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Hi all. New Futures IO member so I'll start off with a journal to introduce myself. Currently trading ES, NQ, CL, 6E, and GC. I'm also taking the MES Capital trial which for me ends December 10th. I'll try and post some screen shots. They basically start you with $15k in a demo and you can't fall below $13.5k. Currently the balance is $15,586.25. As of 11/28/16 @ 11:30 EST I had a total of 43 trades with 42 winners and 1 loser. The losing trade occurred on 11/25/16 the day after Thanksgiving. I had a long CL position @ 47.10 and added another contract @ 46.80 for an average price of 46.95. The position got stopped out @ 46.44 for a total loss on that position of $1020. Another note on this trial they allow you 2 max contracts per market and 4 total contracts. So I wouldn't be allowed to trade 4 contracts in ES for example but would be allowed to do 2 in ES and 2 in CL. I came across them because I was researching TopStep combines. For my live trading I use X_Trader Pro. I worked at the NASDAQ stock market from 2002 until April 2010 when I left to trade for myself. Education I have a finance degree. Anyway I'll definitely keep you guys posted on this trial and also if I decide to try TopStep. I really want to see if I can challenge myself and trade under different rules. If you guys want any specific screen shots please let me know. Also I've been trading since the late 90's and have done everything from stocks, FX, options, spreads but mainly I'm involved in futures now.
Google MES Capital it should come right up. It seems similar to TST with a few differences. MES is free but you can try out once every 12 months if you fail. They give you a $15k demo and look for you to make $2k over the month. Unlike TST where rules to qualify for a funded account are clear, there's nothing posted for MES. So I could do great and not be offered anything. Nobody seems to know but I'll post my results for others to see. I guess I'll find out. It doesn't really take extra time out of my day since I do it side by side with my trading. But they claim they'll start you with $15 to $50k with options to grow to $1m. Split 50/50. TST seems better with you getting 80% plus 1st $5k. In my opinion, TST is great if you can pass it quickly. I've heard interviews with actual funded traders that passed it after several combines. I've heard a few that did it immediately. I feel there's A LOT more you've never heard of that are stuck pumping $$ into combines month after month. For me I felt why not try the free option 1st. I can always try TST even if I get offered a funded account with MES. I'm more interested in seeing if I can trade under someone else's rules and if I can manage $$ that's not mine. I've had family members ask me to and been reluctant and figure this would be a good chance to see if I can do that. Also figure posting my results I'm going to get input on the trades or method or whatever. Always good to have a different perspective.
Here's an update to my journal. Yesterday was a disaster. Power went out literally 30 seconds before the cash open. I had trades on in the demo but no live trades. I basically spent the day in repair mode once the power came on. I think I ended up losing maybe $200. I was on tilt so I didn't take any live trades. Obv I'm now looking at backup power sources but don't like that they only last 20 minutes so still undecided. If anyone has any good ideas aside from a generator please let me know. Today I made the loss back plus some. Account value is now $15,870 and MES I guess is looking for $17k so another $1100 by the end of next week. Live account only one trade for a profit of $175 today so far. I have a slightly different strategy for managing $$ that's not mine. Live account risk I generally look at the entire risk for the week and split it depending on what's going on. For example, say I want only 2% risk of the entire account for the week I would allocate 50% for Friday since it's jobs Friday. For example if that 2% figure was $2k which would be the max I could lose in a week, 50% of that amount would be set aside for Friday. Some weeks it's distributed evenly just depends on risk events for that week. Also with it being December, I've completely lowered my contract size not wanting to take a hit to the year in the last month of the year. I think I was in the 30 contract size in September and went down from there. I start the account with an amount in January and work that for the year. So at the end of December I would take out the 2017 budget and savings and investments and all that good stuff and leave what I want to start 2017 with.
