Goal Checklist for Struggling Trader

Discussion in 'Professional Trading' started by SwingOutOn5, Mar 7, 2006.

  1. Hey guys, I've put together a checklist for me because these last few months have been extremely difficult for me (trading and otherwise).

    Let me know what you think about this, and please make suggestions if you have any.
     
  2. oops, i meant to put this in the career trader forum

    can a mod please move this?
     
  3. trade bananas:p
     
  4. Hi Swing,

    Your checklist is result-oriented. I think a better checklist would be "cause"-oriented such as only taking good setup for the next N days regardless of the result, honor the uncle point for the next N days regardless of the result. If your setup really works then there should not be a problem other than that you are not plunging as much during this trying period. But if your setup does not work (we need to find out) even in safe mode, then we might want to stop altogether and do some figuring out before proceeding. If other area of life is giving you stress, definitely get the priority straighten out before proceeding.

    Let me know how your checklist go, I am sure I will need it myself along the way. Thanks.

    Good trading.
     
  5. Keep this in mind, most people overestimate what they can do in a year, and underestimate what can be done in 5 years.
     
  6. Marty good post. Every sucessful person, truely sucessful focuses on taking the correct actions which then lead to positive results. I am working and re-working my trading plan. If my plan is good and I follow it, I will be succesful. Do I have a daily $ target. Sure, but the focus has to be on the correct action at the correct moment, or simply put discipline.
     
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  8. Josh009

    Josh009

    Swing,

    Here's what I do when I'm having a difficult time.
    I cut my size down to 100 shares for an entire week (or longer, if necessary, but not less.)
    I trade between 1k and 4k shares per day.
    My focus shifts from making money to being positive at the end of the day, just make more than I spend in fees.

    In doing this, I can take the emotion out of trading, which is usually what gets in my way. The stress that interferes with trading doesn't have to come from trading itself. For me, it's almost always something else going on in my life.

    This is the strategy i've been using last week and this week. My stress right now is coming from just having moved halfway across the country, leaving my prop office and trading remote, recently married, etc... Since employing my "emergency" strategy, i've been net positive all but 1 day (out of 7, including today).

    I think it's good to have goals, but it seems that your checklist puts constraints on you. If that works for you, great. It might also cause you additional undue stress if you find yourself in a situation where you are not meeting one of your goals. Either way, I hope it works for you.

    Good trading!
     
  9. I agree with the goals being results oriented. In fact, they're intended to be. The way my positions are formed are detailed in the rules referenced in that document. I'll take a closer look, though, and see what I can do to allow for "learning" goals (in essence).

    What I may preventing is getting into some trades because I am scared what it might do to my stats. However, I do have a practice acct that I trade on right along side my real acct. The goals pertain strictly to the real acct.

    Thanks for your replies, guys.
     
  10. hey, good advice, I think. I usually cut my size down, but I don't put myself on a time frame like that. You know, it's funny that I am rarely emotional because of trading, but feeling bad usually makes me trade poorly. I think your plan may help some of that.

    If you notice, the goals have a very loose time frame. Do you think that these are still too stringent?
     
    #10     Mar 8, 2006