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Need advice on starting with the ES


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Need advice on starting with the ES

  #21 (permalink)
 marketvoyager 
Florida
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NinjaTrader
Trading: ES
Posts: 110 since Sep 2014
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SilverFut View Post
If you are looking for books -
(Google first 2)
"Markets and Market logic"
"Mind over Markets"

"Secrets of a Pivot Boss" - By Franklin O. Ochoa.

There are many other great book around. It all depends on the info your are chasing to learn. Then its up to you to see if that style fits you mentality and trading style. Most of them are not free or cheap. If you get stuck, do a search for any online linked libraries in your state/country. There might be some resources around that you can reserve and get sent for pick up from your local library if they offer such a service.

I don't necessarily think anyone is saying your lost yet. Just trying to point out there are a lot of other things to take into consideration on the way to achieving your goals. Its great to have confidence in yourself but this is one life choice where if you can't back that up with real action in real time, it comes back and bites you hard. This financial path is littered with many many people who fell by the side because they didn't understand or respect the risks enough. Its easy to say you have good money management in sim but when your in a hole at the end of the week going through funded trader with the stress of missing out, that is where your real life discipline will pay off. By not having capital yourself, you are essentially in the hole from the beginning with your head on the chopping block at the mercy of the risk management team of the funded trader program once you make it through. I would guess that the funded trader program is not free each time. There might come a time where instead of repeatedly trying to get funded it might be better to put those funds to a more productive use for books or getting your own small account up and going. I don't imagine that these programs are put in place to take losses while the trader learns from their mistakes but are based of repetitive performance bench marks.
The other thing to keep in mind is that most funded trader programs require you to prove yourself for XX weeks prior to you getting funded. It then takes one bad week and you can be kicked back to the proving ground all over again.

You would be well served to listen closely to the advice some of the more seasoned traders on this forum are willing to give you (For free). Just reading through their previous posts on this forum has helped me heaps since I joined.



As for getting some practice with some real money on the line to train your trader psychology, (This is not ideal) but if you are under capitalized and not able to open a futures account, you could look into executing trades on a micro S&P contract through a FX broker but use your futures platform and real time data to make the trade decisions from. I have no idea what the spreads or fills would be like and the quote is out it looks like by about 10.25 points but seems to be consistently out (??).

The other option is to find a futures broker who will let you open with a reasonable min balance and trade E-micro futures. You would want to check out liquidity for any of these micro contracts you trade and maybe trade accordingly.

Hope this is of some help

Thanks for the advice, I will take it and put some of it into practice. But, you somewhat make the topstep program sound very hard, unrealistic to achieve, and it might be, I don't know, but I think its doable and very realistic. Trading is much easier for me now, its no longer this impossible and illusive activity that felt more like a lottery gamble. I don't win as much as I should, I make mistakes, but am learning. For example, now I am working more on when to avoid the market, to know when its likely to be choppy and when it will likely fool me with indecisive moves.

Right now, I aim to pass the ten day $150k account with topstep, I would get three lots and a $3k loss limit. All I need is $100-200 a day, that's 1 or 2 points with two lots on the ES. Usually I make $400 with two lots in the mornings, but I found that if I trade over three hours, I eventually start getting it wrong, so I avoid that.

I am very close to being financially broke if not already, but its not because of trading or because of bad decisions, I just had some very bad luck on personal things I will not talk about, and my current job only provides for the basic ends to meet, but I don't need much. But for this reason, for my lack of current opportunity elsewhere, I will take it very seriously, specially risk, and I hope to prepare for that so that my trading will truly reflect it. What I plan on doing is to read two more books, probably Dalton and Mark Douglas, then refine a trading plan and strategy, buy this membership, test the indicators and the elite posts on the ES. Then carefully select my days when starting the test, observe mostly, being careful. Once I pass, if I do pass, then I will do the same, just aim for 1 or 2 points, and that's it. I will not consider micro's or forex. I was told risk management at topstep is highly objective, they measure performance but give some room, don't test for hidden metrics, except maybe the average holding time for winners vs. losers, and the average winning amount vs losing amount per trade, but one obviously should get these covered if one wants to succeed.

But, I am not ready, I still make very obviously bad trades from time to time, trades that would wipe a big chunk of the gains already made and that I know afterwards that they where very obviously bad trades, but no big loses so far. The other thing is, how will I actually think when trading for real, will I keep my cool like I do on sim, or will strong emotions take over and blur my mind over the sometimes difficult to see facts on the charts and on risk management? That is my biggest unknown, and am looking for ways to control this now, maybe with trade psychology education. Since this is one of the few chances I have to make some much needed income right now, one not to be lost, I will take it very seriously, but will this work in my favor in trading well or against it? I don't know yet. But you somewhat make the topstep program sound very difficult to achieve, and I think its not, I think its exactly the same if not easier to achieve than trading on a private account of your own, you got to perform well anyways, and not trading your own cash is an advantage if the rules truly favor discipline and good execution but also give some room for mistakes, and this is what topstep provides in my opinion, I could be wrong, not an expert on trading metrics, you tell me.

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  #22 (permalink)
 cogito 
Washington DC
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: InvestorRT
Broker: TD Ameritrade, AMP/CQG
Trading: ES
Posts: 206 since Aug 2014
Thanks Given: 74
Thanks Received: 269


marketvoyager View Post

Right now, I aim to pass the ten day $150k account with topstep, I would get three lots and a $3k loss limit. All I need is $100-200 a day, that's 1 or 2 points with two lots on the ES. Usually I make $400 with two lots in the mornings, but I found that if I trade over three hours, I eventually start getting it wrong, so I avoid that.

There are couple of ways to preserve the money.

1. Wait until the opening volatility dies out
2. Trade only when you see a trend

Try trading on your sim account only between the hours of 10:30AM/11:AM to 3:30PM eastern. See if that helps control the drawdowns.

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  #23 (permalink)
 
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 Tymbeline 
Leeds UK
Market Wizard
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Tradovate
Broker: Tradovate
Trading: MES, MNQ
Frequency: Several times daily
Duration: Minutes
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marketvoyager View Post
Someone recommended Al Brooks, said he was the best price action trader he knew about, he has a live trading room, but he never really makes trades there and I am not so sure if he is for real or reliable

I've never seen his (or any other) live trading room at all, but he's certainly the real thing, and reliable, in my opinion. His books (though far from "easy reading") are outstanding, and I think his online course (much simpler) is also very good indeed. I certainly believe that he's a very good price action trader.


marketvoyager View Post
Right now, I aim to pass the ten day $150k account with topstep

For me, that would be the hardest of the lot to pass, I think.

I'd much rather spend the $400 on two and half months of the 50k continuous and trade two lots, leaving some room for error and plenty of time to reach the far lower target.

Sorry if I sound critical, but I really think you're perhaps making it pretty difficult for yourself, there, aiming to reach a far higher target in a far shorter time by trading 3 lots.

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Last Updated on October 14, 2015


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