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)
Asking Suggestions On Next Step After Profit With One Lot Trading-Micros
Broker: Broker: Trade Future 4 Less. Data Feed/Order routing: CQG
Trading: DAX; ES; Bund Futures
Posts: 77 since Oct 2018
Thanks Given: 49
Thanks Received: 57
Snax, I think you are confusing things a little - What SunTrader is sayin is one should never risk more than 1-2 % of the trading capital - I pesonally would say max 1% - Knowing you entry price, your stop loss and you trading capital you can calculate number of contracts. If this turn out to less than 1 contract skip the trade.
What you are talking about is when to close one or more of the contracts and let the other ones run to some higher profit level, but this is assuming that you make a profit - if the trade turns against you this aspect never come into play. For any trader to have a chance to be a trader in the long run your maximum loss per trader should be respected and not bended to have some ways of dealing with wish full thinking profit.
Having said above Micros ( provided they have the liqidity - which MES has) is more flexiable in this respect, and you can optimize better.
agreed, the 1-2% trading capital is what I was referring to as risk-management at the account-level, and I should have made a better effort to clarify this. If you are considering trading the /ES then I assumed that a reasonable protective-stop is within 1-2% for some number of contracts, (again, i shouldn't have assumed) and if you translate to multiple /MES contracts there is a lot of space to scale up due to the 1/10 size. You can always scale down to 1 contract in order to reach a far-away protective-stop in order to preserve the amount of risk for a trade you want to take.
Agree that you should skip the trade if the risk is too great, and again, I didn't mean to make an argument about that, I only wanted to point out that managing multiple contracts is a whole new problem to solve once you've traded 1 contract at a time in the past.
Broker: Broker: Trade Future 4 Less. Data Feed/Order routing: CQG
Trading: DAX; ES; Bund Futures
Posts: 77 since Oct 2018
Thanks Given: 49
Thanks Received: 57
Snax- Ok - Fine I think we "On the same page" - The difference appers to on our trading style - I do nor scale out when i profit, but close all open contract on a specific market at the same time - But as said the is a matter of trading style, but how one take profit is Happy Trouble compared to Stop Losses
I agree! This is where the MICROS can come in handy as well.
If you are able to trade multiple of 2 or 3 it may help some. For me personally once I take profit on the first one, it allows me to be more relaxed, manage the trade properly and see how much can the last contract run for etc.
PM with any questions about Cannon Trading (800) 454-9572 (310) 859-9572. Trading commodity futures, forex and options involves substantial risk of loss. The recommendations contained in this post are of opinion only and do not guarantee any profits. These are risky markets and only risk capital should be used. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
IMO at this point in the game you are working on your psychology not your trading method. Take great steps to protect you positive frame of mind and continue to build momentum and confidence.
The fee structure does suck, but it wont kill you. Additionally there is a bit of conditioning involved when the p/l dial spins at a furious pace. Perhaps if/when 5 MES becomes routine (trade a 2 and a 3 not 5 ones) your next step would be one ES on the tight metric from your multi lot approach.
The important item IMO is becoming comfortable with increased profit/risk AND defending your capital mercilessly.
I copied your suggestion to my trading journal. This is what I used to do back when I started out on sim with ES. I felt like a Rockstar. Then when I put real money in, I saw how very differently I reacted to losses. It has been a winding road to get to the place where I can see me doing this in the near future with micros. For now I am saving to increase my funded account and continue practicing with one lots on my entries. Likely I will move up to two lots initially so I can condition myself to not take the bigger hits too personally. But your suggestion is where I would like to see myself eventually progress. Then after gaining confidence with that, to eventually go with 6 lots broken into thirds.
My hats off to you for figuring this out at such a young age and that your parents allowed you to try even though they were skeptical. My risk level is nowhere near 6% but that's because I'm a control freak who hates to lose money (funny that I picked futures, huh?). It has been an incredible journey so far! Best of luck to you!
Well...I am sure if you follow this path gradually it will take you to the place where your mental focus is comfortable to trade multiple contracts. One more advice for you if / when you will get to the 6 lot trades: When you have multiple contracts that you can scale out in 3rds (i.e. trading 6 or 9), I would recommend to adjust your profit taking pattern as following - on the 1st target take 4 out of 6 off and move your stop to break-even or one tick below. Then let your 2 remaining contracts run to the 2nd target and take another one off. The last one will be a runner. This way you profit on 65% of your initial position and reduce the risk immediately still having paid for a cup of coffee even if the trade goes against you.