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I have been trading for a while. More than a year. I'm mostly a price action trader and I've gotten pretty decent at what I do. I recently started a journal in elite circle by the name of Ali's den. It lasted close to two weeks. I had a win percentage of a staggering 85 percent consistently over a period of 14 days. and I took over 600 trades in all and i traded no more than a single contract at any given time. mostly crude oil and nasdaq 100 futures.
but that was in paper money. somehow i just cannot seem to replicate demo trading results in the live account. this isn't to suggest i am not a profitable trader live. I am. except my live performance is no where near as good as demo. I know, most of it is psychological in nature, unless there's something very spooky going on in the markets.
so what can I do to improve my live trading performance?
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
At least you notice there is a difference. Many people refuse to admit there is a difference between sim and real. So you've made that realization, and that is great.
I'll make the assumption that your simulator is accurate regarding fills, etc. You should verify that before trying this experiment. For example, when you place a limit order, do you seem to be put in the queue like you are in real trading? That is very important.
Here is something you could try: Record yourself in live trading for a few days - you talking about what is going on, while showing the screen. Then, do the same with demo trading. You could even alternate demo/real days. Get about 3-5 days of each.
Assuming that your performance is different on sim/real days that you recorded...
Then, go thru each recording, and see what the differences are. I bet a lot of things just jump out at you - things you could change. Write them down, and review them each day before live trading.
If you try this, come back with your list of differences, and I'm sure people here will give you specific advice on each item you've found.
Are you following your trading plan exactly the way you did when you demo traded or are you making trading decisions based on the fact real money is at risk?
"The days when I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, I have really good days" RW Hubbard
CL and NQ are also thin slippery products. Psychological differences aside, there are fundamental differences that even if you execute perfectly you will end up with slippage. Most of the time sim will fill your order right at the limit or stop price. Also if you are entering at market or with stop orders sim will be different than live.
Hey, I just made a post related to this. Also check out the post by george, trading pyschology and how the mind works I-IV.
"I think the reason why traders will have an easy time on sim but get roughed up live, is because when on sim they are not thinking of money, it just doesn't come into the equation, so they aren't viewing markets through their potential negative beliefs or "scarcity filters" about wealth and don't have the negative sabotaging emotions."
Understanding yourself is just as important as understanding markets.
One of the things that helped me, is that I hide dollar figures, I only count points. Only show points on my DOM, and only update my performance record after ending trade for the day.
