[TRADEZILLA]

This is my first time joining a trade forum and I've enjoyed reading the many posts from many traders. I've traded the ES/NQ on and off for a few years and have had some success BUT I work full time so is not available to trade the entire market hours, hence I often use leveraged index funds and have had some success swing trading..

My goal is to trade full time and I want to hear what has been working well for other full time traders regardless of the market you trade in.

When I trade the ES/NQ futures, generally, I'll wait for the bigger set up but will scalp in between.. I feel that I'm very close to be able to do this reliably and want to hear the various methods used by successful full time traders.. Much thanks!

[Lucid]

· Breakout Trades / Retracement Trades



i. 1% of account equity = $4,000.00USD

ii. Stop Loss average of 40 pips = 10 standard lots per trade

iii. $100 per pip

iv. If there is any variation in Stop Loss the Lot size of the trade will be recalculated to fall within the 1% rule.

v. All trades will have a STOP LOSS, however the STOP LOSS may not necessarily be hard coded into the trading platform when I am actively at my trade station. The STOP LOSS will always be calculated based on the price when the trade is opened. However, the STOP LOSS may be hard coded into the trading platform or manually executed when the STOP LOSS is reached.



· Directional / Swing Trades



i. 1% of account equity = $4,000.00USD

ii. Stop Loss average is equivalent to the recent Average Daily Range which for the EURUSD is currently 150 pips = 2.5 Standard Lot per trade

iii. $25 per pip

iv. If there is any variation in Stop Loss the lot size of the trade will be recalculated to fall within the 1% rule.

v. All trades will have a STOP LOSS, however the STOP LOSS may not necessarily be hard coded into the trading platform when I am actively at my trade station. The STOP LOSS will always be calculated based on the price when the trade is opened. However, the STOP LOSS may be hard coded into the trading platform or manually executed when the STOP LOSS is reached.

enjoy and good luck

[mslk]

i'm not a full-time trader yet but just like you, i'm working towards it. i'm still in the exploratory phase, losing some money, trying to find a systems that works

these are two good books i am currently reading for systems design and testing, particularly Stridsman:
1. Trading Systems that Work : Building and Evaluating Effective Trading Systems - Thomas Stridsman
2. Design, Testing and Optimization of Trading Systems - Robert Pardo

and i've just begun to search for methods to test the stability of my results, here are my thoughts on that:
1. extensively use the Out-of-Sample approach and "test 'til he drops"
2. modeling using MonteCarlo modeling
3. use the MSA function from adaptrade that also includes MonteCarlo simulation
4. use ProSizer with the same MC simulation capabilities by unicorn
5. model my portfolio using the BootStrap method, although I haven't found any software that utilizes this method.
6. use the time series simulations such as DataScrumbling described by Tushar S. Chande, PhD in his book "Beyond Technical Analysis: How to Develop and Implement a Winning Trading System"

as far as the actual trading strategy, i'm just doing simple MA crossovers, i figured it was important to have a good system that was testable setup before i start plugging in more strategies.

-mslk