In units of NQ points Acct 1: +4.75, +1.75, +17.50, -6.75(no stop there) Acct2: +7.75, -15.25 (ouch! no stop there! hoping it will come back down), +3.5, +0.75(on the long side. haha) was doing so well until the reversal came. And held too long. The one time I decide not to put stops is when I get screwed. When I shorted for the 3rd time in a row, I had a sense that this might not come back down. Should have put tight stops.
According to one way of looking at it (and it's the perspective I subscribe to, myself, to be honest) that's actually lucky - though doubtless it doesn't feel so at the time. The point is that the alternative (i.e. of sometimes not using stop-losses and getting away with it) is actually much worse, because it inculcates a very dangerous habit which will eventually lead to a really Major Disaster - and often the more you get away with it before encountering the disaster, the worse it tends to be when it flattens you. Your way is better, because one learns more quickly and (overall) less expensively.
The pro way is to put in the stop before you put in the entry order. In the extremely rare case your stop is hit before your entry order comes, you'll be grateful for the position the other way. Additionally, you KNOW you'l have a stop order in there the second you are filled.
Yes, I totally agreed with your perspective. This is how I got into this mess in the first place! LOL. There were times when I faced harrowing losses then it came all the way back. Because I was "saved" by the market gods a few times that I created this bad habits of not putting stops. Then when it doesn't come back i get totally destroyed. While I didn't get totally destroyed today, you noticed on 2nd trade of Acct 2 I did NOT use stops thus losing 2x my gains. Bad Risk/Reward ratio. On Acct2, I gained +7.75 pts so I should put my stop loss at half of that to get 2:1. On Acct1, it's slightly better I loss -6.75 pts b/c I made 17.50. Good risk/reward ratio. But even then I should have gotten out way before -6.75 because my chart pattern told me I was WRONG. I knew I was wrong from technical patterns yet I refused to get out. As soon as you know you are wrong then get out! I was waiting and holding and hoping for it to go back down. Slowly fixing the errors of my way...
I stopped trading after my latest post. I have other stuff I need to attend to. Then I just checked back in. Wow. Nice a little rally. I'm glad I wasn't at the screen trading, because I might have fallen back into my old short bias habits and try to short this rally and lose more money rather stayed out of it and be positive for the day(on Acct1 nicely positive and only slightly negative on Acct2). Until I can fix my short bias on the indices, it's probably better to stay out. I hope to fix that bias soon and join in on the rally. That would be the day I can play both sides of the market easily. Then I can make it rain.
Did 4 longs and 1 short trade today on NQ! Woohoo! It wasn't much points or dollarwise! Just good that I'm slowly overcoming and getting rid of my short bias. Fixing the bad psychology. Areas for future improvements: 1) I went long right off the back because the 5min chart was up. But I could have improvez my timing a bit more and buy on the local pullback. 2) I bought the low print of the local timeframe but I got out seconds rather than holding longer. Those are the two areas I need to work on. Keep pushing and changing my biases and constant improvement. Kaizen! P.S. I did 3 additional short trades when I should have. Closed out nicely. The point being is I went long when my methodology told me I should and I went short when it told me I should. I'm trying to instill good habits. The money will come.. One small regret I got out a CL short sooner than my target price. As soon as I got out it hit my price target. Patience.. P.S.S. NG announcements at 7:30AM PST used to be my nemesis. At least a few weeks ago it was. It wiped out all the gains I had that day and some. Today after the announcement, I shorted! Then cover when it began to bounce. This is the behavior I never did in the past. If needed I would have gone long.
Spoke too soon. While my first few trades of the day were correct and with direction, it's the one trade I didn't put stops on and hoping wiped out my today's again. Why is it so hard to change? Of course, as soon as I covered it tanked...
Losses are unavoidable and there is no way of knowing when they will occur or how many in succession. Until you can accept that and abide by rules of trade management, you can't trade.
That is the cruz of the problem. I was batting 1000 basically. Then on that last short, I didn't want to be wrong and didn't put stops in. Got wiped out. But I reshorted. on Acct1 I made back ALL of the losses and some. Net positive for the day. But it's still a horrible trade management. I should have cut losses relong then reshort. Still gotta fix that problem. On Acct2, I recovered some lost grounds but still net negative for the day. The problem is even if my chart analysis is correct and it will go to that eventual level which 9 out of 10 times it does, I can't stand the heat. So the safest solution is to get out when you are slightly wrong(or early in this case) rather than at uncle point when everyone gets out. Because when I get out at the uncle point it's the worst possible hit. Then of course after that it reverses and go the original direction. Regardless, it's MUCH MUCH safer and better trade management to get out when I'm slightly wrong regardless what the long-term chart analysis might say. Because that 1 out of 10 when the long term analysis is wrong then I get wiped out. I'm a short term intraday swing trader. Don't like other signals from higher time frame confuse me. More fundamentally, I should accept loses as part of trading process.. So keep those losses small.
Sounds like you don't have a defined trade plan. You have to know where your stops and targets or trailing strategy is before you take a trade. They have to be set within the time frame(s) you are trading...there will always be time frame conflict so you have to choose which are relevant to your plan. A well defined trade plan won't necessarily solve your psychological issues but it will give you precise decision points which you can adhere to and succeed or violate, and then it's just a matter of time before you crash. Of course, the plan has to be tested for positive expectancy prior to launch.