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Minis Trader

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Posts posted by Minis Trader

  1. Posted

    For me the first thing to keep in mind when I set my daily, weekly, monthly and annual goals is that you need to have something to shoot for. But most importantlly is the goal needs to be realistic. To have a goal of 1 million dollars a day with a 50k account is pie in the sky (At least it is for me).

     

    If you set a goal of $250 per day and you start reaching it on a consistany basis you are then able to move your goal up to $400 per day. Then $1,000 per day and so on.

     

    By having a smaller goal set as you get started you will be able to focus only on setups that meet the rules of your system and you will start to build belief in your signals.

     

    To me a goal is a starting point but goals should not be stagnant they need to be dynamic.

     

    Remember this "A goal not written down is nothing more than an idea", write it down and review it daily.

  2. Posted

    re tick charts

    I assume that an 89 tick chart is faster than say a i minute chart. Correct.

    Does this work for other contracts? What time frame do you use for other contracts?

     

    Right now I am attempting to learn about the ES, YM and NQ.

    thanks

     

    The 89 tick chart forms a new candlestick after 89 trades have gone off on the stock or other position. During the busier market times an 89 tick on the YM could be the equivelant of 3 to 10 (or more) bars. In the evening session the 89 tick could take quite a while to form one bar.

     

    I also trade "RIMM" and I use the 89 tick for it as well.

  6. Posted

    How much to risk is important in any strategy but you also have to consider the reward side of it. If you are willing to risk 2% on a trade but your profit goal is 1/2 of 1% it only takes a few loosers to see large drawdown in your account.

     

    Here are my rules on one of my setups for the YM:

    * Go long (or short) 3 YM contracts

    * My profit target is +8 on 1st contract, +16 on second contract and the last target is left open (let my winner run)

    * My innitial stop is set at 20 ticks

    * I move my stop up to break even once my second contract is taken off.

    * I then trail my stop by 20 points and allow the last contract to get taken out by the trailing stop.

     

    Is this system perfect "NO" will every trader like this "NO" but for me it pays the bills.

     

    Happy Trading

  7. Posted

    Be open to different time frames as well as indicators. When you go from an end of day trader to an intraday trader it takes some getting used to.

     

    Dont discount the power of tick charts (I am partial to the 89 tick) or even 1 or 2 minute charts.

     

    There really isnt a better or worse one for the masses it is what works best for your personality and lifestyle.

  12. Posted

    I think the problem is that what we hold as something positive in society is in fact a fallacy in trading. Take instant gratification, which marketers tout as a right by consumers. Patience take a back, this is a virtue that is lost but very difficult to overcome because we've been conditioned for so long practicing this vice. This is the reason why many cannot and will not succeed by taking profits to early, which will end their overall winnings in the long run. Of course, by taking profits early invoke other emotion, regret, shoulda woulda coulda mentality which later on cause more anxiety and reckless trading (chasing, etc).

     

    There are other habits that need to be suppressed or overcome in order to succeed.

     

    Other habits such as The Superman Complex, a trader gets a few winners in a row and they feel they are Invincible.

  13. Posted

    As mentioned get to know your platform. I have a buddy that trades equities and wanted me to show him how I trade the eminis. He papertraded for 2 days before putting real money into a trade. On one of his first trades he sold (Instead of bought) 30 contracts of the YM (Instead of 3). Lost 14k before he knew what happened.

     

    Know it in your sleep

  14. Posted

    This is by no means all inclusive but whenever I work with a new trader this is what I give them to get started with for their plan:

     

    Questions To Ask Yourself

    1. Why do I trade?

     

    2. What do I trade? What do I prefer trading? What am I most comfortable with? (stocks, futures, options)

     

    3. What time frame do I prefer to trade in? (day, swing, intermediate-term, etc.)

     

    4. What position size do I trade? (Is it too large or too small) (What percent of my total account am I trading)

     

    5. How many positions at once am I comfortable trading?

     

    6. What overall market conditions must be met for me to trade? (What conditions do I avoid)

     

    7. What are my trade entry signals? Am I using them effectively? Do I use a combination of signals?

    •Market Conditions, specific patterns, Technical Indicators

     

    8. When do I get out of a winning position?

    •What are my rules? Do I have any?

     

    9. When do I get out of losing positions?

    •Do I always use protective stops?

    •What are my rules? (Percentage, set dollar amount, support/resistance levels, volatility-based, technical indicators, fear)

     

    10. What do I do when I have a losing streak?

    •How do I define a losing streak?

     

    11. What specific money-management tools do I use?

    •How much do I risk on each trade?

    •If I were stopped out of all my positions at once, what would the result be?

     

    12. Do I trade both long and short?

    •Do I need to?

    •Am I comfortable with going short?

    •What is my experience trading on the short side?

     

    13. How do I trade the open? Or do I? Should I?

    •What is my gap-up strategy?

    •What is my gap-down strategy?

     

    14. How do I create my watch list?

    •How can I improve it?

    •How often do I update it?

     

    15. What is my trading style? What traders do I follow?

     

    16. What do traders that I admire do that I don’t do?

     

    17. How much time do I spend daily outside market hours doing research/homework?

    •What is my routine, Do I have a routine?

    •How much better would my trading be if I were more disciplined about this?

    •What specifically needs to be done?

     

    18. What is my annual income goal?

    •Break it down to daily/weekly goals (i.e. $250,000 = $1000/day or $5000/week)

    •What do I need to do to achieve this goal?

     

    The next two questions are designed for newer traders:

    19. How much money will I start out with?

    •What percent of my net worth does this represent?

     

    20. When do I plan on becoming profitable? (if not already)

    •How long will my “paper trading” period last?

     

     

    When this exercise is complete, you’ll have two things:

    1.A better understanding about yourself, and your trading

    2. The basis for your Written Trading Plan.

     

    Writing your trading plan:

    1. Goals

    •long-term, short-term, daily

    •make them specific and realistic

     

    2. Tasks

    •what do you need to do to get there?

     

    3. Trading Rules

    •you’ll use these daily

    •make these very specific

     

    Once your plan is written, it’s important to review it on a regular basis. This is done for a number of reasons:

    --to track profitability

     

    --to track how closely you are following your trading rules

     

    --to identify areas that need improvement.

     

    --to modify it as needed (At least once a year)

  16. Posted

    Those are good choices and you're right, I am taking on the risk so I have to be extremely selective and make a judgment if ones failure is do to poor method, psychological hurdles or both.

     

    I'm inclined to go with option1 over a one year period. And although I'm not thrilled with taking any upfront money other than for out of pocket expenses, I'm interested to hear what you think the upfront fee should be for 2?

     

    Thanks.

     

    There are companies out there that charge anywhere from 2k - 5k for a two to three day program and there are back end sales of upwards of 35k after that innitial workshop. From what I remember trade the markets gets 5-8k for a week of mentorship (I think it is on the higher side). So to charge 2k - 3k up front for you teaching them seems fair to me.

     

    You could also charge lets say 1k up front, to put some money in your pocket for your time and a % of their trading over the next year.

     

    Hope this helps.

  18. Posted

    I lost my data a few months back. I went to using an off site data backup of my data as well as my internal one I use. There are many services out there that will back it up for you and they are not that expensive. I use one called Carbonite.com.

  19. Posted

    Great post UKTraderGirl, I agree with where she is going.

     

    For me it was keeping excelent detailed records of every trade. I test all of my systems on paper first before ever putting 1 penny of my hard earned money into the trade. I do some testing as backtesting to make sure the strategy has merrit but for the most part I like to do forward testing with either a demo account or a small actual account.

     

    I also used camtasia to video my trades and went back and listened to them at the end of the day. Talk about a wake up call, I would be looking over a trade and say "Why did I take this trade, it went against every rule I have". This was a great learning aid.

     

    The one thing that was a big one for me was every time I was getting ready to take a trade I would pretend that my mentor was standing behind me watching my every move. He was watching closely every thing I did. So I made sure to ask myself "Would he do this trade". If not I would ask "why" and if so "why". I forced myself to review each detail of rthe trade I wanted to take.

     

    The most important thing is to never give up.

  20. Posted

    You are right the educational system can cost thousands of dollars for just a few days. From there a trader can take advanced classes which can cost them thousands more and they havent even made a trade yet. Here are two thoughts for you:

     

    1- Since you are taking all of the risk up front have them pay you 50% of their profits (on a month over month basis). They have no risk at all to them.

     

    2 - Charge them the higher fee up front and offer a money back Guarantee if they dont make back their money over the next 6 - 12 months trading your system.

     

    Hope this helps

  25. Posted

    You need a guy that knows his stuff. I have seen many traders get nailed from the IRS for poor records and deductions they could not take. I know one individual that made over 3000 trades in 9 months, he took the last 3 months of the year off for a reward and when filed his taxes he claimed "Trader Status" and it was denied. The guy made his entire income from trading, he did it more than any other activity but when he took 3 months off he didnt qualify.

     

    It is best to get yourself structured (Nevada or Wyoming) and go from there.

    Just make sure that the people you use to set you us and the accountant you use is a business accountant so you can take full advantage of the tax laws available to businesses in this country.

    Later

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