why do i keep losing?

Quote from jl1575:

If it is that easy to make 500K a year after 1 year of practice, I believe 95% of the MIT and Harvard graduates would pick up the trading rather than hunting for any job out there.
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Well when you go to harvard im sure people expect more out of you than to become a "trader" given the bad rep it has. The more educated someone is the more likely they came from a background where they were warned about risky investments. If you go to one of those schools your probably already rich and its more about having a better job title so they can compete with there other harvard buddies.

Thats the thing that makes me pissed is everyone tells me its gambling, no can make money at it and basically everyone laughs at me for trying. But yet they havnt ever spent 5 minutes researching it, nor would they ever have the balls to even open an account. This is a trading sight right? its not called losertrader so obviously there are some people making money everyday.

If i quit now then it really is all a loss, right now im just at a temporary drawdown is how im looking at it. Insted of 30-50 trades a day i need to zoom out, do no more than 5 with high probable setups and good risk vs reward ratio. This time ill just use old fashion s/r and pivot points and just focus on one market instead of trying to trade the whole world. This time its for real. The only other option i have is to hand my account over to my broker, pay they higher fees and have him manage it. Is that even more of a gamble?
 
Quote from nwose:



If i quit now then it really is all a loss, right now im just at a temporary drawdown is how im looking at it. Insted of 30-50 trades a day i need to zoom out, do no more than 5 with high probable setups and good risk vs reward ratio.
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Oh man, you got to be a troll. 50 trades a day, lets assume you are doing 1 car, that is 200 dollars a day in commissions. Or $1000 a week. $50,000 a year.

You need to make 500% just to break even. Your broker and the CME must love you.

Even at just 5 trades a day, that is $5000 a year, you need to make 50% on your account each year to break even.

With just 10K in your account you should plan to make just 1 or 2 trades a day to stand any chance of making money.

And i haven't even mentioned the bid ask spread which is $12.5 on each ES car.. which is 625 dollars each day (50 trades) or 150K dollars a year to just break even.

At 5 trades a day it is still 15K a year to break even.

Stick to 1 or 2 trades a day with 1 car and you might just stand a chance of making max 1K a month average on a 10K account.. even that is pushing it as the draw downs at even that level of risk over multiple losing trades could destabilize you..
 
Quote from nwose:

Well when you go to harvard im sure people expect more out of you than to become a "trader" given the bad rep it has. The more educated someone is the more likely they came from a background where they were warned about risky investments. If you go to one of those schools your probably already rich and its more about having a better job title so they can compete with there other harvard buddies.

Thats the thing that makes me pissed is everyone tells me its gambling, no can make money at it and basically everyone laughs at me for trying. But yet they havnt ever spent 5 minutes researching it, nor would they ever have the balls to even open an account. This is a trading sight right? its not called losertrader so obviously there are some people making money everyday.

If i quit now then it really is all a loss, right now im just at a temporary drawdown is how im looking at it. Insted of 30-50 trades a day i need to zoom out, do no more than 5 with high probable setups and good risk vs reward ratio. This time ill just use old fashion s/r and pivot points and just focus on one market instead of trying to trade the whole world. This time its for real. The only other option i have is to hand my account over to my broker, pay they higher fees and have him manage it. Is that even more of a gamble?
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Again, you are trading noise. You need to widen your time frame.

Edit: And the guy who told you five years was optimistic. It will likely take you ten.
 
You mentioned you make 30-50 trades a day, thats way too many. As a full time ES trader I dont make more than 8-10 round turn trades on any given day. I suspect that you are micromanaging the market to the point that you are missing the the stronger signals.


What strategy are using to find trade setups?.....its obviously not working and you need to go back and see where you are making your mistakes.

Also you mentioned that you're always getting stopped out. Does the market hit your stop only to move back to the direction you originally thought it would?( if so, then you are probably placing your stops too close to your entry pts) If you're getting stopped out bcuz the market just reverses on you and stays that way, then you really need to stop trading for now and develop another strategy that better pinpoints the market's direction.

Problem is none of us know what you're looking at, what time frame, etc, and what your methodology is for finding trading setups. Why dont you post a few charts of your trades so we can tell you if your misreading something.
 
Quote from RCG Trader:

Again, you are trading noise. You need to widen your time frame.

Edit: And the guy who told you five years was optimistic. It will likely take you ten.
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So how do people afford to learn during that time period?

Yes i am trading noise...im trying to use tick charts, range, momentum and there is so many combos from 1 tick to 10000 and i see good setups but they happen way to fast with the small ticks. Think those are better for automation.

Widen my timeframe is exactly what i have to do, but then i have to risk 500.00 to catch big moves and im being to afraid of being wrong so i keep trying to force it to happen and the worse it gets. My broker warned me and said i have to use 4 point stops. Normally i put out my stoploss and i see price lowering down toward it so i say "oh if im going to get stopped i might as well exit at market or raise my stop so i lose less. Then i get stopped out and the market moves where i wanted but too late by then.

Should have put all my money in sugar when it was 18.00 , but noooooo i just thought i knew more. Swing trading monthly seems so much easier, but i dont have enough money for it. Is th option market liquid for commodities?
 
Quote from nwose:

What is the secret?

Im on my 3rd account and im down 2g after only 3 days, all over again...

Im trying to day trade futures like es, 6e, cl...but im realizing my 50,000 a month dream is a hell of alot harder then i thought it was going to be...

Ive done alot of research for about a year, then did demo, after that i opened a 5,000 futures account and it was gone in 4 days :( thats when it kicked in i wasnt a pro scalper like i thought

My second account lasted 2 weeks (getting better!) im on my 3rd now. I was wondering if this sounds like a good idea, try to go ALL in with 15 contracts on margin and try to call the top next week on the es??

how long will it take me to figure this out?
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Questions...please answer...
#1-when you say "on my 3rd account"...do you mean you opened a new futures account with a new broker or just blew your account for the 2nd time?
#2-how much cash have you lost overall?
#3-are you now at a point where you cannot lose anymore?
#4-have you considered swing or position trading?
#5-ever held a position overnight?
#6-ever trade mini Corn, micro Euro...real small contract?
 
Quote from nwose:

What is the secret?

how long will it take me to figure this out?
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You must keep in mind that if you are making in futures 50K a month, this means that some other people are losing to you 50K a month. These losers must be worse than you as a result. For now, it seems you are worse than those who won your money. Try to figure out how long it will take you to become better than them, because trading is all about winning other's monies, you lose, I win for example. If you don't lose, I or someone else cannot win.
 
Quote from nwose:

Ive done alot of research for about a year, then did demo, after that i opened a 5,000 futures account and it was gone in 4 days :( thats when it kicked in i wasnt a pro scalper like i thought
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I assume you made money in the demo account or you wouldn't have moved on to cash.

What did you do different with the demo that you didn't do when cash was on the line?
 
Quote from jimbojim:

You must keep in mind that if you are making in futures 50K a month, this means that some other people are losing to you 50K a month. These losers must be worse than you as a result. For now, it seems you are worse than those who won your money. Try to figure out how long it will take you to become better than them, because trading is all about winning other's monies, you lose, I win for example. If you don't lose, I or someone else cannot win.
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Some are not really losing, they are using the futures as insurance against stock volatility and are willing to pay for it...
 
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