Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
If you go back to when you started trading what you change?
If you could go back to your first days trading what are somethings you change? you wish you found sooner?
..
Recently I have discovered this forum and have been just glued to it.
The amount of knowledge here is unbelievable and im continuing to take it all in
Im a crypto trader for a year now, and i dont like it. It is like children game. Money in it is great, although im seeing it all as a bubble now, even my work janitor is investing in crypto. Its screaming a 2003 bubble for me.
So I want to really learn the real trading game
So where can I start?
I'm looking to trade the emini and a few forex pairs
I have downloaded NT8 to start backtesting a strategy but they only show me data on daily charts,
I know myself im not a scalper and a rich quick kind of guy, im looking to get a strategy down for the next 6 months and by december open my portfolio
So if you have any suggestions on how
1) get data to backtest on nt8
2) indicators for orders mp (I looked into gomi and it seems like it can be potential)
3) anyone out there with good knowledge to follow/learn from besides Al brooks
4) im looking to sign up with interactive brokers, should i sign up for kinetick too? (backtesting is a key feature for me to keep learning and improving my strategies)
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
If you're going to get live data, not restricted to daily, you're going to have to have a live, funded broker account. The data is generally free in that case, but of course you are paying indirectly because you've tied up some money in the account which you can't use for something else. But this is one way to go.
You can take up a broker's offer of a free trial, which many brokers offer, but they last for a limited time: two weeks, usually but not always with an option to extend for another two weeks.
If you don't need live data (which, at this stage, you definitely don't), then you can look around for sources of delayed data. Usually the delay will be around 10 or 15 minutes, but it won't matter since you are not actually trading it. You can check out TradingView (tradingview.com), which is free with delayed data, and which I believe offers an initial free live trial also, and then you can pick the free delayed version, which has other restrictions but will give you data, on their charts anyway. It is easy to use and to learn. I do not know about backtesting with them -- if you mean automated backtesting for an automated strategy, I would doubt it. If you mean looking back at old data to see how a non-automated strategy would perform, then sure, since you get historical data.
You can also download Sierra Chart, which is hard to use (at first) and hard to learn, but for an monthly fee of 26.00 will also give you delayed data to work with, and it can do much more than TradingView, once you have gone up its learning curve. It has order flow and MP built in, and automated backtesting, and the kitchen sink. (I'm not sure I would start with it, however.)
There may be others. Poke around, use Google.
NT is a good platform, but I wouldn't expect handy free sources of data for it. Try the free trial first. I believe that if you're going to want to run data in it at a timeframe shorter than daily, you're going to have to open an account with them, or with some other broker that uses their platform. (Interactive Brokers does. But account sizes, margin requirements and a ton of other details will differ between brokers.)
Adam Grimes has a free trading course that is well thought-of. I have not taken it, but I haven't read any reviews here that were disappointed either (which doesn't mean it's going to be good for you, of course.) And it's free: https://www.marketlifetrading.com/
On your basic question, what do I wish I had done? Learned more stuff. So keep poking around and see what you can find.
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote
The equity-index micros (MES, MNQ, MYM, M2K) were not available when I started, but once they were, I started using them. The issue I would change is that I kept jumping back into the ES and YM without any clear evidence of consistent profitability in the micros.
I have now learned and accepted the fact that there is no upside for me to be trading the larger contracts until I have shown consistent profits and have scaled up the number of micro contracts per trade to where I can reasonably expect a seamless transition to the ES or other larger contract. This may take years and I just have to accept this.
Personally, I think it would've been smart of me to get a mentor. I didn't because I was overconfident in my ability to figure trading out on my own. I think trading is ultimately individualistic, but with a mentor (when you have no basis for what you're doing), at least you have somebody you can talk to and learn from. They can give you a template- something to work with that you can alter and make your own over time. It would've given me the technical knowledge I neglected to learn (an edge), and I imagine confidence in my process (psychology) that I absolutely didn't have. Of course this all depends on the mentor, and you.
What I wish I found sooner? I suppose being open to trading different markets. I was trading the S&P 500 (e-mini micros) for awhile, and I was having little success. I found the price action to be too slow, and I just had a hard time adjusting to it even after a year of looking at the charts.. I eventually switched to the MNQ and fell in love with it. Still love it, and I haven't traded it in awhile.
Lastly, I wish I had truly put effort into developing a probability-based mindset. This is something I'd forget about and rediscover countless times, always to think "yeah that's what it's all about" after being reminded; I wish I had put more time into backtesting, forward testing and studying my market before I traded.
If I could go back, I'd not waste years on reading many useless novice/intermediary/advance TA books and tried to copy how others trade which took years to undo it. I'd rather focus on developing my own trading system and spend times to observe it to see if I can develop any strategy from there. The rest is KISS.
It's interesting how it seems there are 2 types of people: Those who jump in and have to lose money until they slow down and start studying, and those who are so scared to lose money that they just study theory and think they can figure out first how it works and then only start to trade.
I was definitely the latter type. If I started again, I would not spend so much time reading books and making hindsight excel sheets, but just making trades and then analyzing them. I'd also be not so naive and believe everything some guru out there is trying to convince me of, to get me buying their useless crap-courses.
I'd also focus way more on the psychological side of trading and trying to figure out the misconceptions I have about the market that are preventing me from making progress.
Thanks for the great advice.
I have been using tradingview for a while now and i feel to be ready for the next stage.
I just downloaded sierra charts, looking to go through it this weekend and learn ins and outs.
As for the broker account i will sign up and fund once i have made my strategy that is profitable and sustainable. I tried to trade without one and got absolutely recked so I learned my lesson and going to be prepared next time
I have just been through similar feeling in my crypto trading. It felt like its not my style and made me a very uncomfortable trader. Which is why i decided to stop what is not working and start a new slate.The only good thing came out of doing such is I learned that trading is your on your own, none to hold your hand and approve your trades or the losses. Thanks for advice.
So keep poking around and see what you can find.
