Cory2679

Thanks for the reply. I brought this up because of what happened to me last night. I was thinking, if your daughter turned $25 into about $1,000 in 3 months, maybe I could turn $250 into $10,000! (BUT, keep in mind, I can't afford to blow $250 right now!) But that would require big-time leverage. I decided I would start trading with that type of leverage beginning last night.... I started off with some losing trades. None of them were full losers, but they were worse than they normally would have been for me because I was trading on my laptop on the couch at my girlfriend's house, something I've never done before and I'm totally not used to, and it messed me up (also why I didn't post any of the trades in real-time). ANYWAYS, after my first 4 trades resulted in a net loss, I quit. If only I would have stuck in there, there were some blatantly obvious opportunties coming up (later last night and then this morning) that would have made me very profitable after it was all over. BUT, on the plus side, I think after this experience and everything leading up to it, I'm truly finally beginning to realize this: I think this has been my biggest issue and why I'm not flourishing right now. It's funny, I was talking to my girlfriend about this last night...over the month of January, my results were scattered...I traded some live, with different amounts of leverage which i kept modifying, I did some demo trading, and I did some live trading "off the record' from this thread..when I was taking my time off. Over the month of January, if you put the pieces together (and ignore my stupid platform issue the first week), I was net profitable every week!...and not 1-2 ticks, decent profit! HOWEVER, the results were indeed scattered. I think I have the trading and money management down solidly enough to trade net profitably. I just keep coming up with other stupid things that get in my way from just doing it and continuing to do it without stopping!!!!! BUT, perhaps now that I am realizing all this, I can finally address it and move on! I feel like I'm just spinning my tires in mud right now. Anyways, sorry about this big post. I think I use this thread a little bit like a journal sometimes. I'll try to stick to just posting charts for a little while. Cory

Suuure. I totally understand that with the recent OIRC ordeal. My main question was with your daughter...because from what I understand, that wasn't to "have a little fun..." that was to teach her how to trade. And with your daughter, you didn't "know" because she was new...although I guess since you taught her and maybe even babysat her account a little, you know to expect something similar to your own results. I'll leave this alone after this last question (which is basically my whole point of this little discussion I started).... Would you recommend ME (or someone like me) trade a $25 account with leverage like you started your daughter with (and steadily decrease my % risk as my account grows)?...rather than trading a $250 or $500 account with more 'reasonable' leverage? On that note...what type of % risk was your daughter using by the time her account hit $250 or $500? I won't ask any more questions on this topic after this. :embarassed:

You should read this... why you should trade cme currency futures instead of cash fx.doc

Precisely...that's what I mean. Very good point...I'm glad you helped in clarification.

Hey Thales, I have some questions, if ya don't mind. My question is...why? Why start with that much risk per trade? It's a gamble...you'd better get pretty lucky in the beginning. EDIT: or rather, as jonbig has pointed out below, it's not really that you would need to get lucky, it's that you just couldn't afford to get unlucky. If it were reasonable/sustainable, she'd still be trading with that size! You said yourself a couple posts back that you've had -2R days before. Risking 20% or even 40% (like the recent $25 account you were playing with), nobody will last long. Why not just start this way in the beginning? I understand that theoretically if you truly only had $25, then you have no choice, but why not start her with $250 or even $500? That way, you could still be risking the same $$$ amount, but it would be only 1-2% rather than 20%...it's a reasonable and sustainable practice...you could sustain a drawdown. I ask because I was thinking about my own trading...I was thinking if I'd want a chance at replicating her initial results, I'd have to trade with huge risk. So I thought if I wanted to do that, maybe I ought to open a $25 account so if I wiped it out, it wouldn't be a big deal. Then I thought, really what's the point? I should just trade my $250 account with reasonable leverage, instead. Trading a tiny account with huge leverage won't do anything to help me, really. It might be "fun" but I don't see how it'd be any more productive. So of course this lead me to...well, why did Thales start her that way? I was just curious of your thought process with all that. Thanks, Cory

LOL!! Well said, TR!

Hear, hear!

Although, on the second position, rather than stopping and reversing, it would have probably been more prudent to pull the EJ and short the EU... With hindsight OR with how the charts looked at the time, I believe the EU would have been the better short opportunity.

This style of buy-and-hold and don't touch makes me nervous. With the normal management, both hits the account has taken on the EJ offered what I see as profitable stop-and-reverse opportunties...not only would it have reduced the loss, but would have been net profitable both times. As you know, I've been considering the 'place orders and let it do its thing' approach, but for the time being I'll probably stick the the 'normal' way of managing trades. I understand this is basically an 'experiment,' anyway. Just my EDIT: Well, I don't know that the first trade would have been net profitable...now that I look at it again, on the short, the second half would have probably gotten BE...but still a better outcome overall.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I think I'd like to play one month though, after I consider myself "successful," just for fun. I figure when I'm ready to move from spot FX back to futures, I'll take one month "off" to trade a $500 micro account and try to win king of the micro. You'd pretty much have to double your account every week (compounding) to have a chance at winning. I wouldn't necessarily change my trading style...all I would do is increase my position size...say maybe risking 20% per trade. I'd just trade and cross my fingers that I don't have a significant draw down period. Just for fun, since I wasn't really trading this week, with my demo account I risked 20% per trade...I began the week with $5,000 and now I'm sitting on $10,375.99 closed trade equity!!...so it is possible...just a risky and unsustainable way to trade. As long as the mindset is **this is just a game** I think it'd be all right.

Not trading, just watching... Long on the EUR/USD...I figured I'd post it since I haven't posted a chart in a while... EDIT: Rather than posting more charts, I'll just say...similar situations on the GBP/USD, EUR/JPY, and potentially even the USD/JPY...

You ought to play "King of the Micro!" I'm sure you obviously don't care about the prize money, but competition is always fun...since you're trading a small micro account, anyway. I think you need a $500 account, though. I think some of the winners will make somewhere around 2,000% return in a month (obviously super duper mega rodeo clown leverage). I was just reading about King of the Micro so when you just made that post, I thought of it. I didn't realize that it was actually a real competition when you mentioned it a while back! :o I thought it was just a phrase you coined. Obviously, it's up to you! EDIT: Although, I guess you're already "competing" with your daughter! BTW... Good grief!!! I think I missed that the first time I looked at that post! :shocked:

Thanks for the advice, brownsfan. I really appreciate it. I will definitely consider what you said and think about next week's schedule over the weekend.

Well, I decided to take the whole week "off." However, I have been lurking on this thread and doing some demo trading. I'll be back to trading live and posting some charts this coming week. I've reset my $250 account (made a withdrawal). I thought I'd share some of the things I've done/learned/re-learned while taking this time off (in no particular order): I reviewed the basics of this approach. I irrationally assumed that since I had a few mediocre days during the beginning of last week, I must be missing something. The conclusion that I came to is that I already understand the basics. I familiarized myself more with EW, and will be keeping it in the back of my mind. I familiarized myself with fib extensions for PT purposes...something I had not done up to this point (although I had used fib retracements for PT's before...using the 200% level to identify the 1:1 R/R, 300% for 2:1, etc.). I decided on a "default" for my money management, but it will somewhat depend on each individual situation. I need to make sure I don't miss an opportunity on one pair because I am too narrowly focused on another. I need to make sure I'm not "reaching" for a trade, just because I want some action. I'm making it a rule for myself that at the beginning of every day, before I begin trading, I'll mark areas of major S/R on my charts. I've decided that as a general rule, between the GU & EU, that I will sell the weaker & buy the stronger. BUT, there can be exceptions. This is an example that I demo traded today. I sold the EU, when it's now obvious that it would have been more profitable to sell the GU. I sold the EU because of the steady downtrend---I decided it was "weaker" (even though my gut was telling me to sell the GU). The conclusion that I've come to is that relative to the rest of the chart, the GU offered a much more favorable entry opportunity...even though you could possibly make the argument that the EU was overall "weaker." This may just be a matter of me not fully understanding the concept of "weak" vs. "strong." I'm going to be spending a lot more time at my computer...I have nothing more important to do...this is/should be my entire life right now. I've been on my computer until 5pm EST every day this week, and each day I get up an hour earlier (Mon: 10am, Tues: 9am, etc.) until I'm getting up at 6am each day. Next week, my plan is to get up at 6am each day, and stay on the computer until 11pm each night (I'll allow myself breaks, of course...and I won't work all day on the weekends). While I'm not actually trading (particularly between NY-Tokyo), I will find something productive to do to help myself continue to improve. I seriously need to forget about money and not focus on how I'm doing so far for the week, etc. I need to focus on trading, one day at a time, and do my best. That's how I'm going to succeed and continue to improve. I'll try to limit my whining/rambling on this thread (about my mediocre day/week, etc.). That's all I can think of at the moment. Perhaps somebody found this useful. See you next week! -Cory EDIT: One other thing I've been pondering is the whole idea about Thales saying that his best trades occur when he sets the orders at night and everything works its magic while he sleeps...and that his daughter takes very few trades for LOTS of ticks. This is something I will be keeping in the back of my mind when trading. I have a feeling that the success of those trades that are left untouched doesn't have so much to do with the fact that they are left untouched (after all, active management helps minimize losses), but more to do with the fact that he or she feels comfortable leaving those trades untouched...meaning that the trades that they choose to leave untouched are much more probable situations compared to the average shorter-term daytrades that are actively managed. Just a thought.

Hey guys, I think I'm going to be taking some time off from trading/posting. I need some time to reflect, read, review, collect my thoughts, etc. I feel like lately (this week) I've somewhat lost sight of the "forest" from focusing too much on the "trees." I want to take this time off and decide exactly what I'm going to be doing when I resume trading this Monday. Cory

Well, I guess I won't be on tomorrow morning...I'm going to stay up late tonight (presumably while watching charts...no trading though, unless demo)...sleep in tomorrow, then begin the next night trading the first part of the Europe session. I'll be ready for entry an hour before the Frankfurt open (so I'll begin @ 12:30-1 AM EST) and trade until between 5-7 or so. I'm just going to demo trade the rest of the week with this new schedule. My goal is to get an entry, set my stops and PT(s), shut down, and go to bed. As Thales says, his own best trades occur when he sets the orders at night and everything works its magic while he sleeps. (However, I'll take a shorter term trade if the setup is crying out at me). Just for fun, and I know this is a pointless exercise, I just looked back to see what would have happened if I had traded last night... Obviously this is hindsight (except the UJ, which I posted my opinion about before it dropped), but I think I have somewhat of an idea of what I would likely have taken in real time... I would have gotten to take this: I could have gotten this (although without trailing the stops - I would have gotten fewer pips): ...and I could have gotten a long on the GU. These are just the ones I find really obvious. There were probably more, especially smaller degree swings.

Thales. I have a question about when taking trades that you let go without actively managing them (presumably overnight). Do you not have a way of getting the stop to BE? I guess if you had two PT's, the first at 1:1 R/R and the second at 2:1, if the first PT got hit and the second didn't and the second half got stopped for a loss, you would break even on that trade overall. Or would it be a good idea to use a trailing stop along with profit targets? (maybe a trailing stop on the half shooting for PT2?) Or would it be a good idea to just have one profit target? Basically, I'm just asking for general guidelines/advice for leaving trades overnight. (This is "addressed" to Thales, but obviously I'd appreciate input from anyone!) Thanks, Cory

Or maybe a potential UJ long?...

Potential UJ short?...

Why the smaller than "normal" SL? -- normal being the just below the swing low. (I have an order in for the same trade.)

:rofl::o:applaud: Thanks for the laugh! I'm literally wiping tears!

I'm just sitting here reflecting on my week...how down in the dumps I was yesterday and how happy I am right now after one winning trade! It's funny...I'm really not a very emotional/dramatic guy...I don't really have much of a temper or anything either... BUT, when it comes to trading, it seems like I'm a complete emotional mess and a borderline drama queen! :rofl::o Maybe I'll mellow out after I have some real performance under my belt...the problem now is that if I have a day or two without solid performance, I (perhaps irrationally) worry that my trading future is doomed!

Hallelujah!!!!!!! :o

BTW, I'm not going to be posting as much for a little while. I haven't been doing that well this week, and can't pinpoint why, but one thought was that maybe I'm focusing too much on this thread... Anyways, I was looking for a short at the test of the bottom of the former range... Took this and am sitting @ BE with the stop...which as I'm typing is just about hit... Update: Stopped for BE.

Not a home run, but wasn't the worst idea in the world.