Figured I'd post when I'm mad. Well I'm mad. Trading SP today and hit a 21 pt. winner this morning. A short while later a friend called and wanted to know what the market was doing. While I was yacking it up, I got another signal to buy at 787. I thought I would have plenty of time to enter the trade and missed a 13 pt. winner. I was so mad at missing the opportunity, I tried to trade against the trend and had a 2.8 pt. loser. It's not the losses that make me mad, it's missing the opportunities that REALLY burns me up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think I'll go hit a couple buckets of golf balls....
Know how you feel. Distractions are a killer. I definitely trade better when the house is empty, the summer was annoying. The rest of the world prays for summer ,I dread it. I no longer discuss the market with anyone during mkt hours. Not only did it distract me ,but occasionally bias me,and definitely frustrate me if the person says "wasn't that a big move today ?",and I didn't catch it. Don't sweat it you still did well today. An 18 point day really helps the account balance. By tomorrow you will just remember the 18 points Why do you trade the big contract instead of the mini's? I love the instant fills and never the possibility of an out trade with the mini's. But I guess if you trade large size the commissions are cheaper with the big contract.
Hi monee, wacked the little white ball and feel better. I trade the SP for two reasons. 1). You can enter MOC orders --can't do this with Emini's 2). My trading style has factored in a delay between when I get a signal and when it is executed. (My entries are almost always Market Orders). Just about everytime I've tried the Emini, I had bad fills as compared to the SP. The exception has been when the pit has fast market conditions. Then I use the Emini's because the fills are better. Eventually I'll have to convert to the Emini, but for now this works best for me.
You have to know you can win. You have to think you can win. You feel you can win. _______________ Sugar Ray Leonard
I used to play a lot of competitive chess, eventually reaching the master level. I have won quite a few tournaments and also lost many many games along the way. I then played poker professionally in both Vegas and Atlantic City for about a year. Obviously a lot of money was won and lost. I find that the emotions I experience now with investing and the emotions I experienced then as I was climbing the chess ratings ladder (or playing poker) are very similar. A. Losses are the worst thing in the world. I don't care what anyone says about not taking it personally. I take them very personally. B. When I lose I make a committment to myself to do two things: 1. identify the mistake that caused the loss (there is no such thing as luck in either chess, poker, or investing) 2. do not make that mistake again C. Never make a decision because you are angry at either your opponent or yourself. (The opponent in investing being a stock that did not go the direction you wanted it to so maybe you double down out of anger). D. I now have an overwhelmiing fear of loss. 1. In chess that means protect all your pieces at all times, focus on the center, only attack when you have an advantage. 2. In poker that means don't bluff. Enough amateurs are bluffing for you who have no idea that you don't bluff so you should win a lot of money off of them. 3. And in investing: a. keep position sizes small b. attempt to hedge c. if not hedging, dont go long companies that have debt and/or lose money.
AA - then i guess you wouldn't care that i DO NOT take them personally. care very very little indeed about them. BB - not every loss is due to a "mistake". then again, you and i, if i remember correctly from reading your posts, trade very differently. i am a daytrader, you take a long term approach using fundamentals.
Interesting post. Thank you. I've found that profitable trading is like bricklaying... You figure out what works and do it over and over and over again ad nauseum. D'nish in the movie Rounders (the guy with the kids and mortgage) made a living grinding out small pots -- not taking big risks. Did you find this to be the path to long term profitability in poker? A parallel in chess might be to stick to a handful of openings and learn them inside out and try to grind out as many wins as possible without getting fancy.
AAA. I definitely don't take your opinions personally. Everyone is different. BBB. I should have clarified the statement on mistakes a little more. Although every loss is caused by a mistake and you should attempt to not make those mistakes again there's no way to guarantee that. For instance, lets say you daytrade AOL and then during the day news comes out about another SEC investigation. There was no way to really know that although the "mistake" in the loss might have been in position size given that you knew there was significant headline risk in an AOL position. My positions are currently divided into three categories: A. long term fundamantal which I've described in prior posts B. long term hedged (long EDS-I, short EDS) to take advantage of unusual volatility but stay market neutral C. daytrade indices based on extreme tick or VIX readings. So I do daytrade a little. Mistakes in that category include: a. position size mistakes b. holding too long c. averaging down inappropriately.