Thanks, I know that you can manage your risk properly with Blackbird.

What I was talking about is moving your stop AFTER you got in the trade AND then moving it too far out of the way. So as a result, your risk and money management parameter don't match your position size (and account size) anymore...

Hi Folks,

Trying to choose my biggest weakness was difficult because I have so many. I selected losing control of losers, I think.
Lately, however, I have been doing better on that score. Basically, I run a few different ATM strategies and when one gets hit and I am in the trade,
I will watch carefully and close my stop in relation to what I feel the price action is doing. I do have the fear of losing money (managing trading account) so I will manually tighten the stop if the trade looks to be losing momentum. The balance I try to achieve is not tighten to quickly/too much that you get stopped out on a down/up spike. If the trade is going in my direction, and getting close to my target, I will move the target away somewhat. However, I get the stop ready to close me out if it takes a dive. At that point, I usually will be at breakeven or better with the stop.
This works fairly well, but I realize I need better discipline on a more consistent basis.

Just for background, I am still trading in SIM on NinjaTrader. I'm still learning the platform, a bit of a slow process. I will be buying a lifetime license this week as I am committed to doing this. I've done well in the past with equities and options, but this futures area is quite the beast. Frankly, I've attempted various difficult endeavors in my life, but this is, for me, the most challenging. The challenge is such that I feel the
knowledge necessary to be successful is akin to trying to find the bottom of a bottomless pit! I am studying like never before and this brings me to something I want to say: This forum and this thread in particular, is, in a word, OUTSTANDING! The wealth of knowledge here is astounding and, even more than that, is the unselfish attitude of the members to willingly share their VAST store of knowledge and experience. It blows me away. For me, this thread is a Godsend, in that it shows me there are many out there like me who are having doubts and fears about what this Futures trading thing is all about. I do not feel so all alone!!!
Thanks everybody!!



anim_hail <---ME

I've never heard of that feature that does that right on your platform. That's pretty sweet actually. I trade so frequently I have to set less often than I'd like, like daily. Be really nice even to see what the numbers say per trade as account grows and shrinks. Hopefully grows

Sent using the NexusFi mobile app

Actually it is nice. Blackbird has a "Plan Long" nand Plan Short" feature. When you select it, Blackbird places the PT and SL lines on the chart based on your current trade management strategy. You can adjust these settings and see the P&L and R:R prior to taking the trsde. You can also have the targets move with th e price. It only takes seconds to do. Then when you press the execute button they lock I to place. Of course, you can still adjust the any time after taking the trade, which, if I recall properly, can be an issue for a NinjaTrader ATM.

I could have said "Yes" to most of these, but "Losers get out of control" wins hands-down.

Taking that loss when it's small is really, really hard. It doesn't help that many times a stop will be hit and then price will just turn around and keep going the way I expected, but without me. The fact that this can and does happen can overwhelm my judgment when it doesn't do that, and I end up with a loss that gets too big. This will usually be after a few "early" stop-outs that convince me I should let the trade have "more room."

I think that taking that big loss, when it comes, outweighs all the times when the stop got me out too soon.

Also, it scrambles my brain, which leads to more lapses of judgment and more losses.

Bob.

New poll, thanks to @snax:

What is your trading weakness?

Please vote and discuss. I'm limiting the options to just one selection so you must choose your single biggest weakness.



If you have ideas for a new poll, please share them here:

Next New Poll Ideas/Suggestions Hey guys, As most of you know, I've been using my own main "life" thread to throw out ideas for upcoming polls, and solicit feedback from you. That thread is here: But, such a topic really deserves its own dedicated thread. And …

Mike

Voted for "Holding my winners" as I tend to get out too early, often against plan.

Sometimes scratching a trade saves my butt, but that only builds bad habits... I've actually gone through and done the math against take profit price targets and can find entire groups of trades where a loss would have been a winner, winners would have been much greater, or losses would have been much less. Yet even knowing the math, mentally it's hard for me to stay in.

Does such a trade exist? As I said earlier, it a setup looks perfect, something is probably wrong with it. Otherwise, who would take the other side?