The ES went down 60 points in 1 move. So today was not a difficult day, it was an easy one. If it was difficult for your system, then there is a problem with your system.
Profitable on paper, losing money live! Fear plays a big role.
- Thread starter ftrexx1
- Start date
The ES went down 60 points in 1 move. So today was not a difficult day, it was an easy one. If it was difficult for your system, then there is a problem with your system.
Hello ftrexx1,
You and I are bit similar and trade some what discretionary based on chart observation in the moment. And its somewhat complex to strategize around it or automate or back test. However, practice makes perfect , right. You just have to keep on pushing on.
ftrexx1,
Only YOU know what the problem is. Be brutally honest with yourself and write the Fear you are experiencing.
Here is some fears while trading live you could be experiencing
1. Hesitating to take trades.
2. Not paying attention and not focus.
3. Horrible trade management
4. Trading without a stop
5. Doubting your self
6. Doubting yourself, then start chasing trades after you missed it, then trying to scalp a few ticks.
7. Not following your rules.
Stop worrying about the money, and worrying about being confident and comfortable when trades.
Try this
1. Stick to one contract, take it one trade at time, properly manage it just like you would in sim.
2. Screen shot real vs sim trades.
3. Record notes on each trade. State what you did wrong, what you did right. what you need to improve on. Why you entered and why you exited. Is this a good or bad trade.
Just be honest with yourself.
For example, one of my biggest problems is 1. Being focus 2. trade management after entry. 3. studying trading during spare time and putting in the work.
So I have to work on those things.
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[50]YES; take some money out of your account+ buy some books or library cards
Is 50 or 52 some kind of magic number ?? NO LOL [52weeks] Study weekly, monthly charts for 5-10 years, see what side the market is on 50 week + 50 day moving average moving. HINT ;SPY,DOW,QQQ are all in bear markets below 50 week moving average.50 years of charts is better than 5 years.....................................................................................................
Paper trading can help learn levels; but have you noticed many people will not bother to pickup a penny+ how many $100 or $1,000 dollar bills you ever seen on the sidewalk??LOL
look it is never going to be easy. sim accounts are like playing russian roulette with an unloaded revolver.. you are pobably going to survive. REAL accounts are playing russian roulette with one or 2 or 3 in the chamber depending on how many contracts you are trading.
1st of STOP trading the mini NAZ. there is no room for error.
if scalping look at the emini because it is a little more forgiving.
If you are looking to try and catch big moves for the day and not scalp.. then SPREAD between the emini futures and the mini russel= just a little risk
or the emini nasdaq and the mini russel
if you like the naz then if yu buy naz sell 1 or even 2 russells at the same time.. depending on how much risk you want.
ONLY manage (worry about the naz) when you decide to close trade on naz.. then close trade on russel. DO NOT worry about the other half of your spread. only worry about which contract you are trading.. i.e. the naz. then after buying or selling naz you buy or sell the russell to offest
here are your spread ratio's
1 nazdaq mini = 20 x index= $ 20 x $ 125,540
1 russel 2k min= 50 xindex= $ 50 x $66,900
1.81:1 ratio now they move a little different but they are correlated. do not worry about the extra commission ok.
this will take some of the pressure. off here is example
today at 10:21 am russell at 1340 and naz at 6320
so lets say you said hmm i want to sell naz
sell 1 naz mkt= 6319 so you buy 1 russell right after 1340.5
lets say righ tnow you want to close out
again ONLY worry about watching and trading the naz.. you will offest teh russel position immediately after trading the naz.
10:48 naz = 6281 russel = 1334
you BUY BACK (offset NAZ) at mkt= 6281.50 and then sell 1 russel at mkt= 1333.5
YOU ONLY use mkt orders for the spread otherwise you will kill yourself worrying about ticks and cost yourself money.. yes you can use a limit order or stops to enter n exit naz but immediately only use mkt orders for the russel.
HERE IS YOUR TRADE OUTCOME:
naz s1 6319 then buy 1 6281.5= 37.5 points x $ 20 = $ 750 profit
russell b1 1340.5 then sold 1333.5= 7 points x $ 50 = - $ 350 LOSS
so combined = 750-350= $ 400 profit - 2 round turn fees commish 4 x2 = $ 8
net profit $ 398
if you wanted even less risk you could have done 2 russells = - $ 700 loss
so 750 -700 = $ 50 profit - 3 rt commish fees 3 x4= $ 12
so net = 50 -12= $ 38 bucks.. now when you do to there is more of a price risk.
if you are trading naz straight up then do a 1:1
you will be happier your broker will be happier also
YOU can get an autospreader order entry so 1 click and it buys and sells to enter and 1 click and sells and buys for you.
I am very surprised most brokerages do not offer this to their clients automatically because it reduces client and brokerage risk as well as doubles fees and commissions
OH I forgot to mention that if these orders are entered as a SPREAD ORDER your margin is
significantly reduced for day trading and for holding overnight. so if you wanted to hold overnight you could.
HOPE THIS HELPS
1st of STOP trading the mini NAZ. there is no room for error.
if scalping look at the emini because it is a little more forgiving.
If you are looking to try and catch big moves for the day and not scalp.. then SPREAD between the emini futures and the mini russel= just a little risk
or the emini nasdaq and the mini russel
if you like the naz then if yu buy naz sell 1 or even 2 russells at the same time.. depending on how much risk you want.
ONLY manage (worry about the naz) when you decide to close trade on naz.. then close trade on russel. DO NOT worry about the other half of your spread. only worry about which contract you are trading.. i.e. the naz. then after buying or selling naz you buy or sell the russell to offest
here are your spread ratio's
1 nazdaq mini = 20 x index= $ 20 x $ 125,540
1 russel 2k min= 50 xindex= $ 50 x $66,900
1.81:1 ratio now they move a little different but they are correlated. do not worry about the extra commission ok.
this will take some of the pressure. off here is example
today at 10:21 am russell at 1340 and naz at 6320
so lets say you said hmm i want to sell naz
sell 1 naz mkt= 6319 so you buy 1 russell right after 1340.5
lets say righ tnow you want to close out
again ONLY worry about watching and trading the naz.. you will offest teh russel position immediately after trading the naz.
10:48 naz = 6281 russel = 1334
you BUY BACK (offset NAZ) at mkt= 6281.50 and then sell 1 russel at mkt= 1333.5
YOU ONLY use mkt orders for the spread otherwise you will kill yourself worrying about ticks and cost yourself money.. yes you can use a limit order or stops to enter n exit naz but immediately only use mkt orders for the russel.
HERE IS YOUR TRADE OUTCOME:
naz s1 6319 then buy 1 6281.5= 37.5 points x $ 20 = $ 750 profit
russell b1 1340.5 then sold 1333.5= 7 points x $ 50 = - $ 350 LOSS
so combined = 750-350= $ 400 profit - 2 round turn fees commish 4 x2 = $ 8
net profit $ 398
if you wanted even less risk you could have done 2 russells = - $ 700 loss
so 750 -700 = $ 50 profit - 3 rt commish fees 3 x4= $ 12
so net = 50 -12= $ 38 bucks.. now when you do to there is more of a price risk.
if you are trading naz straight up then do a 1:1
you will be happier your broker will be happier also
YOU can get an autospreader order entry so 1 click and it buys and sells to enter and 1 click and sells and buys for you.
I am very surprised most brokerages do not offer this to their clients automatically because it reduces client and brokerage risk as well as doubles fees and commissions
OH I forgot to mention that if these orders are entered as a SPREAD ORDER your margin is
significantly reduced for day trading and for holding overnight. so if you wanted to hold overnight you could.
HOPE THIS HELPS
you guys should set up an auto spreader for your clients to trade mini naz vs mini russel.. you can do that now that the russell is back at the CME! it is a win win
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That would be a problem for me; looks like he is trying to id a trend strictly off a list of numbers.Prefer charts+ numbers
Just in case all the skeptics on this site decide to attack me!!!
https://www.cmegroup.com/education/...ussell-2000-index-futures-spread-trading.html
https://www.cmegroup.com/education/...ussell-2000-index-futures-spread-trading.html
Don't know much about trading spreads, but isn't the whole point of it to actually trade the spread itself(like spread gets too wide/narrow)? It sounds like you are proposing to trade one instrument and hedge with the other. Is that the intent? What's the point of that? What if they go in opposite directions or get out of sync momentarily? What if you get slippage on both? Sounds over complicating it with no obvious edge to me. What am I missing?