I just wanted to share my trading experiences with you all. It may help some and it may not.
For the last two years I have devoted every nanosecond to learning to successfully daytrading (I traded Prop and my own retail account) the ES, YM, Dax, FTSE and Euro. I am no longer going to do this and honestly believe even for good traders it is a rare trader who can day trade successfully.
Before I was daytrading the Index Futures I was a directional options trader and doing on average 20%+ a month.
I believe there are very few daytrading setups that actually work with a high probability and on a consistent basis. And even if they do work you have to be very fast in your decision making process and have nerves of steel to sit through every tick against you. In my last year of options trading I more than doubled my account and now that same money sits at 40% of the starting value.
I have finally realised I don't have the right psychology for day trading futures. I have my strengths as a trader, but making decisions quickly is not one of them. And hitting the panic button when a trade went against me was not a good feeling.
I haven't actually lost any money in over a year. All of my losses were at the start when I got wiped out when going through a bad patch due to having no money management strategies in place for trading futures in respect of my account equity. I have been breakeven for about the last year, but can't get beyond that stage.
Making trade decisions when the market is open is not really my forte. I was a successful trader before because I did my analysis when the market was closed and I didn't have to worry about the positions as I would only make exit or entry decisions when the market was closed. The time horizon was also a lot better for me, 1-6 months instead of intraday. You can't do that day trading futures, you have to make decisions in the heat of the moment. I believe daytrading futures is the hardest form of trading, in my experience. If you want to be a professional trader I would advise against daytrading, but try to be a position trader instead. Friends working at IBs often said to me that the minimum timeframe they trade is 3 months and thought daytrading was for idiots.
I was also a success before because I based my trades on a tremendous weight of evidence before placing a trade. I would often have more than 5 tests a trade needed to pass before I would take the trade. In daytrading futures there is no time to have more than 5 tests. You are under pressure here and now to make that decision.
I also don't find it that fun or pleasurable staring at a screen for 8 hours a day. It's very stressful. I would rather position trade and have a job as well until I have enough money in my account to trade full-time again and money to support myself first of all. However, I would never daytrade all day again.
Nevertheless, this experience hasn't been wasted. I have learnt a lot about myself and the market.
I have also learnt one reliable setup that I am able to trade consistently well, but it only produces 1-5 trades per month. Critically for me, it has time based exit so I don't need to worry once I am in the trade. Index futures are also good to trade on rare news events as well.
However, I will now be concentrating on longer term stuff. I just wanted to share my experiences. I am thinking of writing a book of my experiences as a failed futures trader. Do you think it would be worthwhile, a book on what not to do and how hard it is to daytrade futures?
For the last two years I have devoted every nanosecond to learning to successfully daytrading (I traded Prop and my own retail account) the ES, YM, Dax, FTSE and Euro. I am no longer going to do this and honestly believe even for good traders it is a rare trader who can day trade successfully.
Before I was daytrading the Index Futures I was a directional options trader and doing on average 20%+ a month.
I believe there are very few daytrading setups that actually work with a high probability and on a consistent basis. And even if they do work you have to be very fast in your decision making process and have nerves of steel to sit through every tick against you. In my last year of options trading I more than doubled my account and now that same money sits at 40% of the starting value.
I have finally realised I don't have the right psychology for day trading futures. I have my strengths as a trader, but making decisions quickly is not one of them. And hitting the panic button when a trade went against me was not a good feeling.
I haven't actually lost any money in over a year. All of my losses were at the start when I got wiped out when going through a bad patch due to having no money management strategies in place for trading futures in respect of my account equity. I have been breakeven for about the last year, but can't get beyond that stage.
Making trade decisions when the market is open is not really my forte. I was a successful trader before because I did my analysis when the market was closed and I didn't have to worry about the positions as I would only make exit or entry decisions when the market was closed. The time horizon was also a lot better for me, 1-6 months instead of intraday. You can't do that day trading futures, you have to make decisions in the heat of the moment. I believe daytrading futures is the hardest form of trading, in my experience. If you want to be a professional trader I would advise against daytrading, but try to be a position trader instead. Friends working at IBs often said to me that the minimum timeframe they trade is 3 months and thought daytrading was for idiots.
I was also a success before because I based my trades on a tremendous weight of evidence before placing a trade. I would often have more than 5 tests a trade needed to pass before I would take the trade. In daytrading futures there is no time to have more than 5 tests. You are under pressure here and now to make that decision.
I also don't find it that fun or pleasurable staring at a screen for 8 hours a day. It's very stressful. I would rather position trade and have a job as well until I have enough money in my account to trade full-time again and money to support myself first of all. However, I would never daytrade all day again.
Nevertheless, this experience hasn't been wasted. I have learnt a lot about myself and the market.
I have also learnt one reliable setup that I am able to trade consistently well, but it only produces 1-5 trades per month. Critically for me, it has time based exit so I don't need to worry once I am in the trade. Index futures are also good to trade on rare news events as well.
However, I will now be concentrating on longer term stuff. I just wanted to share my experiences. I am thinking of writing a book of my experiences as a failed futures trader. Do you think it would be worthwhile, a book on what not to do and how hard it is to daytrade futures?
So, you'd need to have a lot of professional advice on how to really craft a book if you wanted to get it published.