Question for Traders Who's Main Income Comes From Trading

Quote from JRL:

Accounting background, read many books on finance, the market, trading, etc.

Have now been paper trading the CL using live market data for the last 10 days (via Strategy Runner w/ Global Futures). First time I've ever really done this, though have had an interest in it for seemingly ever.

By trading a single CL contract, I've been "making" gains in the thousands, every single day. Yes, this is PAPER trading, but it's live market data, and I'm basically in and out of trades fairly quickly (usually). I'd say that I'm using a pretty disciplined approach, not looking for home runs, but for simple, quick, in-and-out profit. The liquidity and volatility of the CL appears to make that goal fairly easy.

I'm not so naive to think that it's this easy when dealing with real money, but what exactly am I missing? What changes when you move from paper to cash (besides the obvious)?

Appreciate any thoughts and comments, weak attempts at humor are surely to follow, I get that.

Thanks much.
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have at least two systems,, one that catches large moves, because "quick in and out" wont pay the bills in the long run.

Remember these rules, i was told them 10yrs ago, they didnt sink in, but now the are golden to me.

1. Cut your losses quick, let your winners run
2. dont add to losers
3. discipline of plan, strategy of having a plan is key.
 
Quote from Eddiefl:

have aleast tw systems,, one tha catchs moves, because "quick in and out" wont pay the bills in the lon run.

Remember these rules, iwas told them 10yrs ago, they didn sink in, but now the are golden to me.

1. Cut your losses quick, let your winners run
2. dont add to losers
3. discipline of plan, strategy of having a plan is key.
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yeah, that's hard to do when you are only trading one mkt. It only starts to make sense when you have several positions on.

There's an oldtime strategy we called pyramiding. It involves averaging down. I think it's unprofitability has been proven many times, but it's beautiful when the whole pyramid starts moving in your direction.
 
Everyone in this business is in this business b/c they made killings in those paper trades. I've seen dozens of trainees making good profits everyday for 2 weeks, and nearly all of them lose money when they go live. good percentage of them actually blew up in less than a month. That is the reality you'll face once you start trading. You may feel invincible at this point and your confidence thru the roof, but this is a very dangerous stage b/c most of newbie traders hit the deck in few days. You, too, will face what everyone faced. There's no exceptions. Good luck!
 
Quote from forsalenyc:

Everyone in this business is in this business b/c they made killings in those paper trades. I've seen dozens of trainees making good profits everyday for 2 weeks, and nearly all of them lose money when they go live. good percentage of them actually blew up in less than a month. That is the reality you'll face once you start trading. You may feel invincible at this point and your confidence thru the roof, but this is a very dangerous stage b/c most of newbie traders hit the deck in few days. You, too, will face what everyone faced. There's no exceptions. Good luck!
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Sometimes I think about that. How many trader's first trade was a winner? If your first trade is a loser the logical conclusion is "Ok, well that's not for me." But if it's a winner it's normal to think, "Now this beats the hell out of working for a living."
 
Quote from oldtime:

yeah, that's hard to do when you are only trading one mkt. It only starts to make sense when you have several positions on.

There's an oldtime strategy we called pyramiding. It involves averaging down. I think it's unprofitability has been proven many times, but it's beautiful when the whole pyramid starts moving in your direction.
More...


Averaging down works, until it doesnt. and when it doesnt,, say bye-bye to your account or half of your account.!!

I hope no one has been pyramiding long since this last friday afternoon.

EF :D :D
 
Quote from oldtime:

for example, I'm trying to learn forex so I'm just trading in a paper account. No matter what I do I can't lose money to save my soul.

I've tried everything. Adding to losers, taking small profits and then doubling up on the other side. Getting long, getting short, no matter what I do I make money. I suspect it has something to do with the dollar.

At anyrate, there is no way no how that I will ever trade forex with real money until I can produce a consistent string of losers.
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And how much of that would you do in real life? Not governed by the consideration of capital loss but just in general as you being a professional trader? ( professional in your own right - its your income right? ) Why waste the time?

To the guy with magnetic stops:D Run paper trades exactly the same as your live trades side by side and show us- you perhaps are more successful than I, this is certainly no dig but you are talking out of your anus and personalizing the market.

I accept psychology is a huge aspect in fact the biggest cause of failure but the question remains why?

If the food on your children's table depends on your next trade and 3 losses wipes your account out Then I understand, the pressure for results are to intense and you are either over-leveraged or have an account that's way underfunded.

But to the financially comfortable who have developed there method, know how to cut loses fast let there correct trades run and are using risk capital... what's going on there?

I would bet a lot of the males here had there psychology warped by a beautiful women in there teens but hey you you learned to develop the right psychology to bag the goods and trading requires no less.

Trading is boring its like managing a child just with less noise, your stuck in all day while the world is sunny and every ones out to play :D The results how ever are more than worth while If you make the fundamental changes in your relationship with money to make it a stable ride...unless of course you enjoy the gamblers tight rope walk rush.

NLP and various practices offer good tools for changing your psychology.
 
Quote from Eddiefl:

Averaging down works, until it doesnt. and when it doesnt,, say bye-bye to your account or half of your account.!!

I hope no one has been pyramiding long since this last friday afternoon.

EF :D :D
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No, I don't do anything half ass. When it didn't work there was no half of an account to say goodbye to.

But still, just because it almost always doesn't work, there may be some special moment when this time everything is different, and a man, being of sound mind and body, may try to put it on just so he can make back a small portion of everything he lost the last time it didn't work.
 
Quote from sheda:



I accept psychology is a huge aspect in fact the biggest cause of failure but the question remains why?

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I`d say "why",but i`ll disclose the holy grail by that,i`m sorry:D

what a life and what a world riddle
what a life and what a riddle world
i`ve got the world on a string i`m sitting on the rainbow
i`ve got that string around my little finger

:D :D
 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Evolve-Your...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312342959&sr=1-1

This is a book I suggest all read, at first I thought he was a quack but I was wrong, it explains in scientific terms how each thought and state of mind we have has a specific chemical make up acting in the body to create the feeling of that state.

The cells become accustomed to this chemical stimulation and a feedback loop is created that enforces the state, subconsciously driving our behaviour and directing our thought patterns towards its creation.

Check it:cool:
 
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