NoEmotions, A) OK, but remember that if you trade automatically, more filters tend to lead to over-fitting and if you trade discretionarily, they tend to hamper your ability to pull the trigger (in fact, I'd say that having more numerous and more complex entry conditions is one of the leading causes of picking and choosing trades). B) Well, yes, any rational person will take +20 over +0 or negative any day. However, if you limit yourself to one +20 tick trade, what stop will you use and when will you stop trading for the day if losing? If you take 20 ticks out of a >100 tick move will you <i>really</i> feel happy? 1) Tell it to Nodoji: the more trades she takes, she makes more money. If your system/style has a positive expectancy, the higher % of "signaled" trades you take, the more money you will make; if your system has a negative expectancy, well, then you shouldn't be taking any trades at all. A higher number of trades to capture an equal number of ticks will increase your trade attrition (commissions and slippage as a percentage of your p&l), but will not influence your chances of winning/losing (as long as those trades are called for by your system/style; i.e. you're getting a signal, not putting a revenge trade because you got stopped out or missed a fill by a tick, etc.). 2) If you put on 100 trades and 90% were profitable with a R:R ratio of 5 to 1 and you made $2,730 would you be more or less confident than if you put on 10 trades, had only a small winner, 5 breakevens and 4 mid-size losers, losing $385? IMO, confidence has nothing to do with the number of trades you put on. Your confidence will be affected first by your ability to implement your plan (every trade you're supposed to take and yet you don't and every trade you put on without it being called for will undermine your confidence - and viceversa) and then by whether your plan (when you follow it) delivers the expected results or not. Just sharing my (painful) experience, not telling you how to trade or anything. Best trading to you.
I took 20 ticks out of 51 tick move from my entry on a trade and I do NOT feel happy. I also let a 26-tick profit go all the way back to b/e instead of recognizing a price action pattern for what it was. I had an opinion about where price would go and tenaciously held that POS trade long past the stop-and-reverse price, which was the start of the strong move up (out of which I took the 20/51 ticks). Thank you all for allowing me to whine.
Despite taking equal longs/shorts (3 each), and many ticks in my favor, I can only call 24 ticks my own (1 winner and 5 b/e's) There were 12 setups for me today and I only traded half of them, and managed a couple of them poorly.
fwiw: I took +50 cents out of a 102 cent swing, and I feel nothing. Not disappointment, not elation. Nothing. Just routine business operation Any idea how many years it took, how many thousands of micro-analyzed trades, how many days of give - take - give - take from bell to bell, how many nights spent agonizing over coulda - shoulda stuff to finally reach this state of being? "way too many" is the correct answer to all above At some point in your career, you realize that ideal execution and perfect decision every time is a fool's folly, a siren song, a waste of time and life. Then you go about the business of keeping more than you give back, and finding yourself more relaxed thru the entire process day after day Pretty sure I'll screw up a bunch of trades this week, this month, next year. Pretty sure you will too. Everyone will, everyone does. Just keep more than you give back, and remember we are in this to afford free time for living the lifestyle. Perfect trading is not only irrelevant, it doesn't even matter
I like to experience emotion but not let it control me. I have been laid a lot of times as well, and still seem to run the spectrum of emotions each and every time, just human I guess. edit: target 86.10- on short.
Morning everyone! Overlapping with jobless claims at 8:30 EST we have messier Trichet's speech. Then at 10:00 Pending Home Sales. Good luck/skill everyone.