Hi, I've reached the point where I'm making steady small profits, with some larger profits thrown in. In the 1-3k range per day. However, due to a lot of extraneous factors, I get worn out and am often trading in an exhausted state-and so also have disproportionately large losses too where I trade badly. I'd like to force myself to stick to a set routine to improve my health (I believe that fitness helps me trade well, I run hills mainly) and trading performance. I'm leery of posting too much here, but would be appreciative of a longer time poster who'd be willing to receive a simple spreadsheet that's focused on discipline once a week to keep me honest. If people have any further advice on improving my self discipline to a higher level, please post it.
I'm adding a chart to this, I deleted the values, it shows a typical scenario for me-a few large losses when tired (although typically these come later in the session) plus a long string of profits. I have many such days, and am trying to re-work my schedule to ensure I have full focus, can stop these mini disasters, and just steadily accumulate profits.
Hi, The fact that you've posted this in the psychology section along with mentioning fitness, health and such...seems like you need a fitness coach, stress management coach and possibly a psychologist. I would explore the above first because a trading buddy won't help you resolve the issue of you trading when exhausted via trying to encourage you to trade well while exhausted. Simply, you need to fix the problem of being tired. However, if you're already taken measure to fix the issue of being tired and you still feel you need a trading buddy...get someone for in person and not an online buddy. I say the above from experience because I've been in that same situation as you are right now. Most of my problems were fixed when I got a fitness coach and a psychologist to help me better deal with particular stresses in my life. You should post another message post in ET 'Hook Up' thread where you post your country and city location to find an in person trading buddy assuming you're already taken steps to fix the tire/exhaustion issue in your personal life. Mark
Glad you posted equity curve as many don't understand the importance of it as an indicator, many just see the profits, whereas the profits is the least of my interest. I have my equity curve printed out & taped to my PC each day, and when drawdown comes into play, I trade as if the equity curve was a Price chart, and I draw trendlines on it that will tell me when to increase size and when to decrease when my trading become overbought as I do use indicators under it. I have learned early on that huge violent drawdowns were taking "iffy" trades as a result of an emotion reason of a couple losses. I always work now on ways to reduce lossing percentages than making huge profits and having a smoother equity curve, this allows me to average down, cause if I am seldom losing, the account has to be going up. Seeking huge profits often equates to a more wild equity curve in my way of trading.
there are roughly 3 trend days a month ,the other 17-18 days the market is dead from 11-12 30 cst,try walking away so you are trading a couple of short sessions on the non trend days,take a walk,do a chore you enjoy,something outdoors
Have your trading rules in front of you and if you have two losing trades as a result of violating rules, take a break and get some physical activity. Also, if you miss a large move for any reason, recite your trading rules out loud to avoid revenge trading to try and get back what you missed.
Have you done even the most basic stats analysis... And I'm talking high school or 1st semester Freshman type stats... To determine if your results are meaningful within certain Confidence intervals?
This is spot on, thanks. I've been going through a slack period with my trail running and other workouts, and getting too little sleep. I will push myself again much harder on my solitary runs-up to 3-4 hours on the weekend one, and get a trainer for the gym (twice a week), and a training buddy for the 90 minutes stairs repeats (once a week). The other aspect is sleep, as you say. For me, the US session is my night time. I can generate enough profits by 12pm ET, as well as after-hours trading, so must force myself to stop at midnight-I have been surviving on 2-4 hours sleep 5 nights a week, and it's really impacted my consistency. also, thanks to DeeDeeTwo, NoDoji, Handle123, ammo for your posts and comments: NoDoji-I will tape my rules on the wall and repeat them aloud-although I do trade well when angry at losing-not revenge as such, more heightened attention and relief that feeling tired and suffering is over and I can resume making money. I'd prefer to trade consistently though. ammo-yes, I'm making a schedule that ensures I get some nice moving time slots, but lets me get away from the screen completely for a while each day Handle123-yep, the large losses are key-last week on large losses I lost 3* what my eventual profit was for the week, and it wasn't a bad profit. But the large losses come from being tired and careless. I wasn't having them before.
At some point I start decreasing size. Backtesting ten years, I know how many profitable trades in a row have existed, and based on equity curve and an indicator on this curve, I will start backing off at some point. But this works for me.