Quote from osorico:
Geezus! When will ET at large get it? Number of trades without knowing the style of trading has nothing to with "overtrading". And since when is the successful edge determined by number of trades? silly! What if the OP is a scalper. It's possible he placed 40 trades or more during the first 20 minutes. None of which, without knowing strategy, can be considered "overtrading". (OP said he stopped trading at 9:50). OTOH, a multiday swinger may not have made any trades. Maybe the multiday swinger is "undertrading". Maybe he doesn't have a successful edge either.
So, please explain what "a few" means. And while your at it,
a define of "good trades" would be helpful too.
To the OP: at least the moves came quickly. Dampens the pain, at least for me. I prefer to be proved right or wrong as quickly as possible. NEXT!
Osorico
Yes....Please tell me how to get it! Please tell me how to trade O great one! Better yet, why don't you show us you can trade by posting a few blotters on the P&L thread?
Let's go over what we know, this guy is obviously a newby who got whacked pretty good, at least in his world. Further, he said he got chopped up, which tells me he's a daytrader. Further evidence, he said almost every trade he placed instantly went against him. Do you think that perhaps I might have an idea of his trading style based upon these facts?
IMO, the only way to consistently make money trading the indicies, specifically futures, is to trade less and not more. (To be clear, I am talking about discretionary, non automated traders, that's an entire different game altogether) If you continue on your pace and make 20 trades per hour, as a discretionary trader, you will end up losing money on most days! You might come out ahead the first hour, after that, your toast. The more you trade, the more often you will give up the edge to get in and out of trades, the more you give up the edge, the more likely you are to come out on the losing side. There's my theory, A conclusion after 7 years of successful trading and constant study of the markets.
Let's see if we can find some other real world successful futures traders that have a similar belief, similar style, and are immensely successful. Traders that have made money for years, the survivors of the game, the big Locals in the pit. Have you ever Studied how they trade the market. Most days, they trade they trade the first hour, and the last hour? Why do you think this is? Because they know their chances of getting chopped up, and giving back their profits increase with more trades. Good trades are rare, great trades even more rare. The fact is, they know that there are just a few good opportunites every day, and they focus on just capturing those.
What is a great trade? A higher probability set up! One that you know is likely to come up a winner. That's all! Will I share my great trades of the day? No! I will share this, if you study the market, if you study your trades, winners and losers, you will know the better trades and opportunities when you see them.
