[jonbig04]

Originally Posted by brownsfan019 »

I think you might be surprised at how much or little those trades eat into the end result P&L. My guess is that w/ the amount of trades we've seen already, a nice chunk of that gross profit may head on over to your broker's account. And they ALWAYS get paid before you.

Yea you are right. Just quick math in my head confirms that commish will take a large chunk. Im working on trading less though.

[brownsfan019]

Originally Posted by jonbig04 »

Yea you are right. Just quick math in my head confirms that commish will take a large chunk. Im working on trading less though.

And that's the point of doing this - you need to know how much of your profits (or adding to losses) the broker commissions will add to this. Also include any other fees the broker may charge - namely platform fees. There are some platforms that take a fee per trade, per contract. I was running a platform that charged an additional fee per trade, per contract but was capped at $500/mo. Well, that $500 came straight out of my account w/o missing a beat.

It's just important to know what actual $$$ will hit your account b/c in the end, that's all that really matters.

Originally Posted by brownsfan019 »

There are some platforms that take a fee per trade, per contract. I was running a platform that charged an additional fee per trade, per contract but was capped at $500/mo. Well, that $500 came straight out of my account w/o missing a beat.

Ouch. Was this platform a third-party vendor or something cobbled together by the broker you were using at the time? For $500/mo, it had better be the bees knees and all that for ya, otherwise you're just spinning your wheels of platform fees, especially when starting out.

[smwinc]

Brownsfan makes a good point about the importance of commissions.

I too had a quick look at your chart - just be mindful of slippage you are likely to incur when trading live.

Best to estimate a $5 a roundie. Hopefully you will pay less, but it's a good amount to base averages off.

The notion of 20 trades a day being over-trading is not true, however it IS over-trading for your circumstances.

When you are trading as an independent & small size, you basically need to trade quite low. With a cost-ratio of something around 40% of a tick being paid in commission, you need to go for those bigger moves.

Once you get your size up, you can get a good commission as a percentage of tick value. When that happens, you can take advantage of the smaller moves.

Goodluck, keep us posted. When are you planning to go live?

[jonbig04]

My head was clearer today. I realized..I don't HAVE to trade. I was resolved not to take any trades if I couldn't see any.

I saw one trade and almost took it...but I wasn't sure. Turns it wouldn't have been a great move anyway. So I waited. I found one that I liked. I came within 4 ticks of being stopped out, but I was trying to watch to see if the situation I recognized was changing. It wasn't, so i held on. Thankfully that one trade made me 5.75 points. That's probably the only trade I'm going to take today.

I need to do some calculations and figure out what commish/fees is going to cost as was suggested.

As for going live, I'm not quite sure yet. Obviously I'm still learning...I want to go live when I am ready as opposed to when I want to...which was about 1 week ago haha.

All the advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Jon

[atto]

Originally Posted by jonbig04 »

...So I waited. I found one that I liked. I came within 4 ticks of being stopped out, but I was trying to watch to see if the situation I recognized was changing. It wasn't, so i held on. Thankfully that one trade made me 5.75 points. That's probably the only trade I'm going to take today

Wonderful (I bolded what I especially liked). Miss one, oh well, wait for another. I'm also seeing that you're holding on for longer. Good stuff, keep practicing.

[jonbig04]

Originally Posted by atto »

Wonderful (I bolded what I especially liked). Miss one, oh well, wait for another. I'm also seeing that you're holding on for longer. Good stuff, keep practicing.

Thanks. I am holding for longer. I was looking at my last charts and very often I was getting out too early. I had my on one 4-10 point moves, but was only getting .5-1 points of profit. Then I would see the move that I missed and try to make up for what I missed by trading when I shouldnt have. I made my time frame (for my chart) longer and I moved my stop up a little (it was 3, but i changed it to 2.5) I should know by then that I am wrong and to get out.

I sold at a pretty good spot today, all that high volume at 10:53 turned out to be accumulation.

[atto]

Originally Posted by jonbig04 »

I should know by then that I am wrong and to get out.

Re-read Phantom's rules #1 and #2. Get out when you're not proved right, not when you're proved wrong.