Per Mark Douglas in his "Trading in the zone" book, this is purely a psychological issue. Basically the problem is that sticking to your rules goes totally against the idea of trading. Let's think about this for a second: Trading is the only thing in life where you have total control over your decisions and total freedom to do whatever you please.Human mind is generally against rules, which shape our daily behavior, from driving the speed limit, paying bills on time, and doing whatever else we're doing, since 99% of what we do has rules. So it is quite logical to want to get away from rules in trading as it is the only totally free form of expression, where the only true rule is the margin call. So now you're supposed to have freedom - and yet you have to ask yourself to put rules around that very freedom that defines trading??? The only way to find success as a trader is to follow your rules - most people only react to fear - or necessity. If you don't stick to your rules you will fail.The question is not "if" but rather "when" and how much money you'll blow through before you eventually jump out at the next stop. I have the same issues and still working through them - I don't mind taking losses and will happily hit the bid if my exit criteria are met - I don't get out of a looser early - because the trade is still working itself out - I should have the same mindset about exiting my trades when they're profitable but they haven't hit my target.... That's my 2c.
It is not necessarily a "problem." 2 instances means nothing, statistically. For every time you do this, perhaps you took them off and the instrument gave back all the profit before it hit your target. Over time, you would probably find out it means little. Profit wise, it is much MORE of a problem, if you are taking smal profits and/or your targets are small. Because a few big winners might cost much of the profit. Generally, targets are only worthwhile if they are large.
Done for this $12K - just finished at $21,788 in 7.5 trading days.....finally found something to take advantage of my natural inclinations that works.
Most trend followers of note do not do anything remotely; they are in the limelght a lot of the time. So I agree with you, they do not do anything remotely. They do not talk in a way that sounds like speech but conveys no actual meaning. Most all trend followers of note follow the conventional trend following methodologies and they form a network that espouses a rather complete and substantial body of work. It is possible that some alternative trading methods do not overlap much with trend following. Some do. Some possible and broadbased concepts might serve as examples. I chose ones you do not include and ones that I feel are cornerstones. Channels Volume Hypothesis sets Parametric measures. Indicators Deduction Outside bar. You have in your index an entry: innovation and decision making. On pages 184 and 185 you discuss and back up with authorities (Christiansen and McCarver) the topic of the innovator's dilemma. You espouse "reacting" to data. This is profound and conventional wisdom. Others here backup your position with regard to me with terms like convolute, obscure, unbelievable and astonishing. I have found these people to be thoughtful and the kind that stand up for their belief systems. They acquired such as a consequence of putting in time and doing what they decided was the correct thing to do. They, as you are, are where they are as a consequence of a lot of effort. They exhibit, Steenbarger's test characteristics for being trendfollowers, the kind of trendfollowers you identify with: "High consciousness, low neuroticism and low openness" (see last paragraph of page 358). I use Meyers-Briggs and Dosha testing instead. I have an X in an aspect of M-B and I am a triple Dosha. So after 53 years, I have gone the deductive route and produced a one pager for trading stocks. Here is a story about that. I asked Chris at WB to use Blox to test it on a Universe. They couldn't get a universe, but neither could tradenavigator at first (different reasons for each). A substitute was agreed upon. The first pass, the program done by Blox didn't work. They redid the drag and drop for the rules on the one pager and got the same result. By that time the sales manager of WB was leaning into the screens as well. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is defined as insanity, conventionally speaking. The story is the classic sales and marketing third party "authority" story. If you want to sell something, then get an authority to talk to the person to whom you want to make a sale. I wanted a third party verification from a third party for a one pager. WB verified that they had never seen such an annual return and it was totally out of the box for ALL of the Blox programming they had done in the history of WB. The sales manager stuffed my hands with CD's and told me to pass them out to anyone who wanted them. WB wanted people to use Blox to refine their trading approaches. Tradenavigator told us we were wrong about their data and so we had to take a few laps until they agreed with us. I can point out to you that my glossary of 750 words has about no overlap with your glossary. It does not matter to either of us. Obviously the 12 trends I pointed out on yesterday's chart are not your or other trendfollowers of note's cup of tea. On three levels of skills there were either 12, 36, or over 40 trades yesterday. They will show up easily on a WB Blox drag and drop if it is done a few times to get to understanding you always get the same answer and the answer is WAY out of the box for Blox people. It does not look anything like charts E.1 and E.2 of your Appendix E where over four years capital is doubled. That set of charts was obtained from practioners whom you hold up as a standard. People I know who are of note would say that performance was terrific. What do those people say about us? They do compare themselves to us. The basis is live trading using different approaches. They use different brands of autos or different production years to make the comparison stand out. So, in a thread now closed, you were given a gift. The forums associated with that gift, here in ET, got a few hits a year over five plus years. You have completed an evaluation of it and my supportive comments to the OP of this thread. Personnally I wish the OP were showing up here every am before open and then racking up points during our am session. The indicator I enjoy most is watching my buying power in contracts grow during each hour of the day. I am just commenting on your question. It is good for you to recognize that what I do and transfer to others is different and it does not overlap what you do. I spent 6 times the number of years getting to where I am than you did getting to where you are. I did not follow your path for a new York minute even. I got to page 7 of the 4th ed of Magee and started graphing P and V on a brownline of a master for blueprinting in 1957. I traded at a rate of doubling (not compounded) in any quarter of a year as a beginner. No one in your book was investigated by the SEC. I was investigated fairly soon when I got to using limited POA's and the SEC got computerized. They accused me over and over of "insider" trading. The SEC is not an organization that is very ammeanble to suggestions. They probably never will be as shown by their contemporay behavior. WB Blox operators at Expo exhibits had to do Blox over too. The SEC had to rethink their accusations. Why? It was simple, they had never seen what they were looking at before. This is not a problem for you. your basis of determining communication commentary is what it is and will not change. You are in the communication business and you have your ways of operating that are etched into your mind as if acid did the etching. That is, there is now something missing in your mind since it was previously destroyed. Steenbarger can explain it to you. This post will have little value for you. But at least you get to be introduced to six new vocabulary words. And as usual I will have stolen yet another thread from an OP who isn't focused on your current AGM's.
haha I feel like i have an iron will when I read these threads. My advice would be stop yourself before you exit and ask yourself if this is your predetermined exit price? If not, go make yourself a sandwich. You are in control of your every action.