Heading the E-mini Route, Am I Doing This Right?

[Doppler Bob 10]

Hey everyone!

 

Just wanted to get some input from the online world from traders who have much more experience than me. Actually, I have none except for a few months of paper trading, so you have infinitely more experience than me.

 

Anyways, I really think I'm cut out for trading, quite possibly for a living. Some background about myself:

 

I hold a BS in Meteorology, so I have a very firm base of math in my arsenal. As a meteorologist, I am consistently dealing with fluctuations, probabilities, standard deviations, trends, etc etc. Even some back-testing when comparing to old storms with similar setups! I am a relatively patient person, but I will admit I do get somewhat distracted easily.

 

My schedule will allow me to trade nearly every day, thanks to the lovely 3am-12pm shift I work 3 days a week, with Monday and Tuesday being my days off. I really think that my background and formal education will help support a hopefully successful career in trading E-minis (I've only worked with ES so far.)

 

What I come to you for is advice. Ive read quite a few books, a little on TA, done some paper trading using Ninja Trader while using my father's TI account. I must admit, I see things setting up quite easily.

 

But I want to do this RIGHT. I need to know my next step. I know I don't have enough capital to go out on my own yet (sitting on about 5k right now) so I want to make sure that I prep well while I save.

 

I'm thinking that Mark Douglas' books are probably a good next step... correct? I've read time and time again on this forum as well as others that psychology is probably the hardest thing to overcome. I can attest to that, as I made a decent income playing online poker while in college, with many, many losses before I was in the right mindset to win consistently. Again, another reason why I think I can hack it. Any other suggestions for books on this?

 

So if I go the psych route while continuing to paper trade... where should I go next? I'm in this for the long haul, and I want to do it right. I want to hear from YOU exactly what you think. I'm just glad I have the patience to not jump in while seeking the advice of the people that have been there, done that!

 

I look forward to all your responses, and I thank you kindly in advance!

[Tams 20]

if you are into stddev...

John Bollinger's Bollinger on Bollinger Bands is an easy read.

[BlowFish 10]

Douglas is a good read. Also check Jperls threads "trading with market statistics" in the market profile section here. It's excellent.

[Mustang- 10]

Doppler Bob,

 

Your Work schedual will be a big advantage for you, because it removes the pressure of earning an income from trading to support your living expense--while at the same time it allows you to study the markets. Being undercapitalised and lack of experience is the reason why many new traders fail before they even have a chance to understand whats going on.

 

That said, leave the mental (psychological variables) aspect of trading alone for now because you wont be able to truely appreciate it until you start to trade with real money. When real money is on the line thats when all the psychological variables if any will surface clearly.

 

You mentioned that you are a patient person and that you want to do it right.

Its possible that it will take several years before you are at point to take a trade with real money. Preserve your trading capital until your strategies(edge) performance proves to you beyond a reasonable doubt that you can make money. There is a much preperation and study to do prior to trading live.

 

I would recommend that you focus all your time on studying the markets that you plan to trade. Form several strategies and paper trade them for a long time--you will most likely need work on this stage for some time and thats normal. You also need to folow your strategies for a long time to build screentime experience.

 

Best strategies are Interval & Instrument independant strategies--Those will have the best chance of lasting rather then being a momentary phenomenon. For example if you plan on trading the ES, your strategy should also work on NQ and YM etc...

 

After you have developed some solid startegies (that deal with all details from Entry to exit) and have been paper trading them profitably. Then you can focus on trading real money and only with 1 contract (if Trade capital is small, I recommend an instrument that has the lowest tick value possible to reduced losses that can occur as a result of newbe mistakes). Durring this period you need to be aware/understand your self and how you psychologically interact with real money trading. Its durring this phase that you will have to adjust/take care of psychological variable that may come up.

 

In short...Getting a trading carrer launched has many steps. Psychology(how you interact with real money trading) is one of the many steps/phases. Take care of the preceeding steps i.e. understanding your trading instrument, Developing/knowing your strategy inside out, Ample screen time, will allow you to give your full attention to the way you interact with real trading when the time is right.

 

 

There is more that I left out but I have a feeling other will take care of that.

 

Good luck.

[Doppler Bob 10]

Thanks to those who replied!

[TraderJean 10]

Hi Bob,

 

My advice would be -

 

1. Don't open an account until you have enough capital. I believe to trade you really need 10-20K. The more equity the better.

2. Don't over trade. Trade one contract for every 10K in equity.

3. Educate yourself there is plenty of free stuff out there that is really good. Check out the CME website.

 

 

TraderJean

[shivaprasannahebbar 10]

Hi bob..

 

1)observe Emini futures in the time frame u trade .

2)have a decently thorough observation about the indicators u use whiletrading those commodities/stocks

3)In the early days of trading maintain a very strict limit for the amount of capital u risk/day and /trade. That ll reduce the losses and keep u motivated.

 

 

You should be aware of the Basics of technicals like MA's and Bolinger bands,RSI,Volume Divergences, and Basics of candlestick patterns. That ll help u to find good entry and exit points.

 

All de best:)