Maybe one way to support 'getting it for yourself' is via screen capture. See exactly what you are seeing and doing and saying... hear your tone of voice and stress or not... and like a pair of eyes outside yourself see it as it happens when you review at EOD. There was a discussion about this and Wrbtrader recommended "snagit". You can try it for free for 15 days, and on the last day or day after, there is a place to click for another free 15 days. Snagit works where a lot of the other screen capture programs have issues. It seemed like near to plug and play for our use as a trader. The recording I make of my actions & observations during the trading day lasts about 10 min usually. It's been a useful tool. It is certainly a personal one.
I'm big on the idea that crazy is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. The thing is, sometimes you don't have to change much to start a different cascade of events.
Camtasia is super easy to use and is a great companion to positive critical evaluation. I still use 7 (which is now available for $100 cheaper) and it does more than one could need for trading purposes.
When I day trade, and like today, had two full losses in a row/averaging down and huge losses facing me, I grab a 20 pound free weight and start doing curls, I need to get rid of the excess energy my mind is thinking from my staggering losses, I can't allow the good losses to mess with my mind. Lifting builds muscle but also tired me out so I can think clearer, had to trade longer to get to break even on day and that is a win for me. You can try treadmill and jogging, bicycle (make tight circles if real bike-LOL), bounce basketball, anything to rapidly change you concentrate to something else for a few minutes then resume trading.
Thanks. I think I'm impatiently trying to push so everything begins happening now. That's when things start falling apart for me. Maybe I'm just more of a gradual improvement trader. Now you sound like a trader. I've written before here or on yukoners journal about that. I agree forgiveness is big and one of the things I've discovered on this journey. Also dealing with the Inner Critic; which I realized was very present when I was younger. Exploring those two areas I would not have ever expected when I started this journal. For me, it was necessary to grow as a trader and as a person. Still progress to be made.
Nice comeback ! Yeah, it's something I've thought about but rarely do. Pushups usually if I do remember. I'll keep it in mind.
No surprise to me I traded well today. When I get pissed off at myself I now have the ability to come back more patient and focused. Of course I don't want to have that kind of motivation going forward. Took 1 CL trade to target then it went in to a range. After two hours of watching CL do nothing (and taking lots of breaks to keep me distracted from doing something stupid) I switched to NQ. Took one trade there that worked. Back to CL, watched for awhile and took 1 BE trade. 3 trades today. All executed well. ========== I'm trading at home tomorrow so decided to look at the weeks results. Surprised to see BE on CL (excl. commish) Thought I was down. + 11. pts in NQ CL daily recap -39 , +70, -46, +15 NQ mon -4 , today +15 Attached are the CL trades for week so far. Although results are better than expected my performance following plan yesterday was not good. I believe the increasing my one target on tues. impacted my thinking yesterday. There are times to raise targets and times to stay with the 15. I was increasing targets yesterday based on hope and not on PA. I'm understanding better when to increase and will build that more clearly into my plan.
good idea. I tried that a couple years ago and recorded for an hour and took no trades I might try again. Can't remember what program. I think it was WebEx which is used for conferences but can be used solo if I remember correctly. Trading psych Rande Howell has also suggested using a mirror occasionally to check ones level of stress, focus etc. I haven't tried that.