Change ur Goal !

I wanted to share one of my experiences with you guys. I want to see if anyone else feels the same way. It might help others who are starting out to reach their objectives sooner and with less mistakes.

I felt that things changed for me once I went through a psychological change where my goals that i started with did not matter any more. It started as a thought and now I believe in it.
My goal when I traded was to make an "Income" or "get rich". I had few targets, daily, monthly, annual and what the hell a traget to retire. As i went thru some troubling years in the beginning. I begin to feel that my goals are irrelevant. They cause me to loose focus and perform under "ACCEPTED" pressure. I could not deal with loss easily - no matter how much I told myself that it is a part of the game. No matter how well my risk management was, or even execution. I never felt any confident. Then slowly I realized that these so called goals are obstacles that i have put up to limit myself. Trading is speculation and at its finest. I cannot set-up virtual Outcomes of an unpredictable market behaviour. Let alone how much I SHOULD be making.
I realized that I dont have to look for an Opportunity - but create one for me. I cannot move the markets so how can I create an Opportunity ??? this was the most wildest thought i ever had. I probably cannot put this concept in words easily in one post so - I will give this another shot in subsequent post.

Going forward - i slowly lost some respect towards Risk management techniques that I was using. the usual suspects, daily loss limit, risk and reward, risk per trade etc. I some how cannot focus on the risk anymore, all i see is return - positive or negative. All of a sudden my attitude changed towards loosing trades. I was able to easily see and cut the looser out and add to winner. Also, I was able to add bigger size on fast moves and get unexpected returns, making my loosers look smaller compare to winnners. To me now a winning trade is worth all my capital risk when actively managed - irrespective of the timeframe or instrument traded.

Goal changed from Income to just plain and simple making money.

comments are welcomed...

Guru

 

Interested to hear more on this. I think I have the same experience as you, but it comes and goes for me. Feels like being in the zone, either I am in it or not. When I am, nothing can stop me and making money is effortless. Then after a while I start to think "this can't go on" and then I'm out of the zone and trading feels like being constipated. The bad times usually last around 3 months and then I am good for another 6-9 months. This time though I have been cold for a year, very frustrating! I am in the process of transitioning to an intraday timeframe from end of day. Also becoming more mechanized in my system hoping that these changes will speed up the flat spots and take more of "me" out of it.
Please share more of your thoughts.
Cirrus

 

Let’s see if I can do a little redneck paraphrasing


Managing losers still remains my #1 priority – however….


Instead of focusing on losers, and thusly being limited by them… I have now diverted my focus toward winners


One byproduct of said shift is; If a trade ain’t makin me money, then obviously it is losing me money – thus I rid myself of it straight away (don’t want to impede my winners)

Which interestingly enough retains managing losers as my #1 priority


One other byproduct of said shift is; as I am now focused on winners – I do everything in my control to allow them to multiply and flourish


A rose by any other name…..
---------------------------------------------------

My comment;

Not so sure it’s changing goals...., as much as it is changing focus – either way – its all good

RN

 

http://stockcharts.com/freecharts/historical/

just buy pullbacks.plain and simple

 

Greetings Jp,

In my opinion, your epiphany was right on the money. As you related, it was not some new fangled technical tool that helped you to turn the corner to profitability.

It was a change in your mental perspective. First cause is always mental, then you adapted the technical tools to suit your needs, as it should be. I find your new perspective and attitude on risk management to be very interesting, and I would very much like to hear more. Its truly thought provoking.

Excellent perception and insight, nicely framed into words! I am looking forward to your follow up on "Creating an Opportunity".

A printed copy of your missive has been added to my Daily Journal.

Big Thanks!

KDASFTG

 

Thanks RN,

Goals i reffered to were targets such as for the day, month or life for that matter. Focus on any given trade, or on a loosing trade for that matter is irrelevant.
This whole idea will help anyone (in my opinion) to break the thresholds that they create themselves and are counter productive.

Regards,

Guru

 

Thank you KDASFTG for the kind words,
I will post soon about creating an opportunity & risk management that I find suits my style of trading. I find it almost opposite to the way I use to trade.

Regards,

Guru

 

jokepie,

You mentioned you are not using risk management or "daily loss limit" anymore.

My experience is that if you do not, it's just a matter of time before you are in that kind of position when emotions takes over.
Suddenly you find yourself on a loosing streak and if the daily loss is not in place at that "moment" you are at risk of revenge and over trading. Instead of maybe a 3% daily loss you find yourself in the area of 10%-20%. Not a good situation at all. Some kind of daily protection is definitely needed. If one cannot trade with risk management, one has to learn and practice.

We all know that blowing up accounts, is the next phase without protection. Letting "mind control" be in charge of our trading account as we trade, is not going to work. Rules that we ourself defines and follow is the way to go!

I suggest you start using some kind of money management software, "VisualRMM Interactive" is a free software you can try out. I use it every day, don't trade without it.

Read more about it here

 

Thanks for your response Kricka,

I know what you mean, and definetly for some one who is still learning how to trade and is a student of the art needs to deploy the usual risk management tricks to stay alive. Staying alive must be the goal at that stage. I am past that stage and I no longer get emotional or swing at every ball that comes at me.
I will explain the risk management that works for me in a later post that has alot to do with what i mentioned in the original post.
I love the line from "Days of thunder" movie - Control is an illusion. I have spent half of my career in Risk management and I know that risk is more theory than practical. Risk/ fear is driven by our sense of insecurity and lack of confidence. However, as you may have experienced - the game of speculation is not for the feeble hearts.

Thanks for the link as well.

GL

Guru

 

Guru,

Very interesting because i recently put in writing a goal to become a fulltime trader within 3 years. Normal objectives of how much capital to have, constistency expectations, sub goals or milestones i need to strive for etc. Ultimately i want to average 5 nq pts a day. But, my daily goals are process goals; take all set ups, hold winners, be willing to take heat, focus etc. You know my problems.

I'm looking forward to reading your additional thoughts.