My trading has come a long way over the last year.. I've gotten to the point where I'm taking trades and not getting emotional over them.. If I lose, I move on and wait for the next opportunity.. in the past I would be done for the day after a loss.. I move my stops up when the market heads in my direction to protect what I have.. and I don't worry anymore about losing out on a bigger trade. I've adopted the motto to protect capitol above all else.. This is easy to say .. but hard to implement when emotions take over during a trade.. I have two problems to overcome.. With electronic trading I keep taking trades trying to get a quick scalp of a point or so.. and it doesn't always work.. the other is sometimes I'm getting out of trades too early.. example was this morning I got long at 10:20 at 923.25.. Emini.. but after 20 minutes it looked like the market was going to head down so I got out and booked a profit. the market proceeded to head up after that point.. I'm feeling much better about my trading and should soon start showing consistent profits.. Sorry to ramble... just trying to express my sentiments.. I have no one else to talk to about this stuff..
Flashboy, Thank you for sharing your thoughts. If you have survived for 1 year trading the eminis then you are on the right track. There are some real talented people here on ET and they will give you some constructive criticism. The creator's of ET should be proud of their Site. This is the best community on the web IMHO. I look forward to reading your thoughts as you grow. Michael B.
Actually Eletric I've been trading off and on for approximately 4 years now.. When I mentioned the year it is because I feel I have made substantial progress in that time.. I did not mean to come off as that much of a newbie.. And you're right. this is a great site for traders.. I've enjoyed it immensely... Good Luck,
"I have two problems to overcome.. With electronic trading I keep taking trades trying to get a quick scalp of a point or so.. and it doesn't always work.. the other is sometimes I'm getting out of trades too early.. example was this morning I got long at 10:20 at 923.25.. Emini.. but after 20 minutes it looked like the market was going to head down so I got out and booked a profit. the market proceeded to head up after that point =========================================== Got to ask....what hurts or annoys more: Not getting out and taking a bigger loss....or Getting out with a small profit and then watching it run up and miss the big profit?? I think I get more upset about missed runs ups for profits then i do about small losses...psychologically it hurts
You have become emotionally detached from losses.....which is a good thing in my humble opinion. Michael B.
set a profit target in addition to your stop loss if it hits your target you're good if it hits and keeps going, well then obviously what you thought would happen did not happen and you have no business being in the trade beyond your target anyway plus the first few times that the market hits your target and you tried to get greedy and ended up missing the profit altogether will teach you to get out at your targets you can also scale out -- half at your target and let the rest ride -- but that's down the road (for me too) just my .02 but i don't trade futures
You would be a great Futures trader.......come on over where the money and leverage is.....come on you can do it...... Michael B.
Bungrinder, Good advice and yes I do set profit targets.. because I have experienced times where I try to keep riding the trade only to see a good profit turn into a small one.. Its a double edge sword.. sometimes if you ride the trade it will turn out great and other times it turns and takes a good piece of your profit away.. all the nuances of being a trader...
I admit that I cannot discretionarily trade. I am far too emotional for that. I have overcome this problem by keeping a trade log and spreadsheeting my setups. I track the MFE and MAE and develop my stops and targits from the statistical entries on my spreadsheet. I also can review my setup charateristics to see in fact if my timing is correct. If at my entry I notice that the time in the trade is too long....I can easily see how to adjust by my entries in my spreadsheet. Again I can look at the excursions and develop my winrate and avg w/l ratio that I am comfortable with. This technique could be used on any set up. Point being....the targets and stops are entered immediatly after entry. Scaling in and scaling out is another topic too, which can improve results if done correctly. Michael B.