Gents... serious discussion time. The little kid on the block needs advice. Forgive the novel... i just want to explain myself and hopefully get some good feedback.
I want some input on what I should do regarding trading and my lifestyle.
Just graduated college in May with a triple major in Finance, Investments, and Banking from the University of Nebraska. I've been trading for 2 and 1/2 years, full time since January of 2007. I LOVE IT.
My dream would be just to trade for a living, on a laptop from wherever in the world and have enough money to live my life however I want it. I've had a taste of that dream, i know that money in this business can come easily and quickly, and there is often no limit to how much you can accrue in a short period of time.
The past year I took my 9k I had saved up and turned it into nothing in a little over 5 months trading the e-mini's with my pants on fire. I had no respect for the emotional or psychological aspects of trading, very little actual knowledge of how to manage my positions effectively, and an overall inability to read price action correctly for high odd setups. I blew out my account, sold my precious show/track/thelast4yearsofmylifepayingfor car to eliminate all of my debt and refund my trading accounts. Members on here like Ryanmcd were more than helpful in getting me back on track and back into the game. But now i'm at a bit of a crossroads.
There is no reason to misrepresent how un-baller i am so this is the honest to god truth. I just want to know what you guys were do if you were in my situation.
I live at home with my parents as they are out of town 9 months out of the year and need someone to take care of the dog and the house while they are away. I have almost no monthly expenses outside of food. I have 3k in a checking account, 1.5k in my FX trading accounts, and 1.6k in my e-mini accounts.
The FX accounts are growing slowly as i trade only a 1HR and 4HR timeframe these days and I only play with usually 1 mini lot (1$/pip). But I MAKE CONSISTENT MONEY in those markets. The e-mini's is where I focus most of my attention during the day. I have really made huge strides in the past couple months on refining my managment, entries, and exits.
As far as I can tell I have fixed all of my problems that I had on my trades. I cut my average loss in half and am able to reduce my risk on trades twice as quickly while not forcing myself out of my winning trades, but reducing the size of my losing trades. I did extensive manual backtesting on my method and pinpointed times during the day that were unprofitable for me to trade. I used to trade the entire day, now I trade 1 and 1/2 hours in the morning, and 2 and 1/2 in the afternoon. That change alone has saved me over 300.00/contract in losses these past two weeks alone! Prior to that I would suffer those losses. I call that improvement.
I used to get chopped up a lot on low volume entries. I fixed that by waiting for a secondary indicator confirmed moves which really seems to keep me out of the slop and in on the good moves with high potential for movement. My exits are quality as well, and my management is as efficient as it ever has been. Mentally i'm as solid as I ever have been trading.
This week was the first week i was able to put everything together. I had backtested this and I know that if I just adhere to these rules I make money EVERY week. This week was the first time where I was able to put it all together so to speak and put my money where my mouth was. I traded perfectly this week. I took EVERY trade that came regardless. Net result?
I had 2 TINY losses... and I didn't have ONE trade this week that went in favor far enough that I could take my target profit. That means that most of my trades would be up 100-120 bucks, i'd be aiming for 145.00 it would miss literally by 1 tick (hell yesterday it came up to my order didn't fill and reversed) and i'd get stopped out for a minimal gain for 40 bucks or so. And I didn't get to trade Monday (obviously). Basically, what i'm trying to say is... even with 1 day lost, no trades that truly "won" as they were supposed to, and trading the NQ, the smallest $/tick e-mini there is, I was still able to make money live just as I said I should be able to. I couldn't be more happy with myself right now. I'm truly proud of my performance this week. It really was fault free.
And this is just trading the NQ... I could trade this same method on the ES and ER2 with the same results, in fact they really all seem to hedge one another quite well. Typically they give the same signals on 2 or all 3 at the same time, and if I was able to take them all more often than not 1 will hit the max target profit, one will hit a secondary, and maybe one will scratch out or put in a small loss, but they really would serve to hedge one another nicely. If i had the margin size I would do it, and this is what I hope to be able to do.
I was talking with some of my trading partners today and they said that I should just go out and get a job and come back to play when I have more capital. Don't get me wrong, my job would be less stressful if I had a nice safety net - i don't, but I still think I can make it work. It shouldn't change the fact that I think i can make money every week.
I know I could get a job at TD Ameritrade (I used to work there and they practically had a death grip on me when I tried to leave, even offered me a salaried position to stay.) There are also a number of wealth management firms in town that have open analyst positions and Con Agra has an opening for a commodities trader/analyst that i think I would be more than qualified to take. Basically, i think i could get a job still in the industry here in town without too much fuss. I've got great references and some contacts already in the financial industry. The problem? I hate the idea of being in the rat race, the typical complacency that comes along with it, and the idea that i'm exchanging my time for a $$$ amount. I've had a taste of how easily it can come in the markets and it makes making 80-90 bucks a day hard to swallow when I've done 2-3k in one afternoon.
I have until late august to really figure things out. By then I need to be moving out and being fully financially independent. My idea is to just go for it and take a shot. If i lose the money and I can't make it work then I just go look for a job, become miserable, and try and trade part time. My parents and some of my partners think I need more capital and should just go get a steady paycheck.
I'm up against the wall in my trading accounts, but i'm digging myself out in the right direction. Now that I have a taste of what a perfectly executed week feels like I don't want to change one thing in my trading. And I don't plan to.
What would you guys do? Any and all advice is welcomed. I am truly sorry for the novel, but I just wanted to be thorough with explaining where I was in my career. You all deserve a drink on me for even reading this post. But since you guys are in the biz, you are successful, and you do this for a living, who better to give a young kid like me some help and advice?
THANK YOU ALL IN ADVANCE!
The 2008 they fixed a lot of stuff and I am 10min from the lake 20min from the dealer. Just like cars, the fastest do have some bugs. 0-50 mph in 2.9 seconds, I can live with a few problems.
