A friend of mine had a family member who quit drugs and drinking and stayed clean and sober for 27 years. He then took a drink and was dead in less than a year. That's why I love that quote by Pa(b)st Prime about being disciplined on EVERY trade. You never know if one emotional trade will cause a little damage or start a "binge" of emotional, irrational trading that wipes you out.
I always lean on side of caution and as NoDoji referred to "EVERY trade" is like each trade is your first trade of the day, none are better than the next or 159th, they are all the same as long as you say to yourself this is the first trade before you enter, what you do after getting in determines if you exit as per Trading Plan or no idea. And when in doubt=get out. If you don't have an answer for a situation before you get in, you end up trading lost, cause when situation does occur, you star wondering as to what to do, not a position I would want to be in. Trading is very much like game of chess, planning for possible moves before you make a play, constantly playing the what if's, so possibility of surprise greatly reduced. One week of trading doesn't make a life of trading, end of 3 trades check out P/L. Having a ave of $200 each day is what most would love to get consistently as they you can start stair stepping volume. You get rid of the huge loss days and walk away is number one, Capital Preservation has to be your daily goals.
Yukoner's Job Description Today simply another new day We are the same No matter what happens / we think / we feel / mkt does We work through it / we set it aside / we move on We do our job Trade well today Yukoner - screw the results ======================== Absolutely nothing within us will change - unless..., and until - we change it RN
Yukoner: Just want to put this out so that there is no misunderstanding. @Redneck is the executive chef in this kitchen. It so happens that one of the sous chefs came up with an idea, nothing original, but just a repackaging of the executive chef's recipe. Just want to make sure that we don't confuse the sous chef for an executive chef. The executive chef of this kitchen is still in-charge! Of course, all other chefs are welcome to contribute their recipes too. Can't wait to hear all about your trading day. Regards, Monoid.
Day 30 (Mo step #2) - Slept well, and went into the day with the goal of just being consistent. Just doing my job. I had to think a bit about what Monoid was saying about giving myself the flexibility to make errors, as long as I entered the trade correctly... so I took the side of caution, and just tried to stick with my plan and trade as I normally would. Overall, I stayed consistent. I put on checkmarks. I had a winning trade, and I added to it... even though it ended up stopping me out for a loss, it was bang on the right trade to do. However, I did make two errors today... 1) The winning trade that I added to, when exited had taken me over my personal daily loss limit, and I didn't immediately shut down the computer once I realized what had happened. 2) I saw a setup happen, and I just automatically clicked to enter it, and it was only after I was in the trade for about a minute that it hit me this should have been a sim trade, as per step #3. Now the dilemma, just close the trade out automatically, or stick with the plan. Not knowing what else to do, I just stuck with my trading plan. Later I did have some struggle with shutting down the computer and not trading. Funny how your brain tries to come up with all sorts of reasons to justify breaking rules. (Especially when you start to see the big movement) However, once I slowed down and got out of that state... my discipline was back, and I was fine with not trading. Actually knew it was the right thing to do. Note: My GF's idea of calling someone when I hit my personal daily loss limit, I think should get implemented. It would be an abrupt trigger to stop what I am doing. -475
This thread is very interesting and I think it is worth replying in. For me, psychology is very important when trading.
Yukoner: I am sorry that I will not be able to help you at this point. The ability to follow a plan that allowed you to make all trading mistakes albeit in a structured way, is, in my opinion, a prerequisite for working on emotions related to trading. Without that baseline, I don't have a plan for you. Someone else might have a plan, but not me. I sincerely wish you all the best in your pursuit. Regards, Monoid.
Chicken..., or the egg Does undiciplinedness - beget emotional based action(s) Or Does emotional based action(s) - beget undiciplinedness Are both cut from the same bolt of cloth - possibly I simply don’t know ===================== What I do know….. Yukoner, At some point Ya gotta nut up and stop with the bullshit…, or quit Your job has been lined out..., and it simply a matter of executing (which ain't happening) Where to from here? =============== MO You give up too easy - shit ain't over - yet RN