Trend Trading on Futures

P&L is the daily change in profit or loss. Unrlzd P&L is the unrealized profit & loss since you entered the position And, of course, Realized P&L is what you made or lost after closing your position.
 
You have a 300k account (formerly 400k) and have a position of 250k in a single stock...am i reading that right?

Quote from Shirak:

Rightly spoken, and exactly what I intend to do.

These are my current positions. Currently, I'm looking forward to seeing how GBP and CAD turns out. Chart-wise, GBP looks poised for an upward surge and CAD for a continuation in trend.
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Thanks Rew, that clears it up!

Yes, I have a 250k position in Priceline. It was a mistake. I did some stupid stuff after my losses. Which was why I mentioned I would be going back to focus mostly on futures.
 
Quote from Shirak:

Thanks Rew, that clears it up!

Yes, I have a 250k position in Priceline. It was a mistake. I did some stupid stuff after my losses. Which was why I mentioned I would be going back to focus mostly on futures.
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That's not a mistake, that's a sign of completely irrational trading. IMO you should take a break from trading for a month and start an entire risk management plan from scratch. Otherwise you are just asking for your 100k loss to become a 400k+ one.

I'd suggest the following rules:

1. Never risk more than 1% of equity from entry to initial stop-loss on any single position.

2. Never risk more than 3% of open profit to trailing stop-loss on any single position.

3. Treat strongly correlated positions as one position.

4. If you are down >10%, cut all position sizes in half.

5. If you are down 20%+, get flat and revisit your trading and risk management to see what you did wrong.

Probably most important:

6. Have another person review your risk and size on a daily basis. It's clear to me you can't manage risk very well, and if you continue trading solo, I think you will blow up. Since the cost of blowing up will be at least 300k for you, you should be willing to pay someone part-time, maybe $500 a month, to monitor your positions and force you to stick to your risk management rules. Sort of like Odysseus being tied to the mast by his crew so he couldn't sail the ship towards the sirens.
 
Quote from Ghost of Cutten:

That's not a mistake, that's a sign of completely irrational trading. IMO you should take a break from trading for a month and start an entire risk management plan from scratch. Otherwise you are just asking for your 100k loss to become a 400k+ one.

I'd suggest the following rules:

1. Never risk more than 1% of equity from entry to initial stop-loss on any single position.

2. Never risk more than 3% of open profit to trailing stop-loss on any single position.

3. Treat strongly correlated positions as one position.

4. If you are down >10%, cut all position sizes in half.

5. If you are down 20%+, get flat and revisit your trading and risk management to see what you did wrong.

Probably most important:

6. Have another person review your risk and size on a daily basis. It's clear to me you can't manage risk very well, and if you continue trading solo, I think you will blow up. Since the cost of blowing up will be at least 300k for you, you should be willing to pay someone part-time, maybe $500 a month, to monitor your positions and force you to stick to your risk management rules. Sort of like Odysseus being tied to the mast by his crew so he couldn't sail the ship towards the sirens.
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Thanks for the advice Ghost, it is very much appreciated. I'll definitely look into your suggestions.

I'm steering clear of stocks because obviously I don't know much about them. As for my personal risk management for futures, I live by 2 rules, 1 is to always risk less than 3% of my equity on any positions, and to cut all positions at a loss of 15%.
 
Quote from Shirak:

and to cut all positions at a loss of 15%.
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Consider using a volatility based stop instead of a fixed % stop. A simple N day ATR (Average True Range) multiplied by a fixed factor will give your positions some leeway in more volatile markets while keeping stops tight when in a tighter range.
 
Thanks to all for their replies, I've found them very useful.

Anyway, like I mentioned in my posts above, I've stopped trading stocks and went back to focus mainly on futures.

I feel much better now as I've spent the past 1-2 weeks reflecting on my path and what I did wrong. I'm back with much more confidence now and I feel great.

My account has recovered slightly and is now standing at 395k. I'll post more later this weekend.
 
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