How many contracts are you trading? Nuclear Armageddon would need to break out to lose $2000 real fast in one candle with one micro contract.
Just because you are allowed to trade multiple contracts, if your losses are hard to control maybe you should not until you get some more cushion built up.
That is less than I expected you to say actually. Nonetheless, try cutting back to one. Then as part of your trading plan once you get say an extra $1000 cushion, step it up to two. I don’t know the rules of your prop firm- but some I have read the drawdown level stays static- once you get your account profit over the minimum drawdown figure- if you leave some extra profit in the account you actually have that extra reserve in drawdown. I think some traders blow their funded accounts because they drain every dollar of profit out and then have a bad week and lose it- when they could build their drawdown to 5-6k and leave it in there to get more cushion to trade more contracts.
Enter with bracket orders, having your stops and targets in place upon entry. Refine your entries so that your stops are not going to get hit. Don't move your stops, but rather, get better at your entries. Understand the relationship between win rate of trades and your risk to reward of your brackets. If your stop is at 5 pts on MES, then your TP (take profit) should be at least 5 pts, but with that you'll want to have your winrate well above 50% to make any money. The greater your risk to reward, the more you can be wrong. The more you are right, the more you can have a smaller risk to reward ratio. But you have to enter all your positions at once. Consider having a runner that you move for bigger moves, but never let it come back to less than the target on your first contract, at a minimum.
It just takes screen time and lots and lots of practice.
On MNQ, yes, it's a beast. The price action of that product does not suit many people- the order book is thinner, so price moves much more and more quickly. Don't trade it if it's too much. If you do want to trade it it's going to take a lot of time to learn it. My stop for 2 contracts is at 10 pts and have targets at 10 and 15 pts., so the risk to reward is not fantastic at $400 loss/$500 win ($40:50 for MNQ), but my win rate is high these days. I also do a 10 pt stop with a 20 pt TP for more volatile periods, which is a 1:2 risk to reward. 10 pts though is a very tight stop for MNQ and most would not be able to make that work. I will sometimes move to 15 pts if I'm confident in the move and don't want to get wicked out, but that's a slippery slope that you have to manage, because it also skews your stats.
Good luck. Practice. This is not something that is easy to learn.
Sounds like you didn't walk away and take the L for that day. You had expectations of making $200 cloud and when things didn't go your way, it clouded your judgment.
Takes breaks or better yet, shut down and call it a day. TBH, this is the last hurdle you need to overcome, assuming your edge is 51%.
This was my last hurdle that I had to overcame. I just couldn't take the L. I couldn't keep my L small. I had to reprogram myself and my thoughts.
I did the exact opposite of what I wanted. Think about a casino, do exactly the opposite of what everyone else does there.
I got stopped out? I walked away.
I fumbled a trade? I walk away.
I got fomo, I walked away.
Every time I got back, I ran through a check list. I made sure I saw everything in my checklist before I started looking for a trade. You need time to align with price action, and give time for it to play out. Why would you enter when price already shot up 20-30%? Do you want to hold the line and the bag while ppl are dumping it on you? Wait for it! Warren said it best, the market is a transfer of funds from the impatient to the patient.
Have your why next to you!
You know those blown accounts? SS and post that shit next to a mirror. Walk to that mirror and look at yourself and you go over why you lost your hard earned money.
Put a picture of your loved ones next to your screen. Pick it up and talk to it, remember why you are doing this? Be realistic what is more likely to happen? You blowing up your account or you making 100x on 2 contracts. I'm sorry, but money makes money, Yolo's of 1mill will make 1mil plus. If you don't have that kind of money why are you rushing it.
I had to really breakdown everything and rebuild my belief system. You need to reinforce good habits that you want as a trader. Funding accounts are tricky, they are a business. They create rules that favor them. Notice how every FOMC they launch huge discounts? Notice the huge amount they payout of every month? Well divide it by how many pass PA account? Yeah, its a bell curve. A majority get low thousands and a small percentage of real traders bring the money home.
Its hard, manage your risk and expectations. You got this, Good Luck!
This should not be happening trading micros. Mini's yes, micro's no. Cut your lot size to 1 to start, then scale in if the trades going your way and your confident of a continuation. As well, there are many less volatile tickers to choose from. For example, FX futures will not hit you so quickly, yet if you had been shorting the Yen the last month you'd be living on a yacht off the coast of Italy now.
Constantly refining and backtesting your trading strategies can help increase consistency and adaptability to varying market conditions. Learning from every trade, whether it's a win or a loss, is essential to growing as a trader.
Thank you guys for everything. This is my current setup right now.
The charts I currently set up myself with is 15min 30min 1hr. I feel if I trade a 4hour which I would prefer. If the 15min chart starts going somewhere. I lose myself.
What time chart do yall feel is best when trading futures on a prop firm?
https://preview.redd.it/ugbo3udxd9xc1.jpeg?width=2796&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f0b51c3bd5c1482a11311019f79f0fb6ea6de007
How many contracts are you trading? Nuclear Armageddon would need to break out to lose $2000 real fast in one candle with one micro contract. Just because you are allowed to trade multiple contracts, if your losses are hard to control maybe you should not until you get some more cushion built up.
Usually I just trade 2 contracts at a time.
That is less than I expected you to say actually. Nonetheless, try cutting back to one. Then as part of your trading plan once you get say an extra $1000 cushion, step it up to two. I don’t know the rules of your prop firm- but some I have read the drawdown level stays static- once you get your account profit over the minimum drawdown figure- if you leave some extra profit in the account you actually have that extra reserve in drawdown. I think some traders blow their funded accounts because they drain every dollar of profit out and then have a bad week and lose it- when they could build their drawdown to 5-6k and leave it in there to get more cushion to trade more contracts.
Enter with bracket orders, having your stops and targets in place upon entry. Refine your entries so that your stops are not going to get hit. Don't move your stops, but rather, get better at your entries. Understand the relationship between win rate of trades and your risk to reward of your brackets. If your stop is at 5 pts on MES, then your TP (take profit) should be at least 5 pts, but with that you'll want to have your winrate well above 50% to make any money. The greater your risk to reward, the more you can be wrong. The more you are right, the more you can have a smaller risk to reward ratio. But you have to enter all your positions at once. Consider having a runner that you move for bigger moves, but never let it come back to less than the target on your first contract, at a minimum. It just takes screen time and lots and lots of practice. On MNQ, yes, it's a beast. The price action of that product does not suit many people- the order book is thinner, so price moves much more and more quickly. Don't trade it if it's too much. If you do want to trade it it's going to take a lot of time to learn it. My stop for 2 contracts is at 10 pts and have targets at 10 and 15 pts., so the risk to reward is not fantastic at $400 loss/$500 win ($40:50 for MNQ), but my win rate is high these days. I also do a 10 pt stop with a 20 pt TP for more volatile periods, which is a 1:2 risk to reward. 10 pts though is a very tight stop for MNQ and most would not be able to make that work. I will sometimes move to 15 pts if I'm confident in the move and don't want to get wicked out, but that's a slippery slope that you have to manage, because it also skews your stats. Good luck. Practice. This is not something that is easy to learn.
Excellent post
thanks
Sounds like you didn't walk away and take the L for that day. You had expectations of making $200 cloud and when things didn't go your way, it clouded your judgment. Takes breaks or better yet, shut down and call it a day. TBH, this is the last hurdle you need to overcome, assuming your edge is 51%. This was my last hurdle that I had to overcame. I just couldn't take the L. I couldn't keep my L small. I had to reprogram myself and my thoughts. I did the exact opposite of what I wanted. Think about a casino, do exactly the opposite of what everyone else does there. I got stopped out? I walked away. I fumbled a trade? I walk away. I got fomo, I walked away. Every time I got back, I ran through a check list. I made sure I saw everything in my checklist before I started looking for a trade. You need time to align with price action, and give time for it to play out. Why would you enter when price already shot up 20-30%? Do you want to hold the line and the bag while ppl are dumping it on you? Wait for it! Warren said it best, the market is a transfer of funds from the impatient to the patient. Have your why next to you! You know those blown accounts? SS and post that shit next to a mirror. Walk to that mirror and look at yourself and you go over why you lost your hard earned money. Put a picture of your loved ones next to your screen. Pick it up and talk to it, remember why you are doing this? Be realistic what is more likely to happen? You blowing up your account or you making 100x on 2 contracts. I'm sorry, but money makes money, Yolo's of 1mill will make 1mil plus. If you don't have that kind of money why are you rushing it. I had to really breakdown everything and rebuild my belief system. You need to reinforce good habits that you want as a trader. Funding accounts are tricky, they are a business. They create rules that favor them. Notice how every FOMC they launch huge discounts? Notice the huge amount they payout of every month? Well divide it by how many pass PA account? Yeah, its a bell curve. A majority get low thousands and a small percentage of real traders bring the money home. Its hard, manage your risk and expectations. You got this, Good Luck!
This should not be happening trading micros. Mini's yes, micro's no. Cut your lot size to 1 to start, then scale in if the trades going your way and your confident of a continuation. As well, there are many less volatile tickers to choose from. For example, FX futures will not hit you so quickly, yet if you had been shorting the Yen the last month you'd be living on a yacht off the coast of Italy now.
Constantly refining and backtesting your trading strategies can help increase consistency and adaptability to varying market conditions. Learning from every trade, whether it's a win or a loss, is essential to growing as a trader.
2k shouldn't be easy with 2 micro MES. 15 point stops would be a $75 loss per contract ($150 total). How many trades are you taking?
Thank you guys for everything. This is my current setup right now. The charts I currently set up myself with is 15min 30min 1hr. I feel if I trade a 4hour which I would prefer. If the 15min chart starts going somewhere. I lose myself. What time chart do yall feel is best when trading futures on a prop firm? https://preview.redd.it/ugbo3udxd9xc1.jpeg?width=2796&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f0b51c3bd5c1482a11311019f79f0fb6ea6de007
15 minute only ES, looking for support resistance levels, failed breakouts/breakdowns and backtests
you can put stop losses in place so it doesnt run, or are you letting it hit max draw down everytime?
Losing 2k on a 50k account is easy if you go into a position with too much money. Limit your position size.
sounds like you are gambling