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This is the beginning of what I hope to be a rewarding journey.
Where am I starting from.
I have been interested in the market since I was at least a teenager. Before the internet I would read books and look at the market when I had the chance. I opened an etrade account in the late 90s. I had success trading stocks but did not have the capital to make big advances. In 1999 I bought a stock for 1 dollar and within a couple of months it went to 2 dollars. I sold and was very happy. That stock went to 94 dollars within a year. That was the last trade I made for years. At that time I began to buy real estate. It was an easy way to leverage money. within years my net worth climbed to 650k. During that same time I continued to trade stocks with my 401k. I have always been able to see the dips in the market and have made great profits using index funds and timing the market. When the 2008 recession hit I also seen it coming but had all this real estate that I was sitting on. I stock piled cash and held on for the ride. Although I did not lose it all I could have very easily lost the shirt off my back. the real estate I could not easily sell but my mutual funds I simply pushed a button and it was put in to a stable fund. So during all that I doubled my fund value and halved my real estate value. The lesson I learned there was that liquidity is a wonderful thing.
Fast forward to 2014 after picking myself up and dusting off. I am back to the market but this time I am hopefully a little wiser. I have been slowly getting back into market training. The passing of my father a year ago has delayed me but I am ready to get back to the grinder. I have changed jobs and am organizing my life so that I will have 2 to 3 days off a week during market hours.
Where am I going.
My end goal is of course is to learn to trade to a level that will replace my current income. I also stand to inherit a substantial sum of money in the future so I have a responsibility to learn investing on all levels. I believe that if I learn the market at a micro level it will serve me to understand the big picture as well.
As of now I understand that it will take a long time to become a profitable trader. I always over study things before I go out and try them for real. My goals are crude at this point but I will write them down for future reference.
1. learn to sim trade as soon as possible.(1 to 3 weeks)
a. learn ninjatrader sim trading(1 week)
b. develop crude indicators based on knowledge I already know and reading forums(3 weeks)
2. learn the financial side of day trading(2 to 8 weeks)
a. how much is needed
b. what are the costs(platform, data, trades)
3. What will I trade
a. at this time ES seems to be the answer
my advantages:
1. Financially stable
2. at least 2 days a week for real time simulation
3. I see patterns that most do not
4. prior experience trading
5. Very technical with prior programming experience
6. after sifting through all the data I usually come out with the simple way to accomplish a task
my disadvantages:
1. Emotions
2. I always over analyze everything
3. I can get discouraged
What I have done the last month:
1. At least 20 hours a week searching for the answer.
2. within the last week I have found Big Mikes forum and have moved forward more than the last month in the last few days. I believe this is the environment I can learn from.
What have I done tonight:
1. 4 hours learning ninjatrader. learned to sim trade the ES. Sim traded indicators I know and came out $87.5 to the good. I am hooked.
2. started my journal.
Wow, reading your post is like reading my own experiences, with just a few circumstancial differences! amazing how similar!
I got started as a teen in the early 1990's,
Quit for awhile until 2000 when I put in a couple trades but stopped.
My dad died in 2010, but from 2000 to 2012 my career kept me "busy" but profitable (as a programmer)
Picked up some really solid cash the past two years
got back into trading at the start of summer, my goals were all the same as yours.
Your advantages and disadvantages are exactly like mine when I started, word for word...
A few things I've learned over the summer that you might find helpful to speed you up and to slow you down.
1. When you think youre ready to stop sim, don't, prove to yourself you really get it by trading sim with live data until you are really profitable, don't rush it.
2. Try all the various methods, see which one works for you best:
PAT-Price Action Trading
Swing trading
Chart indicator trading, I like Fibonoci retracements and extensions
3. There is no perfect indicator, mixing and matching is best, often this is referred to as confirmation. Dont overload on one type of indicator, I found MacD to be the better indicator over stochastics, for example, but they are correlated, you dont get much out of using them both. They are also both moving average indicators.
4. Human behavior repeats itself, the market is all about human sentiment. From a flat day to a bull or bear day, its all about human reaction
5. Some human reaction is more powerful, for example, the market moves when big traders react. Its still human reaction, but just of a different style, attitude and plan, study what the Pro's do, they often do the reverse of what the retail traders (us) do.
6. Consider a trading club, room, or chat. Big mikes is pretty good as far as that goes for after- or before- market discussion, but during the trading day, reach out to live discussion, it helps you see things from difference perspectives, plus it can be social too.
-Dont make trades based on what someone says in a chat/trade room, if you get a tip, prove it out using your indicators first. Even if a trade caller is 100% right, it leaves the power outside of you and you're just a sheep and dead in the water if that person goes away, be self-sufficent.
7. program a NJ trading strategy. Even if you don't use it, the learning alone has awesome results in what you learn by doing it.
Anyways, thats my 2 cents, hope these are helpful to you!
That is amazing that we are that similar. I am usually the odd man out of the bunch. Thank you for the advise, I will use it. Would you mind if I ask a question or two along the way? Then once I get caught up with you maybe we could help each other out.
Congrats on the journal and step forward and also on becoming an elite. Before I came to futures.io (formerly BMT) I struggled with trading. After I have made the turn, created a method that works for me, and connected with other traders who continue to challenge and expand my understanding of trading and the market.
I highly suggest looking around and exploring the forum there are quite a few gems to be found.
Sure thing STC, I will be glad to help out where I can, drop me a Private Message when you've got questions, or I can just give you my email address and we can chat away!
What I have studied the last 4 days:
1. Ninjatrader
a. Market replay(having some issues with data display)
b. Simulation
c. Importing indicators and researching indicators
2. Elliot wave
a. Have watched many videos
b. Looked at charts and tried to see the patterns
3. Fibonacci
a. Have watched many videos
b. drawing on charts with ninjatrader
4. emini-watch (I like barrys style)
a. I have watched 75% of videos and went over most of the web site
b. His better indicators seem to be "better". Do I spend the money?
1. I will study more before making a decision.
Goals: continue to study more of the same.
Scan the forums for information and insight
more proficient with ninjatrader
become fluent with Fibonacci
notes: beginning to see a path through the forest.
I have emini-watch's indicators. But frankly I have long since stopped using them.
I tried to keep the pro-am up, but later on just didn't keep them on my latest
templates (NT). Besides if you watch his videos he only goes for 2pts on the ES.
And his methodology after all these years is still fuzzy at best. either he is more of
a vendor of indicators or he is simply not teaching his style of trading comprehensively
even for those customers who have his indicators.
so having read your nice intro, I would suggest continue on with your great outline of goals
and see if you can get consistent with the free indicators and/or price action ideas first.
and here are the "famous" 38 steps of trading. you sound like a successful hard-working
professional so I would bet you will be diligent in your journey, yet there are several pitfalls
for every aspiring trader, good luck:
1. We accumulate information--buying books, going to seminars and researching.
2. We begin to trade with our 'new' knowledge.
3. We consistently 'donate' and then realize we may need more knowledge or information.
4. …
