I had the following note come in over the weekend. Not only does it say nice things about my book 🙂 but is also addresses some very important points.
Hi John,
I bought your book because I’ve recently started trading index futures but my inner voice said something was not quite right. I started with a $10k account and got stopped a couple of times, so I was at $9780. At that point I realized that I was missing my entries because I was too busy running my own design business along with other domestic duties. Then I came across a paragraph in your book about the amount of dedicated, uninterrupted time it takes to day trade futures. Bingo-I was glad I stopped early and kept most of my capital. My mentor never mentioned any of this. Now I’m starting over and working on setting up a trading plan that can fit me — swing trading appears to be the goal at this time. I’ve been searching high and low trying to find information on how to really set up a good trading plan and your book is the first one I’ve seen that really addresses this important issue.
Sincerely,
Michele
Firstly, I’m glad Michele recognized early that she had a problem. It would have been better had she done so while demo trading so she didn’t have to lose the money she lost, of course. I definitely encourage getting real money trading experience early on in one’s development, but that doesn’t mean demo trading doesn’t have a proper place in sorting out one’s strategy and trading plan. Fortunately, Michele didn’t have to suffered an overly hard lesson.
Secondly, it doesn’t say much good about her mentor that they failed to take into account Michele’s schedule when helping her determine a good way to take on the markets. A mentor is supposed to factor these sorts of things in. Maybe we’re talking a specific stylistic mentor here, someone who focuses on one type of methodology (like day-trading S&P futures). Even still, though, they should recognize someone who is not suited for their trading approach (see Trading Coaching and Mentoring).