Thanks to everyone who posted in the thread "Am I ready to go live?"! Having gotten good funds in my real trading account, I went live 7/27. As anticipated by many, it was not an auspicious start. 7/27 I woke up late, slightly hungover, and did not read my affirmations before starting to trade. I traded foolishly (3 contracts) and broke some of my "rules". Here's a screenshot: As part of my risk/cash management rules, since my equity promptly dipped below $24k, I traded 2 contracts starting the next day. Upon four losing days in a row, even though my equity was still above $16k, and in consultation with my wife (who said she was "not happy"), I started trading 1 contract yesterday. Here is a screenshot of today's trade (I stopped trading early before the end of the session). I won 4 points on one trade and stopped for the day. For Comagnum & Gotcha & others who pointed out the "slippage" issue, I did indeed experience the phenomenon of not getting fills at a limit order until it was evident many orders in front of me got filled. I did have to use market orders to avoid not getting filled at a limit level. Here are the numbers so far: Not pretty. I did survive this first punch. I redoubled my focus and have a strong positive attitude. Perhaps some of you may find my affirmations (I read them before the opening each morning) interesting: Next week should be better. I think I'll start trading 2 contracts again... Doug
Good luck to you. Keep it small until you know how you'll react now that the money going out the door is real. And build up slowly after that.
on the serious note: forget about 4 points its not healthy to concentrate (and limit yourself) on the fixed number of points, one should take from the trade what his method allows to take, be it 1 point or 51 points one can definitely poke a number of holes in your affirmations and phantoms , but you better do it yourself, after you will be done with live trading good luck
Now you have something realistic to analyze...analyze the crap out of these trades. As far as the limit orders go, I would suggest getting in where you want and worry less about missing a trade, there will be plenty of them. There is always another bus coming down the road and you don't want to be simultaneously increasing risk on a given trade while decreasing potential reward.
Honestly you should stop before you put in too much effort. An unsupportive woman who doesn't understand trading is deadly to a trader.
You average 7 trades/day...that's kind of slightly high -- in my opinion, You should only try to capture the obvious, major moves...and that usually means maybe just One, or two...three max., Anything beyond 4 trades is a relatively meaningless gyration, Many people are rather blind; those traders rely too much on a micro and technical indicator viewpoint of the past, they fail to see or sense the bigger picture that's unfolding -- and why, as well as reading subtle signs, It's like a faithless follower to a religion or cause or whatever...they easily get swayed and misled in different directions, Plan a war when you trade, Erase the notion ...of:...Oh, it's just random and luck in this casino, Don't be a hippie, be a War General, Sometimes, it's just a matter of...Perspective...imagine you're a bird...flying above a war...you can kind of grasp what's unfolding and why, and who will ultimately win,
gotta agree with others on the volume of trades... You made 46 trades in 7 days... that is alot ... but look at the day you did one trade, it was your best day by far! You made 2X profit from the day you pulled 11 trades.... with a whole lot less effort and fees... Do you see what I see.. I pull 1 or 2 trades per day now...
Pull out all but min leverage plus a bit for padding. Stabilize with one contract, don't need to risk 20k.
traider, I understand what you mean and don't disagree. The quote from my wife does not convey her whole stance regarding trading. This will be a learning process for her, too. Bringing her along is part of the whole challenge. She is quite wise. We are good partners. If I can succeed trading, she will back me and vice versa. The proof is in the pudding. Will keep y'all updated.