When I began trading in February I immediately found myself getting plugged in to the five basic emotions: fear, shame, sadness, anger, and happiness to the point where my decision making became emotionally dependent. As I would observe events taking place my behaviors became increasingly irrational and I would end up saying something like: "why did I ever do that?". I am now coping by making really small trades and using reasonable stops that don't trigger me emotionally. This has allowed my emotional reactivity to decrease to the point where my judgment is not negatively impaired. This in spite of the fact that I still can't trade my way out of a paper bag! I am hoping that experience will eventually result in increased effectiveness. In any case, as I understand it, cognitive theory says that: behaviors lead to thoughts and thoughts lead to feelings. You change the the feelings by modifying the behaviors. Thank you for your post. Jorge
Thank you all for your advice. My short position turn out to be slightly in my favor when market open this morning. I did not buy back my short at market open. After about 5 mins I put a buy stop order 1 ticks above the high and was filled. I am damm lucky that breaking this rule has resulted in smaller losses than when I close my short on friday(will be a bigger losses). But I still kick myself for breaking the rule and promise I will not break it again. Find it pretty silly of me that my system(a brand new system) show profit for the month of Apr/May. But still I break the rule (unintentionally as I really want to close my position on Friday but waited till the last seconds and the market close while I am still in). Anyway I promise and will try to obey the rule for the whole of this year. I must learn to be a Robo Trader from now on. Cause me 2 days of bad sleep over a open position.
One of the things that help me is that on my trading sheets which record entries, P and Ls etc, I have a separate column called "Disciplined Trade" both for entry and for exits. If the entry was exactly as my trading system dictates, I put a Y in the first part of the column. When I exit a trade, and it also is according to my rules of my trading system, I also put a Y next to the other Y. If there r 2 Y's... that means that the trade that I entered into and exited.. was a disciplined trade. I then review the trades where I was disciplined and where I wasnt at the end of the day. Doing this has certainly helped me to be disciplined and to become a better trader.
you are beginning one of the most painful period in your life.. following a system is one of the emotionally painful thing that you will ever experience.. it just sucks.. I have done it for one and half year everyday (I also daytrade) and my life has been nothing but miserable..but I did made lots of money... just make sure you are not depressed or suffering from low esteem.. It can be so bad that you will feel sucidal sometimes.. I am having one of those days..
greeting all today I follow my system and traded accordingly altought my exit (executed by broker costs me quite a bit of slippage today normally I get good filled but today filled was bad) I am glad I follow it and I think it is easier for the broker to pull my plug for me rather than I pull it myself.
Great job. That's day one. Keep it going. Build from there. At some point, you might consider checking out a market and/or broker that is more conducive to your trading style. You want to put yourself on an even playing field with professional traders. Every tool and edge you are using should be top notch. Don't settle for less if you don't have to. Keep it going, gotta_trade
this forum is great, it is like a journal of myself. I will try to post my results everytime I had a trade. It make me think and think again if I violated my own rule. It make me put my trade in writing. I never really had a habit to put in on a journal but I can put it in a forum. It is the same at least it make me think now if I am going against my system.
Since I realized that it is senseless to develop a system without following its rules I follow all my systems and it is pretty easy. If you know that you have a winning system use it and follow it! Losses and winners are part of every system and the result of one single trade doesn't matter, so it doesn't matter whether this trade is a winner or a loser.