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Introduce yourself here!

  #8491 (permalink)
 
veloxtrader's Avatar
 veloxtrader 
Stockholm, Sweden
 
Experience: Intermediate
Trading: FDAX, ES
Posts: 84 since Oct 2018
Thanks Given: 544
Thanks Received: 220

Hello everyone!

I am a trader from Sweden and have been trading futures on the DAX and OMXS30 for the past year and a half. This year my goal is to gain consistency by dedicating my focus on doing the right things. I have been lurking this forum for 6 months and I am looking forward to be a part of the discussions.

Velox.

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  #8492 (permalink)
 jsndc 
Denver, CO, USA
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NT, TS, TOS, TW
Broker: NinjaTrader, Tradestation
Trading: Emini ES/RTY/NQ
Posts: 44 since Sep 2018
Thanks Given: 89
Thanks Received: 101

Hello All,

I have been benefiting from a lot excellent information on this forum and hopefully I can contribute as well in some small way. While in school at UC Irvine (Chemical Engineering) I became interested in the markets, saw a lot of people make money and lose money in the dot com boom and bust and thought I would like to learn how do the winning money part. After school I got a job in technical sales and for the past 20 years I have been employed by the same company doing various things.

I have made money in the markets over the years and have also lost a lot of it back to the market. The wins have been mostly from longer term swings on individual stocks. The losses have been through "learning" and trying several varieties of trading over many years:

1. Multiple timeframe technical analysis to screen & identify breakout opportunities on stocks - this is a lot of work and I have the utmost respect for those that are successfully trading breakouts. Unfortunately I was not able to succeed at this and work at the same time. Learned a lot about TA and was motivated to find a path to be able to trade full time. Lost money at this.
2. Fundamental swing/trend trading of sectors - looking at specific sectors (Tech, Semi, Solar primarily) and trying to time market cycles and looking for who is strongest/weakest to formulate trades. I continue to do this but look at it as short term investing/long term swing/trend/cycle trading. Learned a lot on fundamental and cycle analysis. Made some money.
3. Selling volatility and collecting theta in stock and index options - trying to identify high IV stocks and short term tops/bottoms in indexes and then selling protected puts and calls to collect theta and IV crush. Learned a ton about options (so much to learn there) and I do use what I learned to enter and exit stock positions and collect premium (selling cash secured puts/covered calls). I made a little bit of money but again it was a lot of work and difficult to manage while working full time. I also found that I would make big wins and then have huge losses that I convinced myself would turn around (but never did). From this I learned I needed to look in to psychology to manage my thinking. Good lessons in this stint.
4. Options income trades - put butterflies primarily, trying to identify a range for the market over the next 30 days and then selling put butterflies around that range - then adjusting when price moves to one end or the other of the butterfly. Lost money here for the same reason as #3 - psychology. Holding a butterfly position for 20 days, all is well, then a big move erases all gains - after 20 days being married to the position, tough to not convince yourself you were right and the market will come to its senses and get back under your butterfly tent. I think this type of trading is great for those who have mastered how to deal with the swings, I couldn't handle it and lost the most in my trading life to the options market masters here (wiped out a year's salary believe it or not, just being stubborn). I know there are some very good and successful income options traders out there - I was not able to envision myself being one of them.
5. Options straddles and strangles prior to earnings, capturing volatility rise. This is actually a pretty good strategy and I made money on it. Small wins, small losses but fairly consistent. The challenge for me was again the time - it takes a lot of time to monitor earnings and look for the conditions where IV will likely rise going in to earnings - then you have to manage several positions at a time and be quick to adjust and exit with profits. I respect traders who do this for a living but I could not sustain it while working.
6. Finally, here I am with index futures and I think this may be the ticket. With all of the various styles of trading that I have tried, what I found I liked the most was analyzing charts. I thought I could come in to the ES and grab points in the morning before work and then set S/R levels in the evening for the next morning's set ups. Over 3 months I had some excellent wins and spectacular losses. Never consistently profitable.

I joined futures.io to get opinions on some of the futures trading courses out there and enrolled in a couple of them (KJ Trading Systems - I will work on this over time as I think the approach is very good, and Al Brooks Price Action - also very good for me as Al adds more to what I had learned in other adventures). There are others that I am interested in but I have enough to learn as it is and I'd like to focus on mastering price action first and foremost.

I enjoy reading trading books - I get a lot out of each one. I am starting in on the Al Brooks books after going through his video course. I have read other perspectives on Al, but I have to say, for me I have developed some consistency with his approach that I had not seen previously. Very simple concepts with a lot behind them and I am still getting tricked by the market when I think it may do this or that based on the price action. I have realized that I still have much to learn.

This year I am transitioning to working part time in order to focus on trading - it is my goal to trade for a living and it is time to start allocating more hours to becoming consistently profitable. Still need to get my daughter through college so can't give up the day job completely just yet.

I like the journal concept here that Big Mike encourages so I think I will get one going just for my own benefit.

If I can contribute anything at this point it would be to those just getting in to trading - from my experience there is so much to learn and even when you become knowledgeable on the mechanics and the instruments you trade, there is still the challenge of competing with a lot of seasoned professionals and very smart, well funded people. Before dedicating too much of your hard earned money, proove to yourself that your approach and execution are very consistent and there is a well defined positive expectancy over several months to a year. This should come after several 1000's of hours of studying and applying concepts. There are some good books on risk management, position sizing and expectancy out there - Van Tharp's Super Trader is a good general overview for how to know if you will make or lose money. Al Brooks calls it the trader's equation, Van Tharp calls it R multiples, it is all the same - until you know you have positive expectancy over an extended period, play small and continue to challenge yourself by adding risk in small increments after 3-6 month periods of consistency.

Happy trading!

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  #8493 (permalink)
 
snax's Avatar
 snax 
Chicago, IL
Legendary Price Action Student
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Sierra Chart
Broker: Edge Clear
Trading: MES
Posts: 2,170 since Feb 2019
Thanks Given: 9,612
Thanks Received: 9,622


Hello all,

As of January 2019 I have transitioned from virtual-trading of futures on the CME simulator to live futures trading.

I enjoyed success with virtual trading to the extent that I thought I had a pretty good system...very good win/loss-ratio, very good profits, I learned to adjust my stops to lock in profits and I felt I had an excellent feel for the price oscillations of the /ES, /NQ, /CL, /NG, and /GC contracts.

Since starting with live trading this all has been turned upside-down as you probably guessed, but my risk-management is keeping me from drowning.

I've identified some major issues that I didn't address in simulated trading that have hurt me:

1) don't get in front of a surging product and expect it to pull back right where you think it will, this has hurt me the most.
2) avoid some of my favorite volatile products like /NQ around the opening bell because my stops are too thin for the level of volatility when the price is bouncing around 5-6 handles like its nothing.
3) no more impulsive trades just because I like to make trades, must be more patient.
4) don't hurt yourself by trying to make up for a bad trade. Get out when you don't have a clue.
5) When trading pullbacks, try to go with the market trend, ie. if the market has been bullish all day, go long when it dips a bit instead of just guessing reversals all over the place...i didn't make this distinction in sim-trading.


Right now I am going more minimalist, I am cutting my products down to just two, /ES and /CL, focusing on understanding more of the fundamental analysis factors for each, such as supply/demand, OPEC, trade-disputes in the global economy, etc.

I am interested in technical analysis and indicators, but they have not helped me thus far,

I am also interested in learning more about interest-rate products, they behave much differently than the products I'm used to and I want to understand them (/ZB, /ZN, /ZF) more, the fees are quite low i've noticed and the volume is very good.

I plan to obsess over this until I grow into a successful futures trader. I have a plan to keep my capital safe through very diligent risk-management until my win/loss-ratio and risk/reward-ratios improve. Then I will be able to help others grow as well.

Thank you!

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  #8494 (permalink)
Guitar Jim
Madisonville Kentucky United States
 
Posts: 6 since Feb 2019
Thanks Given: 0
Thanks Received: 1

Thanks for the welcome.Started trading when I was around 40 years old while at the same time owning a small construction company.Having to support a family I never traded full time just when I could get some free time.I retired last year at the age of 68 and have been working on a trading strategy . Part of the strategy I learned from a Chicago food trader,another part I learned from a trading group. I learned both of these almost 30 years ago.The third part of the strategy I learned on own by staying abreast of the market all these years.Bottom line I would like to automate the strategy. So what to do next I'm not sure. I just know I don't want to sit in front of a computer everyday when I have grandkids to enjoy.Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again for the welcome.

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  #8495 (permalink)
 Hailkay 
Osaka + Korea
 
Posts: 4 since Jan 2019

Hi,

Trading for 8 years while studying at college.
Build my own method, became stable just a couple of days/weeks ago.
Actually a year ago but I interrupted after a bit for private reasons and resumed in Jan.
Now I trying to win a evaluation at a prop firm while trading my account.

You can see my journal if you want in the corresponding page or click on my nickname.

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  #8496 (permalink)
 xplor79 
Buenos Aires, Argentina
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NinjaTrader
Trading: Emini ES
Posts: 12 since Feb 2019
Thanks Given: 35
Thanks Received: 7

Hi everyone, what an amazing forum!

I'm from Argentina, with very little experience in the market.
I found futures.io doing some research about different courses, books and trading academies regarding the ES market and scalping methods.
But the typical question remains: why would someone who has a profitable strategy would teach it, just out of generosity?
Not saying that is not possible, but... it seems quite unlikely...

I tend to think, and based in the threads I've read so far, that the real knowledge is based on experience.
Is it possible to became a self-taught trader then? What do you think?

I must admit that I´m tempted to buy the course offered by NOFT, but I'm willing to try to learn all that lingo and quite intimidating graphics on my own... Wish me luck!

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  #8497 (permalink)
Cichlid99
Calgary Alberta
 
Posts: 1 since Jan 2019
Thanks Given: 5
Thanks Received: 0

Trading has been a passion of mine most of my life. I have been trading stocks for about 25 years and options for about 2 doing most of my analysis in the evenings after work. I was a Geologist by training, and now that I am retired I am excited to be able to spend more time focusing on my investments.

My trading process is fairly fixed now, and I no longer spend time evaluating holy grail systems many websites offer; however, I do give myself some time to continue learning which is why I am trying out this site.

Happy Trading

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  #8498 (permalink)
 SidewalkAerobics 
Los Angels
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: MultiChart
Trading: Emini ES
Posts: 115 since Aug 2018
Thanks Given: 173
Thanks Received: 71


xplor79 View Post
I tend to think, and based in the threads I've read so far, that the real knowledge is based on experience.
Is it possible to became a self-taught trader then? What do you think?

Welcome!

Real knowledge is learned either by someone's teach or by our own mistakes. I learn the most when I trade live. Something happens when I'm in the market with real money. I discover connections and thought that would never come to me if I paper traded.

Wishing you well.

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  #8499 (permalink)
 SidewalkAerobics 
Los Angels
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: MultiChart
Trading: Emini ES
Posts: 115 since Aug 2018
Thanks Given: 173
Thanks Received: 71


Guitar Jim View Post
So what to do next I'm not sure.

Welcome!

Automation may be easier than you imagined. I started with TradeStation and Easy Language, my bias is to recommend starting there too. You can even hire a programmer to help you.

Best Wishes

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  #8500 (permalink)
wu6242420
NanChang+China
 
Posts: 1 since Apr 2018
Thanks Given: 0
Thanks Received: 0


My name's jack, I'm a beginner for futures

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