So when I first started day trading I tried the ES (e-minis). It was through a trading room that I won’t mention because they were terrible. Even though I didn’t last long day trading that first time (busted account) I loved every second of it. I would stay up on the weekends trying to figure out where I messed up and how I could get better trading the style the way the trading room taught. The three big reasons I failed in that initial attempt was because 1) the system wasn’t my own so I didn’t fully understand or trust it 2) I was also relying on the moderator to call out the entries and exits 3) my psychology was at rookie level and I found out real fast that is the most important aspect of trading. The range of emotions I went through when I was in a trade were nothing short of amazing. Both good and bad. I learned from that experience that if I was ever to attempt to day trade again then I had a ton of work to do on my emotions.
Here we are on 9/8/2016, about 7-8 years after that initial attempt and these were my results from sim trading 3.5 days to test the waters:
Now I have practiced a ton between now and then sim trading the ES. One attempt was through another “trading guru” where it turned out he lied about his results and would change up the trading style he taught to the hot indicator of the month. He was good about reviewing charts you sent him and trying to help you out but it was obvious very quickly that the only money he made was from selling his course. Fortunately I never went live b/c I could never get profitable trying to trade his system. The next attempt was using a guy named Mack and his Price Action Trading System. I will link his website here: http://priceactiontradingsystem.com/ because at the time his e-book was only $100.00 and he provided daily reviews of the ES trades based upon his setups. I’m pretty sure he makes money trading since he only charges $100 for his book and he did provide some live trades. He started a paid member section to his website as well which I think was another $100/year or something like that. I’ll create another post about his style of trading b/c it was very influential on my trading journey in a positive way. I currently do not trade using his method since I created my own but at the time it was what I needed. I had a journal of Futures.io where I met some really cool people and one guy in particular where we still chat occasionally to this day. He has been the biggest positive influence in my trading journey. Everything happens for a reason. If you are an elite member of Futures.io go to the elite trading journals and search for the user “evanbro.” There you will see over the course of a year and a half my journey with teaching myself Mack’s style of price action trading.
Going back to the 3.5 days of sim trading the ES you can see the results. Never once did I EVER come close to having these results before and there is still a lot of room for improvement since a couple of things need to be tweaked for the ES that is different than forex! Why am I having these results now? It’s because I’m trading the system I created that works for me. I have no doubt when I enter trades and I know exactly where my entries and exits are before I even enter the trade. I know what exactly I am looking for. This is the same trading style I am using on the forex market and I wanted to see if I could adapt it to the ES. Well it looks like I can although some slight modifications for the entries need to be made to make it more profitable. Once my bankroll is rolling on forex I’ll transition to day trading the ES to give me something to do during the day because my forex trades are longer term trades (4 hour chart) and I’ll need around $50,000 to start with for day trading the ES due to some of the trades having to be held overnight on occasion.
Keep learning and don’t give up. You will eventually find the trading style that works for you. Try many styles out and use what works for you! It took me over a decade to get to this point but I love trading and I refused to give up no matter how long it took.
