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I've been changed my combine to 50K USD. I was doing some backtest, and I realized I need more room. This is not the perfect solution either, but give me enough breathing room to take trades. I can easly trade with 3 contract, I am planing to have 2-3 trades on lucky days, and 4-5 trades on not so luck trades.
SL with still 8-12 tick, based on a smart SL, in case of trends it could be bigger. I have to take more care for trending, to have enough limit, but the basic idea, is to push the envelop on the trends, if I feel it is pushable, otherwise, close it on BE.
Anyhow. Friday trade is like text book. Not too much to add, I have to follow this mentality. Trade smart, trade in patiant, trade by the rules. Rules are repeatable, feelings are not.
Have a nice weekend to all of you
Since I don't think they let you switch during the Combine, it is reasonable to assume you blew the 2nd one (on the 3rd day) and this is your 3rd Combine?
If so, I don't think the switch will make a difference, because you keep letting yourself to hit the DLL... It is all about position sizing and risk control....
Hi Pedro. Thank you for trying to help me out here with your wishfull, and added value comments. It is always welcome:
- Yes TSP not allow to change any combine, the right wording is I have started a new challange
- Did I blow the old one again on THU? Good question and good logic I can agree with you on the logic side, but we will never know the truth.
- It is only position sizing and risk controll: Yes it is, and it makes a different system by system: 30K USD has allows 500USD daily loss, 50K USD allows 1000USD. I used 2 contract on my 30K USD, and I am using 3 contract on my 50K USD account.
You can say that ofc do the challange with 1 contract, no matter what, but I have to levrege, my expectation on the winner side. So going back to my original idea, I was backtesting again a plan for TST, with market replay, with my friends and so on... And based on the calculations 50K USD looks better. And I agree with you. There is a downside, and a trick as well. In case of the 30K USD combine, the trailing loss could be 1500USD, in case of the 50K combine the trailing loss limit is only 2000USD.
So going back along this logic, it is kind of harder as well. So getting 1000USD daily loss limit, is a big lie, because if you are not doing the R/R properly you will fail anyway.
Please feel free to question my logic anytime, to help me to improve! Thank you!
I had a thread a year or so ago where I gave strategic advice how to approach the Combine. Some of the rules have been changed since, but most of them are still sound ideas, look the thread up, there isn't much trading tomorrow anyway (president's day). I also did 3 combines (one rolled over, 2 failed) and I traded those until the last days, so they weren't blown in a few days. The reason I mention this, so you know I have personal experience.
Anyhow, since you are doing the 20 days and there is no more profit to make (like used to), I would take it easy in the first 5 or so days, just to get your groove back, gain a little profit, so you are not fighting from the red right out of the start. So just start out with less cars (position management) and build it from there if profitable. If you get a loss, at least it is a smaller loss.
The other important thing is to completely understand the rules. lots of people blow the combine becuase they think they don't have more chances and they go into a trade all or nothing, when they still had more options. I mentioned earlier, you can actually go below the DLL, you just can't close the trade with such a loss. At least that was the case a year ago. The reason I mention this because once a trader gets close to the DLL, assuming you can not cross it, the trading opportunities dry up quickly. But you can wait for a high possibility set up and with a winning trade you can get away from the looming DLL.
This is also a trending market, so average up, add more cars when in profit...
Just wanted to point out that this is no longer the case. If you are in a trade and you go below the DLL, the platform (T4 at least) will flatten your position immediately and block the account.
Most of your points are correct, but this is not an all or nothing situation. This is a situation where I know it is a good test for me to decied is this the road where I want to go. Maybe I told at the begining I am not a well disciplined person. So I can choose to blow up some more personal account, or proove my self here...
Anyhow, I absolutly do agree with you. TST is tempting in the first time, but when you are doing it you are realizing you have to align more and more rules, and you have to adopt your strategy into it. I didnt do it at the first time at all. The failure was not because of this ofc it was just a realization of the TST experience.
I give you an example. With my mindset I was in the mood to trade till I feel I can trade. If it is afternoon, than it is afternoon, if it is only 10 mins, than that's it. But because of the TST rules, I have to define not only the sweet spots, but numbers of the trade what I can get. Along this logic, and thx again to @GFIs1 I realized if i am choosing time windows to trade, and search signal, than I can limit my trades, and also I can get a bit better winning ratio.
So I took these learnings, and started to backtest marketreplay this methadology on the YM.
Now I have a very strick system, with very strick rules to follow, which has been tailored to TST. I never had a system like this before, so it is a big thank to TST again to push me to do this. Now the only thing is that am I capable to follow this road? I dont know! I know I have discipline issue. I am working on that, and I could looks to be a looser, and guess what, maybe I am! If I have to bet, than always easier to bet the looser side in case of trading
But getting back to my point, thx again the valuabe info's tips etc... I do my best to put all these things together!
Ok, thanks for the correction, I think I remembered wrong and it is not the DLL, but the max. loss what can be crossed as long as you don't close the trade. Of course that was a year or so ago, so they might have fixed it (it never made sense)...
Basicly here is how it worked:
You got close both to your DLL and max. loss let's say at half of your Combine. (Let's say -490 for the day and -1450 for the Combine) It is very hard to get away from there, thinking you can not go below it, basicly you need a trade that never goes against you. But if you know that you can actually go below the max. loss, you just had to stop for that day, and the next day you still had the DLL as your max. loss for the day, and you could take a trade that initially went against you, as long as it came back and you closed it above the max. loss. So everything wasn't lost and there was a chance that you can make it back to breakeven and save the Combine...
So technically, the real max. loss was max. loss + DLL. In case of the 30K it is 2K instead of $1500...