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I think the learning curve is as large as the opportunity. I suggest you
read Van Tharp's book on trading, to learn the meaning and importance of
position sizing, and Peter Bernstein's book to understand what risk is. (It
may be impossible to succeed of you don't know what position sizing means.)
There may be as many systems as there are traders. The best advice I have
heard is to find one thing that works for you, and learn to do that very
well. Maybe doing what a friend does is best for you, and maybe not, it is
something you have to test. Test every assumption. Test forward, so the
results of your proposition benefit you. Hypothetical trades produce
hypothetical money.
Simplify. For example, what if you found something that works, with a lot of
indicators and alarms; could it work with fewer indicators? With NO
indicators? How do you know? Prove it.
I have a PfgBest account and get fills within seconds. About five is the
fastest and twelve is the slowest so far. I would not trade e-mini with
slower fills. I have studied this intensely for several years and can't quit
my regular job yet. Learning to trade is as much about time as it is about
money, it is a process.
Flat is a position. Mon and Tue this week I could not read the tape at all,
and I knew it. I chose to stay out. I am sure that it offered great set ups
for some traders, but not for me.
It is possible that someone has stumbled into the markets and never
struggled to learn, but not likely. The reason it is so hard for someone
else to help us learn to trade is because it is not about mastering a system
or the markets, it is about mastering yourself.
Trading with charts is very deceptive, and nothing can guarantee which way
the next ticks will go. A neighbor daytrades stocks from a quote page, I use
charts. We are suited to the way we trade.
The best advice I can offer is to KNOW HOW YOU LEARN. If you know yourself
well enough you will see which approaches are dead ends and which lead
somewhere. Frustration, I mean FRUSTRATION, is extremely annoying, but it
stimulates my best problem solving. I use it, and there is plenty of it in
this business, to produce solutions. Again, it is a process. If you know
yourself you can leverage the process. If you know you can't trade off a
spreadsheet, don't waste your time trying.
If this sounds clipped and terse, it is because I am a terse and clipped
kind of guy. <g>
Best Success,
Michael
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marlowe Cassetti" <marlowec@xxxxxxx>
To: <realtraders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2000 12:07
Subject: [RT] Re: S&P Learning Curve
|
| Sean,
|
| I just started (5 days now) daytrading the ES. I have a friend who has
been
| trading this and the NQ quite successfully, so I'm following his system.
He
| uses Lind Online and I use Jack Carl ETC for trading. I use TradeStation
| 2000i and he uses MetaStock RT. We both use eSignal.
|
| My experience with JC ETC is that they are quite fast on the orders and
| fills. On my second day, my JC internet service froze up. I was able to
| restore it and recover without a big hit. I now keep my cell phone beside
| me with the trade desk speed-dial selected as a backup.
|
| I hesitate to give my results because they represent a small statically
| sample- But I'm averaging about $83 per contract per trade with a 72% win
| ratio.
|
| Again, I too am feeling my way through daytrading and I'm on my own
learning
| curve.
|
| Hope this helps ... Marlowe
|
|
| ----- Original Message -----
| From: Sean Cassidy <scassidy@xxxxxxxxx>
| To: <realtraders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
| Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2000 10:26 AM
| Subject: S&P Learning Curve
|
|
| Can anyone give me the approximate learning curve for most people trading
| e-mini S&Ps, in terms of dollars? I know this is completely subjective and
| will vary widely from trader to trader but I would just like to know what
| most successful traders went through in terms of drawdown before becoming
| profitable. I am using some system software that is right most of the time
| but have had trouble with slippage and a few bad fills. I am using Jack
Carl
| and they seem very slow. it sometimes takes a minute or more for an order
to
| become live. Is this bad? It sure seems to be. Again just a few
experiences
| of others would let me know if I am on the right track. After about 17
| trades I am down 7 points and a total of just over $600. Is this good,
bad,
| should I be looking for a real job?
|
| Sean
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