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I have been trading emini sp on sim for approximately 9 months from 8:30 a.m cst to 10:45 a.m cst.In the beginning I thought that trading a sim account has less merit because of lack of fear and greed.As the time progressed, It taught me descipline and patience and I actually started to wait for a trade set up.It taught me that to try to force a trade after a loosing trade is just wasting your time.(because in sim trading the only investment I had was my time). It also became obvious that there are certain moves generally related to morning gap openings and first hour highs and lows.I hope to get off of the sim soon.Thanks Masood
If you can prove to yourself that you can be consistent at making money 4 out of 5 days a week for several weeks, then you should be ready for live trading.
For me I had a lot of fear that I would lose money, but after I proved to myself that I practically make money every day it built the confidence that I needed to go live. It will come, trust me.
Probably it's secret what basics you are teaching your young traders, but may be not secret what you are teaching them not to do or what avoid to do often?
Iam happy to report that in real time trading in this new year I am in the plus column.Reasons are the following:
1: Used ATM strategies which allowed me not to exit prematurally until profit target was met which was 6 ticks in emini sp. (it was hard , sometimes I felt or Ithought I knew that trade was going to be a loss if I do,nt exit by over riding the stategy, but I did not pull the trigger.The result was 50/50.
2:Used the descipline to wait for the set up trade and not just considering that market is in a hurry to go up or down without me. (It was the most difficult thing)
3:My stop loss is 5 ticks, but most of the losing trades wound up at a loss of break even or 1 to 4 ticks due to Ninja trader strategy application(money management).Thanks
Masood
Not sure I understand your point 3. What does the Ninjatrader strategy have to do with money management? Could you explain in more detail.
By the way, I too went from sim trading to live trading in the new year. So far doing OK but I find it significantly different and much more challenging. I was doing quite well in the simulator but my live results, tho positive are much more modest. Its psychologically much harder to risk real money.
I think we all experience that. I fight the urge to close trades where I have a small gain and it seems it's not going any farther. But usually it's just a fake out by the market and then it'll hit my target. I closed one out last week and it would have hit my target. But also I closed one out and it would have stopped out at BE. So it's a tough decision.
I think if you find yourself closing them out often then you're probably trading too big of a size. If you were risking $1 you probably wouldn't even think about it and let it go. But if risking $150 it's a different story. So two solutions are to trade smaller size or return to sim until the discipline is there. Note that one can trade small size than 1 ES contract by trading 10 shares of SPY.
ive been there as well. going from sim to live is a challenging experience. i think the biggest struggles that we go through are mental. one comment made above was " taking more risks on the sim". Taking more risks is fine as long as its still a part of your trading plan. With no plan on how you are managing your risks then your results will vary.
Hi exiledgoblin. The strategy I am using, I have named it T6 S5,which means profit target at 6 ticks with a stop loss at 5 ticks.It is set to work as follows:
For example if I enter long at 1076.00,Strategy automatically puts the sell stop loss at 1074.75 and profit sell target at 1077.50.When market moves up 2 ticks, stop loss moves up to 1075.00.Market moves up another tick, stop loss moves to 1075.25.If market moves up by 4 ticks, stop loss moves to 1075.50.If market moves up by 5 ticks, stop loss moves to break even.If market moves up by 6 ticks, and does not give a fill,stop loss moves up to1076.25 showing a profit of 1 tick.Thanks
Masood
Interesting...if ya don't mind me asking what % get shown the door?
And do you restrict them to certain markets...or once they are trained up ya let them loose on what every they prefer?