It was a multi-blooper day for me :eek: Youâre supposed to make sure youâre well-rested and well-prepared for each trading day. Normally, I am both. But I got home quite late last night, got very little sleep, and got a late and unprepared start to the morning. Maybe trading a less volatile instrument, the bloopers wouldn't have piled up as quickly, but CL in its recent volatility has a way of bringing out the worst in an unprepared trader: 1. Fat-finger error: Went to place my stop loss order after trade entry and mis-clicked limit, taking me out of a perfectly fine trade for .02 instead of the .20 I wouldâve ended up with when all was said and done. 2. Loss of focus: Allowed my annoyance over this mistake to affect my focus and failed to bracket my orders in advance around a narrow range, thereby completely missing a beautiful volatile breakout at the NYMEX open. 3. Lack of preparation: Calmly waited for the next signal, entered perfectly, and because of lack of pre-trade prep, didnât have my levels noted, and allowed a .30 profit reverse all the way back to break even. Having my levels noted wouldâve told me to lock in .20 as price approached a key level. 4. Fat-finger error #2: Realized very quickly I was taken out b/e to the exact tick of the retrace and jumped right back in at almost the same entry price, then got shaken out again at b/e after more than .20 in my favor only to watch price start dropping again. Chased a quick re-entry and AGAIN mis-clicked limit instead of stop and was taken out for +.01, then watched price quickly drop nearly .40 in my favor without me. 5. Hesitation/Chasing: Hesitated to trade the next proper signal, chased the entry at a terrible level and instead of just scratching the trade immediately, allowed it to hit the widest stop Iâve placed in months (placed the wide stop because I chased the damned entry in the first place). 6. Allowing previous trade results to influence proper management of later trades: Hesitated on the next signal, chased the entry, tightened my stop as price approached a level I thought should break, because I was uncomfortable with the fact that I chased and didnât want a repeat of the last full loss, got a whopping .05 on the trade, watched price come within .02 of what wouldâve been my normal break even stop (and wouldn't have been triggered), then drop nearly a full point (that's $1000/contract folks) from my chased entry priceâ¦without me. 7. Cheating on a trading rule: Took a sweet early with-trend entry off the 1-min chart, then moved my stop to b/e after .18 instead of following my rule to wait for .20 on with-trend trades, stopped out b/e only to watch price move over .50 without me. 8. Revenge trading/trying to get back what you missed: Was so frustrated by my mistakes at this point that I stopped looking at the big picture and revenge traded off the 1-min chart without waiting for an actual setup, taking a .15 loss. 9. Revenge trading again (because revenge trading is so tasty you can't eat just one): Basically repeated the above mistake after a few near-scratch trades while price was in no-manâs land, and was still in no-manâs land. This time took a .16 loss. 10. Allowing previous trade results to influence proper management of later trades: Took a decent entry, then moved my stop way too soon because price âwasnât really moving as fast as it shouldâ, taken out b/e. At least had the sense to jump back in, although at much worse entry price and take .20 of what wouldâve been a .40 profit target in the first place. I know what you're thinking: "Why didn't she just take a break and regroup?" Because I had to get back what I missed! Finally, having something resembling a profitable trade gave me a little boost of energy and although I hesitated on the proper entry of my next trade, I managed to capture nearly all of the move from the late entry price, digging me fully out of the hole and bringing me well into the green for the day. Donât trade when tired. Donât trade until you're prepared. And if youâve made 3 mistakes in a row, take a break and save yourself some money!
I had the apple levelII up just to look at it out of curiosity as some news alert was out and I wanted to look at the level II flying around just for giggles. I moved my mouse 'over to the left' and my thumb hit the enter key on my num pad entering me into the position. I had not made a trade in 4 hours and was a little sleepy so it too me a min or two for that red number to register in my brain. Thankfully before i could hit my 'oh shit' button and flatten all positions, it had whipsawed up and minimized the damage, only cost me about 80 bucks Prett cheap lesson Now if I am 'looking at stuff out of curiosity' I do it on some piece of software that doesnt have order entry attached to it.