While the numbers may look good, I am very disappointed with my performance. I made a lot of mistakes. It makes me feel like I'm regressing at times. It makes me want to put off starting a combine.

One thing I can say though, as bad as I feel about my performance, having TST loss limits has actually helped my trading. I find I am much more cognizant of my risk parameters and I stick to my stops. This has resulted in very small losses and allowed me to end the day green even when I had more losers than winners. That's new for me and a definite improvement, and I have TST to thank for that.

I've been a little negative on TST in the past but I'm really starting to appreciated it. It offers quite a bit of value for a certain group of traders, those that have reached profitability on SIM, are ready to go live, but are under capitalized. It also helps those who have trouble sticking to their stops, as you quickly learn that that's a deal breaker with TST. I'm in that group and I actually feel blessed that they exist, now that I understand that being under capitalized is also a deal breaker...at least for me.

Here are my TST screenshots.




In this month's TST newsletter the "Funded Trader Highlights" listed traders who had winning streaks (see below). I thought it was cool that my results were better but sim results usually are. Let's see what happens if and when I get funded.

I had 7 straight winning days and $3548.80

Hi

Impressive results. I am new to this forum and looking for a platform that just does not freeze.I am using Ninja trader and afraid to trade in real money.Any suggestions?
Thanks

Hey man, don't sell yourself short(if and when I get funded ) for what it's worth I've read this entire topic. And given that you've blown up once, and are still persistent enough to dust yourself off and go back to square one(sim trading). Shows that you are pretty much in this game for life. Because you truly respect and enjoy trading markets. Some people just know once they experience trading that it's something they will never put down. A lot have people have gone down the same path as you and given up. On to pursue another expensive hobby. Although most if not all of them didn't expect it to be so time consuming. Anyways you seem like you are making significant progress with your trading, be it a sim account or not. That still doesn't change the fact that your getting better, whether you know it or not. And that's pretty much what it boils down to. Your confidence level and attitude towards your own skills as a trader. If I could recommend anything to you it would be to read Steenbargers "trading psychology 2.0" There's a lot of good points he makes about changing ones habits and attitudes in that book. I've read it twice, and from time to time I put my iPhone on voiceover and just listen to random chapters from it. Don't second guess yourself, you will get funded one day if you make that your goal.

Hey @nb10071981,

Sorry for the delayed response. I've been struggling trying to get funded with OneUpTrader. But it hasn't happened yet. I've blown up twice. Why? The only thing I can trace it to is the reduced contracts and the tighter loss limits. I made the mistake of signing up for the "Beginner" account which limits you to 6 contracts and a $1250 daily loss limit instead of going with the "Professional" plan that allows you to trade up to 15 contracts and a $4000 daily loss limit. Now I know that there are going to be those that say "if you can't make money with 1 contract you can't make money with 10". But I have proof to the contrary. In reviewing my trading history in Tradervue, I lost money overall on most trades under 5 lots, but results improved exponentially from 5 lots up. And I'm taking about per contract returns, not just overall returns. I'll post screenshots below.

The problem I've been having is I'm being too cautious and tightening my stops too quickly, missing out on many good trades. I believe this is because there's a consequence to losing and because of the tighter loss limits. And the reduce ability to comfortably scale in and out of trades because of reduced contract availability doesn't help either.

Now I may be able to adapt to this tighter restriction but I don't want to. I'm just going to upgrade my account. Then I can trade comfortably with a lower percentage of my account size, loss limits and contract availability. Yes, it will take me longer to reach my profit target but at least I'll be trading in a way that has shown me positive results in the past. I need wiggle room. That's what works for me.

I'm sure there are those out there who will have something negative to say. But this is what works for me. That's all that matters. What you do is your business. More power to you. I probably could adapt to the tighter restrictions if I was happy making $50 - $100 per day. But that's not the results I'm use to so I find myself going for bigger targets when trading smaller size. I guess that's a consequence of having your P&L visible while trading instead of just watching ticks. My bad. But whats done is done. I have switched to ticks however. Hasn't helped yet.

But to be completely transparent, the main reason I blew up each time was because I refused to take another "small" loss, and ran out of room and contracts. I could have traded my way out of every big loss I had, if I had more room and more contracts to improve my cost basis. I'm use to scaling in as a trade goes against me, just like Big Mike, InletCap, and FT71 does. FT71 calls it campaigning. It works for me too when I have enough room and enough contracts. If you think it doesn't, just review Big Mikes trading journal. Check out how he trades. He scales in...averaging down in the process. Imagine what you could do with unlimited funds. You'd never have to take a loss. Just keep improving your cost basis. But you don't need unlimited funds. You just need enough.

But please...don't listen to me. I've only been profitable on sim and trading with money on the line is completely different, because you'll respond completely different. Even when it's just a reset fee on the line.

Here are my result by lot size. See how things improve on a per lot basis as my trading volume increased? It's not a coincidence.

Hey next time you are up during the EU session, open up the DOM for CL, study the order flow for a good five minutes. Then as soon as you see a shift in balance from offers to bids or bids to offers(more participants on one side of the book than the other, a significant shift, 200 contracts or more of imbalance at a minimum) place a limit order to either buy on the bid or sell on the offer depending on which side of the book is more populated. With your trades direction facing towards the more populated side of the book. (facing into the crowd) Place limit orders to take you out of the trade at a three tick profit. This sounds counterintuitive, trying to scalp three ticks trading into the crowd, but it works. The second you spot the auction shift in balance, place the limit orders facing towards the more populated side of the book. It's usually not hard to get filled because of the more dominant other side of the book, and for some reason the after that initial 1-2 ticks from the imbalance point. The large orders sitting on the other side of the book act like a magnet for price for at least 3 ticks. Try it on sim at first, once you get the hang of it you will be able to scalp at least 300 every night towards your combine. I usually run 3 contracts, so it's 90 each successful attempt. Some times I end up moving the limit orders to get out of the trade at 60$(2 ticks). After 6:00 am EST this technique usually dissolves, and if you continue to do this you will definitely get run over when the rest of the market wakes up.