So this week has been a blur…hard to believe it is Thursday already. I decided to wake up for the markets on Monday and Tuesday. Now this would be no big deal on the east coast, as 9:30a is a more reasonable time to wake up and begin the day…but on the west coast you have to be up at the insane fucking hour of 6:30a…which is just stupid. I actually managed to be pretty awake and functional. We were just papertrading (treating it like we were actually trading, but not using real money)…and managed to do alright. Had a 65% WR I believe, which wasn’t bad at all considering we rushed a few trades and had some sloppy exits. But it was a good learning experience and gave us a lot of food for thought.
On Tuesday afternoon we went down for an interview at a local proptrading firm (a company that gives you extra leverage for trading (aka, you put up $10K, they give you $200K in buying power)). Was a very eye opening experience to be honest. Made me realize how much I am missing and how much I need to learn yet. The biggest thing it pointed out was that we were missing pieces of the big picture. As my roommate put it…we were focusing on how to play AK in one scenario, rather than learning what factors go into playing and handling AK well. We also learned that stocks might not be out best option off the bat. Lots of things to worry about, and a big piece of that being the bigger BR needed (which is really made available by a prop).
With that we decided to start looking more heavily into currency futures. The BR to get started is much lower ($5K v the $25K of day trading solo) and the markets are open 24hr. I have a strategy that seems to work fairly well and am still looking for new ones. The currencies seem to be heavily correlated (which makes sense as they are all X currency v the dollar) and there seem to be a lot of opportunities when there are pairs like that. I have a consultation with a currency futures coach tomorrow that I am very interested to see the results of. And again, just constant adjustment to new information and new situations =)
Went down to the strip tonight to meet up with a family friend. Had dinner with a bunch of his coworkers who were all very nice guys. Got to have a nice, though semi-heated, conversation about the current economy and how Obama is handling it. It was cool to discuss it with an economist and pick his brain on it. We shared a lot of the same thoughts on the whole ordeal and agreed on the “optimal end-game” of this whole situation. Got back home a little while ago to see that I ran mega bad on this trade (was shorting the 6A for a 20:30 (risk 20 to make 30)…the damn thing ran +20 ticks (and thus stop lossed me) then pivoted back 50ticks which would have been a nice profit…lesson learned…set stoplosses at 21 =) )…and just entered another which seems to be having a spasm (lol, as I’m typing this it went from -9tick to +55 ticks in 5 minutes). Damn trading =)
That’s it for now…Hope all is well
*SS*
I would advise you strongly against trading products you don’t understand.
Currencies is one such example.
I would also advise strongly against gearing your day trading.
I do not want to pour cold water on your enthusiasm but it might save you a whole lot of money.
i totally agree on not trading things you dont fully understand (my coaching session tonight helped quite a bit in understanding)
but why would you suggest against the day trading?
are you suggesting I would be better suited at something like swing trading? or saying i should stay out of the market completely?
*SS*
As a sole trader. You will be functioning with an information deficit.
Gearing will reduce your risk tolerance.
It would be like having 100BI for 200NL then borrowing money to play 25-50NL. Well sure you can now play 25-50 but your capital is still only $20K.
So gearing is good if you get a good tax outcome on medium term outlooks with relatively stable portfolios.
Where say the tax outcome is to offset interests payments vs income…..so you might gear up to match the interest payments with the dividend flow.
But gearing up to trade.
Particularly for novice traders….is extremely dangerous. Those that are suggesting it – either do now know what they are talking about or receive commission from the debt or both.
Given your enthusiasm to get ahead in the world.
Given the effort and professionalism you have put into coaching and this website – as examples.
I would be investing in myself if I was you.
Either by considering small business ideas….
Further education…..
Becoming an entrepreneur….
Over trying to make money out of money,bond, currency or stock daily flucuations.
I did a fair bit of all of those when I was a PC advisor around the millenium.
It is hard, expensive, stressful and if you think poker has variance then gear up and trade futures etc.
thank you digger. very cool of you to take the time to write that. i will have to reread that when i actually wake up, but it seemed like good advice from the first 2 reads through…
thnx again
*SS*