Day Trading & Forex Forum

euribor_tr4der

I trade Euribor contracts for a prop firm, im a local.

I got caught on the wrong side of non-farm on the second day of my own account. I had made progress in the following few months by halving my deficit. However in the last 4 weeks I have given it all back and now am back at square 1 !

I feel like im going round in circles, i really want to succeed in trading. Ive been trading in total for around 9 months.

Am I expecting too much in too little time ??

Is there light at the end of the tunnel ??

ben_catt

I think it's really brave of anyone to give up a guaranteed income to trade for a living. I don't think I could do it.

My trading style is medium length trades on major stock indices like the DOW and DAX. I've lost quite a bit by trying to day trade, didn't suit me at all.

In any case, trading for a living for many seems to be an easy way to make a living. Easy money and all that until you actually try to take any significant money out of the market and then I reckon it's probably one of the hardest things to do.

Do you mind me asking, what kind of trading style do you have and what instruments do you trade?

Ben

TWI

If you have been at it 9 months there is still some way to go. non-farm can be a real pig I was caught out on the August figure and that really screwed up my month. I hear that an analyst called the wrong figure at on of the shops for the Sep figure and lost some guys there a serious amount of money. Personally I have found the best bet is to make sure you are not working too many orders over the figure and certainly not in the longer spreads. As for recent market action, the entire April-August period this year has been pretty slow in Euribor, I got to the point where I was trading more FX and Indices than I ever have because all the STIRS were so slow. August was the slowest month I remember which is why if you got caught, as I did, on the non-farms at the beginning it was hard work to get it back. It has only been since beginning of Sep that things have picked up a bit again. That means for 6 of your 9 months you have been trading in difficult market conditions.
My advice to you is to take yourself back to basics. Reduce your size to the point where you feel comfortable getting filled on multiple orders, even if this is only 1-10 lots and start to slowly increase volume again only as your confidence returns. The most common problem I have seen for people who are having a hard time is that either they are trading in too big a clip size and so pull orders because they are scared to get filled or they do not put orders in all places where they would and should if they were comfortable with the size. It gets increasingly hard to trade effectively when you are coming from a loss and you are scared to lose more. This is a pure confidence thing you must believe every morning that you are going to take money out of the market, it is a hard state of mind to achieve and hard work to regain after a string of losses but I believe it is essential.
As you will have already worked out, it is often the orders that when getting filled look so bad that end up being the really good ones. All orders look bad when you are being filled, that is why you are getting filled in the first place. It is sometimes useful to take a bit of a view on the bund direction as this will help you to decide whether you should scratch, spread or fly your trades and which way to spread or fly them if you have to to this rather than scratching.
Best bet is to give yourself a point in the future where you will definitely make a decision, I would say you need at least another 6 months before you can really know one way or the other. From now approach the market with the attitude that there is money to be taken out and you are going to be bold about it. Keep your size where you are comfortable and just give it 100% of your concentration and effort. NO FEAR. By the end of the next 6 months you must feel that you gave it everything.

Just my opinion and advice.

Good Luck

__________________
"I refuse to tiptoe quietly through life
only to arrive safely at death"

zeeuk

Good advise twalker. I've been trading very aggresively over the past couple of months - nothing is really there in the market and am just doing huge volumes for little reward.

As for NFP, I got screwed on the Aug figure as I got involved a little late when the major stuff had already happened. So on the Sep figure, I was all geared up if an out of line figure was announced. Fig was pretty much in line, but our analyst decided to call otherwise - happened to be one of the guys who lost a lot of money. Wish I was going round in circles!

__________________
ZEE
It is better to have traded and lost than never to have traded at all.

euribor_tr4der

I am a backed trader and was at first trading under the companies account for 3 months where I did not have a split. But after the 3 months are up you go on your own account, and are still backed by the firm.

Im not liable for the debt in my account , however in a way it is my debt as I can only draw from my account when it is in positive.

Mr Spud

I must say I'm slightly surpised by what I would describe as professional traders being prepared to hold positions over the US figures ...on something like the bund you can see a 30 point spike when figs are released...how can you manage the risk in something like that ?
IMO holding over data announcements is tantamount to gambling and surely thats what we are trying to avoid ?

stevet

when you are on the front line of the battle - you can ride the first tank in - dont mean you wont get blown up though!

henry766

yes it is a battle !!