I may help, I'll try it. In the past, I bypassed good high probability setups as I did not want to "risk" , and just want to take it home.
If you're completely in the now moment then the past is gone from your trading consciousness..... Kidding! If I trade 100 ES a side (about my average each day) it's all in 3's,5's, and an occasional 10 lot. The day's I trade a few 10's maybe I'm 200 r/t. Plus I'm adding and only getting out of some ect. So it's real easy for me to not know within a few hundred of where I am. Yet that few hundred has emotional meaning to me. Back when I could see I was up $867 it would make me take crap trades so I could push to a k. I'm better off not knowing whether I'm up $400 or $700. In the big picture it just doesn't matter. After the close I take a chart and plot my trades as a journal. But yea when it's slow like this, I know to the penny in my head where I'm at.......
well, i guess i'll have to give it a try...but i know i will calculate everythin' after i close every single position, nevermind keepin' track of every freakin' tick...now, prob is, how to get rid also of that bug
So how many separate ES trades do you take on average, during a "typical" day? Ballpark range. Also, if I may ask, how did you do today? (I don't need a dollar figure.) I realize this is outside the scope of this thread, but I'm curious. The reason I ask is that, no matter how much I retool, I can never get more than a few decent setups a day in ES. Further, I didn't trade today because I was sick like a dog. However, on reviewing the day's activity, I would probably have broken even, at best.
That's more of a sign that you're probably not comfortable with your strategy/edge and may also not have adequate capital to play the game.
As a former floor trader, I have some poor habits that younger electronic bred traders don't. I trade levels (not pivot numbers). So let's say I have 94 as support. Ideally I should wait but of course if there's an uptick from 94.50 to 95.25, I'll think I'm not going to get my 94's (usually a 5 lot bid) so I'll pay 95 on 2 or 3. Rarely on 5 but sometimes. Now I'll keep my 4.00 bid in and see what happens. If they trade down now I'll have eight and if I really think they'll hold maybe I'll buy 5 more. In short it's possible for me to trade 50 cars in and out off one level while searching for direction so that I can carry just 5 or 10. If the level trades out I'm gone. They trade out a lot. I take MANY losses. I'd guess I lose on around 60% of my trades. I don't even flinch at paying .75 on 5 and selling them at .25 a minute later. It's a way of life. Today was bliss. 40 a side for 123 ticks. I was bullish (no level just a risk/gamble/shot). The market had been hit hard 3 consecutive opens and I thought that pattern would end today. I got caught at first with 5@95.50 as they traded down to 4.75. But basically because I was being undisciplined (no idea above 92'ish of where to get out) I stayed put. And as they went bid I just completely stepped out at 96 and bought 5 more and I scaled out 2 at a time at various prices from 97.50 to 1301.00. Frankly I'm not only lucky that the market popped but I'm even LUCKIER that I wasn't looking for 03's or something. My levels were up at 01 and even though I was still bullish I took the sells. I even tried to flip short there but I joined an offer and never got them off. I traded a few more times for 1 to 3 ticks on 5 lots.
This struggle you are describing is a good thing. You will be able to train your mind to focus on what is important for your trading success ----- the next trading opportunity I will describe how my mind works when I update my fill window. I will first describe how my workstation is set up. I trade using TT(Trading Technologies). My P/L is in the Fill Window. I have the capability to filter my p/l. I start the day with the filter at 8:30-15:15. My first trade is at 8:31. I make $150. I then change the filter to 8:32-15:15. Also when I change the filter I am talking to myself reminding my mind to stay focused on the next trade. My 20th trade takes place at 9:45. I lose $200. I change the filter to 9:46-15:15. This time I have a very difficult time focusing on the next trading setup. My mind is becoming obsessed with daily p/l. However I still make a trade. I lose $350. I decide to call it quits for the morning because I want to know my overall profit. So I change my filter back to 8:30-15:15. My daily profit is $1800. I am happy, but also disappoint that I made that last trade. I stop trading because I looked at my daily p/l Around 9:30-10:30 I always begin to lose focus and want to see my daily p/l. I used to fight the urge and try to trade thru it. Now I am beginning to realize that my mind is sending a warning sign my way! It is telling me that the risk/reward is not there for my type of trading. Or my mind has hit its limit on its ability to concentrate. Or both. In conclusion if I cannot focus on the next best trading opportunity I am learning that this is a sign that I am not prepared for battle. If I listened to this warning and ended my day around 9:30-10:30 I would be much more profitable this year!! If the trader obsessed about the struggles of his mind instead of the struggles of profit fortune would be plentiful.
on the other hand, constantly lookin' at my pnl, [set in percentages by the way] might have helped me push my positions for longer...example would be on friday i was long fnl half way trough the trend and let my profits run for a nice 4% gain. this because i wanted more and this full percentages midset has always paid off on huge trends..now i have to see if by switchin' it off i may do even better, since i left almost 2% on the table on that trade, and had a sneaky feelin' it was gonna go parabolic on the last candle, since i saw that pattern again and again and its one of my fav.
Thanks for the narrative. You are very intuitive and you also recognize when you are on the "wrong" side of the market simply by the loss on the last entry. Before the mini's, the noise on the phone was a significant indicator of the floor (maybe where you were). Your "levels" approach can be seen on the tick charts and what seems to be evident in your thinking is the common occurance of the "second chance" patterns.