The last few days I have been experimenting with a slightly longer time frame, 1 to 3 days and doing terrible. I have been doing pretty good for several months using in intraday time frame, 10 minutes to an hour or so, trading off support and resistence levels, double tops and double bottoms, etc. Simple stuff. For some reason when the towers came down my mind came down with it. I have not been able to do anything right since, till today. This morning I said to heck with change, I'm going back to what I know. Went into my little routine and everything clicked again. The problem was not with my method or the market, but with my head. It was a good lesson.
"The problem was not with my method or the market, but with my head. It was a good lesson." Absolutely priceless! Yes, and it isn't the last time, I promise you that We all go through it. Indeed, I'm on a one week vacation, because of the same reason. I was doing well trading on 1/5 of my normal size since 9/11. And the 80% I've not made, because of my comfort level has been (for the lack of a better word) fu*king with my head. So I am regroupimg on the sidelines by direct orders of my soul-mate
This morning I said to heck with change, I'm going back to what I know Good plan. It's cliched, but change really is expensive for a trader. I know I've got to keep an open mind, try new things, blah blah blah, but every time I change just about anything -- entries, triggers, hard exits, mental exits, time-frames, even hardware or software, I lose alot of $$$ during the adjustment period. I don't mean to sound stuffy, but while change may be nice in theory it can be very costly, both emotionally and financially. Of course the delicate juggling act, as always, is in balancing an openess with sticking with what works.