Successful Trading - Advice and Guidance

[downrivertrader]

The bulk of my income comes from e-trading Euro Futures on the CME Globex platform. I would call this my position trading account. Sometimes I am in and out of the market in the same day. Sometimes I hold a trade for a week or two or through the whole month. Just depends on the situation and how the market is trading.

At this stage of my career, I have a seven figure goal. I generally put on between 20 – 30 contracts. I maintain only $150,000 in my futures account. At the end of each week, if there is more than $150,000 in the account, I order a check immediately. Once my personal needs are satisfied, the remainder is deposited into my Currency Fund which is considered to be my retirement account. This is a non-tax qualified account which I have with IB.

Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t make a nice living with $150,000 in capital. Just become an expert at managing and accepting the risk with this excessive leverage.

Have you ever done this exercise….I want to make a million dollars this year. I am going to trade 200 days. I need to make $5,000 per day. If I can trade 20 contracts of EC, then I need to NET 20 points per day. Sound foolish? That’s what most will say. Trust your instincts.

 

[Bigblues28]

Has anyone heard of Chimera Capital a prop firm in NYC.

 

[Tums]

Quote from coolweb:
Knowing yourself doesn't mean shit, thats for papertraders who can't get their shit together.

Quote from eusdaiki:

SunTzu said.

III.18. Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

You are wrong, you need to know the markets and know yourself.

just because SunTzu said so, and you declare him WRONG?

 

[eusdaiki]

Quote from Tums:

just because SunTzu said so, and you declare him WRONG?

Not only cause suntzu said so, his whole argument is flawed.

if you don´t know yourself then how do you know when to trust your analisis about the market? How do you keep your emotions at bay so that they dont interfer with your trading? How do you keep a cool head in the face of a big winner/losser?

I just quoted the art of war cause he said it quite nicely.


There´s too much information about the markets. Billions of people make them up, and there are billions of variables affecting them. Out of all of them there´s only one you can really get to know, yourself.
If you don´t even know yourself, all you can learn about the markets in your lifetime won´t be enough to make a difference.

I´ve seen it too many times.

 

[tr222]

Great idea for a thread DRT. I am a noob, only about 8 months into learning the markets and have found many of the posts very informative. Please keep the advice and experiences coming so I can learn as much as possible from u guys!!!

 

[tradewiz50]

I don't give a squat about newbie traders. There is no easy way in the beginning. Earn your way up like all the rest of us did. Took me 2 accounts to blow out before I made any real coin.

For the noobs

Do your DD.

Risk/Reward Ratio

Money Management

Papertrade your strategy. Then only play 100 size lots with real money.

Expect to lose it all in the beginning. it's called tuition so don't whine when you blow out your account.

 

[Boib]

Quote from tradewiz50:


Expect to lose it all in the beginning. it's called tuition so don't whine when you blow out your account.

It's only tuition if you learn something.

It's not how much you make that counts it's how little you lose.

 

[tradewiz50]

Quote from Boib:

It's only tuition if you learn something.

You can go to college and pay for a semester's "tuition" and not learn a fucking thing. :eek:

 

[Cheese]

Quote from Pekelo:
Sure, you don't remember the tech bubble....

But if you count the madness of the masses as rational, I agree...

There is no madness only prices; that means willing buyers and sellers. Very rational. Bubble, same as any other time; it had buy and sell prices, upmoves and downmoves. Now how difficult is that?

 

[Cheese]

Quote from jho:
Cheeeeeeeeeese...
Haha thanks Cheese

Yeah too many losses makes you a loser.

Didn't you know? Sorry pal but hidden criticism as this one was is one of the classic hallmarks identifying YOU as a loser.