Very serious about learning

Zurichtrader and tomorton: I wholeheartedly agree. I don't intend to intentionally expose myself
to undue risk. Espescially after reading journal after journal of traders that went in gungho against the advice of proffesionals and blew up. You can watch the psychological destruction in the posts day by day. So I'm going to start trying to find a simple system and an edge and make it mine.
It's funny I joined this and another forum to help me find a way to trade, what I ended up learning was you need to cover your ass(ets).
 
Rooster34

You are spot on regarding "the way that works for you". Sometimes our background and skills can help narrow this down a bit. I have no experience of the book that you mention but here are a few things to consider:

- are you suited to trading with judgement/discretion or using mechanical systems that do not use trader discretion
- a trading approach will serve you better if it is applicable in multiple markets and multiple timeframes. This serves two purposes: one it usually means the trading approach is more robust if it "works" in different instruments and timeframes using the same techniques and two, it will allow you more flexibility in how you arrange your trading schedule in future
- what timeframe is right for you psychologically. a tough question to answer but one that is very important to your future success
 
Zurichtrader:
1) mechanical, without a doubt. I like numbers and formulas. If things are left to my dicresion it gets ugly.

2) I have no idea If the system I'm starting with works, other traders have made it work. So I should say I have no idea if i can make it work for me. I'm throwing a semi-random dart and starting somewhere. Like I said. I'll start a journal once I've read and have a basic understanding of the book. That will be the testing ground.

3) timeframe: I cant tell you. Plain and simple. Say it takes me 30 years to reach a point where I reach financial freedom. That will be right around retirement age. Say it takes 15. Then hey I can retire early cause all the kids will be grown and me and the wife can travel. Say I never get it. At least I'll have tried. And me and the wife make a 6 figure income as medical proffesionals now. So in 15 yeArs we can take travelling assignments and travel cause the kids will be grown and we are on track to have zero debt in the next 15-20 years without investing. I just love learning about this stuff and I want to do it full time. So I have to start the process and see where it takes me.
 
Good stuff. I wasn't clear on my point three there - I refer to your trading timeframe as opposed to your timeframe for goals, results etc.

Specifically, if you are a technical trader, what chart timeframe/s provide your context for trading and obviously as an extension of this, how long you stay in a trade for.
 
Chartsy said:
ooo, i misread, futures? well you definitely need a beefish account to happily trade futures....
actually, 5000 USD gets you 1 contract of ES, actually maybe better with the YM, small point size, $5 a tick unlike $12.50 on ES, dont trade commodities as they have high tick values.

i'd say try the ninjatrader mirus futures demo and trade YM for a few months....once confident go live

edit: YM is the emini dow by the way, index future, and is pretty liquid too, not as liquid as ES but for 1 contract it's well enough. also there was a futures skype room around , ask robster or someone in it if you can join as they are experienced emini traders and could definitely help, though i don't know if it's still up
Click to expand...

$5000 gets you ten ES contracts not one, intraday margin of $500 is widely available. So if you know what you are doing the leverage is not a problem. I'm not saying you should do ten with 5k my point is that you don't need a big account. For instance you could trade one contract with a 1k account if you knew what you were doing.
 
Did you read the bit where I said 'I'm not saying you should do ten with 5k my point is that you don't need a big account'?
 
10 ES contracts on 5k? that's just crazy, trading 1 contract for every $500 is just mad.
i think really $10k for every contract
 
Chartsy said:
10 ES contracts on 5k? that's just crazy, trading 1 contract for every $500 is just mad.
i think really $10k for every contract
Click to expand...

As I said before I wasn't recommending you trade 10 with 5k I was simply pointing out what the intraday margins are.
 
"my point is that you don't need a big account'? "


dont need a big account to blow up?

totally pointless input by yourself.
 
Chartsy said:
err i think he meant that to actually trade futures....margins are low
Click to expand...

That's right, I was correcting the earlier post that said you need 5k to trade one ES contract which is total nonsense. Anyhow I shall leave it to the experts here to comment on these matters.
 
pboyles said:
That's right, I was correcting the earlier post that said you need 5k to trade one ES contract which is total nonsense. Anyhow I shall leave it to the experts here to comment on these matters.
Click to expand...

well thats the official margins to trade 1 contract, the brokers will put up the rest.

and if you heald 10 contracts at 500$ margin on a 5k account you would be on a margin call over night and either charged for the extra capital or liquidated.
 
N Rothschild said:
near imposible. the length of time it would take to build a small account into a big one takes for ever. only way to do it is with high leverage and high risk, and that only ever ends one way. maybe over 5 years you could turned it into a decent sized account with no major screw ups
Click to expand...

just out of curiosity, what if some1 applies sensible compounding with a gradual increase in leverage, won't this approach act as a catalyst to going from small to big?:idea:
 
Do you have the ability to trade on a simulator? i am trading on a simulator and i feel my read of the market and trading both have improved it is a good experience before trading with real money imho.
 
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