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I'm trading on the minis right now. The reason I traded with an underfunded account was to get experience the extreme ups and downs while being underfunded. However, I just started trading the 50k combine so I'm no longer extremely underfunded.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Great!! I think that trading with any funding company is cheaper than trading your own money and you can learn more.
I am currently funded with TopStep. If I can give you a little piece of advice, 50K combine is very small so you must be careful in risk management.
I traded the 50K combine I would use micros instead of mini until I make a considerable amount of money. Minis are quite big right now. IF you trade 1 mini Nasdaq you are controlling 260K of notional value.
This is just my opinion, but make your own experiments.
I started the combine because I didn’t want to deposit money into NinjaTrader for market data, but I still wanted to receive market data.
Started using Renko bars in order to read the trend better than using tick charts. It seems to work pretty well
Started scalping on the short side because the daily highs were being tested constantly and would usually respond with a dip after.
Strengths:
Identifying that it was challenging the tops and dipping right after. So it was good to scalp but not make it hit my usual targets.
Not taking a trade if I wasn’t really confident with it. Although I knew that there was a good chance that the highs would be broken, I just sat on my hands since it was a Monday.
Apparently I made the right call because it dipped extremely low during the day.
Weaknesses:
During Mondays, I can’t read where the chart will go and what trades I should make.
I didn’t make many trades today so there’s not much to be said.
Lesson:
When there are signs that the Renko bars are showing a downtrend, I should start trying to break even or cash in the small profits even if it doesn’t reach my target.
Trades:
Trade 1: Win
Got caught in a serious chop. Took profits early but oh well. I bought on the 3 Renko where it had serious chop but the 5 Renko showed a clear uptrend.
Trade 2:
Should’ve sold where that red square is because it's slowly starting to head towards a downtrend.
Trade 3:
Quick scalp because I know that it was going to push into an uptrend and break past the daily highs a couple times.
I'm not sure whether this is the Dunning Kruger effect talking but I'd like to think that my risk management is pretty decent after playing with the $1000 account. However, once I blow my account or think the days will be tricky to read (which usually end up being Mondays/Fridays), I'll start taking trades with Micros.
The main reason why I want to keep trading the minis is that I've heard some people say that it has a different effect (mentally) than trading with micros, so I want to experience and adapt to that mental weight.
Yes, I totally agree that in someway trading the minis is far easier than the micros, I trade both of them and I can see the "tricky part of trading the micros". This is the issue with micros: suppose you take a nice trade with a micro and it goes in your favor 50 USD, this is a pretty decent move because you captured a 10 point move. The problem is that your mind will think "it's just 50 bucks I am a trader I don't care about peanuts", as soon as market turns against you and you are still up 35 bucks you won't even care.... at the end you will end up being stopped out with a loss of 20 USD. The same would not happen with minis, because 500USD is (for most people) a decent amount of money to make in one trade.
To say it another way, with micros you might enter in a state of carelessness (don't even know if this word exist in English), and you eat up your capital with small losses.
Concerning the risk management, I think that you might have a very good risk management in place but with the 50K account you have a max daily loss of 500 USD and this is really little money if you factor in the volatility. So from a statistical perspective with minis it's very very tough to manage, but I don't want to discourage you. If you are "wise" maybe you can search for situations of extremely low volatility and in that scenarios you might manage risk easily.
Good start with a positive first day in the Combine. With the $50K you have a max DLL of $1,000 not $500, as you'll know, but it could help to use a smaller personal loss limit. Especially for Step 2 where the weekly loss limit is also the same as the DLL, so if you use the full amount and drop close to $1,000 in a day, that puts you out for the week.
You can trade Micros in the standard Topstep Combine account, currently only the same number of contracts whatever the product due to the way the program risk management was originally designed, so 5 Micros max in your case. But that is still $25 per point in the MES and the equity indexes have good daily range these days.
But the Micros are best for longer term trades as the Commissions are over three times the equivalent full size contract fees (ten Micros Combine fees $12, compared to $3.70 standard). That can add up if scalping as you appear to be.
ps. You have the Topstep Dashboard, but I would also include Commissions in Ninjatrader. It is easy to add the commission cost by right-clicking on the account name in the accounts window and creating a $1.85/side one for Topstep, then using that. (I think I have remembered the procedure correctly).
Also as SB said, for most people this is a long road, a lot will never succeed for one reason or another, but very few will start making money straight away.
You do not win as a trader, you just get to play again the next day. If that game doesn’t appeal to you then you should not trade. Gary Norden
Day 13 (2/23): $(598.6) Eating the Dirt with Volatility
Started the day with $50160.20
Ended day with $49561.60
Commissions: $(11.70)
Profit $450 on the SIM
I really ended up eating the dirt today because of the volatility. On a day like this, I shouldn’t have my stops too tight or else it will get knocked out within one candle.
I should’ve really been trading with micros when it's volatile like this.
HOWEVER, I went shopping on NQ with the sim account. Netted $450 from using the NQ’s volatility.
This happened midday. The reason why I started trading on the sim account was to get more screen time and learn from today’s volatility. It also allowed me to test some new indicators and strategies.
Started using AustinCainer indicator which helped me net the $450 profit on NQ
Strengths:
After I hit my mental daily loss limit ($450-$600), it was good that I didn’t overtrade or revenge traded into more losses.
Weaknesses:
Should buy on a dip during the uptrend, not buying during the rip of the uptrend.
Hard to pinpoint a lot of weaknesses when I took so few trades and almost got blown up.
Lesson:
Since the 50k combine is so low. I should only really trade ES/NQ when there is low volatility. Trade MES/MNQ with the high volatility and see how it works out. This way I don’t instantly blow myself out like today.
Trades:
Trade 1: Loss
I went with the trend, but killed by stop loss yet again. I had too tight of a stop loss on this crazy volatility.
Trade 2: Loss
Too tight of a stop loss on this crazy volatility.
Surprising how I kinda timed this bottom. If I just had a wide enough stop loss, my gains would be between $1500 (on VWAP) to $2050 (peak of the uptrend).
Trade 3:
Got stopped out thinking it will keep ripping to the upside. Also below VWAP and thought it would start approaching it. However, my entry was just poor and my stop losses were too tight for the day.
How I should’ve gone into this entry is to wait until the 10 Renko showed a dip and then buy into it.
Truly unfortunate that my stop loss was at the dip before the rip.
It was actually great that you suggested this idea to me during today's market conditions so that I can experience it for myself. The volatility really made me eat the dirt within a couple of minutes. I agree that I should start trading micros during volatile markets (like today) and trade minis when the markets are calmer and less volatile. This will allow me to manage my risk a lot better. Thanks!
Will take that advice! A similar response to SBTrader82, I will trade the micros during volatile markets and trade minis when it's calmer so I can manage my risk better (and not get stopped all the time). I will also put some size into the micro trades so it can be worthwhile and avoid carelessness.
Also, which commission option should I take in order to include it in the Ninjatrader PnL?
I am so glad that my advice could help. Yesterday I traded micros as well (micro Nasdaq) and I think I could have not traded the mini, given the amount of volatility. I think micros are good especially for nasdaq and Sp500 futures, I also tried micro gold but there is some slippage and liquidity is not as good as equity futures micros.
Keep the great job you are doing with your journal!! Have a nice day.
