You'd "like to become a better trader". Who wouldn't? 1. Be more observant of setups. 2. Be more disciplined about taking proper risk. 3. Be more disciplined about stopping losses. 4. Learn new things which correlate to market behavior. That's all there is. (As my old bowling coach used to say... (wasn't really my bowling coach, but liked to claim such.. I was a star and he wanted to glom onto my success and claim some credit for what I did... anyway)... "the mind is the Devil's weapon". IOW.. either (1) you're weakly disciplined about what you "know", or (2) you don't know enough yet. Both have a remedy.
OMG, another blogger is telling me that having a journal is bad. care to elaborate why? what kind of harm are we talking about here? Some examples please, besides the expected insults (and I don't mean your post btw) I'm planning to post daily summary anyway.
tip: Don't trade the ES unless you have $100,000 more cash in your brokerage account. ES is for institutions cause it can scale large size...ES is mostly for daytrading and trading. trading spy is same as ES,
thanks for your theoretical lesson, but this is exactly what I stated in my opening statement. I don't need more theory, I need practice and accountability, that's the reason for the journal. if you have any particular suggestions, do post them.
My post was not a "theoretical lesson"... Much of a trader's failure is because... 1. He wasn't paying close enough attention... didn't "see" the setup, for whatever reason.... maybe was focused upon some other market or security.. maybe was watching porn?? Maybe thinking about "A", when he should have been thinking about "B". 2. Didn't "know the trade setup when he saw it"... something new to learn 3. Didn't "take the trade and its appropriate risk", for whatever reason. Didn't have the discipline to fade/chase as required. If you can't make money based upon what you know/think, then either your understanding is flawed or you're poorly disciplined. Over time, you learn "new things"... new reasons to make strategic plays. I believe the single biggest weakness which leads to traders failing... lack of discipline.
+1, if you have enuf for daytrading trade stocks, You can control your size, lossess and therefore emotions. ES specially on a day like today will get you killed and you will loose confidence after a few bad trades. I hope you have a big a/c and willing to loose during this journey. Most of your symptoms are very basic and seen in starters. I hope you know wht you are doing.
If I were trying to do what you are doing, I would be afraid that I would not be able to maintain the concentration and focus I find necessary for my own trading if I were concerned with also generating a running post history of my every move. But that is me. I don't think having a journal, whether public or private, is bad at all - quite the contrary, in fact. But my view is that the journal should be part of your daily routine like checking your charts at night, checking your equity run, going over your open overnight positions,etc. and so on. As for myself, I find it better to focus on my trading when I am trading, and give my attention to everything else after I am done for the day. But that is me. Good Luck, d-day