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The Hundred-Foot Journey - becoming a trader - Ilan's Journal
Hi Everyone,
After about 3 weeks around the forums, I decided it it time to open my Journal.
Named after one of the best movies I've seen in quite a while, and because in the last month or so, it's been clear to me that I have a LONG way to go
About myself, and why I'm here
I'm 43 y.o, Program Manager in Hi-Tech company. Doing well, but also understanding that things can easily change. I'm working full time (and over), which is going to be one of the biggest limitation for my trading (see later).
I don't have much of investment experience except long term investing. Trading was something I never tried before.
So - why should I start now?
few reasons:
1. I always like learning new skills, and this is from a totally different field then the skills I usually use.
2. Trying to have some extra income - kids are getting closer to University and wanting to start their live - I want to be able to help them.
3. Safe net? in Hi-Tech, 43 y.o starts to be old . If I will have a good trading plan & record, this can be kind of a safe net if hard days will come.
What weaknesses I already see
I've started to look at Future trading following a book I've read in the summer. It was written but a guy that had to leave his work, and started working in trading. The thing I liked about this book, is that it mostly described the difficulties that he had becoming a trader, and the journey he had.
So in the last month or so I'm already clear about some weaknesses I have:
1. No prior knowledge at all. Not even the basic technical analysis, not trading experience, nothing. So I’m reading as much as I can, and mainly looking at the graph, trying to learn how to read them. This is not easy.
2. Very limited time to trade. I work a full day, and most of the time give extra hours from home or office. And when I’m at home in the evening – I’m also a full time father & husband, so cannot just sit in front of the computer.
3. Living 7h earlier then ET – this means I have a lot of ET’s night time/early morning overlap my working hours, and ET’s afternoon as my evening.
4. Scared to turn winning trade to a lose – while this might be a good thing, I think I do it wrongly – I set up stop loss & profit target (usually in a 1.5:1 ratio), but as soon as the trade goes my direction, I start trailing the trade with the stop (only in positive profit), the problem is that since price plays back and forth, my new stop get caught early. So I do get small profit, but not getting the full potential of the target, that I could have get if I just waited out there. This makes my reword/risk ratio actually lower, so when I do get a losing trade, it is significant.
5. Since I don’t have the knowledge, I’m guessing based on partial information, which usually end up loosing.(see in later post (yesterday’s trade) as an example)
My Plan & tools
I’m currently simulating only of course, and using MultiCharts, after working for a while also with TransAct + Sierra charts. I must admit – I prefer the TransACT DOM window to this in MC. On the other hand – it was extremely easy to add an indicator to MC, that will color the bars according to MACD, RSI & BB.
I only have about 2 weeks of the trail left, so one of my tasks for this time is to find out what tool(s) I can use to keep simulating, without paying 100$ a month (I understand that I’ll have to pay something, but need to limit this).
Once I’m ready, I’m planning to open an account with 5000$, and trade Futures. Currently, I’m looking at the mini S&P mainly, but might look at other Futures too. I’m going to start slow – 1 contract at a time, with max daily drawback of ~250-300$ (not finalized yet).
In the next post, I’ll put my TODO list, and will update as I progress with it.
Of course – your comments & suggestions are more than welcomed!
- Find a strategy to work with - currently I use mostly support/resistance levels & trying to use the "Simple Strategy".
- Find the tools I'm going to use in the longer run. (MC is a bit expensive to use as simulator for 100$ a month).
- Figure out what are the Tax rules for day trading in my country (non-US) - seems this is going to be quite high & complicated.
- Learn, Learn & Learn.
- Simulate, Simulate, Simulate.
Didn't have much time during evening time (busy teaching my kid to write applications).
Earlier in the day, I connected from work, and looked at the market work, in 3 different views - 15m, 8 points (actually 2 full points of ES, but this is how MC call this range), and 644 Ticks.
From the last, I thought I recognize a support level forming up at 2011.25, and that after few checks of this level, the market is going to break it and go lower.
I set up a "Sell Stop 2011.00" order, to try and get it on the break of the level, and it was cought, but the market was raise right after. (see picture)
This is what I meant by guessing . One thing I learned - If I think the level is going to be broken, place my stop order (to catch the break) further from the level itself.
#2 : Enter at 16:34 (8:34 exchange time): 1 short at 2009.25. PT - 8 ticks, SL - 6ticks
Exit at 16:42 (8:42 exchange time) at 2006.75: +2.5
Hit a local resistance level at 2009.25 after ~16 ticks up ride. broke up 2 ticks and down again, so entered short.
after small side walk, ran down. I moved my TP and moved my SL to trail. When reached 2007 level, I tough will change direction, so moved my trailing stop closer, which was caught at 2006.75 - 2.5P profit
First mistake - trade at opening bell - must change my chart setting to exchange time, not local (done).
My daily target is ~100$, so might call it a day
of course - I couldn't call it a day, and it cost
#3 Entry: 11:44: Short at 2004.0
Exit: 11:44, SL at 2005.5: -1.5P
Was watching the market trade at 2003-2004 while playing FIFA with my kid. Had a feeling market will go down from there, so entered short, just for the market to break that range in the wrong direction.
Sorry, but the most important question is how much time to trade again? And when? This is the most important stuff. Trading is not a poker game. I sit down front of the computer, and I will hope in a game, in any time, and play a bit for 20mins on the cash table.
Best way to trade the market if you have limited time is after market open the first 1-2 hours. But you have to book this period. It is not like I have only 20 mins this morning. Than it is a NOTRADE. If you really would like to learn you need to follow these principle for real!
Fully agree.
I'm trying to work this out, and will probably end up blocking time late evening (22:00-00:00 local time, 15:00-17:00 ET) or something like that for this.
For now, while just starting to learn, I don't have this setup yet, and trying to have the charts up and running beside my as much as I can.
Oke, I am just asking, because the futures have a tendency to act differently at different time of the day. It is much easier to concentrate a given time period at all, and do analysis instead of trading than to trade instead of studing
But it could be different based on your strategy. For example for scalpers maybe it is not so important...
No trades at all.
Didn't have much time to focus on the market today, so didn't want to take risks.
There was one setup I thought to enter in as a short, with overlapping signal from Stochastic, DMI and a nice 'M' formation in the chart, but I set the short limit 1 tick above what the market filled, and didn't want to try and chase the market on the way down.
#4 Entry: 17:25 (local time) Long at 2016.00 (Market)
Exit: 17:28 at 2014.50: -1.5P
Got long signal on the 5 minutes chart, and market started up while I was entering the order, so I tought I'm going to miss it, and entered MARKET (which was never my plan).
Market went straight down to where I wanted to place my limit originally, and I was out on my SL (6 ticks).
#5 Entry: 18:18 (local time) Short at 2020.00
Exit: 18:19 at 2021.50: -1.5P
Not following my rules again
Market hit the R1 level, but still didn't get a short signal. I still decided to enter, and lost.
#5 Entry: 21:46 (local time) Short at 2023.75
Exit: 22:49 at 2026.75: -3P
Short signal on the 15m chart. bigger SL & PT this time (12 SL, 18 PT, with starting to trail once I hit 10 ticks profit)
might be a bit early with reading the signal (Stochestic was just touching the 70, not yet crossing).
The larger SL proved at the start of trade, but after the trade was already at 4ticks profit, it turned, and an hour later closed at the SL.
Day Summary - 6P lose, which is also my daily limit (and end of day anyway)
. If I will have a good trading plan & record, this can be kind of a safe net if hard days will come.
