For us short-term trades, single most important thing is to be able sense that it's not one of our days and leave our desks with a managable loss for the day. Yesterday, I was very stubborn and kept on trading accumulating a lot of small losses. I ended up over trading and get my mind messed up even though I covered the lossses. I think it effected me today too. Chinook
Yeah - as long as I make the deadlines - everybody is happy. That's what I'm scared off - my mind will be my worst enemy - I think too much focus will be counter-productive - one needs quick decisions and too much thought process causes hesitation. Maybe Lon Eagle with 15 years of doing this can fill us in on how he got through the tough patches.
I have the perfect Full-Time job for trading and am fortunate. I work on the computer and the phone all day here in California from my home on my own equipment. I am an independent and do not have a boss per say, just associates. I have traded full time, but find that working a full-time job, helps my trading. I get life experience and can talk to other people, which help me gain perspective and life experience. I should not complain. I could be isolated and dependant on one job, which I get bored of real quickly. Michael B.
Well said - thats something else I would miss - the interaction with other people. These forums are great although quite impersonal - loneliness would definitely get to me.
To be honest everyone is different and length of experience isnt always a guide to the person who can give the best advice. There is a guy at my firm who is 21 and was the IT person 2 years ago. His size in futures is huge and he has £150k months. To me the key when you know you are finding it hard is not to chase it and over trade. I know that is obvious but is really true. I have probably over traded this month and can see the warning signs. I am very strict at the moment to ensure my position size is smaller than usual. I checked out early today and went to watch my 6 year old play tennis. If you lose on a few trades but stuck to your trading plan then that is no problem. It means the winners are around the corner. If you traded (and maybe even made a profit) but you didn't stick to your plan then warning signs should be going off everywhere and it is probably time to cut your size or even take a complete break. Hope that makes sense and isnt a complete ramble!
Makes alot of sense. Something I am also guilty of at times -"overtrading" - when I find I'm losing/"spinning my wheels" it is inevitably as a result of this. Also, I'm very similar in managing losing periods - if things go bad - cut position size until confidence returns... there was that period.... May/June Cheers
EURUSD december futures flatlined around the 1.2145 area / spot around 1.2150. Asian session crosses will test it lower in around 5 hours time, right ?
... and wearing the sparky shorts from the 1.2145-ish area and pulling them down still does the magic trick. 5 times now, but it's getting dull and it's better to wait for asian open. Using those tick-charts and minute-charts gets boring after EuroFX RTH.
Yesterday, I was able to make up for earlier losses but today I made it worse. I looked at my earlier posts and and even though I had a short bias, I ended up trading against my own bias many times. I'm again having what I call a "period of trading insanity". I started getting obsessed with my equity curve and absolute $$$ amounts. I shifted my focus from trading consistently to making or losing $$$ in a certain time period. This led to inconsistent and over trading. I keep my trading rules flexible so I can take advantage of different market conditions such as trending or range-bound. I have open parameters and if my mind is not at its best it's easy to make mistakes. To get back on track, I'll take trades only if I believe that we'll be trending. This involves less decisions since entry and trailing exit algorithms are well defined. Rules are simple: 1) Determine if the market is trending or choppy 2) If trending, wait for MA trigger or enter during a pullback to MA 3) Put the initial entry stop below/over a recent local max/minima 4) Trail the stop 5) Stop trading for the day if losses exceed the daily max risk level. Chinook