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Trading when I can, a trading tradesman


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Trading when I can, a trading tradesman

  #41 (permalink)
 
lrfsdad's Avatar
 lrfsdad 
milwaukee,wi, usa
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Mobile TWS & mobile TOS. Dough.com
Broker: IB, TOS, FXCM
Trading: futures and options. looking into forex
Posts: 186 since Nov 2012
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I've been noticing that I think I'm getting there in my trading. I seem to have some fairly consistent 200-400 days, then blow it up, on a day where I throw everything I know out the door. overtrading, no stops or constantly moving them.

I'm doing a practice combine right now. My first day I did good until the end of the day, which I noted in my journal at TST. Monday i did well, and today I worked to pay the brokers. notes and observations on the chart below. you can't see entries because all of them are on the T4 dome at TST. Basically I feel that if I can keep my wits on drawdown days, and start looking more at the big picture instead of a few bars on a 4 range chart, I might be "getting there".

I've been thinking about the amount of time effort and money I have into this. My plumbing apprenticeship was 5 yrs, plus a 1 year pre apprentice (or work like a mule to prove you want it) and another 3 yrs to get my Masters. Yes it takes 8 + years to be considered a master plumber.

I think I'm slowly progressing. It's nice realizing your failures/mistakes and learning from them instead of blaming the market which is never wrong.



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  #42 (permalink)
 
lrfsdad's Avatar
 lrfsdad 
milwaukee,wi, usa
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Mobile TWS & mobile TOS. Dough.com
Broker: IB, TOS, FXCM
Trading: futures and options. looking into forex
Posts: 186 since Nov 2012
Thanks Given: 302
Thanks Received: 161

Haven't been able to day trade the last few weeks, but did take some profits in my IRA today. Wondering if I should just scrap the daytrading idea (fantasy) and stick to long term trading with controlled risk. Anyway these holdings are over 3yrs old, but are up 526% and 133%

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  #43 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
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lrfsdad View Post
Haven't been able to day trade the last few weeks, but did take some profits in my IRA today. Wondering if I should just scrap the daytrading idea (fantasy) and stick to long term trading with controlled risk. Anyway these holdings are over 3yrs old, but are up 526% and 133%

I would advise (and wish I had) opening a forex account, use the same style there as you do here but use daily or 4 hour bars. Use the forex ability to size appropriately and swing trade there. Learn to add to your winners as you go and keep your day job at least for a while longer.

If you day trade futures, don't even think about quitting your day job until you have enough money in the bank to live on for at least one year plus enough money to trade on....I'd say not less than 10,000 but more like $25K. This should be your risk capital and hopefully you would have made this day trading in between day job hours. Sounds tough I know but better than living with the stress of HAVING to win to eat in the early years.

Or you could just jump off the cliff and grow your wings on the way down. It's what's most of have done but its not the smart way.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
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  #44 (permalink)
 
lrfsdad's Avatar
 lrfsdad 
milwaukee,wi, usa
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Mobile TWS & mobile TOS. Dough.com
Broker: IB, TOS, FXCM
Trading: futures and options. looking into forex
Posts: 186 since Nov 2012
Thanks Given: 302
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PandaWarrior View Post
I would advise (and wish I had) opening a forex account, use the same style there as you do here but use daily or 4 hour bars. Use the forex ability to size appropriately and swing trade there. Learn to add to your winners as you go and keep your day job at least for a while longer.

If you day trade futures, don't even think about quitting your day job until you have enough money in the bank to live on for at least one year plus enough money to trade on....I'd say not less than 10,000 but more like $25K. This should be your risk capital and hopefully you would have made this day trading in between day job hours. Sounds tough I know but better than living with the stress of HAVING to win to eat in the early years.

Or you could just jump off the cliff and grow your wings on the way down. It's what's most of have done but its not the smart way.

I have slowly been coming to the same realization over the last couple of months. I enjoy running my business, and have no thoughts (most days) of quitting. There is only so much time in a day to focus on one.

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  #45 (permalink)
 
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 PandaWarrior 
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lrfsdad View Post
I have slowly been coming to the same realization over the last couple of months. I enjoy running my business, and have no thoughts (most days) of quitting. There is only so much time in a day to focus on one.

Thats why I say swing trade forex, most brokers have server side OCO which is fantastic for set and forget swing trading....and if you size up as you build the account or scale into the trades, you will grow it much faster than you think....1-5 trades a month per pair you trade, maybe 10-20 trades a month total....should be fairly easy to track if you use one of the mobile apps most brokers have available for tablets....

And day trade futures occasionally and add 200-500 dollars a day when you can day trading. Do that a few times per month and you are doing well.....

I'm only trading EUR/USD and only since late July and I've had 4 or 5 trades and I missed a couple as well because I wasn't paying attention. And I just closed a long trade I entered on the 2nd of December for 117 pips but I closed to early trying to put in a stop and unfamiliarity with the online platform caused me to close the trade instead of just entering a stop order....oh well. Live and learn...

Good luck on the journey.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
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  #46 (permalink)
 
lrfsdad's Avatar
 lrfsdad 
milwaukee,wi, usa
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Mobile TWS & mobile TOS. Dough.com
Broker: IB, TOS, FXCM
Trading: futures and options. looking into forex
Posts: 186 since Nov 2012
Thanks Given: 302
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I've been blessed with a steady workload, so as time permits, I'm focusing on longerterm trades as mentioned above. I've been practicing 1 lot fx trades and am up about $37. I had a 70 tick winner in gbp/usd, but that position is now down about 16 ticks. Need to work on trailing stops.

Put an Iron Condor on in FB today. Weeklies. Next week expiration. nice tight spreads on the options.

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  #47 (permalink)
 
lrfsdad's Avatar
 lrfsdad 
milwaukee,wi, usa
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Mobile TWS & mobile TOS. Dough.com
Broker: IB, TOS, FXCM
Trading: futures and options. looking into forex
Posts: 186 since Nov 2012
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I should note that my strategy in fx has been to look for double bottoms/tops in the direction of the overall trend with a macd divergence from one leg to the next.

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  #48 (permalink)
 
lrfsdad's Avatar
 lrfsdad 
milwaukee,wi, usa
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Mobile TWS & mobile TOS. Dough.com
Broker: IB, TOS, FXCM
Trading: futures and options. looking into forex
Posts: 186 since Nov 2012
Thanks Given: 302
Thanks Received: 161

held my long in usd/gbp for too long, exiting before gbp retail sales number tonight. had good profits, but didn't trail stop. Last night went short eur/jpy, these profits offset the gbp loss, so flat going into the long weekend and up for the week on 3 trades.
Funny how trading longer term and small has resulted in more ticks than short term day trading. hmmmm, maybe some people here know what they are talking about.

All these trades were taken based on the fxcm mobile app. Loaded the main platform for better view of the overall trade and screen shots.

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  #49 (permalink)
 
lrfsdad's Avatar
 lrfsdad 
milwaukee,wi, usa
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Mobile TWS & mobile TOS. Dough.com
Broker: IB, TOS, FXCM
Trading: futures and options. looking into forex
Posts: 186 since Nov 2012
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Sold USD/chf @ .91134 additional sell order in above swing high .9130 something. 1% stop on each.
Macd diverged, overall downtrend in mkt. 4 hr chart. We'll see what happens!

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  #50 (permalink)
 
lrfsdad's Avatar
 lrfsdad 
milwaukee,wi, usa
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Mobile TWS & mobile TOS. Dough.com
Broker: IB, TOS, FXCM
Trading: futures and options. looking into forex
Posts: 186 since Nov 2012
Thanks Given: 302
Thanks Received: 161



lrfsdad View Post
Sold USD/chf @ .91134 additional sell order in above swing high .9130 something. 1% stop on each.
Macd diverged, overall downtrend in mkt. 4 hr chart. We'll see what happens!

Got filled on the higher limit order. Cover the first lot at 91 for a small 13 pip gain. Letting the higher sale continue.

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