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I have recently joined this community with intent to improve my trading and, like many, learn and become CPT (consistently profitable trader). Over time, I will add entried here to document my journey and to contibute so anyone in a similar position to me can benefit.
I'm really excited about this as it's been brewing in my head for a while.
Follow me along if you like. Here is my plan.
1/ Create a trading plan (in progress)
2/ Select and enable brokerage/clearing/trading accounts (researching)
3/ Select tooling (researching)
4/ Paper trade for a limited amount of time to learn the chosen tools etc
5/ Live trade on a small account with either micro contracts or on products that allow small risk exposure
6/ Track my progress in a journal
7/ Once consistency is proven, scale up
8/ Have fun
Thats about a good a plan as you'll see , started in a fantastic way , Good luck but with a plan like that you should be able to conjure up some of your own luck . Detail and measure everything
Thanks. Part of the effort is figuring out what to trade and times etc. Plus obviously the setups and approach to risk management. All part of the game I guess. I have peviously traded very discretionary (almost by feel) with varying results and have learnt my lessons. Now doing the work to treat this like a business, rather than a game.
I noticed you're using PRT - I use it on my IG account ... but have found it too slow in executing orders. How do you find it?
My current shortlist of platform is either MC/Jigsaw or OEC/Jigsaw or Sierra/Jigsaw combo.
Just some thoughts on platforms that I have investigated. All IMO of course.
NT8 is also a possibility but have heard there are stability issues etc. UI is really nice and has plenty of community support and custom indicators. Price is a bit of an issue for me.
IRT is extremely nice and clearly has very sophisticated volume analysis which I like. Price is an issue - it's probably the most expensive platform once you account for all the modules you'd need to get to do it properly. But easily one of the most sophisticated charting packages out there.
Sierra is actually very good. Very sophisticated and has tons of customations, custom extensibility and price is reasonable. Only issue for me is that it requires a separate login (and cost) for data if using together with Jigsaw. Still might be a good overall combo even with the extra login charge.
MC is very nice and if going through AMP you get it for free and it works nicely with Jigsaw. Have heard that while AMP offers a low cost approach there have been some stability issues around it's platform and data feeds. So I wonder if this is a case of "you get what you pay for"? Otherwise MC is great as a charting package and has tons of functionality.
OEC/S5 Trader etc seems that all brokers have this option as a white labeled platform. Looks similar to MC in some ways and is free and works with Jigsaw. I have heards about some slowness around the trading interface and while I have no experience with this platform it's a little hard to evaluate this.
In terms of markets, I like the highly liquid but slower moving markets and have had a fair amount of success with trading the FTSE100 although that one requires a larger size account due to margin requirements.
For this effort my current plan is to trade the following:
Account size (starting capital) would be $5000 but only trading demo initially untill familiar with chosen platform, then switch to limited risk products to maximise time in market.
My general trading approach can be characterised as support/resistance/breakout/continuation. I think my edge will come from using more sophisticated analytics and DOM while being patient and following the process. The process I follow is this:
Understand the big picture fundamentals first (pre-market). For example, if looking at FTSE100 check any critical news, fundamental events in related markets, check state of GPB/USD (inverse correlation to FTSE due to many mining stocks occupying the FTSE which trade in USD).
Determine intraday technicals and key sub/res levels usually on both daily and 1H time charts (or potentially consider using volume profile for those as well). Also determine current trend, any pivots or gaps.
On open, trade into trend not agaist it. I have found that the first 10min usually determines the direction the FTSE will take for open session.
While in-trade risk is managed with fairly tight stops. FTSE rquires 10-15 points, but other markets will be calculated differently. The thing I have learnt about risk is that the stop distance divided into the total amount of risk you wish to take per trade is a better measure of risk. So let's say you only want to take 1% of risk per trade on a 5k account, that's $50 total. So a $10/tick market will have a max 5 tick stop per contract. This clearly determines size and manages risk nicely.
Run the trade until Reason2Exit. I use this like a list of exit conditions. For example, logical level reached or price exhaustion visible or held bid/offer in DOM etc. If you see any of those then exit. Obviouly the list is more exhaustive than that.
Journal everything and record screen to review later. I have struggled with this previously so need to find a nice tool that makes this seemless and has all the stats that can be used to identify weak areas or issues.
Repeat and keep it simple.
Was also thinking of doing an end of week review on Sat/Sun to see if any obvious improvements can be made.
Schedule on days where I'm off work or at home:
Aus day time session (10am-12pm): Nikkei225 index futures (has a nice balance of liquidity, speed and volatility)
Aus post lunch: homework & research
Aus afternoon session (5:00pm - 6pm) - UK session open EuroStoxx50 or Bund/Bobl/Schatz (I have been monitoring the Dax but it's too thin and has a tendency to rip like a bat outta hell.
On days where I can only trade evenings:
(8pm - 10:30pm) homework and pre open research
(10:30pm - 11:30pm) trade US treasuries open (30/10/5 notes)
Sounds like a well thought out plan. Don't get impatient, let the trades come to you and, most important, don't forget the Number 8 part of your plan!!
PRT works fine for my style of trading , i am more of an intraday swing trader targeting 50% plus of daily range in 1 trade rather than relying on high speed scalping . ASX200 i generally only do 1 trade a day . PRT is perfect for me and allows me to write code to measure what i require easily and produce complete systems .
ASX mornings are perfect as many days >80% of days range is done by 11.30am , This is where measuring everything is handy helping dictate the best times to trade . High volatility periods are really the only times worth sitting in front of screen all day
Treasury futures are great so i think you are targeting good instruments , bit of macro and correlation involved although not super required if you are just scalping although knowing what data moves treasuries is important so get a handle on that
