I agree... but, when trading with multiple contracts, it fits my strategy better, because it allows me to take profit on one, and secure that profit, and then let the other contract go for as long as it doesn't hit my stop, and it can possibly catch on a big gain. I must say I have been much more comfortable in simulated trading, because I usually get some profit, and I don't break even anymore. Now I admit if I did take losses, they would be double. But then again, someone else faces that same risk. I do trade 1 contract when it is early in the day though in simulated trading. I just don't want to have to compensate my way of trading just because I'm switching to real money, it might be more of a distraction than I'd like. But my actions for today: http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/4156/snapshot434yk.png So I do understand your 1 contract method, but when trying it in simulated trading, I feel much more limited and forced to be more cautious because that one contract is all i have to rely on to get profit, and if I could take profit on one of them, and secure that, then the other one I would have a care about if it came back and hit my stop, or if it went higher and I took profit on that. Just hope that made sense. How did you do today DJ? Are you trading real btw? I don't know if it was you that posted something earlier or someone else, but are you trading a live account and if so, how was your day? But I want to be conservative in my trading... because, like you said, I don't have money to just throw away and if they did have a specific limit to minimum account balance, I could be screwed. And to tell you the truth, this is the first... and possibly last time I want to deposit into this account, the rest I'd like to have withdraws from the account. But that is only if things work out I'll call the broker on Wednesday to see if they got my funds. Not sure how long it takes for funds to clear by check, but hopefully that won't be long. If my account is opened by the end of this week, I will really consider taking off a day of school next week to trade the whole day to just experience what it is like.
what type money do people keep in there futures account? i keep 30k in so i can hold some overnights if i want.i know futures accounts ouside a few big ones like ib and refco who sweep the money back and forth to money accounts aren't insured nor do they pay any interest
Should be 2k in my futures account. Maybe one day that might grow into 30k. EDIT: At least there should be in less than a week or so.
Actually JM I did ok today (which to be honest I've had a hard time staying out of the red most of the time). I held onto something when I shouldnt have so it cost me 12 points. I tried to trade the euro again during the day lol. Stole some of my profits from the YM. I should stay away from the euro ya I had 1 big loser today and 2 big winners and 1 med size winner so I did ok. went long near the open which was a nice point gain, I held onto a trade ie ~2:10 for too long so that ate into some of the profits. I was in the trade with you for the last hour there on the upramp ya reason I mentioned that contract amount JM is because well; I need that for myself. I dont have a grasp on the YM yet and when I have traded more then I could handle I lost too much and it screwed me up (got too emotional). So now I'm working on goals that I have to achieve to be able to trade more contracts or trade less if I fall below.
Are you trading actual forex or the furtures version of the Euro? I tried forex... it is tough stuff. But the futures version looks a lot better for some reason.
actually its the futures ... I actually dont know how to trade forex through IB. I call them the little euro and the big euro for futures. the spread kind of sucks on the little euro ie 3 points. And moves are kind of tough to track. It has decent movement in the off hours; cept it requires a bit of magin to trade since you are trading it during the off hours. oh was going to say; I'm actually short right now; lol hard to stay away.
Djxput I use a 5 min chart with 9 and 18 sma for keeping on the right side of the trend. I use a 2 min with the same sma for picking entries and exits. Play around til you find whats works best for your style. Ripley I think there is some confusions on rt's and points. When I say 1 round trip, and it is intradayt that means I bought 10 and sold 10. When it is overnight it is 4 contracts bought and sold for each rt. When I say 50 points, that means on the trade for 10 contracts, not 5 points on 10 contracts. Wrangled Feel free to ask any questions you have, there are quite a few people in this thread that can help answer them. Jmowery Try not to set a point goal. Trade well and take what the market gives you but do not fixate on a number as everyday is a new opportunity to capitalize on the movement of the market. The trading 2 contract plan and exiting half and moving the stop to break even on the remainder is a very good system. I practice it in my trading quite often. It allows you to "ring the register" but at the same time allows you to let the winners run. Just curious why you did not wire your funds to your broker ? You would be ready to trade the day after they received it. Usually a check will take 5 business days to clear at a firm. Everyone I just wanted to thank everyone for making this one of the biggest and greatest threads on ET. I wish the best of luck to everyone in there trading journey.
Thank you, I am doing some initial self-study, but will certainly have some questions soon! Are you leaving this thread?
Not sure... tell you the truth I have never tried wiring funds and don't have a clue how to do so. I'm only 18 afterall. I still don't have the slightest idea how taxes work either, so there is a lot to discover. But definately having fun. I made sure today I tried to put as much work as if it was a real trading day. That excitement that I had to getting my account opened is now gone. It just feels like today was a real success and that my excitement is over with. I was explaining to my mentor that I just need to get my account open and just start trading to get over all this excitement stored up. So I'm happy that I feel very good now. Still got to wait for the real thing to get open, but today was a real thing of relief from waiting to trade... and yet I still don't have my real account opened.
I am looking for a trading strategy that involves at most 1 trade per day. I work too much during trading hours to watch the market, but I could make 1 trade per day if I had predefined entry/exit levels. Ideally my trades would be multi-week. Would this be 'position' trading? Or maybe 'swing-trading'. I have not decided what methodology to use. I'm a little bit familiar with trend-following, William O'Neils work, and simple Technical Analysis. Any suggestions?