Hello all,
I have decided to start a paper demo journal to progress my trading as I feel it is the only true way to develop my self after a year of failed trading. I am relatively new to the trading scene I started trading forex but soon realized that it is a very sketchy market to trade and I must trade an instrument that is better regulated so I have decided to come to futures trading and re-new the way I trade.
I currently live on the west coast and am focusing on the first 3-4 hours of the open 8:30 Central. My chosen instrument is the NQ and I my trades will be intraday. I can trade that time 2 weeks every month since I work a rotating schedule of morning and late shifts at the hospital. My goal is to hopefully become a full time trader. Like many of you I see it as a way out from the rat race. My current job pays very well and I have great benefits but it is a golden handcuff/cage and I yearn to break free.
My trading style will to take intraday trades off of volume profile. I will look at past days to see how the VPOC shifts to find the best prices to take trades.
I will try my best to post my analysis every night before I go to bed but I apologize in advance to any future readers if I do not. My starting paper account size will be 25k as that is the amount I will go live with in the futures if I ever get there.
I will keep it simple in the beginning. 3 lots (3 SL @ 10 ticks, 1 TP @ 10 ticks & 2nd TP @ 20 tick & 3rd SL @ 30 ticks). This mechanical trading will hopefully cement good habits. At 3 lots and 10 ticks stop out I will only be risking $150 which is a less than 1% of trading account.
For my first week I will just post my analysis and not take any trades. I want to see what actually happens vs my analysis. I do not want to take any trades off my analysis for a month or 2. In the meantime I will test a hypothesis about taking trades using a random flip of a coin and the results with 2 lots in 2 different scenarios. (This was taken off FuturesTraders71).
scenario 1: 2 lots- 10 SL, 2 lots - 10 TP
scenario 2: 2 lots- 10 SL, 1 lot- 10 TP & 1 lot- 20 TP
Once the price hits either SL or TP, i will wait 30 seconds to flip again. I will document results at the end of 2 weeks.
The purpose of random coin flip is to gauge whether or not I can be a trader. SIMPLE as that. Can i let the price ride to TP or SL without moving anything on a demo account? Sounds easy but difficult for many people from the high failure rate in trading.