Another rough day! I had a hard time staying in sync with the market. I was up $450 and told myself, "Just one more good trade" and down I went. Fought my way back up to over $400 and said, "Just one more good trade, commissions are adding up." Down I went. This was my day, a roller coaster just like the price action. Then I tried to catch a falling knife. That hurt! I did manage to end the day positive which was good but never did reach my desired goal for the day. What areas did I shine in: Never gave up Took my breaks when I was suppose to Ended positive What area(s) do I need to focus on the next time I trade: Reduce the number of trades taken Today, was insane, I had over 60 trades and $270 in commissions No moving my stops out I would have reached my goal had I not done this today!!! Here is the day's recap:
Mistakes are not following your rules. if you don't have rules, everything you do is a mistake. - Van Tharp
What if the plan and rules are pretty bad/terrible/faulty when they were designed? Not all the rules/plan are good.
Oh, no doubt. That can be an issue. But at least if you're following bad rules, you can figure out that the problem is your system and not your ability to execute it. Then you adapt. A major problem for some traders is a flawed strategy. The flawed strategy is due to incorrect assumptions. The incorrect assumptions are based on inaccurate beliefs. The inaccurate beliefs are often rooted in biases. So check to see if your biases are the main cause of your trading problems. But usually a bigger problem is when you have good plan / rules and don't follow them.
Well, here is a big mistake. I intended to just trade micros for the remainder of the evaluation so I created an ATM to use for all my trades. What happened? I accidently traded on NQ and violated the maximum position rule. Unbelievable on my part, but true. Anyhow, this journal is concluded!