After 2 years of steady daytrading, my system and understanding of price action are finally good enough to where I can focus more on psychology and see the moments where psychology is what's holding me back. Prime example: any time I have plans later in the day, I trade awful that day. Luckily, I'm a hermit so this isn't a very regular problem, but my 4 worst days this month were coincidentally the only 4 days where I had plans. I think it makes me feel rushed and distracted? I also wonder if I don't feel a little pressure cuz I expect to get asked how this new profession of mine is going by friends who all clearly think I'm nuts to be trying to make a living at this. Anybody else have this problem? It's been murder on my P/L this month to a point where I'm actually thinking about banning trading on those days.
It's hard getting the balance right between markets and the world we live in. Those who are best off are those who have enough money to live without trading, and without having to disrupt our trading day for work obligations. The irony is that most people who go into trading are trying to escape the traditional employment/self-employment world. It's all about finding the golden mean. When you have family with expectations, you have to manage those expectations. And sometimes, the right answer may be to leave markets alone and take care of certain problems. I had this happen to me on more than one occasion: a sick family member that needs care, etc. It's part of life, plain and simple. So you have to give yourself permission to be a human being sometimes and do the right thing even if in the short run it may seem like you're losing out. There's always a way to stay involved even if it just means doing a half hour of chart review in the evening. Sometimes in life you have time to do a barn raising, other times a brick a day is all you can do: both still move you forward. Trading is a performance sport and when you're live, you need to give yourself the space to succeed. A lot of my progress suffered because I'd have needlessly big gaps in my trading. It's fine to take a few days off (and maybe even a good thing), but when days become weeks and then months, you do lose momentum. For a while I also thought "I'll just trade the first two hours", then you have many days where the real action begins at 3 pm after a listless day. You have to be there when the opportunity is there, and you have to manage that with the rest of your life. There are no hard and fast rules here, you have to be sensitive to yourself and your life situation. And yes, pressure to succeed will always be there, unless you're independently wealthy in which case you can do whatever you want.
Mark Cook traded half size on Monday and took Friday off as long term data showed poor performance on those days. Anyway, it's generally a poor idea to trade if you're not able to focus 100 % for as long as it's required. Also, don't tell anyone about this new 'profession' of yours until you have something to show for it.
This is a good pointer. Look at your time of day and day of week and days before and after holidays. Then just trim off 15% of your total time trading, AT THOSE TIMES. Think of it this way. You are the boss! So you set the hours!
To elaborate, his reasoning was that after a weekend off he needed a bit of time to get back in the groove on Mondays. And by Fridays he was getting exhausted after the week. Could be other explanations related to strategy and week of day performance, but that was his take.
I’ve had similar observations: when I have other tasks or important meetings, my focus often gets divided, and my trading performance suffers. I started experimenting with simply not trading on those days, but sometimes I feel like I’m missing opportunities.
Good advice all around, thanks! To be clear, I'm not going around trying to 'brag' I'm a daytrader now or anything like that. But people who've known me as a professor for 20 years are wondering how/why I quit and they're noozy enough to ask how I'm paying the bills now lol. So I get asked every time, but I gotta figure out a way to dodge the question better for awhile longer I guess.
Yeah, that's how I feel, but the results are so stark and I've always been a little ADD to where I think I'm cornered. Plans later that day, don't trade. I just can't believe how mentally soft that makes me seem. I mean I trade from 9AM to noon. On Thursday, I had plans at 5pm. I think it just makes me look ahead? I'm a writer too in my spare time, and it's always been the same. If I have plans later that day, I feel rushed and never get any writing done. So i guess it's one of those things I have to accept about myself.
Appreciate this post a lot, thanks! Like I said in a previous reply, I can't believe how mentally soft this makes me feel, but I know I need to give myself a little more grace than that. It's not that I'm that soft, it's that trading is THAT HARD and demands total focus, at least for those couple hours a day where I trade. If I can't give that level of focus, the prudent thing is stay away that day I guess.
Honestly, I hate taking days off even if I've done well. I have the position that I need to be there to take advantage of opportunity, even though yes - I'm always putting part of my PnL on the line. Such is trading. But... right now I have a trip coming up and I have a lot of things to square away before I leave. So I may not like it, but I may have to take a few days off for that. Such is life. When I trade, I allow myself to do light tasks like watching YouTube and some light chores, as well as once in a while popping into a trading forum. Sometimes when things are dead and I'm feeling dead I take a nap and set alerts. I never do stressful phonecalls or anything that majorly absorbs my mental energy during market hours. Watching YouTube videos and dealing with customer service are two totally different things. Unless it's my broker I have to call. And sometimes I REALLY have to take an hour or so to take care of business during market hours. For me this usually happens midday and at that point most of the time I'm trading breakouts, so I can see a setup forming in advance and be ready for it. Sometimes I'll take entry from my phone with a trailing stop. I absolutely hate being absent or distracted for the first two and last two hours, and I'll do anything possible to avoid that. And when markets are volatile I can easily sit for the entire period of trading and only get up to use the bathroom and grab a fast bite. With any line of work you will have your sick days and personal days, and your extended lunch disappearances. We're all human and we need to accept that. The only thing I don't do is Globex. Some would call me a loser, but I'll let them pay their own bills while I worry about mine.