Quote:
Originally Posted by kagein
how many pips do you take on an average trade? if your using the equivalent of the 30 min, 15min chart.
If you trade off a higher time scale eg 1hr, would u still make more pips if u sold at the 23% level as there is less noise?
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Eh my 233 (10-15 min) trades probably average around 10-30 pips, 512 tick (30-60 min about) is probably 20-70 pips, and 4 hour setups are probably 50-120 pips.
This all of course falls back to the size of the grid you are playing. I could take massive swings measured out on the 233t, but the way I play it is the smaller swings I play on the small chart, bigger swings are more suited to bigger time frames, and so on.
Yea, i've looked at the results across all time frames, and even the 4 hour setups yeilded better profits, though it must be said that of any time frame the longer term it is, the more profitable the swings are on average, and the more you are rewarded for holding longer.
I just find its easier to stay consistent with my approach... And now for the novel of the day:
Adding Size: The nightmare that is going to unlock your dreams!
But think about this... Do i really care that I miss out on the extra 40 pips or something from a full -38.2% move? No. Because I can make that up just as easily (and almost certainly more quickly) on another setup. And if you're worried about the profitability think about this.
My goal is to just add size where I can pull 20 pips out of the market each day and gross 7 or 8 figures a year. Why kill yourself emotional, mentally, and with time commitments of trying to get every pip possible out of every move. Size is the answer that pro's use.
I'm fairly confident that I could do six figures a year trading 1 standard lot, and certainly with 2. Think about it. You want to make 100 grand this year. Now figure that uncle sam (or whoever your PM is in London
) is gonna take roughly 33% of your profits. That means I need to actually make 133k to net 100k after taxes.
There are roughly 20 trading days a month, which means I need to average a profit of 554.00 a day to make that much money. Ok, so there is the goal. What is the easiest way to achieve it?
Trading 1 mini lot I need to make 554 pips a day. Thats hard. But lets add size.
1 Mini = 554 Pips
2 Mini = 277 Pips
4 Mini = 139 Pips (Maybe on a good day?)
8 Mini = 69 Pips (Doable - but not every day)
1 Std = 55 Pips (Attainable)
2 Std = 27 Pips (Ummm.... HELL YEA!!!)
Why kill myself trying to get every pip out there? I'd rather just add size and call it a day after my 27 pips knowing i was gonna be bringing in after tax profits of 100k. And thats before I write off my commissions, internet usage, apartment/house, trading seminars (i.e. vacations) off as tax write offs.
The truth of the matter is these markets can handle more size that you can throw at them. But most people don't think about it this way, they think they need to accrue massive pips each day to be successful. Why not just get a couple in the bag with big size and make tons more money. I know you're not there yet (i'm not either) but thats where i'm going and it should be on your list of things to do as well. My friend is trading 100 lots with nil slippage and I can tell you he doesn't really have any care for money anymore... Hes got his system down pat and trades enough size that it is like having his own personal ATM in his office. He doesn't even worry about daily quotas. He stops trading for the month once hes up 300 pips. (He says he doesn't want to get greedy - and honestly, how much money can you burn a month?). And then he goes on vacation for the rest of the month.
It seems like a pipe dream to a lot of us now, but there ARE people who live this way. And it IS possible. Will it happen overnight? Nope. Emotionally it would take me a year or two to be able to accept a 60-70k loss on one trade, but when you're used to is, its no different than a 60-70 buck loss on one of our trades right now.
And in case you were wondering 20 pips a day with 100 lots is a cool 4.8 million a year. Yea. Start thinking about this stuff now, because it is the ONLY way you are ever going to make a living at this. Its hard to put bread on the table trading mini lots, but that is where we are at right now. Lets try and push ourselves past it and out into the big world of ridiculous sums of cash.