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Los Angeles, California / United States
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NinjaTrader
Trading: TF
Posts: 9 since Aug 2014
Thanks Given: 38
Thanks Received: 3
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Hello and welcome to my financial soul search.
That's right. Step right up and witness me eating copious amounts of humble pie, with fresh whipped cream, as I muscle my way into the top percentage of traders who find consistent profitability.
Or, perhaps you'll see me crash, burn and run home to Momma with tail inserted firmly between my legs, whining like a bitch.
Either way, it should be quite the show.
I'm a working screenwriter and director who's now also studying the craft of trading. I've been at it for about 5 months, and it seems like a great fit for my skill-set. You see, screenwriting requires months, if not years of tedious time in front of a screen analyzing for balance, rhythm, and most of all: clarity of thought.
Both crafts also require tremendous initiative, fortitude, patience, self-reflection and self-discipline - I've got that in spades.
And the dress code for both crafts is my underwear. Check!
After a roller coaster five months of thinking this is easy, than impossible, than all my fault, than all the fault of my system, then flailing in tsunamis of confusion, and glorious breakthroughs, only to crash down again with my dignity barely clinging to the edge of a cliff.... I'm now thinking: what better way to lean about my relationship with money?
So, hello friends.
For anybody that cares, here's the details of my current trading strategy. I do keep a personal trading journal and might also post to the journal section some time soon.
After exploring two different trading systems in May & June, I found an approach from a particular vender that's had mixed reviews here, and some strong negative criticism. But I heard about it from a friend that I trust (who also told me about Big Mike's) and he's been profitable with this system himself. Plus, two people in his family have used it for years to great results. So I believe it works for them, and now we'll see if I can get the hang of it too.
I breezed through the self-paced course in July, started sim trading in August, and I'm now on week 7 of sim. I was winning about 60% of my trades, but losing more money than I made. This week I started trading earlier@ 9:30EST (6:30am in LA for me), and have been winning over 70%, and been profitable 4 out of the last 5 days.
BUT I'm really not sure about the quality of my decision-making, so I'm hoping to hook up with somebody else trading a similar system, which is why I posted a request for collaboration here:
I'm trading one sim contract on the TF, because that's the instrument my buddy found success with. My current financial target is to make more than $100 [10 ticks] in a day, per contract. But right now, I'm happy to make even half that, if I'm consistent.
And I'd be even happier if 90% of my DECISIONS seem correct, no matter what the outcome. I just need a better way to analyze correctness.
I've played around with sizing of targets and stops. But still not sure what's best. In general, I aim for 4 to 10 ticks and set my stop between 4 to 10, depending on how the set-up looks. I never move the stop back. And often push my stop up (and my target up) to secure wins and allow room to let winners run.
Still have to learn backtesting on Ninjatrader to see probabilities on target/stop options.
The basic set-up is a cross of the 13 EMA and the 20 SMA (when it's also clear of the 50, 100 & 200 MAs.) Bear or bull. Usually just the first wave or second wave, ideally entering when the bar straddles the 13 while price is within 5 ticks. I trade on a 1 min chart, with a 3 min and 15 min for broader confirmation. I also have a 1 minute ES chart which tends to lead the TF. And for more confirmation, I also use the vender's quant feed which signals to buy or sell on TF's intervals of 1/3/5/15 using 4 or 5 factors for each interval.
I'm wide open to comments, questions and suggestions. In particular, I'd love to hear from anybody playing the 13/20 cross, with any system.
Big THANKS to Big Mike for hosting this community. I've already learned a ton.
BE
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