NexusFi: Find Your Edge


Home Menu

 





Advice from traders with 5+years experience


Discussion in Traders Hideout

Updated
      Top Posters
    1. looks_one kronie with 14 posts (26 thanks)
    2. looks_two PowerBroker with 13 posts (8 thanks)
    3. looks_3 monpere with 8 posts (48 thanks)
    4. looks_4 Big Mike with 6 posts (22 thanks)
      Best Posters
    1. looks_one Jaguar52 with 28 thanks per post
    2. looks_two Private Banker with 17.5 thanks per post
    3. looks_3 GaryD with 11.8 thanks per post
    4. looks_4 monpere with 6 thanks per post
    1. trending_up 47,667 views
    2. thumb_up 349 thanks given
    3. group 43 followers
    1. forum 91 posts
    2. attach_file 2 attachments




 
Search this Thread

Advice from traders with 5+years experience

  #31 (permalink)
 PowerBroker 
DetroitMIUSA
 
Posts: 192 since Feb 2012

Would be appropriate if one was going trade on a 5k account size to start off next time in? Micro FX? I really never traded much FX before even when I was coming up. I supposed I could start to learn it though as I am not in this thing for anything other than to make money.

Reply With Quote

Can you help answer these questions
from other members on NexusFi?
Deepmoney LLM
Elite Quantitative GenAI/LLM
Are there any eval firms that allow you to sink to your …
Traders Hideout
My NT8 Volume Profile Split by Asian/Euro/Open
NinjaTrader
Exit Strategy
NinjaTrader
The space time continuum and the dynamics of a financial …
Emini and Emicro Index
 
  #32 (permalink)
 
kronie's Avatar
 kronie 
NYC + NY / USA
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: "I trade, therefore, I AM!"; Theme Song: "Atomic Dog!"
Trading: EMD, 6J, ZB
Posts: 796 since Oct 2009


Private Banker View Post
Thanks! I'm a huge fan of that movie and it was my inspiration for getting into the biz and working on the Street.

Great trivia question, you should've at least let me give a crack at it before you answered, lol! I was actually thinking this: "Oh, jeez, I wish you could see this … the lights coming up. I've never seen a painting that captures the beauty of the ocean in a moment like this. I'm going to make you rich, Bud Fox, rich enough you can afford a girl like Darien. This is your wake up call, pal. Go to work." Lol!

I agree with what you said about using good money management such as having multiple targets. I'm a firm believer in your success rate greatly increases when trading with multiple contracts. I break my positions into 1/3's and it really allows for removing risk as the trade progresses while ensuring a profitable or BE trade depending on how you structure your targets.

Obviously my $10,000/contract is extremely conservative and really just aimed at complete new traders that have zero trading experience. If someone has a relatively high probability set up coupled with sound money management like we just mentioned, I'm sure someone could trade with far less capital. And you're right, sometimes having too big of an account creates a false sense of security. I've seen guys blow through 6 figures like nothing. It's usually the guys that don't use stops or add to their losers on a strong trending market.

Anyway, great post!

Cheers,
PB

I like you!

finally!

someone understands what this life of trading in a box, can do to a mind

wow, I was thinking of that part of the quotation,

funny how everyone can see different aspects of the same picture

Reply With Quote
  #33 (permalink)
 
Private Banker's Avatar
 Private Banker 
La Jolla, CA
 
Experience: Master
Platform: Sierra Chart, X_Trader Pro, OptionsCity
Broker: Advantage, Trading Technologies, OptionsCity, IQ Feed
Trading: CL, NG
Posts: 1,038 since Jul 2010
Thanks Given: 1,713
Thanks Received: 3,863



PowerBroker View Post
Would be appropriate if one was going trade on a 5k account size to start off next time in? Micro FX? I really never traded much FX before even when I was coming up. I supposed I could start to learn it though as I am not in this thing for anything other than to make money.

I don't want to take over this thread and others should feel free to add their thoughts on this as well but for a $5k account, you could trade a few micro EUR/USD contracts that would allow for scale outs. The problem with those contracts is the commissions paid are high relative to the tick size I would imagine. So, your targets would need to be much more than your commission costs obviously. You could look at the NQ. The tick size is much smaller than say ES but there are still some great moves to be had there. Even ES can be traded as the volatility is pretty low. It really depends on what you're looking for and only you will know which market is right for you. But you have to pay attention to the volatility. A stop amount on a low vol day will not work when the crap is hitting the fan and the daily range is blowing through the roof. Right now, the ES is remaining within a fairly tight range but a few months back, it's range was something like Crude Oil's. You have to be reactive to that.

Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #34 (permalink)
 PowerBroker 
DetroitMIUSA
 
Posts: 192 since Feb 2012

Thanks PB.

I am in ES now and am doing fairly well on it on sim at about 3 points and day on what trades I take in there. I am studying the 15 minute charts now so that I can perhaps trade for higher points. however right now my method in there is working nicely for me if I just wait for it to come to me. The patients is the hardest part for me in the ES but I am mastering it because I know the set up WILL come.

The only other instrument I look at currently and trade daily is ZW and I'm making 5-10 points daily in there on sim again if I wait for it in the morning. It is very predicable and that's why I trade it. Gonna maybe start to look at corn a bit as well.

Reply With Quote
  #35 (permalink)
Paige
Gainesville, Florida, United S
 
Posts: 66 since Dec 2010
Thanks Given: 30
Thanks Received: 104

Kronie,

Forgive me, but this is a subject that I have serious problems with. I attempted to find an answer on another thread and all i got was stuff like "it's a personal preference thing".

No, I don't care how sucessful you (or anyone else) has been UP TO THIS POINT with this approach -- I want some type of logical argument that tells me that this is something more than admitting that you have absolutely no clue as to where price is headed and are hedging, hem-hawing and running scared.

Please look back at charts and previous trades -- and show me a point where it was the most profitable play to "scale-out"? If you can't find any, then it could not be have been the best play. Nor could it be in the future, could it?

At any given point in a trade, are there any two actions that may prove to be correct after all is said and done other than:

a. Hold/Add ?
b. Close/Reverse ?

"Scaling-out" seems like a cop-out (albeit a very commonly accepted/rampantly excused one) and an indication that the trader involved is quite indecisive -- assuming the trader (like most of us) is not trading enough size to risk moving the market considerably by closing-out in full.

I believe that "scaling-out" is "trading the money" --- as opposed to the market.

Peace,
Paige

Reply With Quote
  #36 (permalink)
 
Big Mike's Avatar
 Big Mike 
Manta, Ecuador
Site Administrator
Developer
Swing Trader
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Custom solution
Broker: IBKR
Trading: Stocks & Futures
Frequency: Every few days
Duration: Weeks
Posts: 50,396 since Jun 2009
Thanks Given: 33,172
Thanks Received: 101,537

@Paige, good luck trying to get the market to conform to your wishes or ideas.

I know it will not, which is why I scale out.

I think most traders that have been trading cash (not sim) for a long time realize there is more to the market than pure math. There is crowd behavior and psychology, not just with how the market reacts, but how you as an individual react.

While AIAO may be mathematically superior, it is not realistically superior from any trader I know personally. There are some traders on the forum however that swear by it (AIAO), which goes to show everyone is different.

The point is to do what works best for you.

Mike

We're here to help: just ask the community or contact our Help Desk

Quick Links: Change your Username or Register as a Vendor
Searching for trading reviews? Review this list
Lifetime Elite Membership: Sign-up for only $149 USD
Exclusive money saving offers from our Site Sponsors: Browse Offers
Report problems with the site: Using the NexusFi changelog thread
Follow me on Twitter Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Reply With Quote
  #37 (permalink)
snowbird123
Dallas, Texas
 
Posts: 18 since Mar 2012
Thanks Given: 0
Thanks Received: 2

I would also add to keep a trading journal so you can document each one of your trades and later analyze what you did right or wrong. Did you follow your plan? Did you get out of your trade too early? etc. This has helped me quite a bit.

Reply With Quote
  #38 (permalink)
 PowerBroker 
DetroitMIUSA
 
Posts: 192 since Feb 2012

I trade AIAO and it works for me. I like the in out quick (as possible) method I am using. Unless the market is really cooking and the PA and volatility is as such that you can perhaps get a nice runner so be it. Nothing wrong with taking off 80% at your PT and then moving to BE+1 and then running the last 2 out. At this point it's a win win and still a free trade with money in the bank.

If the market is NOT really moving good then the extra added stress and anxiety of try to run is just not worth it to me. As I 've said before it's 0 drama, 0 stress, and 0 complications and I ain't lookin for any..LOL

I will say that if you are using a trailing ATR stop on the right chart settings with the right time frame the runner method can work perhaps very well. I imagine it would take the emotion out of it at that point if you have moved to BE+1. I have not played with that as of yet though. Anyone?

Reply With Quote
  #39 (permalink)
 PowerBroker 
DetroitMIUSA
 
Posts: 192 since Feb 2012


Quoting 
The point is to do what works best for you.

Amen Mike

TO many traders are getting caught up in trying trade like another trader. I seriously believe that can get you in trouble at some point. I would say take bits and pieces from different methods and make one for yourself then master it. I know since I have done this everything is now finally starting to gel as it were and I am becoming more CP by the day.

Reply With Quote
  #40 (permalink)
 
GaryD's Avatar
 GaryD 
Orlando, Florida
 
Experience: None
Platform: shoes
Trading: happy
Posts: 6,462 since May 2011



jsd45 View Post
I graduated college and have been trading for about 7 months....For the more experience traders, what are somethings you did as rookie trader that you look back on and wish you hadn't? Any other advice would be greatly appreciated to...


1) Traded live before I had 5 years experience.

If I could sum it up, that would be it.

I consider myself a "trader" now, but that term involves so many things that I never would have thought of when I started, more things than could ever be explained until you experience them. Almost like asking what does it take to be a man. Experience, experience, experience. Get to where you believe you understand trading, and then to where you decide that you realy don't understand it, and then to where you really do get it this time, and then doubt yourself again... Until you find your niche.


2) Went into trading with a need to make money

There is something in the mind that causes a need to be profitable to become your greatest enemy in actually being profitable. Play with it, get comfortable, relax, forget the money. Make your losses an amount that means no more to you than blowing a few bucks on a night out. Focus on trading correctly, finding your way, not on making money.


3) Did not initially take the time to understand chart analysis and market behavior.

I trade very small moves, but I always keep a view of longer timeframes and where the motion might be inside those. Any "edge" is a good one, and sometimes having a clue where the markets may go over the next few days can be what makes all the difference. Learn where support ans resistance might come in, why it comes in in those areas, what it looks like when it works and what it looks like when it doesn't. Use that knowledge to limit the conditions under which you will be willing to take a trade.


4) Tried to trade multiple markets.

Pick a market, a chart setting, a screen layout, a few indicators, and become an expert at those and those alone. Get to where you know your charts and settings inside and out, forwards and backwards. Know what causes your indicators to do what they do. Even though I read that chart analysis works on "any market any timeframe", I know from experience that it works at least somewhat differently on nearly every timeframe and every market.


5) Had little patience and unreasonable expectations

Sure you can make huge amounts of money as a trader. At 7 months though, you are easy prey. If someone is going to make money trading, they can only do it by someone else losing money. Get into your head that as a new trader, you are going to get your butt kicked, for awhile. Think of trading as a game of survival where your challenge is to just figure out how to not get killed. That is step one. Then slowly turn the experience you gain from that into a way to possibly make a few dollars here and there. Scraps. Over time you can build the knowledge base required, but time is the key word.

6) Thought win percentage was the only way to go

Keep you winners larger than your losers. That one rule, if you can make yourself do it (holding winners can often prove harder than holding losers), will give you the best chance of coming out ahead over time. If your winners are at least two times the size of your losers, and if you can be right 50% of the time, basically a coin toss, you will make money.


7) Tried to trade too much, too often, all the time

The market moves constantly, and new traders seem to see that as constant potential. Wrong. There are times when you have a far better chance of an outcome, and until you know when and where that works FOR YOU, keep your hands off the mouse.


8) Ignored the power of simulated trading

I recently set a friend up with a simulated account. After a few days he said he lost interest in it because it was not real money. That is normal, and the desire to get into the game takes over quickly. But trading requires practice, and during that practice you will lose money. I am not saying it is not beneficial to lose real money, that I believe is a requirement, a rite of passage. But if you can find the determination to focus on learning, not making money, if I had it to do over that is where I would start.



Good luck. Trade SAFE.

Reply With Quote




Last Updated on April 16, 2012


© 2024 NexusFi™, s.a., All Rights Reserved.
Av Ricardo J. Alfaro, Century Tower, Panama City, Panama, Ph: +507 833-9432 (Panama and Intl), +1 888-312-3001 (USA and Canada)
All information is for educational use only and is not investment advice. There is a substantial risk of loss in trading commodity futures, stocks, options and foreign exchange products. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
About Us - Contact Us - Site Rules, Acceptable Use, and Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy - Downloads - Top
no new posts