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I would go to SIM trading at first no matter what you think, I thought I would learn with real money and it has stunted my growth for years as I was resistant to go to SIM trade to learn my edge and get chart time for my eyes. So no matter what the plan. please be smarter than I was and save yourself years by starting on SIM to develop your edge and system...it will pay off in the long run...as you get confident in your eye and style. find your edge, and risk/reward and grow that SIM account ...then after proven,, go to real money account.
Yes cant argue there , sure sim wont help deal with the emotions of live trading but it sure will help sharpen your edge and learn the process/method without the stress of losing money whilst doing so . Until you can string multi consecutive months of profitable sim you shouldnt go live . Something i wish i did in the early days
Domain skills and platform skills can and should be obtained in sim through 1000's of repetitions. At the four year mark last year I decided to go trade sim in parallel with my live trading, with the objective of doing a lot of reps and working on new strategies. What I learned from the process was very valuable. Meanwhile I was also continuing to trade live, at a lower level of intensity.
Psychological toughness or mental discipline needs to be developed in live trading, and you need this as much as the domain skills. Through losing small amounts of money again and again, and toughening and thickening your skin. This can take longer than getting the domain skills.
I think this is the part of learning to trade that really takes five years.
"Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up." -- Elon Musk
I completely agree on the use of SIM as mentioned above. I know there are many debates about the use of SIM and whether or not one should SIM vs real-time money trade, but SIM itself is just another tool for a trader to use too. You would do yourself a disservice by not using this free tool to the max. Now how you Use this tool in creative and advantageous ways is a whole different topic for another thread.
In trading, shortcuts lead to the longest path possible.
This is basically where i am at except i stopped trading real money due to the fact i kept breaking even and need to figure something else out. Im now at the point where I've had months of wins with sim but still feel like there is something i am missing. Everything that has been mentioned/suggested here has been done. I think my biggest issue really is finding time to properly look at charts the way i need to. I can look at charts at work but not the way i would like to when im at home that for me really is my last hurdle i think. Think aloud here feel free to chime in.
thank you for all the suggestions and help from all those who have participated!!
I would also like to say that in my trading journey there are many non-trading related books and experiences that helped me turn the corner too. For the longest time I just kept pounding through every trading book, seminar, trading course I could get my hands on, but I couldn't find the missing piece of the puzzle. I kept hearing the "holy grail" was in me... but what the hell does that even mean?
Talent Code by Daniel Coyle - I could not find what I was looking for through trading books so I started searching outside of trading to determine what makes the top performers in the world, the best at what they do.
**SPOILER ALERT**
It is intentional and focused practice.
Contrary to one might think, actual trading is not where the real growth happens. It is all the behind the scenes preparation and practice that makes top performers the best at their profession. It is the repetitive drills and unappreciated practice that makes performance great. Perfect practice makes perfect performance.
Another turning point is when I observed my wife who is a violinist spend nearly 80 hours a week practicing. She is not playing any recognizable music, but it just sounds like noise with the same sequence of notes being played over and over again, possibly hundreds of times at different speeds. She then spends maybe an hour actually performing in a concert, and quite beautifully I might add. Trading is no different.
What you lack in natural talent can be made up with practice. I have yet to meet a profitable trader who does not have considerable screen time. I don't mean trash screen time where you sit in front of the screen and search for indicators with no purpose thinking that this somehow adds to the magic 10,000 hours for mastery. The profitable traders practiced their setup so many times, they can actually start anticipating the setup.
It is like when an NBA player shoots a 3 point shot and before the ball goes in the basket they are already headed back to their side of their court to defend. Do not be fooled into thinking that this happened overnight.
Don't be like this guy (he had some amazing talent but he could have taken his career further with practice)...
In trading, shortcuts lead to the longest path possible.
An update: Hopefully this might be able to help someone in my similar position.
Over the past few weeks I've been looking at what my biggest issues with trading are and possible fixes/solutions.
Ive come down to 2 & 1/2 :
1) Trading RTH, like Ive mentioned before i can trade at work but it is hard to focus and am constantly interrupted..because well this is my day job. *Solution* Trade the 6E & 6J after 7pm EST I normally get home around 630 and by 7 I can be at the desk trading and re focused. I've been back testing with the 6E & 6J during these time periods and so far everything fits my trading plan. Only thing ive added to my plan is making show i have a news feed up, i know when i traded fx before news came in and would turn the market up and down for 20-30 minutes. I think this will be a good starter but will back test for awhile longer. If anyone has any other markets that move during the Asian session please let me know, i take more of scalp approach ( 4 tick t/p usually ) Ive been looking for liquid markets but if ive skipped any let me know
Thoughts on journal, should i have one journal for RTH & one for ETH or keep one for all trades ?
2) Next hurdle is market knowledge, and what i mean by the is knowing the CME/GLOBEX been spending some time on there sites but other then that I dont really have a good idea on where to turn? Any input??
3) and this has been and on going issue thats why it gets a 1/2 but it is psychology : Finished reading trade in the zone for the 2nd time, first time i wizzed through it and didn't take any notes this i got alot from it. It has really helped me with coming back from losers, before I knew my system worked and i could come back but i would still get that rock in your gut feeling. After reading this it helped me actually get past this.. any other book recommendations please let me know!!
Still not in any rush to begin trading live again, will be updating as i go
