giannos, When you SUSPECT that you might be getting into "a deer in the headlights," BREATHE! Starting taking longer breath slowly but try to keep the breathing natural... I don't know what took me so long to figure this out. When the head is out of control... grab hold of the body. I should write a book called "Fucking Breathe" and it will help more people than any of the Mark Douglas crap. Don't give up the breathing and you should find yourself coming back and stick back to your plan ASAP! Repair the damage. In regard to the trading plan, it took me a long long time to find something I can crutch on. I think it took some luck in my case but there would be no luck without hard work. Anyway, if you don't think it is good enough for you to crutch on then it's probably not good enough. Good trading.
Ok heres a general idea of how Sept started and then ended... first day of Sept Trading..... .... + 220 Second................................ - 160 third.................................... +260 4th...................................... + 60 5th...................................... + 40 6th...................................... - 800 7th...................................... + 440 8th..................................... + 260 9th..................................... + 400 10th.................................. + 240 11th................................. - 1540 12th................................. - 1900
At this rate of return, your daily risk limit should not exceed $200 on your P&L. This will force you to trade smaller and choose wisely. Based on your discipline, I would suggest setting your risk manager to shut you off when that limit is hit. You would accelerate your learning curve this way and do it with less money given your circumstance. You are obviously paying more attention to the money than to the quality of your trading. This is usually what happens when your losses accelerate as they have. Also, don't pay any attention to how well or poorly anyone else is doing. Your learning curve is a battle between you and your ego/perception. On any given day, you can have people making or losing money while trading the same product in the same volatility and range. Trading is a highly individual endeavor, so don't put pressure on yourself to trade bigger because someone else in your office is hitting the cover of the ball every day. Okay?
giannos, There are a lot of good points within many of the posts. I have no objection to trading size if you are willing to take the loss required to trade size. When you are trading for 4X profit with 4X size, the loss parameter is 4X as well.... because of the size! If you are comfortable with your trading plan and are simply trying to find the answer to having become emotionally involved with the trade - then congratulations on arriving at the beginning of a rite of passage. Every professional trader has successfully made this passage. You will complete this rite when you consistently cut your losses as soon as your plan says the trade is wrong. The reason(s) why you let your emotions influence your trade are of academic interest only. Follow your plan even when you want to deviate from it. Your money is your employer. Continue to trade, but follow your plan and figure out your emotions on your own time, NOT YOUR MONEY'S. Good luck.
Hey man...Thanx ALOT....I really am starting to feel a bit better and your right, and believe it or not, deep down inside I know all this, but threw it out the window because I wanted a home run and wanted to make up for those winning days when I left hundrends each time on the table........Your Advice is muchly appreciated......I think that a bottle or 2 of wine tonight should take away the rest of the pain
Hey giannos well i think what futuretrader71 is saying is right Your daily risk should limit to $200 i mean every thing look good but the last 2 losses like $1900 $1540 are deadly losses i my self have made a plan that i want to make $200 every day and i want to be consistent and if i make more then $200 the rest money i will keep it for cushion when i might loose money. i am planning to start At a prop from hopefully jan or feb so i am getting my self well ready for it with all the ET experience i can get can you let us know what kind of share were u trading and what kind od share # were you trading
ya things were looking ok, with exeption of the last 2 losses and I know that....My madness came when I thought, hey I make 5- 10 cents on msft with 1000 share lots....I can make alot more if I increase to 7000....Geez that would be 7 times my profit :eek: ...guess I should have factored in that it also meant 7 x my average losses.....I usually trade Csco, Msft, Intc ( thats my $800 loss on my list ), Orcl, Amat, Beas, Tlab, and a few others.....Good luck to you
All in all you did not lost that much and the fact that you had a good win:lose ratio when you traded smaller size must mean something... ...as someone else sid in this board you probably got emotionally attached to a trade... ....and got killed by quadruple witching!!