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Be Realistic in Your Expectations


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Be Realistic in Your Expectations

  #1 (permalink)
 
power's Avatar
 power 
Mississauga,ontario
 
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One of the biggest problems most traders have is expecting too much from themselves initially. Setting outrageous goals is more harmful than anything you can do. Trying to make $1 million on a $10,000 account in a year does nothing more than show, you are in the clutches of greed and denial. . You should develop the self discipline to trade until you reach a net two points for the day then stop. This approach will develop confidence in your system, give you some profit every day . Later you can trade larger, but initially you must learn the discipline and patience .

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  #2 (permalink)
 
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 power 
Mississauga,ontario
 
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power View Post
One of the biggest problems most traders have is expecting too much from themselves initially. Setting outrageous goals is more harmful than anything you can do. Trying to make $1 million on a $10,000 account in a year does nothing more than show, you are in the clutches of greed and denial. . You should develop the self discipline to trade until you reach a net two points for the day then stop. This approach will develop confidence in your system, give you some profit every day . Later you can trade larger, but initially you must learn the discipline and patience .




Fear is the emotion that stops us from doing things that might be too risky. In the right quantity, fear is obviously an emotion that we need, but when fear becomes too great we can be prevented from doing things that might be necessary. In day trading, the main fear a trader has is that they are going to initiate a losing trade and lose money. This is a rational fear as no trader wants to lose money, but it is irrational if it prevents the trader from taking any trades in the first place. As an example, a trader might make a losing trade, and then be too fearful to make the next trade, which of course turns out to be a winning trade, and would have covered the previous loss. By letting the fear take control, the trader now has a net loss, even though a winning trade was available. The emotion of fear can be overcome by acknowledging that all day traders have losing trades occasionally, but as long as they are less frequent than the winning trades, there is nothing to be afraid of as there will still be a net profit.

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 power 
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Greed

Greed is the opposite emotion to fear, in that it is the emotion that makes us do things we would not normally do. The right amount of greed is necessary because it gives us the motivation to work at something, but when we are too greedy we will start doing things even when we know that we should not. In day trading, greed can make traders make random trades, or hold on to positions longer than their trading system dictates. For example, if a trader is watching a market moving strongly upwards, the trader might be tempted to make a trade even though their trading system says not to. The trader has allowed the greed to take control, and more often than not in this scenario, they will be buying right at the end of the move and will have a losing trade. The emotion of greed can be overcome by testing and then trusting in your trading system, and knowing that if you follow it correctly, it will make a profit without taking every potential trade.

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 emini_Holy_Grail 
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Power - very correct and good statemnents, may be we all should read this everyday so we will have control over our trading !!! great post

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  #5 (permalink)
 
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 power 
Mississauga,ontario
 
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The problems you face when not being realistic include
1. Not believing you can lose.
2. Over trading.
3. Taking too much risk for your account size.
4. Expecting every trade to be a winner.

Things that can help you become realistic include:
1. Look for small but consistent returns. Our goal is to hit singles and doubles not home runs.
2. Know your market and the average point per each move.
3. Practice with a Simulated-broker against the real market for three weeks and keep a detailed log and chart of each trade
4. Treat your trading like a business and include all the income and expenses so you can evaluate the true potential of your approach.

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  #6 (permalink)
 
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 stephenszpak 
Massachusetts (USA)
 
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Hi

I was going to start a new thread, but I found this so I'll
just ask my question here.

I'm not asking anyone for what they make for a profit per
trading day. I don't want to put anyone on the spot , or in
any way encourage posters to exaggerate their profits to
avoid embarrsssment.

What is a reasonable profit per day, on average?
(This would be using a mechanical trading system of some sort.)

Assume this:

*) day trading the YM during market hours only (bankers hours)
*) 1 contract
*) please stipulate if your answer is gross,
or gross with no commissions, after taxes, etc. etc.

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  #7 (permalink)
 Eric j 
NY
 
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stephenszpak View Post
Hi

I was going to start a new thread, but I found this so I'll
just ask my question here.

I'm not asking anyone for what they make for a profit per
trading day. I don't want to put anyone on the spot , or in
any way encourage posters to exaggerate their profits to
avoid embarrsssment.

What is a reasonable profit per day, on average?
(This would be using a mechanical trading system of some sort.)

Assume this:

*) day trading the YM during market hours only (bankers hours)
*) 1 contract
*) please stipulate if your answer is gross,
or gross with no commissions, after taxes, etc. etc.

What you are asking is very subjective . The answer would have to be whatever satisfies you . For example , I consider it reasonable to either break even on a trade or let it run to my full objective point . Sometimes I hit all my targets and sometimes I dont but since I know theyll all get hit most of the time I accept the breakevens and small losers . Therefore I cant project a reasonable profit per day only per year .

Thats whats reasonable to me ( knowing my targets get hit most of the time ) because Ive learned to understand what I tolerate for myself , its impossible for that to work for everyone .

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  #8 (permalink)
 traderwerks   is a Vendor
 
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stephenszpak View Post
Hi

I was going to start a new thread, but I found this so I'll
just ask my question here.

I'm not asking anyone for what they make for a profit per
trading day. I don't want to put anyone on the spot , or in
any way encourage posters to exaggerate their profits to
avoid embarrsssment.

What is a reasonable profit per day, on average?
(This would be using a mechanical trading system of some sort.)

Assume this:

*) day trading the YM during market hours only (bankers hours)
*) 1 contract
*) please stipulate if your answer is gross,
or gross with no commissions, after taxes, etc. etc.

You can only get what the market gives you, and that amount depends on your system and how you trade that system.

You have to find your own way and then you will know what is reasonable.

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  #9 (permalink)
 
stephenszpak's Avatar
 stephenszpak 
Massachusetts (USA)
 
Experience: None
Platform: NinjaTrader
Trading: YM
Posts: 750 since Jun 2009
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Thanks for responding traderwerks and Eric j!

(I've got to be careful how I phrase this.)

Ok, these comments/answers are not what I was going for.
I'm hoping for more replies, so basically your responses are way
too vague to be useful. If someone said $10/day we'd all know that
this was the wrong answer. If someone said $ 10,000/day we'd
all know that this was wrong also.

Maybe this is a better question:

What is the typical gross profit per day (give or take since we're
guessing here) of a significantly above average trading system
on the YM?

What would be the minimum a professional trader would have to
make per day just to keep his/her job? (assuming the YM, just
one contract, {which certainly isn't real, but could be estimated if anyone out there knows what professional traders make per
day with X contracts on the ES or whatever)

Are there really answers to such questions? They may be
'ranges' since getting such detailed information to get the
absolutely correct answers are impossible. But there have to
be answers none the less. If a daily profit is subjective only,
well then, there is no possible way to:

Be Realistic in Your Expectations
-----------------------------------------------------------------------




realistic: Definition, Synonyms from Answers.com

One definiton of realistic is below:

Tending to or expressing an awareness of things as they really are

Thanks for reading (be advised, if you read all this, you probably
have way too much time on your hands) hee hee

- Stephen

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  #10 (permalink)
 traderwerks   is a Vendor
 
Posts: 692 since Jun 2009
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To be "Be Realistic in Your Expectations" you still have to understand what and how you are trading.

I only know one professional who trades the YM professionally, and he only takes a few trades a day. He uses price targets and a runner ( I think his runner is where he makes a good portion of his profits. ) I never asked him how much he makes a day , but I believe it is fairly high since he will be in a trade all day.

I know a professional scalper who would be happy with netting $12 a contract as a good day for him. He trades 10 lots and will do 10 ~ 20 trades a day. He does not trade the YM.

So a "Realistic Expectations" depends on how YOU trade.

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Last Updated on January 5, 2010


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