Flash I gotta ask, what criteria do you use for determining when to take a trade? Are they low risk in your opinion? Or are you trying to force the market? Might think about using a real time simulator to help with discipline. Good luck
Cdbern, My entry criteria is somewhat subjective.. On the pullbacks I like to see price touch the mov. avg. & form some sort of a reversal bar.. mainly I like to see in an uptrending market a bottom tail or two form.. On reversals I like to see a reversal bar.. I usually take my signals from the ES.. they seem to be more reliable but I take the trades usually in the NQ..
Oh Well.. Down $367 for the day so far.. That's 37% of the account balance I always have these days and I can't figure out how to stop it.. or should I say stop myself.. I believe maybe I'm in a state of denial.. Maybe I need to just give it up.. I"m so disgusted with myself I can't even begin to describe it.. What a way to end the year..
The thing I guess that wiould help is to have a maximum number of trades you take or a maximum amount of dollar to loose and then quit and walk away from the computer when you get there. I to strugle with that but it is a must.. Good luck ,and thanks for posting ..
Well Flash I guess my thoughts are that if the criteria you are using isn't working as well as you want it to, maybe you need to make some modifications. Find a real time simulator and spend a few months on it, at least you can experiment without loosing your hard earned money. Self discipline is a hard one. Using the simulator and FORCING yourself to be disciplined counts for a lot. Just a thought
How did you finish the day? Don't give up so fast, you're just trading like most humans - emotions getting the best of you! If you have a proven system and are following it, then you should come out ok. These very narrow periods are difficult on most systems, and most traders. But they never last indefinitely. Best Oten
Flash Before you do more damage to your account and yourself you should just call off the whole thing and admit it 's not doable at least the way you are trying to do it. You can do it with options but that would not be trading but gambling. Do it slow and steady.
So your problem is that your worst down days are far greater than your best up days. Maybe even your down days are in general larger than your up days. You also say you have tried to solve this problem in the past, unsuccessfully. That just means, to solve this problem, you'll have to think of something else to change, besides what you've tried in the past. When my 1 yr old hides my keys, I sometimes spend hours looking for them. When I can't find them it's because I keep looking in the same places. Isn't that wierd? Human nature I guess. I've looked "everywhere", didn't find them, so I look again in the same places. Then I realize, I better think of a new place to look if i'm going to find them. Sure enough, there they are: in my shoe. Or once, underneath the oven-- I didn't even know there was space for them under there...