Big Mike 

Excellent webinar @SoftSoap, thank you for sharing. Mike

Thanks Mike.
I must admit I present on a regular basis but I've never done a webinar. It was a bit odd to just speak into a mic and not get any immediate feedback from a 'crowd'.

Walking away I couldn't tell if people hated it, or loved it. So I'm glad to see some positive feedback

Thanks for the opportunity to share some parts of my journey.

Cheers

johny1971 

I got a few really good takeaways, chief among them is asking yourself what are your issues? and the common thread among almost all afternoons with FIO members, lots of analysis about trades, self, and the self that trades. Oh yes, the comment that if you don't know what is going on in other markets than you won't understand a move in yours was really helpful and will likely get me to broaden my scope. I have seen that in action, but it didn't click till I heard you say it. I couldn't attend, but I have two quick questions if you could address that would be great. First, how do you deal with the risk of ruin involved with leverage? You did not say how many contracts you trade, but you did hint that capitalization is tough, so, I wonder how do you deal with the 100s of thousands of dollars you are liable for when trading NQ. Second, how do your approach to trading the news evolve? You mentioned you traded price and and volume and you showed insight into that, but I am unsure how you came to trade planning with news in mind. Thanks, John

Leverage or not, the trader controls the actual $ amount of risk. Assuming you use stop losses of course.

For me, out of the money I put into my broker account, I limit my risk to a maximum % per trade.
This is around 1% max at the moment, so if I have a 100K account, that would be a $1,000 MAX loss (incl commissions).
To make math simple let's ignore commissions and say that this is 50 points in the NQ.

So then I would take a look at the trade, is my stop loss going to be ~26-50 points below my entry point? then I can only use 1 contract
Am I going to have a tighter stop loss because the way the market is moving, let's say 5 points below my entry? Then I can enter in with 10 contracts. 10 points below my entry? 5 contracts.

In all 3 scenarios above, the $ risk is the same, and the % risk to my overall account is the same. Yes the likelihood to walk away with a winner will vary, but you can't control that. But risk is almost always under your control, assuming a liquid market.

For me specifically, my data tells me that my typical risk is actually a low lower, at ~0.4% per trade.

Right now for me it's easy because I mostly trade one contract, there are very few times when I trade more than 2 and usually I've scaled into a position so most of the time I'm actually no longer risking any of my capital by that point.


News is a bit trickier of a question to answer. Personally, I like to be aware of as many news at a macrolevel as reasonably possible. News are an extra data point and depending on other things going on in the market, they may or may not be impactful. This is the same for news itself, sometimes news will be very impactful to the market, other times they won't move it at all. It's not usually the be all end all.

Do you have something more specific in mind regarding my approach to news? That would be a lot easier for me to answer I think.

SMCJB 

I thought it was excellent and that @SoftSoap illustrated beautifully the discipline required to become a successful trader. All the beginner traders out there should watch this, it's not glamorous, but trading (even sucessful trading) rarely is. Another lesson beginners could take from this, is the amount of work, that ISN'T looking at charts or trying to design holy grail indicators, that is involved in becoming succesful.

Thank you for the compliment.

I think that the approach to trading with most new traders is flawed because it's driven by the wrong motives. The motives to make a quick buck are more present than wanting to improve and become a better trader. People don't realize how big of a dog eat dog environment the market is, specially when all the other dogs are so much bigger, better, and faster than you.

So they come in, looking for these indicators or try to copy someone else's methodologies. Not realizing that all of those very small and tactical details that make someone else successful, aren't very effective without the right big picture strategic foundations.

I hope that this can help traders think less about very tactical things such as indicators, and charts. So that they can start thinking more about things such as how to manage risk, and move forward on their journey to improve, however slow/fast that might take.

Cheers!

lemons 

Thank you for the webinar. I love the cycle Plan --> Do --> Check --> Act --> Plan Feedback cycle. Do more that works. Focus on Do more that works.

Absolutely!

Also, get rid of the things that don't work. Sometimes your 'check' will show you things that you need to stop doing.

There are a decent amount of setups that I used to take that I don't anymore, simply because my 'check' showed that they were just costing me money.

TraderTS 

It was the best presentation that I have not seen for a long time. What impress me the most was that he is only trading for less than a year and he is already good and on the right path... Make me thinking... who was he in his past life?

Glad you enjoyed the webinar! Thanks for the compliment.

Cheers.

Hey guys, it's a bit ot, but are webinars are limited to et- members in general?

THanks for answer...

@SoftSoap - Excellent webinar!

@WOW CO

Thanks.

@SoftSoap

Great Webinar, i liked it.

The webinar is Elite only, as are most all non-sponsored webinars.

The link is (as I already posted above):
https://nexusfi.com/webinars/#registernow

Mike

@SoftSoap

Regarding news, I was surprised to hear you trade news as a beginner. I am eager to sit out all the major news/market moving events: FOMC and NFP mostly, but eager to wait out others as well as I learn more. My question is along the lines of where do you find the confidence to be in the market during large events like FOMC and NFP? I just find it too risky, and don't mind waiting for set ups later on in the day.

Now, regarding risk. I really don't think we control how much we lose, particularly when leveraged. You mention liquidity, but in instances that can go away, like a Flash Crash. It seems to me one could lose a lot, if not all, gains from an extended time period should the market collapse when one is in a trade? Honestly, I am having a hard time justifying the risk of say a North Korea bomb or a California earthquake, and even another Flash Crash, that could wipe out all gains and leave me indebted, seriously indebted. Where would that stop get you out?

Maybe I am making too much of this. After all, so many are day trading futures, but I do wonder of the risk of ruin from a business standpoint. It seems insurance in the form of options would be too costly given trading 1-3 contracts. The only other alternative I can think of is trade short only, and that would be really tough odds wise.

I am really glad there is a space for this conversation. Thanks.