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That'll pay your first week or two's tuition. Then you will add 10k which should get you a few months because you will stop out every $50. Do that one more time until you feel really bad about essentially loosing a mediocre car. Take a break- come back with 25k a couple months later- work it down to 10k - stare at the screen in awe, SIM trade until you are " on to something" for 3 days in a row- blow out that 10k and come back with $50k to trade 1-3 contracts once you finally understand what you don't understand. Hope this helps and maybe saves you some money- I skipped the 5k level personally.
If your trading method risks no more than 9-10 ($54-$60) ticks, your expectancy is above 1.0, and you have the discipline to follow through... sure I guess that could work.
With that you would have to answer follow on questions like liquidity and slippage associated with liquidity and factor that back into the first sentence.
The name of the game in trading is allowing enough trades of your method to have the math of your edge work out. Poker players don't expect to win every single hand. They expect that whatever game plan they have will work out in the long run to a profit. So should you.
The biggest problem I have with this thread is that there's an underlying assumption (and hope) that one can be the 1 in a million freak anomaly to be so good at trading, that you can take outsized risk, using outsized futures leverage, and make it to unspeakable riches using that wreckless system ad infinitum. Sure there are traders who presumably make it to becoming funded through the 10k program.. but my bet is that you will not be one of them. That is why the entry fee for the 10k combine is the cheapest. It's basically free money for them.
In trading, shortcuts lead to the longest path possible.
using my initial margin RM 10 k ( usd 2500 )...base my set up on camarella pivot....and only staying about 15 minutes to 1 hour in the market each trade...trading 1 lot....Stop loss order around 10 ticks (depands on the camarella),..I usually get about Rm 200 to RM 300 a day..( 3 or 4 entry)
i do sometimes getting stop loss ...but..normally 1 in 5 trade maybe ..
( FCPO trading hours..is in two session...morning session..10.30 to 12.30...break.....then.. afternoon session 3.00 to 6.oo pm malaysian time )
so far..i can make nett profit around RM 1 k per week constantly..maybe not much to most traders.. ( RM 1 k is only about usd 250 ), but..i'm looking forward to double my "lot" when i am really confident in doing so..
It's great that you can get about RM 1k per week but...I encourage you not to focus too much on profit/loss. Focus on your method, executing well, and following your plan. The problem with using profit/loss as measurement tool of your trading ability is that you will hit losing streaks and you will start to question everything. Market cycles and market conditions change.
If you have ever watched golf, the golfer does not cheer and start dreaming about being a PGA champion if he hits 1 good shot. He celebrates a good shot knowing that the next shot is a completely separate event with an uncertain outcome. He doesn't care that the guy next to him hit a good shot too or hit a horrible shot. He just focuses on trying to make his next shot as great as the last. At the end of the game he counts his score.
If I had to tell my younger self the keys to profitable trading they would be:
1) Create a trading plan that's rock solid
2) Follow money management plan
3) Being well capitalized for the right instrument
4) Being disciplined enough to follow all the above numbers without question or hesitation
5) Only allowed to tweak method after 100 disciplined trades.
In trading, shortcuts lead to the longest path possible.
What is your strategy, what are your results on SIM, what kind of stats do you have etc... Depending on the answers 5K may be enough (even if I doubt it because you can barely afford the official margin for most contracts even if some broker allow ridiculously low margin on ES for example which are in my opinion "criminal" ) or 100k or even 1M may be not enough... Why not trying ETF? They track the same instrument but with less leverage as so less risk.
The marvelous thing with trading is that almost everything is possible when we speak of success even if the worst is unfortunately the more probable.
Good luck and good trading.
R.I.P. Olivier Terrier (aka "Okina"), 1969-2016.
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I noticed that most people who say "$5k is too little", and "it's not enough to survive drawdowns" , seems like they are making assumptions about holding periods. If you are looking to hold a contract overnight or longer - yes the risk of not having enough capital to meet margin req's is big, but if you are scalping and your holding period is very short and stops are tight - $5k might be sufficient, assuming you don't hit a long string of losses. You'd have to be a great (and consistent) market timer though, and very lucky on top of that
What about QM? Its a half contract for CL. 5k would give you 3k to lose until your under margin requirement. That 30 bad trades @ 20 CL/tick stop. If by some miracle could learn within 30 bad trades, then you could scale up to CL and start growing profit.