Saltynuts's trend following journal

[Saltynuts]

OK, set up a paper account on IB. Going to just try following trends I see. Trend up, I'm long. Trend down, I'm short. Get out whenever trend ends. Will probably trade YM mostly. Will look for best trends switching between the different candle bars IB provides on their little screen in the middle (30 sec, 1 min, 5 min, 15 min).

First trade - sold 24144. Currently at 24075 or lower - feeling good so far!

If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

When I win, my salty nuts for everyone!!!!

 

[Saltynuts]

Out at 26062. Gain of $82.

 

[Robert Morse]

My suggestion is that paper trading has limited value especially with manual trading. No Fear. No Greed.

Bob

 

[Maverick74]

My suggestion is that paper trading has limited value especially with manual trading. No Fear. No Greed.

Bob

Agree, papertrading is useless. Just trade real money but trade small. You can trade one share of SPY if you want.

 

[Saltynuts]

Bought 24083.

Sold 24032.

Loss $51.

 

[Saltynuts]

Thanks guys, I'll switch to real money soon enough! But if I can't even make it paper trading...

 

[Maverick74]

Thanks guys, I'll switch to real money soon enough! But if I can't even make it paper trading...

Without emotions it's useless. Especially for daytrading.

 

[Saltynuts]

Sold 24025

 

[Saltynuts]

Wait a sec, this thing is flawed - said I got a 24025 sell price, but it never got that low! The hell?

 

[Slartibartfast]

Agree, papertrading is useless. Just trade real money but trade small. You can trade one share of SPY if you want.

I set the standard of six weeks of profitability with no mulligans before I went live. It took me five months full time to hit that which was good. By then I had acquired a deep knowledge of the platform & its bugs, my own errors. And there were bugs and power failures and crashes.

I agree about live but I also believe sim can work if you have a threatening limitation. Being reset to zero after five weeks does weigh on the mind.