the hardest thing about trading...

Go for 20 points a day. it is easier than to chase after bigger profit.

you will make consistent profit if you look for high probability trades during the day, might require a lot of patience to wait for the right set up. increase yu contracts/lots and go for small (20) pips.

that's what I do anyway.
 
Quote from dac8555:
I swear it has to be hanging on to winners long enough.
...
but man...if i dont take 50% of the profits (or less) i could have every single time.

This month was the worst by far. I am profitable, i did fine...but i should have cleared over 15% this month so far....i am up about 5%. I covered the day before the 200+ point rally in the dow this week...and missed out on the rest.

I am up about 50% this year....but looking back, that should have been over 100%
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Not sure what you mean by "if I don't take 50% of profits"? I'm up +74% this month alone, was really aiming for 100%. As others said, hindsight is 20/20. Take meticulous records and fine-tune your system for the future. here's what's worked for me:

1. limiting losses and QUICKLY! I use 5% of portfolio as the hard deck. Any single trade that loses me that much, I'm out immediately. I know some of the guys use 1-2%. Also use MA and MACD as triggers to get out.

2. let profits run. I use trailing tops, MA and MACD to get out of profitable positions (they become a loss when they drop from their all-time highs). You can't be greedy and try to squeeze them for all their worth, but you can at least keep 80-90% of profits. :)

As others said, take the fear, greed and ego out of it. You gotta trade your system like a robot. If it's not working, modify the system, don't beat up the robot.
 
Quote from DannoXYZ:

Not sure what you mean by "if I don't take 50% of profits"? I'm up +74% this month alone, was really aiming for 100%. As others said, hindsight is 20/20. Take meticulous records and fine-tune your system for the future. here's what's worked for me:

1. limiting losses and QUICKLY! I use 5% of portfolio as the hard deck. Any single trade that loses me that much, I'm out immediately. I know some of the guys use 1-2%. Also use MA and MACD as triggers to get out.

2. let profits run. I use trailing tops, MA and MACD to get out of profitable positions (they become a loss when they drop from their all-time highs). You can't be greedy and try to squeeze them for all their worth, but you can at least keep 80-90% of profits. :)

As others said, take the fear, greed and ego out of it. You gotta trade your system like a robot. If it's not working, modify the system, don't beat up the robot.
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Hi Danno,

Wow, +74% on your account for the month, that's quite incredible! Do you achieve this by trading aggressively with 20% risk exposure per trade or something like that? I'm interested to hear about your money management. It's extremely difficult to geometrically grow your account that quickly without eventually getting slammed hard.

RoughTrader
 
The hardest thing about trading..
Look you really have to decide exactly what you are doing in the market .. this gets down to very fine preparation, planning & execution in your given market (eg YM).

So are you micro trading .. taking all moves in turn as the follow each other? Or are you trading the main gyrations as they play? If the latter you are going to cut through stalls and minor retracements and hold to the substantial move as it plays through its motion.
:)
 
Quote from DannoXYZ:

I'm up +74% this month alone
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Man, this is funny. We had 7 trading days so far in August. Today is August 9th, 2006. You're up 74% already?

You'll have no problem hitting your 100% goal for the month.
 
I am right there with you...over the years I have consistently taken profits too early and watched the move continue without me. I am currently working on a system right now that will keep me in the trade by taking the emotion out of it. I think that is the way to go, at least for me.

I have always had great entry points, but end up getting out way too soon. I can't help but ring the register. The emotions sometimes take over and I bail. Then sometimes I end up going the other way against my original position and ending up getting run over! I know it's not very smart, but it is a bad habit that is very hard for me to break. I have been a profitable trader for the last 10 years and my style keeps me out of trouble with very little drawdowns, but I know that I "shoulda, woulda, coulda" made a lot more.

That is why I think that having some sort of exit strategy is key to success for a trader (duh!). Whether you use a price target, bar reversal, moving average, indicator cross, etc...it doesn't really matter! Just use something! Experiment and find something that works for you and start following it. Trust it. You will find your average winner will get bigger.

Bad trades and losing trades will happen. You can't avoid them. So stop avoiding the good trades! We have to stop fearing the loss of our gains and see how far the trade will take us. We must let our rules guide us instead of our emotions.

Hang in there!
 
Quote from DannoXYZ:

Not sure what you mean by "if I don't take 50% of profits"? I'm up +74% this month alone, was really aiming for 100%. As others said, hindsight is 20/20. Take meticulous records and fine-tune your system for the future. here's what's worked for me:
More...

Gotta love guys handing out trading advice after two weeks of trading.

"Seems the best I could find for my small start-up account of $3000." 7-25-06

Ahhh ET sometimes...
 
There is a really good webcast about this over on the NYMEX website. To paraphrase it there was a big problem mentally for athletes who qualify for the Olympics to have bad performances at the actual games. Why? Their goal was to make it to the Olympic games, once they got there there was know more motivation and results suffer.
 
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