Trading 11/13/06 I've been reading a book called "Unleashing the Warrior Within" to try and firm up my mental game. One thing he focuses on is zeroing in on a goal (target) and doing whatever it takes to hit the target (goal). I realized I was just building my confidence the last few months and now it's time to try and hit my goal ($2,250/week). I figured the least risk I could use is 5 contracts assuming one trade per-day and 2 pts. profit per-contract. I don't know how far away I am because I haven't pushed toward that goal. This week I'm trying to do all I can to move toward the goal. Don't know if it's me or what but I couldn't get anything right for most of the day. Tried trading 5 lots for first time in a long time. Went all in on entry. The first two trades had bad entries. Seems like I'm having a tough time figuring out who's on what side of the trade. I'm seeing a mix of large specs and institutions on each side so I've been trying to estimate which side was stronger. My direction has been ok but my timing has been terrible. In too early...out late. In early...missed exit signal (actually on the second trade the exit was two ticks into the black, but dumb stubborn me decided to hang on...wheee let's watch $500 go out the window...). Luckily the market gave me a good long setup so I just hung onto my loser. Eventually I was able to exit around b/e on the trade. On the last trade I decided to ladder my contracts so that I just played the direction. Got 3 contracts on before the trade went my way. I decided to bail when I had a $250 profit and call it a day. At least I got something for the roller coaster. Hopefully the rest of the week will be a little easier. +259.40
Trading 11/14/2006 Got greedy and got smacked. The morming started off easy. I shorted one ES on the first down move because I've seen the gap open followed by that being the high/low many times before. Made a couple of points on it and took a profit before it got back to yesterday's close (sometimes there's a bounce there). Got a Buy signal a while later and used the ladder approach that worked well yesterday. Only got in 2 contracts so maybe I need to be a little more aggressive. The market moved a little but stalled. I gave up waiting with one contract and eventually gave up on the second. Was up some for the day and the day looked ok. Afternoon got a short signal and used the ladder again. Got short 2 contracts and the market started moving down. Got a exit signal .5 points in the black and I ignored it thinking there was more to go. Only smart thing I did was cancel other sell limit orders. Only had a single contract stop in the market thinking I'd add more when I had the whole position on. Should've moved the stop down to just above yesterday's high, but I was overconfident. Had too many winners. Got nailed by the runnup and had to use a market order to exit the second contract (which cost me a extra $50). I love how the market teaches you what you need to know. I've learned my lesson and will respect risk more in the future. -542.70
Gutsy Here is a post of Banjo's that I think is very useful to everyone. Banjo Registered: Jan 2002 Posts: 1408 11-19-06 11:36 AM I had to go thru my posts looking for something, saved some regaurding headtrips for traders for this thread. Yes ,I'm still crazy after all these years. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showt...=6&pagenumber=2 http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showt...6637#post206637 http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showt...0643#post220643 http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showt...3104#post283104 http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showt...7672#post307672 http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showt...3542#post303542 http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showt...9115#post329115
the links did not posted correctly, scroll down to bottom to get correct link http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showt...&perpage=6&highlight=banjo crazy&pagenumber=4
Just an update. I'm back to struggling. Health problems with a family member had me take my mind off trading. Can't get it together. The method I'm using for trading has been inconsistent this month. On days I've tried to trade, I've lost. Then backed off and papertraded the next day and it worked just fine. Traded it again and lost. Very discouraging and frustrating. I seem to be walking into trend days and getting whacked. When the market trends strongly I see institutions and large specs on both sides of the market. Lately, my judgement of which way the market would turn out has been poor. Narrow range inside days are the easiest days for me to trade. Probably just the opposite for someone else. Today I came in with a attitude that I had to make money to prove I still had it. I lost about $240 on Monday trading 3 contracts. Cut back to one contract yesterday and had 2 trades for a net of +150. First trade today was a loser but I refused to accept it (should've lost about $175 on 2 contracts). Added to the loser...after the market continued up I got a little more stupid and went long. Held on too long and let it turn into a loser. Got mad this afternoon and lost all composure. Upped my size. 4 trades in a row went against me. Looking at them I noticed I didn't do all the steps for a trade. I ended the day losing almost $1,800 on a total of 31 round turns. I just went back over the day. There should have been 4 trades. 2 losers and 2 winners. Because I came in unsettled, I took 9 trades, 7 losers and 2 winners. Feel pretty disgusted with myself right now. Sorry, no screenshot of my p/l. Looking at it makes me sick. Well, I have one more month to get this going. If not, I'm packing it in. I think I'll try constructing a trade checklist to help keep me focused. I don't know what to do about my poor discipline. I REALLY wanted to make some money today. Instead of waiting and taking what was there like in past months I tried too hard to make something happen. Its times like this I wish I had my fear of sitting in a winner back. At least then I didn't do so many dumb things. I'll try and do a reset on my brain and be better mentally prepared to trade tomorrow.
allow yourself only 2 trades/day take only the best set up at the optimal time (no lunch time) put in stop/target use OCO feature if you know how then walk away until the trade complete. give yourself a pat on the back if you do exactly 2 trades by eod, never mind the p/l don't even bother to look at it. it is of great help if you have a trade buddy to remind you all of this, believe me it sound simple but hard to implement if you are only one know about it. ps. a trade buddy could be your clone including health problem but he just turn around corner by using various methods including what mention above
I only became successful at trading the 30 year bond futures when I discovered and followed these rules: 1) Find and only trade the trading time sweet spot. For bonds this is from 0600 to 1200 hrs, and to be honest, usually is only from 0730 to 1100 hrs. 2) Three strikes and you are out for the day. 3) Three profitable trades in a row and you are out for the day. 4) Examine your past trades for the minimum ticks (points) you are good for. For me, historically I'm good for 4 - 6 ticks in the bonds, consistently. I take profits at each level and let one lot ride with a breakeven stop. 5) Never let a profit turn into a loss. Bottom line, if price moves in your favor for the amount of minimum movement that you are historically good for, never let price come back to your entry. The S&P seems to do this all of the time, but maybe you can modify this rule. 6) Learn to manage your stress. Study deep breathing techniques. There are a ton out there, just pick one and do it consistently. I lean towards the Asian martial arts, but any technique that produces deep relaxation will do. In particular, I'm in the process of picking up autogenics again, and I've found this link and step by step free program to be extremely helpful: http://www.guidetopsychology.com/autogen.htm Trust me, you'll sleep like a baby with the first exercise, although that is not what you want to do. Finally, don't become desparate. You can do this. You may need to take a break for a while and get your ducks lined up prior to tackling this in the future. Don't give up the dream, but be realistic. Now may not be the right time.