Your basically talking about how to prevent from going through a burn-out. Trading is no different then any other stressful job. To prevent burn-out or worst problems... * Healthy eating habits * Get enough sleep where you feel like your refreshed in the morning when you wake up. You've been re-energized. I can get the above from 1am - 7am est and when I really tired... I'm in bed by 11am - 7am est. * Take mental rest from the job (trading) during the trading session. In other words, don't stay glue to your computer screen, get up and do something that's none trading related. I do this ritually about 10mins every hour and its an easy task for me to find something else to do because the spouse and kids are home. * Take a real lunch break. My lunch breaks typically last about about 90 mins. * I do some serious biking about 4x per week. * Vacation with the family or many 3 day weekends. * Positive support from friends and family. This is easy for me now especially after +15 years of trading but wasn't like that in the early years. Therefore, the key for me (maybe not for others) to avoid deterioration in this business... Time away from trading and keep a good schedule at it. I've seen too many traders struggling in this business simply because they are mentally drained. Healthy habits will support our mental well being. On that note its time for me to cuddle with the spouse...good night all. Mark
Take a trip down to the CME, CBOT, or NYMEX floor; look at some of the locals that've traded down there for the past 10-20 years...their pretty much a heart attack waiting to happen.
I am sad that its too late for me and happy that I finally learned what I'm trying to achieve. I just lost everything I made last month... I use to come in and I'm just ready to whatever the market is ready to give me and bang this month I'm having a hard time getting up, I been drinking coffee to jumpstart my day, I been drinking beer more than I should "usually I just drink on the weekends and I do this once in a while" Could this be signs of metal burnout... I able to take a loss but feels like I can't cut my lost sooner and every time I make a trade its going the other way and lose my opportunity on good trades and it just ends my day. I've manage to lose money every trading day this month and I took one day off to evaluate what I was doing wrong and seem to have no effective on me. So I'm asking myself WTF I'm I doing wrong. I used to be scared when the stock is going the the way. Confidence is one thing but could it be that I'm over confident now? Now if its not my emotions can it be my entry? I used to think that entry is the most important part of trading and starting to see that it should be again? I thank everyone who has inspire me to keep trading and that there is a reason why there is a low success rate in this game. I've paid plenty of expensive lesson "maybe not enough" and need to make sure that I'm learning
General recommendation in this situation is to review your trading plan and cut size back until you get into synch again.