[johnnycakes78704]

Hi guys. I just started paper trading the /es and was wondering what the results I've gotten so far are normal and expected.

A bit of background on me, I've been trading for myself from 2000-2008, becoming licensed with my 7 and 66 during the market crash, taking a job as an Investment Advisor in 09, leaving about a year ago as my wife lost her job and the savings I had from my trading quickly evaporated.

I got a job not within the trading or investment world a year ago or so to ensure we could keep our lifestyle, but now I'm getting the bug again. I found out about the ES through this forum and it was recommended to me to start trading that about two years ago or so I think. Well, I was unsure of it as I'd never traded any futures before, sticking strictly to stocks. That has since changed over the past month and I've done alot of research and investigation to be sure I have an accurate grasp of its ins and out.

I found an excel spreadsheet and signed up for a practice account. Currently, I'm limiting myself to 1 contract per trade so I gain the maximum experience and understand of the market before I go live.

Before I commit capital to this, I have some questions and hopefully will get an answer.

Would you care to share how many points or ticks per trade do you currently make? Do you have a count of how many points per contract per week you are positive? Do you usually finish up your gains early in the day? I see today has netted thus far an 18 point gain. Do you buy/sell consistently throughout the day or hold for a period of time?

I started paper trading the week of Thanksgiving and over 2 days gained 4.75 points. More research over the weekend has increased my confidence and through that, I netted 39.25 points this week thus far with just two stop outs (at 1.5 point stops, is that too shallow of a stop?). A goal is to take away as close to 10 points per day as possible. Today is 9 so far and tomorrow I'd like to get at least 11.75 so as to hit the 50 point per week mark. Am I being reasonable in my goal? A search online for emini points per day indicates an average gain of 2 points per day per contract, 10 per week. Is that feasible? Am I missing something? Am I being too ambitious?

thank you for your input.

[johnnycakes78704]

If you don't care to share your point takes per day or other identifying info I definitely understand, but please provide constructive criticism if you could please take some time out of your day. Thank you

Today thus far I have been able to pull 12.75 points from the market. I am learning more and more with watching the markets and instead of going long, just taking an average of 2-3 points per trade per contract this week but with todays short trading range the average take is 1.75 points per trade. Is this normal? Is this a sound strategy? The excel sheet being used does have an in/out page and I'm documenting every in and out position, every short/cover, every detail or as much as possible anyways.

I'm going to call it for this week, not get into pig mode and take a 12.75 point gain today, increasing the weekly total to 52 points over 21 trades and a paper gain of $2527 this week. For a beginner, is this good/bad/so-so/you suck?

[Tams]

Originally Posted by johnnycakes78704 »

.... Is that feasible? Am I missing something? Am I being too ambitious?

thank you for your input.

Originally Posted by johnnycakes78704 »

If you don't care to share your point takes per day or other identifying info I definitely understand, but please provide constructive criticism if you could please take some time out of your day. Thank you
...

nobody is responding... because this is not the question a trader would consider in his trading process.

[WHY?]

I sometimes trade the ES during the night session. I use an hourly chart and a combination of support/resistance zones along with tape reading. By tape reading I mean correlating price with volume. Trading the ES at night (after 5:00 p.m.) on an hourly chart 1.5 to 2 pt stops works pretty good. Profit target .50 to .75. Sometimes a point. General rule if 1 contract hands me 30.00 to 40.00 I like to grab it. This can be done sometimes several times in 1 hour...sometimes 1 time in 2 hours. But, I usually trade the NQ and YM at the same time as all three tend to track together. More money can be made by raising size but one has to be careful with large size in the night session as it is much slower.

[neoikon]

Originally Posted by johnnycakes78704 »

Today thus far I have been able to pull 12.75 points from the market. I am learning more and more with watching the markets and instead of going long, just taking an average of 2-3 points per trade per contract this week but with todays short trading range the average take is 1.75 points per trade.

What rules are you using for your setups? Entry, exit, etc.

I tend to use pivot points heavily, so I use the average distance between pivot points (for that day) as a guideline for my target setting.

[Tradewinds]

I think the results you are getting are great. Have you traded different market conditions? It's possible to get great results for a period of time if the way you trade happens to coincidentally match market conditions. It can happen that a person gets great results under certain market conditions, then gets killed if the market changes, and you don't adapt.
You didn't mention anything about what you use to make your trading decisions. Do you trade through the news? Have you ever got caught on the wrong side of a trade when price has a flash drop?
How do your results from trading the ES compare to your trading success in the past?

[leobust]

Yes - You are missing something big and very important part of trading - the emotion side of it. Because you are only paper trading and no real money is at stake, you don't feel the "fear and greed" aspect of it. Start trading few contracts to get the real "feel" of it and see how you go. You'd be surprise its a totally new ball game.
If you can maintain a 10 pts gain a week, you can consider yourself a "professional".

[robertm]

Originally Posted by leobust »

If you can maintain a 10 pts gain a week, you can consider yourself a "professional".

Points/Pips gained have nothing to do with the success or measure of a system. It all comes back to what you risked to make that gain.