struggling traders out there, you are struggling because: YOU DON'T HAVE AN EDGE. Your win loss ratio sucks, or your risk/reward ratio sucks, or both, plus you get eaten up by fees. It is possible to be successful for a time period without having an edge. But markets change every day, every month, every year, etc. Eventually your subconscious mind wins over your conscious mind because you are lying to yourself. You now have psychological trading issues. This is because you are lying to yourself saying "I have an edge." But your subconscious mind is right, don't try to stop overtrading, or start using stops, or start taking profit off the table, or blah blah blah trading maxims. STOP TRADING AND DEVELOP or REDEFINE an Edge. It takes work. It takes intense hours of research.... start simple. Write something down. Read it every day. Redefine it everyday. It's like the edge of a knife, you have to keep it sharp. Your psychological trade issues will dissappear when you really have an edge, because your subconscious mind will beleive it.
To be successful do this: Say "I WILL be successful" 100 times or more per day Say it in your head, to your friends and family. Say it when you feel down. Say it when you feel up. Everyone says: "I WANT to be successful" but this there are millions of things that come through our head, that are desires, that we want. The problem with this is that they aren't prepared to DO. When you say "I will" you are committing yourself. It's not that you are predicting. The word will can be used like this: "XYZ will close above 24 today" this is predictive but if you say: "I will call you later" This is a commitment. So when you say: "I will be successful", you are making a commitment to yourself. But more importantly, if you understand look at what this sentence means, you will find that man proposes, God disposes. "I" thats you "will" this is your will, it's what you want "be" this is a state of being "successful" this is the state of being you want Wanting and willing are only different in their intensity. This works best in connection with being humble. break down stuff you say more often like this, and can learn to use the power of words, which are used to express and influence the subconscious mind. Also good to say "I will be patient", "I will be kind", "I will be disciplined", etc. This works. You want change, this brings about change.
Traded just over 70 r/t's today... but it was a very good day. I traded 1 and 2 lots after having a dismal week last week with 2 losing days and 3 winning. I actually don't get 70 signals, but once I get into a trade, I take partials and rebuy lower, playing off the range and stuff, so it adds up, but my basis never moves, so it either keeps adding profit, or I stop out and wait for another signal to trade off of. Today was really good before lunch, had about 35 r/t winners and 3 losers. After lunch I got whipped twice, and once my internet went out and only my emergency stop saved me! market moved fast, I was only out for maybe 2 min. By the close tho, I faired much better. I know a lot of people don't like to scalp, but a scalper can take points not just ticks... by using a trailing stop... also, a scalper enters with low risk. I usually enter thinking I'm going to get 2 points and then trail the rest, but it doesn't always work out that way.. You can also learn much faster by scalping. In the end tho, it only matters if your green. And this only depends on 2 things: win loss ratio and risk reward ratio. Other factors like trailing stops, and getting spooked and exiting before it hits target or stop will affect it as well. I try to use a 1 to 5 risk reward ratio for first target, then trail the rest... sometimes it doesn't work out like that, but my high win loss ratio does the trick. Anyway, don't be a sucker and try to learn by using 3 point stops... scalping is the fastest way to trade and thus the fastest way to learn... after a whole day of scalping, you have enough data to evaluate, change, adapt, etc... It can take months if you look for 1 or 2 trades a day to get the same data for evaluation... But of course, if evaluation, change, study, and adaptation do not happen, the scalper will lose more in the same period due to commissions. However, as a learning tool, it is the best. It can accelerate your trading abilities. It's the opposite of surfing. In surfing, you start with a big fat ass longboard, and then graduate to smaller boards... in trading (aside from l2 or innefficiency arb), where you are reading price action and using technical analysis, the intraday chart is your best friend.... if you are afraid to embrace taking 1-3 ES points with a 2-3 tick stop, don't be. Just be willing to put in the work. You have to put it in anyway. If you put in the hard work, you can be an expert in technical analysis and price action in 3 months. The only reason people fail to do this, and I have fallen in this category b4, is that they fail to put in the hard work, or they don't have enough data (they are not scalping) Sometimes, you can get by for months or years, being net positive, but not hugely, and not fully understanding why. I have done this... this comes from doing some work and developing an edge but it is not sharp, you don't fully understand it... then gradually, it dulls, and u just start losing.... this happens when u don't put in the work.
Lundy, I think your scalping is is a bit quicker than what I look for. Today was not good for me. I didn't adjust to the trading range and kept getting whipsawed. I use a volume indicator for trend identification and it failed unuaually bad today. Wally