thanks for the comments. i'll post again w/ more details. I do agree its an issue of discipline. also greed. let me clarify my thoughts some more. I DON'T want 2008 to be an year of make, lose, make, lose. and yes, there is an underlying strat. that requires a LOT of time. so i'm not trading by throwing darts. Grazie mille
cable, thanks a lot for your post and the attached Innerworth article. I'm hoping it'll help with my seemingly uncontrollable compulsion to take impulsive trades and give away precious capital. thotspeed
I swing trade, so it's easier for me to deal with this issue... I generally scale in and scale out..I will peel off a profit most of the time around 50-100% of margin and leave the rest on, assuming everything still looks viable... When swing trading, it's rare that there isn't a market to trade out there somewhere.... As far as daytrading, which I don't do so take my advice as mere common sense input and not expert info, just remind yourself that you are focusing on what you do on a monthly basis, focus on the average daily output vs worrying about each specific day. if you focus on your monthly output, it may be easier to get past a day with no trades. In reality, all of this will still leave a tough situation. Just do your damndest to be disciplined about it. Bite your hand or something, but just remember the pain of giving back the money. Hell, make it a practice to pull 50% of each profit out of the account, that way you CAN'T give it back... Maybe, after each day, pull 25-50% or whatever and transfer it to another account until you "earn the right" to trade it....then you can transfer it back in and trade with the extra capital. None of these are surefire ways to resolve the problem..but I hope it helps a little.
when its about the money its sad but this is what happens. the way it will always be, so find something your passionate about and make money that way. trading isn't it. mb
Your solution is a simple one. Ascertain the high water mark where you begin to give back your winnings. Next time you are near the mark, take out all the profits and leave only your initial account. Rinse and repeat.
You're welcome, I hope it helps. Exploiting natural human frailties such as impulse, greed, and fear is big business, retailers spend billions of dollars devising cunning ways to induce us to spend our cash! Psychologically I think trading is one of the hardest things to do, quitting smoking was easier!
Sounds like the OP is a little too passionate! But isn't it all about the money? I enjoy trading but without the cash incentive I wouldn't trade. Why do you trade if not for the money?
first, off let me say that i offer free systems to create a virtual trading room so my agenda is known but i think you can beenfit form my comments i was very much like you. i traded professionally at an investment dealer and when i was on i was a star but then when the things did not go well the emotion of losing would lead to : trading against trend, selling short sky rocketing stocks buying water falls holding on to losers well past exit points doubling, tripling down. hoping for reversals. the best traders in the world are robots. they have a systematic process that is very much more complex than any box will be. However, the issue i faced as well as you is emotional decision making. the systematic approach is not the quickest way to profit but if it helps you keep from killing yourself then that is your answer.
i dont trade for the money - i trade to finance research. if you funded me to do research i could care less about trading. thats why i avoid trading at all cost and hired people to do it via broker arrangements and now electronically - found that was flawed and had to spend big bucks to re-create everything from data farm to on server order que you name it. auto everything including redundancy and viral spiders that can sent out to leach onto unsecured networks and host itself "if it has to to survive" so it can continue to get my trades off at any cost - no matter if my networks are up or not. i can monitor everything via handheld sat phone from anywhere not underwater. survivalist paranoid trader here.
Ah right, trading (for the money) to finance research 'survivalist paranoid trader here' - lol, but it sounds like a very robust system, my backup is positively deficient by comparison, a cellphone and an IR connection to a laptop, not exactly cutting edge!