patience, effort and energy, to build it up enough to be able to live from it (it took me many, many years to be an "overnight success"). But I'm actually better off this way, it turned out.
I was wondering ... and will look.
Small hedge fund ... I'd always thought I was better off trading my own account independently, especially after taking so many years, and so much patience, effort and energy, to build it up enough to be able to live from it (it took me many, many years to be an "overnight success"). But I'm actually better off this way, it turned out.
I was wondering ... and will look.
That's an inspiring story. So, how many years did it take you to be good enough with your trading to be able to live from it? If you don't mind me asking. I was wondering how long my journey might be. It will probably be longer since I'll not be doing it full-time but part-time. But I think I've learned a lot from my past mistakes and hopefully with the encouragement here on ET things will improve faster.
Hopefully things will finally click and 2018 will be my breakthrough year. Nevertheless, it will not be my full-time or main source since I'm not good as you were/are.
As to my career ups and downs, I would say the trendline has been upward sloping with some variance around it. To combine TA speak with stats speak.
Life is an adventure. Enjoy the ride.