Yesterday I had a good day,came in aqggressive today, got slapped around. Wow what a difference a day makes. Anybody else find today tough? My discipline was weak today, should have not traded so much. I was down in the morning and over traded to try making it back......anyone else ever do the same if you have a bad morning? Looking forward to tomorrow to make it back.
after a series of trades that gets you in a hole, thats when the real damage can take place because its easy to start thinking about whacking it out to make it back real quick instead of waiting for the right signals. Nothing wrong with getting aggressive, but the market is give and take. Trading is like golfing in that no matter what you do, some days your 300 yd. drives find the sprinkler heads which bounce o.b.
Same thing happened to me today, except I followed my rule to STOP after the 3 rd trade if I am down by either 3 points or more or a certain dollar amount. If I can't resist trading I switch to simulation mode. I have had too many days where I just keep whacking away at that golf ball digging it deeper into the sand pit. You would think if you have a method and follow it, no matter what, as long as the signals are there, that would be the right thing to do. But money management seems to sugges to simply stop if after a certain point you are negative by some benchmark for the day. I find that very frustrating but it IS saving me money. - rcm
Hi daytraderpete, Losing days happen, it's part of the business. It's important to accept that fact. Next time you start out on the wrong foot, realize that this can possibly be one of those losing days. Keep the discipline, take your trades, know when to sit on your hands, know when to lay it on, and know when to take your profits and your losses. Your first line said it all..."yesterday I had a good day, came in aggressive today".....you had a different mindset...your brain has to be consistent. Then you stated that, your discipline was weak today and that you shouldn't have traded much. Well, you know the whole story. You know where you went wrong. It's important to know where the error was. Tomorrow you should look forward to sticking with your discipline and having the proper market perspective. There is a "right" way and a "wrong" way to lose money. If you have a losing day tomorrow...do it the "right" way. You realize exactly where you went wrong. You don't need us to tell you. Just work on correcting the error and you will be all set. As long as you're learning and realizing things...you're growing as a trader. That's what it all about. Whenever I have a BIG losing day, I can guarantee that I overtraded, averaged positions, my positions were larger than they should have been, didn't take losses when I should have, and I tried to go for the gold with the profits. It happens to everyone. Then when the bell rings at the close..I feel like I was drunk. I'm like...why the heck did I trade like that? Well, I use that as a wake up call to get back on track. I think we need that to happen every now and then. It enforces how important it is to honor our discipline and to have the proper market perspective. The professional takes a step back to correct the behavior...the amateur takes a step forward and keeps on fighting. Wish you the best, gotta_trade
Nice job FAST,........ I thought today was a hard day to read, however................ looking back at todays charts, I can see my problem was lack of patience to let my set- ups unfold..... must have left my discipline on the subway this morning
Whenever I have a BIG losing day, I can guarantee that I overtraded, averaged positions, my position were larger than they should have been, didn't take losses when I should have, and I tried to go for the gold with the profits" Your quote is exactly what I did (except averaged). Thanks for the advice and encouragemnent, thats what I needede and why I wrote the post PETE
Very true Gotta Trade. I felt like an idiot today. Yesterday was my bad day so I wanted to make it up today. I stared at the monitors too much, (don't think I missed a single 1m bar form), made bad set ups look good, didn't take the good ones because I just had a bad one, and at the end of the day, looked back and realized there were only about 3 set ups for me, clear as day, and they were the ones I skipped. Trading is so much like golf. This is my first summer as a daytrader. The past week or so has seemed like one long mid-day doldrum to me. Or is it just me ? Maybe I should start smoking before I trade. Not cigarettes. just kidding.
I think you have to look at the bigger picture and the trends become very clear. I use the 10/5/1 min. charts to trade. I enter on the 1 min. in the direction of the 5 & 10 min. -FastTrader