Hi, I just got my elite membership today. Ill be starting a trade journal whereby I record my trades at the trading day's end. I trade primarily ZB, will be trading some ES, too. Ill do a little summary and then moving forward I suppose itll just be the journal. If any of this is in the wrong place just let me know.
btw I think the elite circle here and the rest of the forum are both great.
Bit about myself: I'm 18 years old, grew up in Canada, very poor my whole life. My family has struggled for the last...well a long time. My dad lost his job about 3 years ago, and we're currently unsure of the future. I've had to work for everything in my life, and trading has been the hardest endeavour yet. My mother has a mental illness, and so I matured rather quickly through the process of helping take care of her. Anyways, I'm a moderately fast learner depending on what it is. Fast forward to where I'm at now: I'm moving to New York with my girlfriend and bestfriend in September. Ill be going to NYU Stern assuming they give me at least 40k fin aid. If not, I have a full ride lined up at Fordham.
Now to trading: My experience has been rough, but it is getting much better. I initially started out in forex and lost all the money I had saved from my part time job. I was with a top grade bucket shop broker, Avatrade. I was supremely under educated. It was a painful experience I don't like to talk about lol. Anyways, after learning more over 8 months I got into futures, and I have traded futures for about 4 months. I'm continuing with paper trading for another month before I do a 50k combine. Realistically I'd be happy with replacing my part time job salary after passing the combine if I do. I make about 250 CAD after working 25 hours a week (this works out to be 6 or 7 shifts), which is practically the max one can get at my job. So I'd be happy if I made about $40 a day USD. I have a trading mentor as well. He told me from the start to leave forex, go into a regulated market, "f*** the charts" and go with volume. He is a very successful trader (the 1% or better). Ive finally took his advice and it has been going well. I just use jigsaw and an empty chart for confirmation. No indicators, just price action and order flow. Needless to say, this is far more effective. Right now if I don't trade a session I record it and watch jigsaw. I don't bother with Asian session, just record when I go to bed-when I wake up.
Lastly, my goals: my first goal is just to replace my brutal part time job pay. Then, as long as I'm successful over the next 8 months, I'd like to do the 150k combine around September or October. Eventually, if this goes well, I'd like to work in a prop shop for sometime. Ideally one of the 24 hour ones in New York. I may try to get an internship at one of the BB IB's in my junior summer at Stern or something, but I'm not huge on IB. Then after this & after college my friend and I (also on this site) want to start our own fund and expand into new sectors of trading & investment.
I'll end by saying that there is nothing I find more enjoyable than trading. Trading is a passion stronger than any I've had in other areas of my life. I love a challenge and something mentally stimulating, and bond trading fits in perfectly! Well, guess I'll start the journal now (mostly my own purposes but I'm open to criticism!).