To any professional Bond Traders: Hi, I'm a 23 year old man in DC, with a degree in Mechanical engineering. For the last 9 months I have been swing trading the bonds and for the last 2.5 months I have been day-trading them. I have taken my account from 4,000 to 18,000 and now back down to 8,000. In my daytrading in my first month I lost 24 ticks and in my second month I was up 10 ticks. I work part-time from (4-8) in engineering to pay the bills while I grow my account. The reason I post is that I am seeking an experienced bond trader to mentor me. I do not want a mentor so that he can teach me to trade, I believe that I have an edge that I can apply with discipline. I desire a mentor because I know that although the market (who has been my only teacher) has taught me a great deal, a mentor can teach me about position sizing, risk management, and in general, how to be a professional. I know that the very best traders had mentors, and I desire to be the very best. I hope that among all of you there exists a professional bond trader who might wish to start an email correspondence with a young trader to show him some of the ropes. I would be extremely grateful to anyone who replies. PM or email planetchris@hotmail.com
It seems like you are highly undercapitalized to be trading bonds. What kind of face value do/can you swing/day trade with?
Have you considered trading other interest rate sensitive instruments that don't require as much margin ... like Eurodollars?
I also trade the ZN, ZF. I think $4000 for one contract is OK. But I use $8000 for one to reduce the stress! Some people may say I am too conservative. They are just using the exchange margins. I am not sure how long they can stay in the market!