The Evolution of an E-mini Trader
- Thread starter Huios
- Start date
Huois
Compared to what I did this week you are doing great.
My e-mini career started and ended this past week. I've been trading stock and options for years but wanted to give the mini a shot. After transferring funds from an IB stock account, I started trading on Monday. After a couple of quick trades (30-60 seconds hold ) I was up a few hundred bucks. Wow I though this is great! It don't get better than this. The heck with stocks, they are for chumps. I'm gonna trade the e-mini's exclusively. So I went over to IB's account maintenance and increased my contract limit.
The next day after a small win, I went long ES and had a huge 5 point loss within a very short period. Wednesday and Thursday I had my head handed to me during some very nasty whipsawing. By Thursday afternoon I gave up and in trying to save what I had left I transferred back the remaining balance. Net loss for 4 days: -27%
Compared to what I did this week you are doing great.
My e-mini career started and ended this past week. I've been trading stock and options for years but wanted to give the mini a shot. After transferring funds from an IB stock account, I started trading on Monday. After a couple of quick trades (30-60 seconds hold ) I was up a few hundred bucks. Wow I though this is great! It don't get better than this. The heck with stocks, they are for chumps. I'm gonna trade the e-mini's exclusively. So I went over to IB's account maintenance and increased my contract limit.
The next day after a small win, I went long ES and had a huge 5 point loss within a very short period. Wednesday and Thursday I had my head handed to me during some very nasty whipsawing. By Thursday afternoon I gave up and in trying to save what I had left I transferred back the remaining balance. Net loss for 4 days: -27%
Originally posted by bouncer
Huois
Compared to what I did this week you are doing great.
My e-mini career started and ended this past week. I've been trading stock and options for years but wanted to give the mini a shot. After transferring funds from an IB stock account, I started trading on Monday. After a couple of quick trades (30-60 seconds hold ) I was up a few hundred bucks. Wow I though this is great! It don't get better than this. The heck with stocks, they are for chumps. I'm gonna trade the e-mini's exclusively. So I went over to IB's account maintenance and increased my contract limit.
The next day after a small win, I went long ES and had a huge 5 point loss within a very short period. Wednesday and Thursday I had my head handed to me during some very nasty whipsawing. By Thursday afternoon I gave up and in trying to save what I had left I transferred back the remaining balance. Net loss for 4 days: -27%
Ouch. Leverage cuts both ways. Practice risk management, limiting downside exposure per trade to 1 to 2 % of account equity.
Daily Range - 14 pts.
Intraday Travel Range - 52 pts.
Wasn't sure if I wanted to include the move after 16:00 since I don't believe many traders trade after the cash is closed (at least I don't, but I may be wrong), but I did.
After the fact question to myself..."If traders don't, where did all that volume come from?
"
Intraday Travel Range - 52 pts.
Wasn't sure if I wanted to include the move after 16:00 since I don't believe many traders trade after the cash is closed (at least I don't, but I may be wrong), but I did.
After the fact question to myself..."If traders don't, where did all that volume come from?
"Today I was feeling good. Had a great trip. God did some cool stuff in my spirit this weekend.
Reread my plan this morning. Decided to really focus on taking the trade.
Morning range filled the day session gap right away, and I thought it would be an up day, if the bottom of the range (1032) would not be taked out.
Trade 1 - Higher low, jumped in on the first up bar. Jumped out too soon, right before the big blue bar up. It was a good entry, premature exit. Scratch trade.
Market ran a little, retraced...
Trade 2 - Great entry. Held thru short retracement, exited good. Good trade. +4.00
Take the Trade...
Trade 3 - Another great entry, except the market didn't follow thru. Sold within .25 of the low of the retracement. Was a good trade, but was wrong due to being too early and "hoping" it would come back. Lost 1.5 on the trade.
As soon as I exited, thought "This is where I should have gotten in." Missed my extry. Was looking at it, and it took off without me. And I wasn't gonna chase.
Market made a good high, actually I thought this was gonna be the hod. Made a lower high, and lower low, another lower high, and this led to... my downward bias...
Trade 4 - Short off the second lower high, except it wasn't going down. Held on for way too long, not recognizing I'm wrong (AGAIN), and hoping it would come back. Great trade, but lousy exit. - 2.25 on the trade.
Didn't allow myself to trade till after 2:00 because of holding on to losers. Reread the "assuming I am wrong part" of my plan. After 2:00, the market was pretty much range bound, so about 3:00, went to see my chiropractor.
Overall today, I had a good day trading. Took the trades and generally had good entries. "Now, work on those exits, H." And we all know exits make the trader.
4 trades, 1 winner, 2 losers, 1 scratch.
Net: -6.70 for the day
Net: -6.70 for the week
Net: +121.6 for the month
Reread my plan this morning. Decided to really focus on taking the trade.
Morning range filled the day session gap right away, and I thought it would be an up day, if the bottom of the range (1032) would not be taked out.
Trade 1 - Higher low, jumped in on the first up bar. Jumped out too soon, right before the big blue bar up. It was a good entry, premature exit. Scratch trade.
Market ran a little, retraced...
Trade 2 - Great entry. Held thru short retracement, exited good. Good trade. +4.00
Take the Trade...
Trade 3 - Another great entry, except the market didn't follow thru. Sold within .25 of the low of the retracement. Was a good trade, but was wrong due to being too early and "hoping" it would come back. Lost 1.5 on the trade.
As soon as I exited, thought "This is where I should have gotten in." Missed my extry. Was looking at it, and it took off without me. And I wasn't gonna chase.
Market made a good high, actually I thought this was gonna be the hod. Made a lower high, and lower low, another lower high, and this led to... my downward bias...
Trade 4 - Short off the second lower high, except it wasn't going down. Held on for way too long, not recognizing I'm wrong (AGAIN), and hoping it would come back. Great trade, but lousy exit. - 2.25 on the trade.
Didn't allow myself to trade till after 2:00 because of holding on to losers. Reread the "assuming I am wrong part" of my plan. After 2:00, the market was pretty much range bound, so about 3:00, went to see my chiropractor.
Overall today, I had a good day trading. Took the trades and generally had good entries. "Now, work on those exits, H." And we all know exits make the trader.
4 trades, 1 winner, 2 losers, 1 scratch.
Net: -6.70 for the day
Net: -6.70 for the week
Net: +121.6 for the month
This is gonna be short and sweet.
Broke out of the range, definite uptrend. Did I catch any of it. No
Trade 1 - Long after a retracement. Wasn't too sure about the trade so took a quick loss. Too quick. Loss of .25
Trade 2 - Still uptrend, but thought a double top was in. Took a small loss of -.75
After Trade 2 thought it would be range bound for awhile and took lunch. Wrong.
Trade 3 - Short off retracement. Too slow in taking the loss. -1.75 on the trade.
Missed the trade I was looking for, and ain't gonna chase.
Broke out of the range, definite uptrend. Did I catch any of it. No
Trade 1 - Long after a retracement. Wasn't too sure about the trade so took a quick loss. Too quick. Loss of .25
Trade 2 - Still uptrend, but thought a double top was in. Took a small loss of -.75
After Trade 2 thought it would be range bound for awhile and took lunch. Wrong.
Trade 3 - Short off retracement. Too slow in taking the loss. -1.75 on the trade.
Missed the trade I was looking for, and ain't gonna chase.