How I stopped making the same mistakes in 2010 and started to make more money

It has been a bit disconcerting to me that many of my clients never kept daily trading journals in their previous lives.

The best traders I ever knew were very clean with their mental approach in terms of the decision-making process. Eliminating repeatable mistakes and self-sabotage goes a very, very long way.

 

TF,

Getting it into your head is the easy part – putting it to consistent action takes longer

Remember Rhome was not built in a day – neither will TF the bullet proof trader – but you are on the right path Ma’am


Like everyone has said – you want to talk cool – you don’t cool

I understand the – we all trade different / have different personalities thing, but as you gain competence (which you definitely are) don’t be surprised if you find we’ve all landed at about the same point…

Agreed we may not do it “exactly” alike, but the differences are small – after all to make money we must be on the right side of price at some point – no?


And like NOD said – you could put all the day traders together – and it would not amount to a spec on a flies butt


Anyway Ma’am keep on keepin on

RN

 

You can’t take money out of the Markey every day. There will be lots of days where you follow your rules and end up with a negative P$L.

What is important is that you stayed with your plan. On the days you win you make more money than on the days you lose. That seems to be happening with you. Don’t let one day or even a week get you upset.

You have to look at it as one day out of many. If your winning days make more money than your losing days, which yours seem to do, then long run you will be a successful trader.

Follow the plan man!!!

 

Oh yes, those last couple of cents before my target are the hardest. I usually don't even try to get it anymore, as soon as price stalls near my target I'm out. Though today I was trying to get 2c more from EK and ended up getting out at b/e…

 

Thanks bone. I’m still working on my self-sabotage issue, I think I'm getting better, at least I'm aware of it. Seems like this is not something I can fix overnight.

 

RN, you hit it right there - I WANT Rhome to be build in one day at this point. You see I've been trading since 2003. And though I haven't had a losing year (several break even a the beginning) I never made more than 40K a year (also unfortunately I didn't trade during 08-09 high volatility years). This hurts. Because this is my only "income" and I try so hard and … well, nothing. This is where frustration comes from. However passion is what drives me. Rinse and repeat, I'm going to keep on going...

 

I agree with you deaddog. It's not the losses that upset me but inability to make more money and move to a new level.

 

Day 16

While I'm dealing with "making more money" issue I've been very good at not making the same mistakes. Was trading well today, followed my rules.


+130

 

Win some lose some.

I look at it that if I'm close to the target I want to have a tight stop.

My reasoning is that I don't want to risk any more that 1 to 1 to get that last 2 cents.

When I look at my stats the 3 to 1 reward to risk ratio I base my plan on , turns out to be more of a 1.6 to 1.

My plan call for me to move my stop at certain levels. The final level is a trailing stop that will allow the price to get through the target if it wants to run but also protects me to the down side.

 

Day 17

More of the same, trading according to my rules, with very small size.

Have a great weekend everyone.

+115