Tell me if this sounds familiar. You watch the morning session, just missing good quality setups or pulling the trigger two seconds to late. Then around 12:00 you look back and have one or two good trades and about five or six in your mind that would have been nice sold trades. So then in the dead zone you are frustrated and started trading the stuff you know you should not. And of course, you take a few small hits because the setups are not nearly as good as the morning session. You tell yourself " I should be up at lest a point or more". And now you have all weekend to think about the five or six layups you should have taken. Any of you guys been there before? If so how did you breakout of the " Damm I know that was I good trade" situation? Any thoughts or personal stories welcome. White
I know exactly what you are saying. I'm having the same problem. I am seeing things right but not moving on them. Then watch my IF account have great winners . I also need to get out of this funk. Then I to force trades which I know are not right. I go over my charts and could kick myself right in the arse:eek:
white - your post could be mine - exactly the problem (and the solution) is pretty simple - you got to adapt to the market - you can't adapt the market to you. if you (i) lost one good trade - it is lost - let's forget it. one just can sit there and wait for the next opportunity - according to the trading plan. this next good trade might come in an hour - or the next day - or the next week - who knows. you cannot force the market - you cannot force a trade - just as you cannot force the sun or the rain. you just can sit and wait - and do the right thing in the right moment. it's so simple - yet so hard. i think that one of the major abilities of a good trader is to sit and wait and do nothing - if it is time to sit and wait and do nothing. good luck
I am having the very same problem. I have not put on a trade in 2 weeks. My problem is severe. The problem with me is a lack of confidence in the setups. I subscribe to two chatrooms, both highly rated. Jay calls BRCM Short at 9:41, at 45.40, I sit there with my cold, sweaty hands, finger hovering over the mouse, pointer on the SHORT KEY, and I could not press. Over the next 5 minutes BRCM falls by $1.00, yes one whole dollar! I scream at myself dumb f***, I pound on my leg, well you get the picture. It's not a pretty sight. I think part of my problem is I am too nervous when it comes time to fill in the order on my level II screen. Deciding which route, how many shares and picking the right price. I have just programmed my Realtick hotkeys, and practiced using them in demo mode. This afternoon I made 4 scalps with a profit of $300, after commissions. Three of trades I called myself, blind to the noodles since my demo version doesn't provide futures, and one from Jay. So I am getting better at reading the charts and I have removed much of the anxiety associated with the order entry process. It makes a big difference, its like I can't believe I have been trading without them for three months. I guess this is all part of the learning curve. UT has now added graphics capabilities to his chatroom, probably because one of students has started a competing chatroom, using Jays techniques. The new room is Level5, and between the graphics and voice capabilities, the learning curve of these rather complex trading methods is greatly shortened. I mean when these guys talk about noodles, coils, PUPS and mini pups it is like learning a foreign language. A picture is worth a thousand words and they are using pictures finally. Level5 started this and frankly I believe UT implemented this new technology to remain competitive. It takes tremendous courage to trade these Nas stocks. I remain confident that I will ultimately get over this case of anxiety that is plaguing me and preventing me from using my index finger! Good luck to everyone in getting over this nasty hurdle. We all need to break through that wall of mental resistance that is keeping us from attaining our goals. --arky
mcaf was on my list of stocks to short on the 01/17/02 but my entry did not get triggered so i moved on to another stock that gave me 3 points . when i came back to see what had happened to MCAF it had dropped 10 points . it was a painfull experience but then my plan wasn't triggered. so i did not miss a trade
Waiting for the perfect setup, pulling the trigger to late,some trades look to easy "why does not everyone see this", etc.......
trades are like subway trains, if you miss this one, another one will come along soon enough. The fact is any one trade is pretty much a coin toss, so it's foolish to beat yourself up because the one you missed went to a profit. It could as easily have blown up. However, it's interesting how often the one we missed or passed up turns out to be the monster trade that would have made our week.