After seeing Big Mike discuss the importance of keeping a trading journal, I am going to participate.
I just got done watching the webinar "Afternoon w/ Mike" and realized I am not even at a point to yet to begin trading( so many more questions, ie should I auto or discretionary, should I not go through with Ninja-Trader and research more on platforms, etc). The webinar made me think more, which is good.
I started out with 2500 bucks in optionsexpress(i just used them because I bank with Charles Schwab and was curious about futures and fell in love with them) and lost 1100 trading the ES. Yes after coming here, big mistake...need much more money to trade it. I was trading it just by using the MACD and RSI. My trades would last probably 2 minutes on average and probably placed 40 trades to lose the 1100(I started out 7-0, good ol beginners luck).
Now I am done using optionsexpress. I opened a NinjaTrader demo account and thought they would be good since the lifetime license + decent commission rates + brokerage now, but am having second thoughts on the idea of NinjaTrader having too much control(brokerage + platform). I also think they may be spreading themselves thin, money is now tied up into brokerage so platform may end up suffering. So I think I need to reassess this and who knows I may end up with them. So far though, they have been good. Good customer support(quick replies) and haven't had problems with the platform yet.
Before I begin trading, I will have to answer the following questions along with rationale behind them:
1) Which broker and platform did you choose and why ? I have a demo account with Ninja, but now I want to wait and research more....one of the problems I have with this is that I am too inexperienced to know what I want out of a platform haha, but I still need one to trade. Good ol Catch 22.
2) Are you going to go with Auto, Mechanical, or Discretionary ? Right now I am leaning towards auto because of my work, but again I just don't know enough. I do acknowledge Mike saying the infinite pitfalls Auto presents. Working with code the past 7 years, every change you make can completely screw something up.
3) Which Instrument will I use ? I am leaning on moving from ES to m6E (learned this from another video, I think I can use 6250 to allow for 1% of capital trades.
Long term goal-4/1/16:
Full time trader within a year, I am single, no kids, and like Mike do not like working for others. I know in 1 year it is aggressive, but I would rather aim high, plus I have a 9-5 which helps push me :) I have been a software engineer for 7 years and have not found a technology that I am passionate about, however with auto-trading and the idea of using C#(if I stick with NinjaTrader) is very interesting to me. I think it is realizable for me to put in 4 hours per day during the week and then on the weekend I think I can do 12's. I know some of the guys here probably do 12 X 7, I already know I am cool with that. My calculations show that I could have roughly 2112 hours into trading by next year.
I think that should be enough for me to have a few solid strategies that win > 55% of the time (compensate for commissions). If that doesn't work out, screw it, 4/1/17 is what I meant to say :)
Short term goals-4/6/15:
1)Code up a strategy from Trade Chart Patterns like the Pros by next Monday(get more solid grasp with NinjaScript, even if
I end up with different platform still good lesson)
2) Have Platform and Broker figured out.
I know I did not discuss a strategy yet or have shown charts, but my goal is to write daily and discuss any info that interested me or have questions on. Enough of my ramblings tonight! Just typing this stuff out helps solidify things.