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I have not posted recently to this forum, but after much homework I think I may be ready to go live. I have been in sim mode for a 14 months after position trading for 3 months. For those 3 months I did well despite not really knowing what I was doing. I just happened to catch a PM breakout in the fall of 2010. I tripled my account in 2.5 months. Then I proceeded to lose most of my profits, on which I had to pay taxes!
I committed myself to no more trading until I could get consistent in sim mode on an intra-day basis. I remember constantly resetting the sim account button because I lost, lost, lost. Now I do not reset the simulator. It actually surprises me that I do not reset that thing! I am consistently profitable in sim mode, which makes me think I am ready for live trade.
I know raw emotion will be there of which sim mode is lacking at times--though I pressed myself to make it as real as possible, to me.
I am nervous. I feel a year's worth of arduous work is on the line. My plan is to start with a single contract until I get used to the emotion of live trading. This is my goal: To execute according to my written plan, both entries and exits.
Any suggestions from experienced players with respect to handling your sensibilities in live trade?
I have seen so many new traders spend months developing and testing a plan ... going live... and as soon as the first trade goes against them... the plan goes right out the window and they promptly blow up their account.
I grew up in a military family. My father told me .... "Son, self discipline doesn't mean not being scared...it means being scared shitless and still do what you were trained to do."
It's easier said than done.
Good Luck!
I'm just a simple man trading a simple plan.
My daddy always said, "Every day above ground is a good day!"
Congrats on honing your skills via sim for that long a stretch. I've done "some" losses live, so I can tell you it's another set of skills of live money management and honoring stops and probably most important of all learning to take small live losses and be able to move on from there. Maybe have a daily and weekly live goal. And also a daily and weekly limit loss. Maybe a good initial goal would not be to bust a weekly gain.
Also, Futurestrader71 had a nice 2 hr webinar recently on risk and stop management if you haven't already seen it. I think it could be helpful to watch it before going live. Trading Webinars, Trading Videos - [AUTOLINK]Big Mike Trading[/AUTOLINK] Forum
If you don't have elite membership. I would highly recommend you to do so in order to watch that webinar and others and a bunch of elite threads and webinars. Plus they have awesome elite indicators and methods such as Perry's method continuation. TMFT even has a few indicators posted in the elite downloads, hehe.
Good luck.
Also check out some of the journals here if you haven't done so. Some of them are on live, maybe.
Thanks all for the insight. Next week I will go for it.
I simulated 1, 2, 3, and 4 contracts. At times I did 5 and 6, but that is not realistic for me. It was more for fun and practicing taking on larger size when I was doing well.
I think this is solid advice.
It's much different to trade 3 or 4 contracts and to be able to scale in and out than 1 contract.
With 1 you've gotta be right.
I would also suggest you limit the number of trades you make according to your system (not more than 3 and preferable just 1 trade a day). In this way you learn the patience to wait for the best setup. If you type out your set-up rules and go through them like a checklist before take-off, you'll know if you followed your plan.
Understand now you get the emotional part of your education. Have to go live at some point. The emotional side of trading is what can be so brutal. But emotions can be mastered. Only way to learn to deal with them is to walk through the different highs and lows trading brings. If you enter this knowing it will be an emotional roller coaster will help you immensely.
So get ready to feel elated and at times very low. When it happens remember it is normal but must learn to filter out both. Eventually if you survive you will have ice cold blood and feel very little from trade to trade.
This is probably one of the hardest things you will ever do but is worth it.
Good luck.
"The day I became a winning trader was the day it became boring. Daily losses no longer bother me and daily wins no longer excited me. Took years of pain and busting a few accounts before finally got my mind right. I survived the darkness within and now just chillax and let my black box do the work."
