Don't Try This At Home

There is a right way and a wrong way to trade futures.

This blog is starting to turn into an example of "how to trade the wrong way."

Why do I say that?

Well, just look at the equity curve.  Ignoring the near 50% drawdown for a moment, just look at the equity curve.

So far, in just 2 months of trading, there have been 13 days where the account equity has risen or fallen by 10%.  Think about it...that is a 10% change IN ONE DAY!  And it happens a lot with this account!

In just the past 2 days, my account has risen 28%.  It could just as easily fall that much in the next 2 days.

This is reckless.  It will either lead to big gains, or more likely, disaster.

I am trading this way because of the objective - to win the contest. PLEASE DO NOT TRADE YOUR OWN ACCOUNTS LIKE THIS! 

If the objective was to make a living trading, this would NOT be the way to do it.  (As a side note, my other real money accounts are nowhere near as volatile.  Otherwise, I would have been out of the business a while ago - either super wealthy from reckless trading, or more likely, out of trading capital.).


So, I hope everyone reading this gets 2 messages out of my performance:

1.  Trading in a contest is different than "normal" trading.
  
2.  This type of trading usually leads to disaster. 



Sometime soon I'll post what one of  Jack Schwager's Market Wizards thinks about trading contests...