Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Wednesday Notes - Getting Restless

Yes, it's that time again as I resurrect the possibility of trading and tracking a modest account in addition to my hedge-fund sized main account.

Plus, a reminder at the end to not overcomplicate this business as we revisit the NY Expo "crayon" slide in terms of discussing today's successful MATD.


5 comments:

E-Mini Player said...

Hi Don,

I'm sure you've already considered this, but how about increasing size slowly over time? Go to 40/80 lots from 30/60, and once you've built some comfort with the 40/80 size, go to 50/100. Another thing that may help is connecting with other traders who are trading larger size than you. It may serve as a challenge and provide the necessary motivation. Right now, it sounds like you're surrounded by smaller lot traders; in the jelly room and on this Blog, and maybe that makes your 60 lot look pretty big. I think you should focus on increasing your trade size instead of trading the smaller account. I believe you will sub-optimize your regular trading by diverting your attention between two accounts; one of which will be publicly shared. Good luck!

Btw, I think you can change the Archive frequency in Blogger to group your posts by Day; instead of by Month. Click on Settings, then click on Archiving and change the Archive Frequency from Monthly to Daily. Might save you some time if that works.

Unknown said...

Hi Don: I agree with E-Mini. This is what I have been doing. I tried the big step up in size last year and it didn't work. I then tried adding a contract every two weeks I was profitable and it has worked wonders (still trading the Euro exclusively). That may be too conservative an approach for your more aggressive style but maybe try and increase size by 5 contracts each week you are profitable? I always look at it as a reward I earn and give myself for the hard graft and discipline. Thanks again for everything and wishing you continued success.
Best,
Marco

Unknown said...

How about taking a $10,000 account and showing us how you build that up??? That would be great for most of us.

Unknown said...

Hi Don

Re stepping up size...I think my prior book recommendation might help.

But there's a saying, "you can take a horse to the water trough but you can't make it drink!"

Ben

BirdMan said...

Don
Thanks for your post.
That would be a great idea to set up a smaller account and show how to use leverage correctly etc. As for documenting it I can see that could be time consuming... But you could limit your comments to big equity swing days - outliers etc - and leave the churn comments out! Or perhaps make daily P+L updates and then do a weekly commentary on that P+L highlighting the important points...
Thanks again.
Dave
P.S. I found the European part of the MATD a little testy yesterday!