No Progress (frustration)

[shooly76 10]

I started a very small acct in august ($3000)..and am becoming very discouraged..Ive been learning about trading futures for over 3 years..in the last year concentrated mainly on technical analysis..

 

I know it is unheard of to start this small, but its all I have. I just cant seem to get anywhere, some weeks Ill do ok..I got acct up to $3900 about 2 months ago. but that was it...since then its been back and forth..I cant EVER seem to reach any kind of monthly goals (160 ticks/month). hell...I cant even reach daily goals anymore..account seems to always stagnate at $3000...never can get ahead..

 

seems like my strategies works well for a few days, then I start hitting stops, then I switch it up, gain some ticks, then hit stops. I just feel like a hampster on a wheel lately...any input?

 

should I just start taking big risks (multiple contracts)? because honestly at this point it seems like its getting to be a lost cause trading a single contract.

[steve46 12]

Hi

 

If you are trading the S&P futures, I would suggest that it is almost impossible to make money as a one lot trader

.

Also there are other considerations...assuming you have a valid concept to trade, you need to be willling to endure drawdowns...with a small account that becomes impossible. So you're starting with the odds against you. You really need at least $10,000 to $20,000 min to make a go of it. If you can't get this kind of capital together I think your best bet is to sim trade.

 

From the standpoint of strategy, if you have a valid concept, you need to have the ability to focus consistently on the critical elements of your system (so that you don't miss trades), and you need to be disciplined enough to enter and stay with the trade long enough for your edge to kick in. Finally (just my opinion) you need a system for position sizing and profit taking. I suggest fixed fraction (some traders use 2% of account size) for position sizing, and in this market I suggest taking profit using a "scale out" system that takes partial profit at 2, 3, 5, 7 and 10 points. As you can see, you really can't do this with a $3,000 account.

 

There are two sides to trading, the mechanical and the psychological....once you have the mechanical stuff down, you need to have a way to maintain your mental status through the ups and downs. Just try to keep it simple, have faith in yourself and be patient.

 

Good luck

Steve

[TheNegotiator 13]

Hi shooly,

 

I wouldn't say it's impossible by any means on a $3k account. Very hard but not impossible. You have to have a strong work ethic and focus, superb discipline and realistic expectations of how well you might do and the time scale for building your account capital. Above all you need a bit of luck. Plenty of things can happen to screw you up and if your capital is low, it could wipe the account out. Don't start throwing on more size. That's frustration talking and if you are in that mode you will be bound to lose money.

 

One point that you should take heart from though is that if you are treading water trading a 1 lot over the last few months, you've actually done exceptionally well. The conditions currently are pretty wild at times. I reckon you probably are doing okay before commissions are factored in right?

 

If you really think you want to carry on trading live right now, which I am by no means suggesting or not, maybe consider your trade selection more carefully. What I mean by this is if something looks like it might give you an entry, don't just blindly trade it, look very carefully at what the market has done last and how your entry is looking on approach. If it doesn't look good, don't trade it. The best risk tool you have at your disposal is to choose not to trade.

Edited October 6, 2011 by TheNegotiator

[electroniclocal 10]

shooly76, its unlikely you can earn a living with just $3k capital, but you can learn how to trade.

 

Firstly, you should trade smaller, not larger so that the fear of loss is diminished.

Secondly, you should perfect your skills before you risk money and prove to yourelf that you are CP.

Thirdlly, you don't have funds to hire a mentor but you can self mentor yourself to a certain extent if you create a very specific written trading plan that fully describes your trading pictures: entries and exit rules after back testing.

Then, at the close of every day, score yourself on how compliant you were to your trading plan.

 

The result of this is that you will be profitable. If not, either you have not been compliant or your trading plan is really not profitable and your back testing was deficient.

 

EL

[Xiao si 10]

Lots of great advice here. Why not put together your plan properly and document it so you start to establish some rules and boundaries for yourself. Also, i used Mike Bellefiore's idea of the trading journal where you draw a line down the center of the page and write down what works, and what doesn't work on each side as the day passes. Eliminate what is not working and you have to improve. Check out my strategy document on my 'first day of my new trading business' thread, i uploaded my strat. plan for comment.

 

Finally, i can't say enough about the psychological element. As Steve's mentions it is extremely important that you know why you are doing things and you need to be aware of your emotions or you will not see the market through unbiased eyes.

 

Good luck and i think you've done darn well to even keep your capital so far. Also, consider using a simulator until you can acheive your goals on the sim for an extended period of time. This also helps condition you to losses (yes people, i know its not real money).

 

Cheers,

 

 

XS

[steve46 12]

For the original poster

 

I think that new traders trying to learn the S&P futures have trouble because that market is noisy. Most do not understand what the impact is on their trading. Generally what they experience is being whipsawed out of trades as the market takes out their stop, then reverses and proceeds without them. A couple of things that may help

 

First...know that the primary job of a trader is done when markets are closed....people that make money in this market do so by learning to observe market behavior and find little niches that allow them to profit. It can be something very simple, for example, the S&P futures tend to take out previous swings high and low by a few ticks or even a point or more, before reversing. This "testing" process is what causes traders to be whipsawed out of trades, and then the market reverses, leaving the trader with a loss or a small win, watching as the market continues away from them. Seeing this I decided to develop a way to see where those test point exist, AND I learned (again by observation) to locate specific times when the market is likely to move (based on tests of those "nodes"). My point is the market is right in front of you....anyone with eyes, a pencil and piece of paper can do it. You have to learn to be a good observer. This is my way...it may not fit you, but it is one way of dealing with a complex noisy market. I hope it helps.

 

Best Regards

Steve

[shooly76 10]

wow..thanks for all of the replies! mucho appreciated!

 

I do have specific rules for like 3 different strategies (each depending on particular market conditions and potential set-ups). but still having trouble..Ive actually been thinking about doing the opposite..IOW..when there is a long set-up, go short..and vice versa..lol.

 

another problem Im having lately is that I now have to trade at night (EST)..due to new job sked..I was having more success trading TF, NQ and YM between 10am-3pm EST...the night markets (6E, CL) seem to be harder to find trends, reversals...etc.. basically had tweak trend following strategy, and now almost scalping 2-4 ticks from some trades..but commisions too high for that..

[Tradewinds 12]

should I just start taking big risks (multiple contracts)? because honestly at this point it seems like its getting to be a lost cause trading a single contract.

 

What time of day do you trade? The open can be difficult. Slow times can be difficult. Areas of consolidation, etc. It's my opinion that you need to figure out when you are making money and when you aren't, and determine if it's the time of day, the market conditions, your emotional state, your state of mind, your attention span, etc. The assumption is often that it's the strategy, but that's only part of trading.

 

I have been video recording my trading, then reviewing it. I've never kept a journal, but reviewing what I actually did is helpful to me. I can see what I did right, and see what I did wrong, then go back over it in slow motion if I need to.

 

As I'm recording the video of my trading, I comment on what I'm thinking and why I'm doing what I'm doing. That way, I know what was going through my mind that led me to trade the way I did.

 

Actually, if your account isn't any less than what you started with, just that alone might be better than many people.

 

You mention getting stopped out. It's hard to know whether it would have been worth staying in the trade without some kind of objective way to measure what the results would have been. Is your strategy simple enough to backtest? I'm not saying that backtesting is the ultimate answer, I'm just saying it might give you some more information.

 

If your strategy is not simple enough to easily backtest, how do you decide what to do? Do you have well defined rules?

 

If you were trading more contracts, why would that make a difference? Would you be entering the trade at different price levels? That might average your entry price to something better, but you need a way of picking good entries to begin with. If you are picking good entries, but just missing the price enough to get stopped out, then I would trade more contracts, and place some of them for better and better entry prices. If your strategy is bad, trading more contracts will just loose more money.

 

I'm not a big fan of taking much drawdown. You must give the order a certain amount of drawdown leeway. It's impossible to avoid that. But if the order doesn't start moving in my direction very quickly, chances are the price is going to continue against me, or it's a consolidation area. If it's a consolidation area, you may need to wait a while for the price to start moving again. But you need an objective way to determine exactly what that consolidation range is, how wide it is, and what your account can deal with.

[shooly76 10]

thanks tradewinds...no..I havent backtested yet, but honestly there may be too many variables to backtest it. also..Im having trouble w the NT7 backtesting. but thats another story..

 

I have been trading at night (EST) due to new job, I seemed to be doing much better w my original strategy trading daytime hours. but now I am trading CL and 6E..much less forgiving than TF, NQ, and YM.

 

I also think this is part of the problem...I had to change my strategy due to different trading hours and markets. so maybe I need to try my original strategy again at a different time of night..time to sim trade again..

 

I also had another thought...ZC (corn) seems to be trending nicely, so I actually may try putting a sim order in before I leave for work in the AM and just leave computer unattended (w a stop-loss and target in place of course)..lol.

 

I would love to be able to trade (and actually watch) this market on like a 2-3 min chart, but NT7 w/ CQG data feed for ZC is only active from something like 9am-2:15pm EST..and Im at work during this time.

[xkr1962 10]

As others have said here, you have to build a plan and trade it.

 

It is a fallacy that small accounts cannot be traded for a sensible weekly / monthly living, you just have to learn how to trade them properly, by that I mean strict money and trade management along with a high probability way to trade the lower timeframes.

 

$3k can easily be doubled in a month, trebled or quadrupled even and that is without compounding.

 

Trends work on the m5 charts just as well as d1, learn to trade m5 and 2-10% a day on a 3k account is possible. Consider risking 5 or 10% per trade, it is no different than risking 0.5 or 1% on a 30K account except you will grow your account far quicker once you master short term trading.

 

Treat the 3k demo account like real money, when you double it, close it and start again (pretend you are withdrawing profits from your broker)

 

Do this using strict mm until you can do it like a machine for 6 - 12 months then consider going live.

 

good luck

[laurus12 10]

Hello Shooly,

 

Many good traders have been where you are now, and it can take a long time before it will be any different. Note that I said "can". Maybe you should just open a spot forex micro account? I started with this and to me this was a good way to go.

 

Regarding demo trading or not and small position sizing, you must put yourself in a position where you have the feeling of that it counts. For this reason demo trading never worked out for me, because it was not real money. It did not sharpen my senses and thus a waste of time. But if one can take demo trading seriously it will probably be the best. Regarding position sizing in a live account, this goes for the same. It must put you in a position where you have a feeling that it really counts. If you take too small positions there is a chance that you will become sloppy just as with a demo account. The important part here is that you have to learn how you react when something is on the line. You have to learn what your ego triggers are and how you react under pressure. Dependent of how well you know yourself in advance this can take a long time to master. If you are serious about all this you should purchase Van Tharps newest book Super Trader - Expanded Edition. It is a very good book which will put things in the right perspective for you. I started with the old one and it helped me a lot.

 

Regarding trading itself you should know that even simple tools can make you profitable. My advice is that you must give the market you analyse a framework which contains the simplest things as Support and Resistance and understanding of price behavior on a larger time frame. I emphasize this, because on smaller timeframes you will have a lot of buy signals in a down trend and sell signals on a up trend, but if you don't have a frame work and sense of larger direction you will loose money. Study price behavior and how Support and Resistance really work, which is different on different markets. You do not have to take any courses for this, you just have to study your charts. It might sound old fashioned, but it really works. Next you have to understand the principle of action and reaction, meaning the dynamics between retracement and trend continuation and how it looks like when there is a failure of so. When this makes sense to you, you can act on your indicators. It is common for beginners to have no sense or understanding of larger context and just trying to find some kind of "holy grail" with indicators which will take care of everything. This one is simple, just forget it.

 

Last, in the beginning just trade on one market. Many markets might be appealing regarding many trades and a lot of profits, but in the beginning it most likely equals chaos. One have to first master the psychology and trade itself in one market. Adding more than one market to this and focus is disturbed. The brain develops best with one thing at the time.

 

Hope this will help.

 

Best wishes,

Laurus

Edited October 8, 2011 by laurus12

[MightyMouse 12]

As others have said here, you have to build a plan and trade it.

 

It is a fallacy that small accounts cannot be traded for a sensible weekly / monthly living, you just have to learn how to trade them properly, by that I mean strict money and trade management along with a high probability way to trade the lower timeframes.

 

$3k can easily be doubled in a month, trebled or quadrupled even and that is without compounding.

 

Trends work on the m5 charts just as well as d1, learn to trade m5 and 2-10% a day on a 3k account is possible. Consider risking 5 or 10% per trade, it is no different than risking 0.5 or 1% on a 30K account except you will grow your account far quicker once you master short term trading.

 

Treat the 3k demo account like real money, when you double it, close it and start again (pretend you are withdrawing profits from your broker)

 

Do this using strict mm until you can do it like a machine for 6 - 12 months then consider going live.

 

good luck

 

Wash Rinse and Repeat. Trade in your sleep. Five minutes a day. Riches are around the corner.

[SpearPointTrader 10]

As others have said here, you have to build a plan and trade it.

 

It is a fallacy that small accounts cannot be traded for a sensible weekly / monthly living, you just have to learn how to trade them properly, by that I mean strict money and trade management along with a high probability way to trade the lower timeframes.

 

$3k can easily be doubled in a month, trebled or quadrupled even and that is without compounding.

 

Trends work on the m5 charts just as well as d1, learn to trade m5 and 2-10% a day on a 3k account is possible. Consider risking 5 or 10% per trade, it is no different than risking 0.5 or 1% on a 30K account except you will grow your account far quicker once you master short term trading.

 

Treat the 3k demo account like real money, when you double it, close it and start again (pretend you are withdrawing profits from your broker)

 

Do this using strict mm until you can do it like a machine for 6 - 12 months then consider going live.

 

good luck

 

One of the things I do is use multiple time frames at once. I used the weekly to find markets with strong direction, then the daily chart to find markets that are moving the same way as the weekly chart is. This helps me choose what market to trade that day. Then it's just a matter of watching the intra day charts for the actual entry timing.

 

Once in the markets, I pay very close attention to certian details. If they stop lining up, I exit wiith a small profit right away. Generally, that prevents me fomr being stopped out.

 

My goal is to keep drawdowns to a minimum, or non existent if I can.

 

I am using the Facts Trading method, because it is specifically geared for small accounts.

 

The course is a bit pricey, but well worth it in the long run. The sections on psychology are worth the price of the course alone.

[SpearPointTrader 10]

Hello Shooly,

 

Many good traders have been where you are now, and it can take a long time before it will be any different. Note that I said "can". Maybe you should just open a spot forex micro account? I started with this and to me this was a good way to go.

 

Regarding demo trading or not and small position sizing, you must put yourself in a position where you have the feeling of that it counts. For this reason demo trading never worked out for me, because it was not real money. It did not sharpen my senses and thus a waste of time. But if one can take demo trading seriously it will probably be the best. Regarding position sizing in a live account, this goes for the same. It must put you in a position where you have a feeling that it really counts. If you take too small positions there is a chance that you will become sloppy just as with a demo account. The important part here is that you have to learn how you react when something is on the line. You have to learn what your ego triggers are and how you react under pressure. Dependent of how well you know yourself in advance this can take a long time to master. If you are serious about all this you should purchase Van Tharps newest book Super Trader - Expanded Edition. It is a very good book which will put things in the right perspective for you. I started with the old one and it helped me a lot.

 

Regarding trading itself you should know that even simple tools can make you profitable. My advice is that you must give the market you analyse a framework which contains the simplest things as Support and Resistance and understanding of price behavior on a larger time frame. I emphasize this, because on smaller timeframes you will have a lot of buy signals in a down trend and sell signals on a up trend, but if you don't have a frame work and sense of larger direction you will loose money. Study price behavior and how Support and Resistance really work, which is different on different markets. You do not have to take any courses for this, you just have to study your charts. It might sound old fashioned, but it really works. Next you have to understand the principle of action and reaction, meaning the dynamics between retracement and trend continuation and how it looks like when there is a failure of so. When this makes sense to you, you can act on your indicators. It is common for beginners to have no sense or understanding of larger context and just trying to find some kind of "holy grail" with indicators which will take care of everything. This one is simple, just forget it.

 

Last, in the beginning just trade on one market. Many markets might be appealing regarding many trades and a lot of profits, but in the beginning it most likely equals chaos. One have to first master the psychology and trade itself in one market. Adding more than one market to this and focus is disturbed. The brain develops best with one thing at the time.

 

Hope this will help.

 

Best wishes,

Laurus

 

One big problem with using smaller time frames, is that they represent much smaller moves, for the same pattern. You have to guard against taking chances on potential moves that don't have a lot of momentum.

 

As a purley technical trader,I also advise against limiting yourself to one market. It's much better to scan a lot of markets, in search of the best technical set ups. Those setups all trade the same, reguardless of what market they are in.

[WHY? 16]

I would suggest picking one instrument (maybe ES). Set it up with a 5 min candlestick chart, volume bars, and a 20 EMA. Watch it live for one month at least. Take note how price behaves around:

 

1) 20 EMA

 

2) AM, Midday, Afternoon

 

3) Around previous swing/low swing/high

 

4) Around other resistance/support points

 

5) When there are breakouts

 

6) Pullbacks

 

In general get a good feel for the movement of the instrument with only the EMA indicator. Watch how volume and price action correlate as trading takes place especially around resistance/support areas.

 

Do this for 30 to 60 days writing down your observations. With this foundation then develop your trading plan.

 

Keep focused on one instrument and learn it well.

 

hope this helps

[Weston 10]

Hi, Shooly - FWIW:

 

I'm in about the same boat as you. Very small account and I've been watching and sim trading for years.

 

You might consider trading instruments with less value per tick: DX, 6B, ZF, although DX and 6B are usually rather thin and "jumpy", with slippage more likely. ZF has good volume but, if you've been watching ES, it's excruciatingly slow.

 

For me, I started to do a lot better in seeing the market when I dumped all the indicators, even a simple MA. Now, I just look at price action and for chart patterns that are somewhat "predictable" and make sense to me. After a while, you just get a feel for what the market's doing and I find that feel comes a lot easier without the distraction of Bollinger Bands, CCI, RSI, Donchian channels or any other lagging indicator. I think the closer you can get to seeing the price and only the price, the better you can get at judging the "psychology" of the market (like: retraces in a trend are simply profit-taking by those who got in early ... and so on). And, along those lines, I switched to range charts long ago. Though others may have good arguments about how one can use time to help in profitable trading, it just makes intuitive sense to ME that what we're really interested in is price.

 

It's all about finding some sort of edge, developing confidence in that edge and not freaking out when a trade off a solid setup goes against you. It's a numbers game, as I'm sure you know, and even a 55/45 edge can make you profitable if you manage your risk and money properly.

 

It ain't easy, but no one ever said it would be (unless they were trying to sell you their latest magic system).

 

Good luck.

[raul 10]

I think you are doing very well because you have not blown up your account, really, if you read about many successful traders, they lost a bundle. Marty Schwartz (who wrote Pit Bull) was a technical analyst and he traded for 9 years and did nothing but lose money. He figured it out eventually and did very well (even losing 800,000 in one day).

 

I also traded the ES but am switching to the Russell 2000, there is less whipsawing, there are computerized systems trading the ES (large contracts for just a few ticks specifically in the choppy channels) and from what I have read, they cause a lot of the choppy and sideways market (some of it is of course also the result of accumulation/distribution).

 

You should consider trading the NQ or YM as each tick is only $5 so if things go wrong, it's less of a loss. You will make less than trading the ES but capital preservation is key. I prefer to make only one trade and often it means being ready at market opening or before market opening for the trend reversal depending on where the chart is regarding S/R

Since you are working, it may be better to work with a daily/4H/1H/30 min charts and place your trades ahead of time since you cannot be watching the charts, have your stop and target set. When you can watch the charts, use the ADX so you don't get caught in a choppy market (ADX below 20) - remember that ADX only works coming out of a choppy market and going into a trend, not trend reversal.

 

The longer time frames (1H,4H, etc.) give you the bigger picture and go for the bigger moves. I realize you cannot hold overnight positions because of the account size.

There is nothing wrong with trading a small account, that is how it should be done.

 

CL is not as bad as Gold but it can kill your account, while you can make a lot of money, the moves can be too fast and crazy, it is not something that you should trade live at this time.

 

While I do not trade Forex because I've read too many bad stories about brokers and slippage, etc. there are micro accounts where you would make less but also can control the losses to be even smaller, but I still don't like the spreads, I have not compared them to futures commissions, they may be more.

 

Are you keeping a journal? To looks back and learn from what you are doing right and not? The psychological part is the toughest, I think you are doing well, refine your strategy and stick to the rules.

[bonchi07 10]

I started a very small acct in august ($3000)..and am becoming very discouraged..Ive been learning about trading futures for over 3 years..in the last year concentrated mainly on technical analysis..

 

I know it is unheard of to start this small, but its all I have. I just cant seem to get anywhere, some weeks Ill do ok..I got acct up to $3900 about 2 months ago. but that was it...since then its been back and forth..I cant EVER seem to reach any kind of monthly goals (160 ticks/month). hell...I cant even reach daily goals anymore..account seems to always stagnate at $3000...never can get ahead..

 

seems like my strategies works well for a few days, then I start hitting stops, then I switch it up, gain some ticks, then hit stops. I just feel like a hampster on a wheel lately...any input?

 

should I just start taking big risks (multiple contracts)? because honestly at this point it seems like its getting to be a lost cause trading a single contract.

 

I do not think you should start taking big risks. You are calling them risks, so it seems stressful already. I have felt the same way a bunch of time. I think it is important to examine the good and the bad trades in order to learn.

Also, as much as we all want to make money quick, the market will teach you otherwise. Somebody told me: "It is not about the results but about the process" and yes the money makes us feel we are trading well, but if we focus on the trading itself instead of the money we make, the money will follow...It always does....

I hope it helps!!! I try to remind myself of this every day.:crap:

[xkr1962 10]

One of the things I do is use multiple time frames at once. I used the weekly to find markets with strong direction, then the daily chart to find markets that are moving the same way as the weekly chart is. This helps me choose what market to trade that day. Then it's just a matter of watching the intra day charts for the actual entry timing.

 

Once in the markets, I pay very close attention to certian details. If they stop lining up, I exit wiith a small profit right away. Generally, that prevents me fomr being stopped out.

 

My goal is to keep drawdowns to a minimum, or non existent if I can.

 

I am using the Facts Trading method, because it is specifically geared for small accounts.

 

The course is a bit pricey, but well worth it in the long run. The sections on psychology are worth the price of the course alone.

 

I trade in a very similar way to you indeed, I take my lead from the monthly, weekly and daily and then play the intraday moves keeping DD to the absolute minimum.

 

To the thread starter, people will tell you multiple "safe" intraday trades cannot be done, don't believe them, pick your setups with care and you will be amazed.

[carltonp 10]

..Ive been learning about trading futures for over 3 years..in the last year concentrated mainly on technical analysis..

 

 

shooly76, I feel your pain. Have you actually spent the last three years learning? Or did you have a day job and learn trading in the evenings.

 

I myself are going through similar ups and downs as you.

 

-C-

[pa18 10]

... You are calling them risks, so it seems stressful already...

 

That's a good way to think ... its all about your 'own' perception of things.

 

Also, as much as we all want to make money quick, the market will teach you otherwise. Somebody told me: "It is not about the results but about the process" and yes the money makes us feel we are trading well, but if we focus on the trading itself instead of the money we make, the money will follow...It always does....

 

And I also agree with this too. Think about it, if you're thinking about money before, during and after trading, can you see how stressful this is psychologically? Do you really need this added stress to your trading...really?

Edited October 13, 2011 by pa18

[pa18 10]

To the thread starter, people will tell you multiple "safe" intraday trades cannot be done, don't believe them, pick your setups with care and you will be amazed.

 

When you start off or if you're struggling, the hardest thing about trading is knowing what can be done or not, what is real or not, what is possible or not etc ..... Its very natural to ask others. When I first started the amount of people that told me that I couldn't do it la .... the ridiculous amount of negativity that got thrown my way

 

What I'm saying is to listen to yourself not others, once you realize independent creative problem solving is 'the' ticket to freedom then you are all set!

 

OP, it may take you sooner or later but if you don't give up then success is just around the corner ... never give in!

[carltonp 10]

 

OP, it may take you sooner or later but if you don't give up then success is just around the corner ... never give in!

 

Thats great mate.....

 

Sometimes I really feel like I just wanna throw in the towel....

 

This is a hard business...

[Tams 20]

Thats great mate.....

 

Sometimes I really feel like I just wanna throw in the towel....

 

This is a hard business...

 

 

 

there is only one prerequisite in trading --- don't argue with the market.

[littlefish 10]

I started a very small acct in august ($3000)..and am becoming very discouraged..Ive been learning about trading futures for over 3 years..in the last year concentrated mainly on technical analysis..

 

I know it is unheard of to start this small, but its all I have.

 

Well I did and gradually lost nearly every cent of it over the course of a year or two.

 

You have to understand that most of the advice givers on this board and others are most likely hired by brokers to spread foolish advice that they know doesn't amount to s***. Either that or they are paid to pull the trigger on someone elses money and lose it for a living.

 

Their money is made on commissions. They want you to start big so they have more commissions to make before you blow out (start with a 10/20k account or you'll never make it, etc).

 

My advice is to take every cent you have in a futures account (if you've not gotten pissed one day and blown it all in a few minutes). Put it in a jar somewhere.

 

Take $25 and put it in an oanda account. Toy with something like EURUSD. Spread is nice and low. You'll see the same patterns of randomness to learn from.

 

If you can't turn $25 into $2500 there. You certainly won't turn 25,000 into 2,500,000 in a futures account.

 

Why blow it trying?

 

I've multiplied balances as much as 1000% (some individual trades as much as 40% in one shot using low 50:1 margin) many times over the past years only to blow them out. These are small fx accounts but why would it matter? Just add 0's.

 

I've found perfect setups that work with supernatural accuracy for about a week or two and then become as useless as flipping a coin just long enough to destroy what they produced. Some of which have very sound reasoning behind them too.

 

Anyway, that's my advice and my story. The only reason I'm giving it to you is because you remind me of myself a few years ago.