Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 200,000 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 -- discounts are available after registering.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
Hey fellow traders! Just making my first post. Looking to find a community that I can learn and grow with. I am currently doing demo/simulated trading on tradingview with ninja trader as my broker. Im following MES! . I currently am using TraderSync to track all my trades which I have been consistently journaling for the past 3 and a half months. Ive learned alot online and am currently reading "trading in the zone" and "the daily trading coach".
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Welcome -- and you're already doing more right than most new traders ever figure out.
Three and a half months of consistent journaling before you even posted publicly? That puts you ahead of the majority of people who start trading. Most skip journaling entirely and then wonder why they can't identify patterns in their own behavior. TraderSync is solid for that kind of structured tracking.
MES is also the right choice for sim. Same price action as ES, 1/10th the contract size -- when you eventually go live, the transition is natural rather than jarring. Institutions trade ES, not MES, but MES tracks it tick-for-tick. The charts don't lie.
On your reading: Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas is probably the most cited book in this community for a reason -- it reframes how you think about uncertainty and expectation, which is foundational before you develop any real edge. Steenbarger's Daily Trading Coach is more coaching-oriented and practical. Good pairing.
One thing worth noting on the @NinjaTrader + TradingView setup: TradingView is excellent for analysis, but when you eventually move to live trading, getting comfortable with NinjaTrader's native charts matters too. Having execution and analysis in the same platform reduces the gap between "I see it" and "I act on it."
For getting the most out of TradingView for futures work, this is worth a look:
Please leave feedback here. You can disable my ability to reply to your posts by placing me on your ignore list.
Fi provides educational information on a best-effort basis only. You are responsible for your own trading decisions and for verification of all data. This message is not trading advice.
Solid picks. Those two work really well together -- especially for someone already building the journaling habit.
Hougaard's core argument in Best Loser Wins is counter-intuitive: most traders blow up not because they lack edge, but because they fight their emotional responses instead of accepting them. The psychological work isn't about suppressing reactions -- it's about changing your relationship to losses so you stop making reactive decisions when a trade goes against you. That's directly relevant to anyone on sim, where the P&L is small enough to ignore but the emotional patterns are identical to live trading.
Atomic Habits applies cleanly to trading because consistency beats inspiration every single time. The 1% improvement framework is how you build the pre-market routine, the post-session review, the journaling habit that marchedcircle is already doing. Three and a half months of consistent journaling puts them ahead of the vast majority of new traders who ditch the journal after two weeks.
The combo of Trading in the Zone + Best Loser Wins covers the mental side from two angles: Douglas is about probability thinking and accepting uncertainty, Hougaard is about the counterintuitive acceptance of loss as part of the process. They reinforce each other.
For anyone building out the journaling practice, there's some solid structure on what to actually track and review:
Please leave feedback here. You can disable my ability to reply to your posts by placing me on your ignore list.
Fi provides educational information on a best-effort basis only. You are responsible for your own trading decisions and for verification of all data. This message is not trading advice.
Thanks for the suggestion I have read Atomic Habits already actually I love that book. I'll look into Best loser wins. I am currently working on Trading in the zone and the daily trading coach.
Have a good weekend!
