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Documenting my journey from a complete beginner to my goal of $2000 month.
Completely starting out brand new, however I have gone though about 60% of Al Brooks course so I have a general idea of the markets.
Will be playing the MES or a Micro for sure. Not focusing on profits for now but, points. Its all about the points!
My history is I previously was an entrepreneur for the last 3 years (not a successful one), and spent those 3 years creating a product that Veterinarians didn't want.
That was a painful experience for me, and while I learned a lot from it, some valuable skills, I don't think I am ready to undertake such a huge investment again for a bit. Although I don't feel like my journey is over.
I was dabbling in options with Tastyworks for a few months, and although I was somewhat successful, I could not utilize my setup fully since I was scalping without the required $25k.
Anyway, a friend of mine recommended futures, since I can trade as much as I want.
I watched a few youtube videos and it looked fairly easy to do- so I signed up for NT, deposited $1000, and in 10 minutes or so, lost $800 trying to scalp the ES with a 1pt profit target and a 4pt stop-loss with two contracts.
Not a good day.
Found Al Brooks, and just studying, learning and taking my time, understanding how to structure trades and stuff.
While I feel as though have the potential to easily reach my goal and then some (as I am not particularly emotional about my trades whether loosing or winning), I do feel like I have some self-doubt issues about success that I need to work on through this journey, that might lead me to self-sabotage after seeing success.
I'll do my best to describe my trades with pictures and why I took them to hopefully get some feedback.
Highly recommend you switch to MES, and only. 1 contract while you're playing around and getting a feel for the market. Otherwise you're pretty much guaranteeing a bigger continued loss, until you finally come to your senses, at which point you'll switch to MES and 1 contract anyway
Take a look at the volume column, and compare it for all the micros. But liquidity isn't really a problem when discretionary chart trading any of the US equity indices.
However I don't know if you're going to get very far trading Al Brook's method on ES/MES. For new traders it sounds like a very easy method because the rules are clearly defined, but following them to the letter typically ends in a gradual decrease in account size, and eventual tilt for the final blow up.
I'd wager that fewer 10% of people following that method make a profit. I don't have any proof on actual numbers, so could be totally wrong. It's just very rare to find any traders using that method long term with a consistent profit.
The more typical path to consistency after a person has blown up an account or two following these false mentors is to switch to something that at least offers you a higher risk/reward ration. Ideally more than 1.5 or 2. A 40% win rate with a 2x R/R will pay the bills.
I have to agree with planetkill - you will probably blow up a few accounts if you follow any mentor/educator blindly. If their rules and systems were so easy and profitable, a lot of people would be using them and everyone would be making money.
A statement you made in your original post "While I feel as though have the potential to easily reach my goal and then some" - easily making anything in the markets for a new trader is very very difficult. You will find that out, but if you really would like to have any chance of success, don't rush into trading an account just yet. Take it a little slower. Markets will always be there while you might not if you don't do this properly from the very start.
Research, plan, get your own technique, watch, listen, research more, read, question - this is the most difficult endeavour by far to make money in, so do not rush headlong into losing accounts and destroying the most important part of the equation - the mind. The vast majority of traders lose, not because they don't have a good enough strategy/technique to trade, but they ignore emotional intelligence. Their minds and emotions get hijacked by the market and it is very very hard to turn that around and to come back from that. You saw how quickly you lost $800 and although you said you don't have a problem losing, lose often enough when you think you should be winning, and it will eventually harm your thought processes.
I cannot stress it anymore - take it slower and try and do it right from the outset.
I figured that Al Brooks is not the "be all end all", seemed like a good place to start- starting from nothing with no prior knowledge.
My ideal setup is to swing trade (no scalp) with at least a 2x r/r. I am guessing that the key to all this is really finding those setups that lead to a 2x+ r/r, and being able to manage the trades when it goes against you?
Finding those setups isn't the problem as there are plenty. But be able to manage the trade when it goes against you AND when it goes for you is the thing to overcome if you ask me. Using a method compatible with your personality is key in this. Good luck with your journey.
I think so, although I haven't been able to consistently do it myself, so what do i know...
I think it's also better to dynamically change your profit targets/trial stop loss instead of a fixed target.
Here's a post from the founder of this forum on how he scales in / scales out of trades. It's from 2009, so his methods may have since changed. I'd recommend reading through his journal instead of Al Brooks.
First, for those following me for the last year or more, you know I've changed my style a few times. At first I felt bad about this, I felt perhaps I was doing something wrong before and that anyone that followed me was possibly now doing something …
This is a great thread, but a person reading it might want to take Mike's advice that he added to the first post some years later: start reading it backward, from the end, not the beginning. He drastically changed his trading over time, as probably everyone does.
It is a great thread, though.
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote
