DionysusToast
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Seems that there is some debate regarding the effectiveness of SIM trading.
In my opinion - SIM trading is good for only 1 thing. That's getting used to a new trading platform, how the order entry works etc.
Some people would say SIM is useless, some would say SIM is useful. My opinion is that SIM is detrimental to your progress.
So - for the benefit of those without 6figure salaries - I thought we should have a 'small money thread'. The idea is to look at ways to trade live with small size.
To start off:
Instrument : ES
Tick Size : $12.50/contract
Commissions : @ $4/contract per round turn
Alternative Vehicle: SPY
Relationship to ES : 1 tick on the ES = 2.5 cent move on the SPY
Commissions : $2 per 100 shares round turn (less as you increse)
So - the idea is you can watch the ES, you can watch ES tape, you can watch ES time and sales, all charting can be ES. You just trade SPY instead. You multiply your ES stops and targets by 2.5 and start off with 100 shares.
10 tick loss on the ES = $125 + $4 commissions
25 cent loss on the SPY = $25 + $2 commissions (100 shares)
Of course for this you need a PDT account, unless you plan to do just a few R/Ts a day and just a few days a week.
You can also do less shares but you need to understand that commissions as a percentage of profit will increase. You need to account for that in analysing your results. It may be that a losing system is actually only losing because you are trading 1 share and so commissions are relatively large. So focus on cents gained.
I am sure we can cover a lot of instruments here - Euro, Dax, YM, currencies etc. etc with a variety of different ways to play them - ETFs, CFDs, SB etc.
Obviously SB won't be an option for shorter term players but the ETF SPY is fine.
Anyone else?
DT
Seems that there is some debate regarding the effectiveness of SIM trading.
In my opinion - SIM trading is good for only 1 thing. That's getting used to a new trading platform, how the order entry works etc.
Some people would say SIM is useless, some would say SIM is useful. My opinion is that SIM is detrimental to your progress.
So - for the benefit of those without 6figure salaries - I thought we should have a 'small money thread'. The idea is to look at ways to trade live with small size.
To start off:
Instrument : ES
Tick Size : $12.50/contract
Commissions : @ $4/contract per round turn
Alternative Vehicle: SPY
Relationship to ES : 1 tick on the ES = 2.5 cent move on the SPY
Commissions : $2 per 100 shares round turn (less as you increse)
So - the idea is you can watch the ES, you can watch ES tape, you can watch ES time and sales, all charting can be ES. You just trade SPY instead. You multiply your ES stops and targets by 2.5 and start off with 100 shares.
10 tick loss on the ES = $125 + $4 commissions
25 cent loss on the SPY = $25 + $2 commissions (100 shares)
Of course for this you need a PDT account, unless you plan to do just a few R/Ts a day and just a few days a week.
You can also do less shares but you need to understand that commissions as a percentage of profit will increase. You need to account for that in analysing your results. It may be that a losing system is actually only losing because you are trading 1 share and so commissions are relatively large. So focus on cents gained.
I am sure we can cover a lot of instruments here - Euro, Dax, YM, currencies etc. etc with a variety of different ways to play them - ETFs, CFDs, SB etc.
Obviously SB won't be an option for shorter term players but the ETF SPY is fine.
Anyone else?
DT