I spelled it out before some f*ckers would try to give the PDT nonsense suggestion. Just in case. Thanks for the rest of the good comments.
I was pleasantly surprised by all the helpfull comments by bundlemaker and others. Thanks a million. I am gonna put the writing plan into action and I am sure it will help. I didn't like the idea before because I like to be flexible, but I will try and incorporate that. After I started this thread yesterday, i read the interview with baldwin by schwager again. One of baldwins comments was that many people lose because they aren't patient enough. Exactly the reason for my overtrading.. I realise I have to fix that. regards
Overtrading must be placed in a trading style context... what is overtrading for multi-day swing trading may not be overtrading for intraday swingtrading... what is overtrading for intraday swingtrading may not be overtrading for scalping...
Write a journal: before taking any trade write the reason you are taking that trade, if you see no reason, well ...
I come from a scalping the bid/ask background. I found it doesn't quite work on the esx. It might work for 3 rt's untill one large market order wipes out all ur profits of the previous 3 trades. Now I am trying to stick longer in the position (the plan is not to enter if i don't see about 10 ticks profit potential) instead of going out 1 or 2 ticks on the other side of the bid/ask spread. I am getting very nervous about it though and old habits die hard. I feel like I am at the bottom of the learning curve for the second time in my career! One thing I learned -correctly i hope- untill now is that if a swing trade doesn't go into your direction immediately (ie. you got a lucky fill) it rarely is a good trade.. So go for the market instead for the limit order.
Use a longer term chart.. I get about 9-12 trades on average off a 3 minute chart. If you're trading off something like a 55 tick chart .. then you may truly get 100 valid signals.