ekshay

Skeptics are always Open Minded, they simply don't turn off their BS Detectors. For eg, with regards to this thread... It is quite reasonable for a trader to look for patterns of market behavior that can be exploited for profit. It takes an unreasonable leap of faith to conclude that the Moon's position relative to the Sun... is the CAUSE of it. (or Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, etc.) Just like we don't need to know WHY Divergences on MACD work enough percent of times to be used profitably... Just like we don't need to know WHY Fibonacci Retracement ratios of recent swings can be used as good exit/entry points... We DON'T NEED to know why an Astrological pattern works.

George Soros: "I don’t think there’s any mysticism, but you are dealing with the unknowable. My philosophy - or my theory about markets - emphasizes that the prevailing paradigm underestimates or disregards the element of uncertainty. I consider myself an insecurity analyst, not a security analyst."

21-Sep-2010 Not much happened till FOMC.

Nice try. You can't frighten me with BIG numbers. FORTY-FIVE Years !!! No dear Attila. More like FOUR-point-FIVE Years. I'll be even slower than $60 ... Let it just be a daily net profit of $40 ... $200 weekly... or $800 monthly. The attachments shall do the explaining. What I am more concerned about is, what a Million US Dollars will be worth in 4 years !!! Hope they don't end up being just pocket change. :haha: ----- This is the first time I am calculating for a Million dollars. Normally, I keep my calculations to 25k as that's my current goal. Whether I make $100 a day or $100 a week, I can reach there in 3-6 months. Currently, all I am trying to do is "consistently follow my plan". The money will take care of itself. ----- Reminder: Earlier in the thread, I did mention that the reason I am sticking to scalps for this month, is because of home activities that I am required to attend to everyday during my trading hours. Yesterday's $60 were made while helping Mom pack her bags, a visit to a doctor, having dinner, and more. Atleast another $75 were missed because I had to cancel the trades, as I was leaving the computer. No trades taken today - 09/17. ----- Million.xls

Attila, that's 09/16. Here's mine.

Thales, "Twenty weeks starting with the week of 4/26/2010" are already up. My vote goes to Attila ... for tenacity, survival skills & never going AWOL. PS: I intend to use this thread as a Log, but honestly the spirit of 'Race to a Million' has long been missing.

Why indeed? :rofl: Attila, I think what Rex meant was "why have you switched to this new system from your older one?" ... and your reply to Lazarus does explain that to some extent. ----- Statement - 15th Sept. Couple scalps. Totally by the system. May the Tortoise win the race.

Statement - 13th Sept. A failed attempt at a scalp. Unfortunately, not a system entry. I need to control my desire to "do something so as to post on this thread". :haha: If I couldn't be at the pc when my setups occurred, oh well. This will be my "Tortoise" month for "The Race".

Is this normal for 'darkest just before dawn' accounts? :helloooo: You have been charged all-in Commissions of $9.95 per round-trip yesterday for all 3 trades, instead of the usual $3.09 on EUR/USD and $4.50 on NQ (as per your past statements) ???

Statement for 09/08. 1 little scalp.

I'd say, as long as you are not overtrading, you are doing just awesome. Keep up. For all of September, I have disturbance around my trading hours. So, will mostly scalp. Took no trades yesterday. Today is still on.

I thought the default method was the Thanks button. Thats what I use it for anyways. If a post taught me something I can use, I click Thanks. Then, if I or anyone else wants to see ALL the posts I have ever Thanked, they just need to make a couple clicks in my user profile. For managing lots of data, the usual solution is to use a MindMap software. Freemind, Personal Brain, and Mind Manager come to mind. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the compliment. And I agree with you. All we need, is enough losses to uncover our personal patterns of losing, and then STOP doing those things either by changing the system or by managing personal behaviour. In June, when I made my first major loss, ... it took me 6 weeks to get to the heart of the problem... What looked like a psychology/discipline problem, actually was a natural symptom of following a Discretionary method. As an intelligent person, discretion hurt my ego/self-esteem both ways... when I'd let go of an entry & it would work; and when I'll take one & it'd fail. It took me 6 weeks of testing various systems to realise that this pattern was a System Error, and not a psychological one. For me, it was present in all discretionary methods, no matter the Win rate. I needed a Mechanical system. So, this time, I have no emotional pain. Losses occur, but they don't hurt me in a way where I question my future as a trader. Now the only question, as you rightfully pointed, ... whether this current funding can sustain the remaining issues. But, a successful trader, I shall surely become. The losses on 08/31 were behavior problems. I'll do my best not to repeat them. Yesterday's losses [09/01] were normal system losses on a weird trading day. Zero emotional reaction.

Attila, at my current rate, I'll catch up with you soon enough. Lost some more today. No decent signals before nor after the news. Great chart, no trades. Oh. And no further trading for this week. Gotta respect loss limits.

08/31. Wow. This is what knowing you have an edge feels like... I have my single biggest losing day, and all I do is grin ear to ear. For the first time, it didnt make me run around looking for the next holy grail. :rofl: Its I who failed the system & not other way round. Discipline with Entries = Good Discipline with Profit Targets = Excellent Discipline with Stops = Pathetic Lesson of the Day: When Mr. Market offers you a Small Loss, accept & rejoice, for if you reject, he is fully capable of handing you a Big one. :haha:

Thanks. Every few months someone reminds me of it. Darn I take life so seriously. :crap: Statement for 08/30. As per my money management plan, if I can make net $100 everyday, I'll reach my goal smoothly. By that count, a successful day.

Naw. Only simmed for 2 months, until I really knew what I was doing. I was hoping it to end in 2 weeks. :rofl: Didnt pay much attention to any forums during this time. From the sidelines every few days, I'd see your posts. And all I could think was "where do you get those guts from?". I could never follow a strategy with these fluctuations, and if I wasnt following the rules, I'll just move to sim. At the risk of making a joke out of myself, this time I really believe I know what I am doing :haha: ... and will resume live trading this Monday. My goal is the same ... to take the $2500 account to $25000 in the next 4 months. Here are end-of-day results till now. Starting Balance --- 2500 June 21 --- 2498 June 22 --- 2498.98 June 23 --- 2402.94 June 24 --- 2086.94 (This is where I chickened out ) August 26 --- 2107.54

JLJ, that second chart is an abuse of the Dual Axis Charting Mode. Explanation: When you are looking for "Which market out-performed the other over a certain period of time?"... you are actually asking "If I had gone LONG on both of these markets on the same day (like July 28th), with the same amount of money/risk/leverage, then which one would have made me more profit?" While if you went SHORT, its S&P that out-performed MFB. So, your "plain vanilla chart" is actually the valid comparison. The Dual Axis Charting Mode is great for saving screen space, eg. when plotting 2 completely different indicators like Volume & RSI. Someone else might help us with a useful application of Dual Axis with prices. I cant think of any right away.

06/24 Hit my day's loss limit. Will post statement when it arrives. As per my MM plan, I'll now be exclusively trading YM, instead of TF & CL. This may require a few days on sim. Hey, the markets are going to be closed from July 1st to 6th, correct?

06/23. Getting schooled in Discipline. :haha:

06/22. Market went everywhere, but I didn't.

MM, would you recommend then... That if I am lucky enough to make $500 in my $2,500 account (a 20% return) in the next month, then I would be wise to just withdraw the money, and wait until June 2011. Then in June 2011, if I can make another $600 on my $3,000 account (a 20% return), then I would be wise to just withdraw the money, and wait until June 2012. This way my performance would not only be better than the average trader, but also the average money manager, fund manager, CTA, etc. That it would be wiser to wait 11 months, and unwise to continue trading through August 2010. [bTW, I am still breakeven. Getting in the groove yet. Will post the statement when it comes.]

Thanks MM for making this a lively thread. I'll chime in after today's trading. ---- Lost my internet yesterday within the first hour of stock market. [See. MM is right. Luck does strike ya.] But, speaking in New Age style, "I attracted it" ... because I wanted to know how fast does the Emergency TradeDesk respond. [So. Ed Seykota is also right. Everybody gets what they want from the markets.] Honestly, I was delighted with the service. Now, I can trade even more peacefully. Attached is the statement for 06/21. Breakeven yet.

Back to the race. This Race started on the week starting 26th April 2010, for a total duration of 20 weeks. One of the requirements is that one needs to be active participant for atleast 10 weeks. We are already 8 weeks in. Anyone who wants to join has another 2 weeks to raise their hand. ----- I have not traded real money since Jan 2008. Other businesses kept me occupied. Resuming this in Nov 2009, the last I simmed was Jan 2010. Then, busy again. I hadn't even checked TL between Jan and May this year. When I first saw this thread it was already 5 weeks in. I was hoping some major inspiration. Something that would kick me in the direction of trading real money millions. Reading the first 200 posts of this thread, it really does seem that if Sicko & Thales had been able to continue, this page would have totally different kinds of posts. I hope they can return. Surely, it'll be an enjoyable experience for them as well. Until then, I'll join in. Fresh deposit last week. No trades taken yet. Screenshot attached. My personal goal would rather be a "humble" pikerly, naive target of :haha: 1000% return within the next 12 weeks. Thats taking this account from 2,500 to $25k. Lets see if I am another statistic or an inspiration. Cheers. :beer: ---- My primary psychological hurdle several years ago, was getting frozen after having something as normal as 3 losses in a row. The amount didn't matter. The idea that "I was wrong" did. Always trying to fix the system, or find the grail edition of it. I do believe I am no longer the same man I was back then. But, if that behaviour arises, the added accountability of the Race will help cut short the number of frozen days. :smoking:

Hey, that question was directed to Gandalf33. Your point, I maybe understand. I interpret what you are saying is, that "the more the number of trades, the less that it is luck". That someone may have some opportune windfalls if its a few trades only. :hmmmm: I still though, have a tough time with it. I mean $5k to $100k ... its 2000% return we are talking about. Attributing it to Luck !!! Now, can the same trader go on to lose in the future. Sure.