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I've been trading live on and off (mostly off) for about 5 years with different instruments. I'd tried oil futures before with no success. I really did not do well with the price action there. And I got beat up quite a bit this year with stock price action as well. Then I discovered S&P Futures. I really like trading that, and for the first time, I've even completed step 1 on Top Step by trading it. Of course it's always a learning process, and most recently I've stopped the whole "pedal to the metal" approach and really upped my game with patience and pickiness on entries. And wow has that made a difference. I no longer get excited about a big day here and there. It's really the consistency that's eluded me up to this point. But I seem to (potentially) have found it. I start step 2 tomorrow with hopes of similar performance:
I suggest you use a live account and fund it with a few hundred dollars, and trade micros. That way it's just you and the market. If you "blow" this account then add a few hundred more and start over.
If you are an over trader, as most are, then watch your percentage profit for the account. A $300 account for example, hits 10% profit at $30, so if you hit a target profit quit for the day and live your life, get away from the screen.
For a $300 account, if you do this for 50 days, you will have $22,181.
There's a really good argument in favor of live trading the micros, and @dannyinhouston just made it. It is certainly a more direct engagement with the market, since it's real and it's all yours.
But it looks like @TraderMichaelB is getting a handle on his issues with TopStep and that's the main thing.
At this point, I wouldn't change anything, just see if you can keep up the consistency you have managed to put in place. If a problem develops and the issues return to the extent that the TS account is blown, the micros offer a good alternative. If it works out with TS, then mission accomplished.
Ultimately both Combine-style accounts and micro live accounts are a means to an end. When the end is achieved, probably it will be time to move along to something larger. In the meantime, these are ways to get things going while limiting your risk while you need to.
Good luck, either way.
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote
That's GOT to be exciting! The live account pert... not the computer dying so much. Get it going again?
I think it's a good idea. However, I'll see out this challenge and see where it takes me before I ponder opening a live account. Tradovate I assume is a good broker for that?
Well said. I'll continue doing what I'm doing fr the time being. Full transparency, I had to do a reset (level 2 still) within a few hours today. For the first couple of weeks I traded channels. Buying the dips and selling the spikes. Friday and today were... NOT that. I need to figure out how to handle that, even if it's just taking a couple of stop losses and then taking the day off to wait for the price action to straighten back out. It's SUPER hard sitting out when I've just started step 2 for the first time. Even so, I need to have a concrete strategy for days when these things have such precipitous price action.
Thanks for the feedback guys!
(Oh, today was in the end a profit of $680 with the 3 contracts I'm allowed to trade)
Good solid price action today, and my trades worked 100%. If there's another thing to improve on for me, is letting these solid entries work, and let the instrument run for me. Taking 6-8 ticks could easily be 20-30 a LOT. Anyway, something to work on. Would make a lot of ground doing that to be able to sustain bad days easier. Goals for tomorrow!
Step 2 day 3.. man it was a tough day. I ended up doing quite well, but it was definitely an example of how NOT to trade. Risk:reward was all out of whack, and I actually came close to blowing up the account. By the end, I'd been down around $2800 and then regained over $4100 for a total of $1388 total profit after fees and commissions. HUGE moves on the ES today, and the scale of the channel at the bottom was eating me alive. Lesson taken, on days with moves THAT big, I really need to size down and minimize risk.
