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Afraid to Trade Live - Advice Needed


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Afraid to Trade Live - Advice Needed

  #11 (permalink)
 
amoeba's Avatar
 amoeba 
Sydney, NSW, Australia
 
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Trader146 View Post
Big drawdowns are one of the things I've been working on. I realize that it is highly unlikely that I could emotionally handle a $3600 drawdown. It also would bust a TST combine. But it is scale-able. If you'll notice, the very next day I was only trading 1-3 lots and only took 5 trades. And it was one of my better days. I had 100% winning trades that day and made $895.00, in less than two hours. So yes, I'm trying to scale things back so that I'll have a better chance of duplicating the result live.

Large drawdowns has been something that occurs too often for my taste. Hell, once is too often for me. But it has been occurring less frequently recently as I incorporate additional components to my strategy. However at this point, everything is a test, so I'm still willing to try things...in sim. Once proven and refined, I can make it part of my strategy if I choose.

As far as expectancy, Tradervue does provide those stats. Here are mine for the past 10 trading days:

Here are my stat for the past 90 days:



Thanks for your feedback.

From just looking at those stats, it would appear you have an edge you can work with. Like you mentioned about the draw downs, the key areas to monitor could be discipline and overall risk management. Build confidence so you know you will adhere to your risk plan and avoid single large losses of capital.

This might favor a trial of TST? There are many pros & cons for TST, but it will show you if you can maintain a disciplined trading plan, even if you have no interest in long term funding with them, for the small price of a combine trial you might learn something in an environment that introduces a few new variables over sim?

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  #12 (permalink)
 
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 iqgod 
Mumbai, India
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I made a post about this exact thing!






I used to be very very afraid AFTER there was a profit in hand. Here is how I would typically bail out ALMOST IMMEDIATELY following the breakout leading to profit. Every tick that went against me was a huge monster, my tummy muscles would contract as if bracing for a blow from a hidden enemy waiting to take out my stop.

Here are some examples:



Twitchy nervous fingers, unable to take the strain of a WINNER which MIGHT turn into a loser.

The way to solve this problem is simply to become well versed with YOUR strategy, and know about the market structure to be comfortable in the placement of the stop. This cannot be learned in sim, and has to be done in a small real account.

Here is a trade managed when there is confidence:



Here I waited for price to come to me and then entered on a valid setup at the EMA. My target was predefined - both these gave me confidence in the trade and in me.



Here are some crazy things that I was guilty of to FEED MY EGO and whenever I WANTED TO BE RIGHT:

Look at the huge stop to make one weeny tick winner:






Here is a proper risk reward ratio:




See the differences in both MY mindset and MY equity fluctuations? The market does whatever it does, but know what can be controlled and what can't.


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  #13 (permalink)
 
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 Blash 
Chicago, IL
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Trader146 View Post
Hello Fellow Traders,

I funded my account a year ago with $6000, when I thought I'd found a system that worked consistently. It was one posted here on nexusfi.com. The first week I traded it (on sim), I made over $3000. That Monday I started the process of opening a new trading account. By the time it was opened and funded, I had lost faith in this "cool new system" that I had found. Even its creator doesn't trade it anymore. And as far as my funded account, I've only made two trades from that account. One loser and one breakeven. That was a while ago. I haven't tried trading live again since. But now I'd like to.

But, I'm still under capitalized. I don't have money I can't afford to lose. That's why I'm afraid to trade live. That and the fact that I've lost so much money in the past. I finally learn how to trade, how markets really work, and now have no money to trade. I have been considering Topsteptrader but there are things I just don't like about that operation. I really just want to trade my own account. The results will be instantaneous, not 90 days down the road. But at least TST is an option.

Roland aka Trader146

Great work so far bro....

Keep this up and you will make it.

If I could offer a suggestion/advice please......

but first this...... Height in the NBA..... shear size, power and strength for NFL lineman.... a shorter stature in Olympic gymnastics .........are all advantages in those individual sport.... a comparable advantage in trading is account size... you can just withstand many more losses in a row and not be out of business.

My suggestion is: if you could risk less with each trade having the time to prove to yourself that live trading can be done with your account size and make the transition from sim to live the fear could be dealt with, harness and used to your advantage as valuable information.

ES CL and GC are the big shows in town...for sure we all know that...no need to explain. Maybe NQ too but it's just not quite in the same league as ES. I guaranty George Soros' traders trade ES and GC.... in fact I know they do....but I'm not sure they trade NQ.

But my point is have you considered Forex? Trading micro lots to cut your teeth in Live trading will go a long way to keep your $6k in the game until you get a handle on what you need to. Here is my screen shot of the Margin/Pip calculator in my FX acct. The yellow rectangle is the $ pip value on a micro lot. Divide that by 10 to get the tick $ value. The red arrow the required margin per micro lot. Peanuts. Pretty small huh? As an example, you can risk an entire average days range for under $25.00. 1% of $6000 =$60. This is perfect... you can risk 0.5% per trade ($30) and stay in business until you got this.

Please, I'm pulling for you man. Ego makes us want trade the big guns ES CL GC. Focusing on EURUSD GBPUSD AUDUSD USDJPY USDCHF and USDCAD (all super huge trillions in liquidity) will give you more than enough opportunity using micro lots.

All the pros that have been trading ES CL and GC for 20 years and have millions in their trading accounts love the fact that you are just coming off sim and jumping into their game.



Ron

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The steed of this Valley is pain; and if there be no pain this journey will never end.
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  #14 (permalink)
 Jumpup78327 
New York, New York/USA
 
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Live will be different with sim you proved that you can make money doing what your doing(assuming your getting filled somewhat realistically if limit offers go through your bid in a real account you generally not going to get filled on a limit where it's advantageous to you unless you are luck enough to be at the top of the queue) you will have a sudden Urge to take profit early or to enter early but you won't figure this out until you go live. I When you get the 4 or 5 straight losses Just go back to your months of sim trading this strategy is profitable so stick with it(assuming market conditions are similar)


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  #15 (permalink)
 
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 t0030tr 
Detroit, Michigan, USA
 
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I would definitely do the TST route. After a year or so in sim, what is another 30 to 90 days? If your system works, it will pass a combine. If you have a particular drawdown, do a combine that fits that drawdown parameters. As you know number 1 in this business to survive is managing risk and as we both know that is easier said than done. If you can get thru the combines, you will start making real money and the risk will become easier to deal with I am sure.

Good Luck

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  #16 (permalink)
 
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 Blash 
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TST has an add they run here on FIO once in a while.

It states the following:

TopStepTrader, We Take All the Risk.

I'm sorry but whoever is taking the risk is the one standing to profit from it.

Trading is all about Risk. There is no way around it.

They figured out a way to make you paid them to sim trade. And once you experience a perfectly normal trading drawdown they will make you sim trade some more.

Run.

Check out https://fundseeder.com/ if you are interested in heading this way.

Ron


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...My calamity is My providence, outwardly it is fire and vengeance, but inwardly it is light and mercy...
The steed of this Valley is pain; and if there be no pain this journey will never end.
Buy Low And Sell High (read left to right or right to left....lol)
Follow me on Twitter Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Reply With Quote
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  #17 (permalink)
 
t0030tr's Avatar
 t0030tr 
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Not familiar with fundseeder, but heard Jack Schwager is involved so that's a big plus in my book. TST is tough I agree, lots of rules that favor a blowout to out of winning trades due to trading hours, but it is possible to get funded having been previously funded by Patak as a prop guy myself.

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  #18 (permalink)
 Trader146 
Shreveport, LA/USA
 
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Blash View Post
Great work so far bro....

Keep this up and you will make it.

If I could offer a suggestion/advice please......

but first this...... Height in the NBA..... shear size, power and strength for NFL lineman.... a shorter stature in Olympic gymnastics .........are all advantages in those individual sport.... a comparable advantage in trading is account size... you can just withstand many more losses in a row and not be out of business.

My suggestion is: if you could risk less with each trade having the time to prove to yourself that live trading can be done with your account size and make the transition from sim to live the fear could be dealt with, harness and used to your advantage as valuable information.

ES CL and GC are the big shows in town...for sure we all know that...no need to explain. Maybe NQ too but it's just not quite in the same league as ES. I guaranty George Soros' traders trade ES and GC.... in fact I know they do....but I'm not sure they trade NQ.

But my point is have you considered Forex? Trading micro lots to cut your teeth in Live trading will go a long way to keep your $6k in the game until you get a handle on what you need to. Here is my screen shot of the Margin/Pip calculator in my FX acct. The yellow rectangle is the $ pip value on a micro lot. Divide that by 10 to get the tick $ value. The red arrow the required margin per micro lot. Peanuts. Pretty small huh? As an example, you can risk an entire average days range for under $25.00. 1% of $6000 =$60. This is perfect... you can risk 0.5% per trade ($30) and stay in business until you got this.

Please, I'm pulling for you man. Ego makes us want trade the big guns ES CL GC. Focusing on EURUSD GBPUSD AUDUSD USDJPY USDCHF and USDCAD (all super huge trillions in liquidity) will give you more than enough opportunity using micro lots.

All the pros that have been trading ES CL and GC for 20 years and have millions in their trading accounts love the fact that you are just coming off sim and jumping into their game.

Ron

Ron,

Thanks for your reply.

Quite honestly, I would love to be able to trade with less risk. And the micro lots sound like a great idea. But one of the components of my edge is my familiarity with the market I trade (which is CL). That has me concerned about switching markets.

I tried to go back to the ES when the CL was slow but there's just so much back and forth in the ES. I hate the way teh ES trades (most of the time).

I occasionally look at the currency charts to see if there are any readable patterns and I don't remember seeing anything that I considered readable. But I'll look again.

Thanks again for your feedback.

Roland

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  #19 (permalink)
 Trader146 
Shreveport, LA/USA
 
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Blash View Post

Check out https://fundseeder.com/ if you are interested in heading this way.

Ron


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I just checked out fundseeder.com and it doesn't appear that they provide funding for you to get started trading live. Am I missing something?

Roland

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  #20 (permalink)
 
Blash's Avatar
 Blash 
Chicago, IL
Legendary Market Chamois
 
Experience: None
Platform: NT8,NT7,TWS
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Trading: The one I'm creating in the present....Index Futures mini/micro, ZF
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Trader146 View Post
I just checked out fundseeder.com and it doesn't appear that they provide funding for you to get started trading live. Am I missing something?



Roland



No you are not missing anything. Fundseeder is just a more legitimate approach but you must prove yourself to obtain investors money to trade by trading your live account.

So one would register with them and link your trading account. Upon registering you get top notch professional tools to track your account for free whether you end up using the service or not. If they like what they see in your trading they take you thru their process.

Ron

...My calamity is My providence, outwardly it is fire and vengeance, but inwardly it is light and mercy...
The steed of this Valley is pain; and if there be no pain this journey will never end.
Buy Low And Sell High (read left to right or right to left....lol)
Follow me on Twitter Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Reply With Quote
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