I'm not sure that rewriting your trading plan is going to help much. The errors you're making have nothing to do with your plan. And they're very simple errors. "When I decide to make up for the losses by doing a couple of quick scalps." This is not an unusual error, but it's a discipline issue. Until you're able to stop doing this sort of thing, no plan is going to help you, not even a purely mechanical one, since it's unlikely that you'd be able to follow it. "Instead of stopping here I do one more trade, and I lose 2 points." Just the sort of thing one would hear in Vegas. Again, not an issue of planning but of discipline/psychology. And as for pressure, that's at least partly because you don't have enough money. If a given trade is given the power to break your psychological bank, then too much emotion is invested in it. If the money is terribly important, you shouldn't be trading at all. --Db
Funny that you should mention it - it knew it was the expiration friday, and I went directly for the March contract of BBY, but it never crossed my mind to stay on the sidelines - yet another lesson from "our lady market" . You're right, my emotions do skew my entries/exits much the same way you described it, or even worse. Marking the ideal vs real executions on the chart is great advice, thanks - I'll do it for my past trades.
You nailed it brother, it is totally a discipline issue, and it's deep rooted too. I've always done things my way in life, and had a tendency to ignore the rules. This is my fiercest demon, and I am fully aware that I MUST overcome it if I want to succeed. I thought of a countermeasure: I'll get a timer and set it to go off every 10 min when I trade, and do a quick reality check by writing down what's going on in my mind - that way I can identify and eliminate my negative states before they sabotage me. The pressure didn't come from being afraid to lose money, but from being afraid that a trade can put me below the $2k limit, and that I won't be able to trade till I added more money to my account. Mix in the hurt pride should I not be able to hold this "last line of defense" and you get the picture. It's amazing how it's all psychological.
Same thing in terms of the resultant behavior. You should not be feeling any pressure at all from any source. If you are, then your ego is on the table in some way. I'm not trying to discourage you, but it should be clear from these posts that you are sabotaging yourself. Therefore, reworking the strategy may only be a postponement of what will have to be addressed eventually. I suggest that you make these psychological issues your first priority and worry about the plan later. --Db
db, Thanks for the advice. I rewrote my rules and made a short term plan for trading. Generally I will simtrade NQ and refine the MA XO strategy, and do a daytrade here and there with tight stops (back to PDT ). Once I'm happy with the simtrade results, I will add more money to my account (enough so I don't have to worry about no psychological limits) and trade NQ. On Mon bot 100 of ADRX, after its generic claritin got approved by FDA, at $13.55, on the reaction after the initial rally. Closed at $13.60 so decided to hold overnight. WRONG! The next morning I didn't hear the alarm and by 7:00 am (10:00 EST) the stock was down 0.50, and I didn't have a hard stop in !! Donated -$53 on that one. Ugh. Today I went long HPQ, right after it bounced off the bottom. BOT 100 $16.35, stock went up to $16.60 then it pulled back, and started going lower with mkt - sold at $16.39 (below consolidation at $16.40) for an ironic +$3. Simtrade results were not as great for the past few days with that whole lotta chop. Will test a fixed target MA XO strategy (stop at 6 ticks, target at 8 ticks). Good trading to all.
If you recall, my main strategy for trading EMinis was an MA XO. Works fine in backtesting, but sucks in reality. The reason - it's a lagging indicator, so the actual cross happens only one bar later ... And if you backtest this, it tells you it's a loser ... So I gave up on MA crosses, and I am now testing something simpler: a single MA-price crossing strategy (you go long when a bar closes above the MA, , and you exit when it closes below the MA, and viceversa for short). I needs refining, maybe going long only when MA is already in an uptrend, or entering when price crosses rather than bar closes above the MA. Will simulate this for while. Any thoughts?
While simulating NQ, I noticed the 3 daytrades sitting in my account, so today I went for it. Faded NOK right after the open, but chickened out too soon for +0.06. It went up another 0.40 after that! Then faded KG after 10:00 when it started to bounce (after Briefing piece that UBS defended the co), and took exit at bkeven. Stock went up 0.35 after that. Was also watching SLVN, but saved the trade for another day. Good thing is my entries were good. Bad thing is that my exits were too early. Good trading to all.