Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 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 -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
What is a "confident sim trader"?. Please share.
Matt
Trading futures and options involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. You may lose more than your initial investment. All posts are opinions and do not claim to be facts. Please conduct your own due diligence. Use only Risk capital when trading Futures.
1 800 771 6748 local 561 367 8686 email [email protected]
These are some qualities I believe someone should possess before trading a live account:
Someone who can write down their exact trading rules on a piece of paper and potentially automate their strategy if they wished.
Someone who has tested their rules in a real-time simulation environment for over 6 months and at least 1000 trades
Someone who is consistently profitable and has recorded all their results
Someone who knows what to expect from day to day, week to week and month to month based on their recorded results (e.g average weekly loss/profit, average drawdowns etc..).
Someone who is not risking capital which will affect their daily lives.
Someone who is not relying on their potential trading profits to live their lives.
Someone who is almost indifferent to their results and can handle a loss.
honestly, this is a collection of a real funded trader, who has traded live funds for many years, especially the last point.
This is not a paper trader. Kindly, I wish to end it here.
Matt
Trading futures and options involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. You may lose more than your initial investment. All posts are opinions and do not claim to be facts. Please conduct your own due diligence. Use only Risk capital when trading Futures.
1 800 771 6748 local 561 367 8686 email [email protected]
I would not say I have "blown" an account in pure $ terms, but twice in my 20's I tried to day trade stocks and ended up with 'buy & hold'. (or bought & hope).
First instance I was just excited about the tech boom and I had friends making money (or so they said), I really didn't know anything and RSI/MACD was pretty cool!
Second attempt was a few years later, I had spent 6 months learning as much TA as I could, I thought I had it, and I wasn't going too bad, but really didn't have a concept of risk management or a predefined stop-loss, so when some trades went against me I just held & held waiting for them to come back.
Fast forward to the end of 2013 and I was interested in trading again, happened across this site and have now spent 1 1/2 years studying the content and webinars (I think even full time, it would take close to 6mths to get through everything in here).
So thankfully I have been spared many of the trials of others learning through their experiences. I hate to think what I would have done with leveraged investments the first two times around...
Had blown my Lind-Waldock account trading commodities futures way back in 1998. Was a few years out of college and working at the operations group of a foreign investment bank. Basically, had a lot of free time, so started swing trading in Swiss Franc, pork bellies, live cattle, corn, etc. using some indicators I bought from some chart data provider.
It was all luck and no skills. This was how naive I was back then. I'd entered into a long position in the Swiss Franc a few hours before I left work. Planned to close the position the next morning for a quick profit. After I'd finished my reports the next morning, I checked the Swiss Franc 5 minute chart on the Bloomberg Terminal. I was perplexed/surprised that there were bars painted from 4:01PM the prior day to 9:29AM the current day. I thought the markets were closed during that time frame. Luckily, the trade ended in a profit.
Over a couple of months, I was able to increase my account from the initial $10k to about $15k, before greed and overconfidence did me in. One morning, after I'd finished my usual morning reports, I checked the live cattle chart and decided to go long. However, instead of the usual 2 contracts, I went in with 5. I got in at around 10:00AM. A few minutes later, my account was up to $17k (+$2k on the trade). Nature called, so went to the restroom to take a leak. Returned to my desk 5 minutes later and saw my account balance had dropped to $15.5k. I literally pissed away $1.5k. Should have bailed and taken the +$500, but didn't. Hoped to close the trade, once it goes back to +$2k again. Account now at $14.5k. Should have bailed and taken the -$500, but didn't. Hoped to close the trade, once it goes anywhere near positive. Account now at $13k. I couldn't believe it. The trade went from +$2k to -$2k in about 10 minutes.
Decided to average down with 5 more contracts, then minimized my trading screen and walked away (did some actual work). Got a margin phone call later in the day from my broker closing my cattle positions. A few weeks later, I closed my account with about $1.5k left.
Agree with that, especially on longer term trades and options. Simulation, paper trading on TOS, lets someone see what type of risk is involved and how to react and roll options. Paper trading has definitely helped and I probably would have blown my account (since 2005) without it.
I don't know of Sim would help with trading futures intra-day though, faster trading, unrealistic fills, and the emotional roller coaster involve in intra-day trading.
Not exactly that simple though. Who knows the reasoning behind a retail, institutional, or hedge fund trades. Maybe the contract or share traded was a win-win for both parties involved.
Just my personal opinion from mentoring a few individuals over the years. The only trades someone can control are their own, and the mindset of trading and investing as a competition is destructive for someone new to the market. They focus on other traders and investor results and when they can't emulate those results they either blow up an account or just quit from frustration.
Yea, I didn't mean it literally. The trader you traded with could also be profitable. You don't buy and sell from the exact same trader. You buy from one, and sell to another. Hence, your trade being profitable does not rely on the other traders trade being at a loss.
BUT, considering the % of players who are long term profitable, It's more like for every win, there are 5 losses...