Has trading worked out for you?

[tech/a]

Tech/a what did the next bar do?
Stall at resistance?

Yes it did but its still an open long trade if I was in it.



The chart is ADO if you want to follow it.

In fact I like it to continue on. (Kiss of death!)

 

[myrtie100]

(Kiss of death!)

Haha, maybe...
The last candle to me shows weakness, closing on the low.
However that level might be support?
It's a low volume bar too - whatever that might mean.

Thanks tech I'm watching it

 

[Newt]

I feel you need to have your life in order and a balanced life to trade effectively otherwise the stress will get to you.

Thanks for sharing Toothyfish. Whole-heartedly agree this is an essential pre-requisite and easy to dismiss in the initial obsession for success. Trading reliably for profit is tough, but doing so for many years consistently requires drive with balance. We're fortunate to have so many mentors that share their time, experience and often very different trading/investing in this forum, but ultimately you have to find what works for yourself so you c an sleep at night.

 

[tech/a]

ADO showed its colours today.
Hit my stop line.
Low volume so not convincing.
I'm of the opinion this will be a pull back before continuing.

 

[>Apocalypto<]

Inspired by your stories I would like to share my journey too.
I was drawn into trading during the tech boom as a 20yr old who had a life savings of $10g.
I had tripled the account and blew it during the tech crash. This was pray and hope trading.
I was now hooked to trading and vowed to get my money back.
I dedicated my life to trading. Like lone wolf, all my time and weekends was dedicated to research into trading. I learnt TA, Elliott, Gann, VSA. It was all scattered and I started discretionary trading with a 20g account. My new life savings.
This was at a cost to my professional career and personal social life.
I no longer had time for friends or developing my profession. I just wanted to go home and read more books on trading. Using a combination of options and futures.
I managed to turn my 20g account into 70g before again blowing it in 2004 due to lack of money management.. I had a bitter taste and could not look at the markets for 2 years.
With a new life savings I was motivated to start trading again. This time I was dedicated to mechanical trading. Again, all my time as spent learnibg to program first in metastock, then easylanguagefor tradestation and then C#.
By this time I had spent in excess of 150g in educational courses and trading systems. I started with a 100g account this time and increased it to $500g
But then came the taxman who took $200g in taxes and I suffered a major drawdown of $100g again due to poor money management.
In 2009, I was a single with no social life and a job I despised. All the automated systems I developed or purchased were not consistent.
I was disillusioned with trading and decided it was a casino and quit. I was a depressed, living at home. 32 yr old.
I focused on my career and social life and was generally in a happier place.
I setup my own busines, got married and felt I could look at the markets again. In 2012 I started with a new account of 100g. The past 3 years I have managed a much more modest 30g annual return. For me this is the sweet spot to subsidize my income and beable to sleep at night.
I don't know if there is a moral to the story but I think psychology and money management was were I failed to develop. I still struggle with discipline. I feel you need to have your life in order and a balanced life to trade effectively otherwise the stress will get to you.
My favourite instruments these days is futures indexes. SP500 and Aussie SPI.
I no longer am interested in options or stocks and have never really tried commodities.
Ihave an interest in trading currencies but do not feel I have enought capital and have not been able to develop any system that I feel comfortable using.

great post thanks for sharing.

 

[CanOz]

I finally found time to post a reply in this thread, excuse the book length….

My trading journey start in 2005 in the midst of the mining boom. I took a 7k account to nearly 20k in a matter of months, trading part time at work while things were idle. After that I switched to CFDs without enough knowledge and lost it all but the original capital. It was that moment where I knew I needed some help. Nick Radge got me into swing trading and I did quite well part time after work with his power setups. I’ve been swing trading on off until IB cut the margin.

Intra-day is much tougher, it is much harder to learn. For me it seemed I had to start all over again. I started to learn this by mostly sim trading after I left my job in 2011. After 4 long years and a few breaks in between I am finally making progress during what could be my last attempt at this. I’m finally having profitable weeks not just days and I am currently trying to put a track record together. My equity curve is still not pretty though, its quite bumpy…

My biggest weakness is knowing when to just sit on my hands and wait for my plays. My biggest losses occur when I revenge trade, or try and make up losses, I trade the P/L instead of waiting for my key plays to show up. My strength is being able to sense the direction of the market, but having the conviction or the belief in my intuition is still poor at times…. A big problem for me was the pressure I felt once I was in the trade, especially on the Dax. I swapped over to the Eurostoxx and the Bund for a few months and was much better with those thicker markets. They gave me more time to make decisions. .. My plays are a mix between momentum and mean reversion. I’m still enamored with the Dax though, something about the way it sweeps just keeps me coming back. I’ve open a CFD account now for my swing trading and they have index CFDs on the Dax, they have A$1 and Euro5 minis. I find now that because of the smaller size I am much more comfortable scaling in and out of trades. I feel its vital to be able to trade multiple contracts and my account is just not big enough to do that with the Dax futures. I still use the Dom and my Dax futures workspace but execute on the CFD platform. Its early days yet but I feel much calmer now, able to take more heat. The fills I’ve been getting are actually better than I was getting on my AMP and IB accounts, likely because they only need to go to IG’s server and not the exchange. I still trade 1 momentum play on my AMP futures account, because I take almost no heat for it and I can get a decent fill most of the time.

Another area I need great improvement on is a trading journal and my record keeping. I start journals but can’t keep them going. I’ve always been poor at this. I’d rather be planning the session, looking for levels and analyzing intermarkets than writing in a journal…serious weakness and it speaks to my lack of discipline..I'm going to try Edgewonk next week.

The last thing I wanted to mention were the challenges I’ve had trading from China. I don’t use these as excuses but I can’t help but wonder how good I could be without these issues…
I need a spare data vendor because there are times when I simply cannot connect to my broker. At times my data locks up in the middle of a trade and I have had to hedge off on my other broker until I can get re-connected. This happens despite having a 20mb line and my AMP server in Singapore. I guess that this is from the firewall China has in place.

I don’t need the money that trading can provide, we have ample savings from years of hard work, but it is the sheer challenge that keeps me coming back over and over again. I know I can excel at this, I’m good at reading the market structure and planning before the session. I’m good at managing the trade once I’m in profit, I have areas to improve when it comes to pulling the trigger and having the conviction to stay through heat. Unfortunately I think my wife has had enough with my trading. She doesn’t understand it and doesn’t want to. Sometimes when people don’t understand how difficult something is, they lose interest in supporting you. That said, she’s supported me doing this for three years, in between some other work assignments. I’ve made enough money with those assignments to keep our comfortable lifestyle while we keep our savings for Australia. We’re moving to Brisbane soon and I really hope by then I can have enough of a track record to interest a shop, or at least convince her that I can do this full time… I’m good at swing trading too, so I want to build that track record again, then trade my super when I get back.

The last thing I wanted to mention is that it seems there are not many outright directional traders around anymore. I’m pretty good friends with a big spread trader from an Australian firm. He’s done well out of trading and he never trades outrights. Only knows 1 guy who does. For a long time I really wondered if it was possible to be profitable trading outrights at all, unless you were a trading savant like TH…my short term goal is to be profitable and have enough credibility to be able to instruct others. I want to give back somehow, perhaps save others from some of the mistakes I made. I know at my age I won't have long to trade intraday, my eyesight is not great as it is now.

Last again, thanks to all the prop guys here, TH, Skyquake, SKC and also to minwa. You guys are inspirational....

PS....sorry for rambling on...

 

[tech/a]

Great journey Can

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Modest]

Awesome thanks for posting CanOz

 

[CanOz]

aaackkk! Sorry for all the 'lasts'...i wish i could edit them out

 

[tech/a]

aaackkk! Sorry for all the 'lasts'...i wish i could edit them out

Understandable
"Lasts" are on going

 

[Newt]

Top stuff CanOz. Have always been guided by your honest posts on what's worked and hasn't worked for you.
You haven't been tempted back to stocks at any time during your futures adventures at all?

 

[CanOz]

Top stuff CanOz. Have always been guided by your honest posts on what's worked and hasn't worked for you.
You haven't been tempted back to stocks at any time during your futures adventures at all?

I've wanted to get back into swing trading since I left my last work assignment, but since IB cut margin for Aussies, I had to quit. So with my cfd account I can now swing trade again!

 

[kid hustlr]

. The fills I’ve been getting are actually better than I was getting on my AMP and IB accounts,

For someone who's experiences many of yours this is a really great thing to hear.

 

[VSntchr]

Another area I need great improvement on is a trading journal and my record keeping. I start journals but can’t keep them going. I’ve always been poor at this. I’d rather be planning the session, looking for levels and analyzing intermarkets than writing in a journal…serious weakness and it speaks to my lack of discipline..I'm going to try Edgewonk next week.

Let us know what you think of Edgewonk mate. I've made my own excel based journal which has become quite comprehensive (for my requirements) after improving it each year...but looking at the edgewonk youtube video - it looks pretty awesome.

PS....sorry for rambling on...

Don't be sorry, we love the ramblings!

 

[skc]

Thanks for sharing CanOz.

Unfortunately I think my wife has had enough with my trading. She doesn’t understand it and doesn’t want to. Sometimes when people don’t understand how difficult something is, they lose interest in supporting you. That said, she’s supported me doing this for three years, in between some other work assignments. I’ve made enough money with those assignments to keep our comfortable lifestyle while we keep our savings for Australia.

A couple of suggestions to get your wife on side (or at least off your back), if you haven't done these already.
- Make sure she knows how big the financial rewards can be. She may well be off by an order of magnitude.
- Discuss lifestyle benefits... working from home vs being away on assignments. Especially important given you have a young family. This includes the 12 hours a week that you don't need to spend travelling to and from work.
- Discuss how you can take holidays at anytime of your choosing.
- Offer incentives to her / the family given certain milestones. E.g. Will make this renovation when I make $Y from trading over next 6 months, or if I have a cracker month when I make >$X.

We’re moving to Brisbane soon

May be a small Brissie Xmas gathering of the ASFer's? We just need to structure so it's tax deductible.

I know at my age I won't have long to trade intraday, my eyesight is not great as it is now.

Get someone to look at that asap. It's too valuable and not just for trading!

 

[VSntchr]

May be a small Brissie Xmas gathering of the ASFer's? We just need to structure so it's tax deductible.

Count me in!

 

[skc]

Count me in!

 

[Gringotts Bank]

Leave the wife at home. He's not called V-snatcher for nothing.

 

[tech/a]

Unfortunately I think my wife has had enough with my trading. She doesn’t understand it and doesn’t want to. Sometimes when people don’t understand how difficult something is, they lose interest in supporting you.

My wife hates trading and anything related to it.
She cant accept that you'll lose money from time to time
Just like any other business. A few months of my own Company trading where
some are negative months---sort of made a light switch.
She sees it as gambling.

The way around it for me is I have an account solely funded from
other business interests and Just use that.
I never talk to her about trading. She never asks.

Just keep her happy Can. No financial worries is about the only thing that I know of that does the trick.

 

[Newt]

Count me in!

Me too, depending on timing.