btw - If you haven't wrapped your head around Hooti's last post..., take the time and do so It that important to getting - what being a trader is RN
Sorry not enough time to respond in detail right now. Been doing bar by bar review yesterday and today. I was passing on trades I should have been taking. It's pretty clear. I was trading too cautious then jumping on poor PB set ups. I understand why I was doing that. I need to stick with one market , too I think.
So far achieving my goals set out when I started. My trading plan has improved with much more specifics, my overall knowledge of trading and myself has improved considerably and my discipline in certain areas is much, much better. Making a small amount of money too. Not sure how long it takes to become a trader but I'm much closer now than ever before. I would like to end this journal but I have to show more consistency first.
Much better focus and following plan today. I did feel the separation of trader vs plan developer. It was calm, mostly objective trading. Choppy day in CL so negative ticks but doing most things I should be doing. My problems lately stem from filtering trades to avoid. The airspace concept. Last week I was passing on too many trades then when it looked clear entering near end of trends. Usually I'm pretty good about boxing areas and avoiding the right areas. In review this weekend I see I could have been taking trades I was passing on and that I used to take. My airspace definitions have not been clearly enough defined but it hadn't been a problem in the past. Now that I'm focusing on it and thinking about it it was creating confusion. Probably comes from me trying to only take the best trades. So i'm going back to my few definitions of airspace which worked for me before and continuing to review for improvements after hours.
Likely bias when taking the poor entries. When I should have been entering I was saying Be patient it's not quite right. I suppose like in Hooti's post I was trying to eliminate more risk which doesn't work. The risk is reduced,IMO, by taking the proper set ups in the right context. I was waiting for 'better' context I believe. Then thinking , I was right, I should have taken it, better get in now on this PB. That's old habits popping back up. A lot of good entries occur when one thinks 'this can't work, let's wait a bit." I know better and need to trade like it.
Most spend years losing, then 1-3 years breakeven trader, then 1-? years of the 4.5% that make money but not good enough to get past being too scared to put on size to do 0.5%. Changing your Trading Plan will be a forever part of you life, we always test before changing, otherwise you can be making it worse.
Very funny day, but cause I know the method well, by having my stats of what the system should do and if market is not doing as normally does, I walk away, so after finding the highs and yet only get one tick on original entries, did make good on averaging down entries, I have found from testing it only get worse more than 10% full risk losing trades.
Sounds like you have had a taste of trading well, and you have not forgotten it. You know you can do it. I don't know why Mark Douglas's stuff is making even more sense to me than in the past, but I'm sure grateful for his work.
Thanks for replying, sounds like you are nearly there. It's a great journal with lots of helpful contributions. It also shows your determination and very brave for doing this in a public manner. Really hope you get it nailed soon.