Your loosers far outpace your winners and that is a big problem at the moment. I think you should let go of your target or dramatically move it down (200k). I do sincerely hope you find your groove back.
Made a 6.7K gain shorting FSLR on Monday. After that I could do nothing right. Every thing I touched went against me. Add to that inability to get out of a losing position, instead averaging in, and panic exits, and that summarized the forgettable week. Devoting more time to getting my automated stuff working. No excuses man. This is not a game for those who like to break rules. You got to get your act together. Your goal shouldn't be to make 1 mill this year, it should be to follow your rules and your plan. You need to get that right before you can set monetary goals for yourself because you are making some pretty newbie mistakes here. I saw the same things from you last year. I think you are getting so caught up in reaching your monetary goal that you are forgetting the very principles that are going to get you there. Money is only the byproduct of good trading. Good Trading, YoungOne
YoungOne has spoken the truth. Rules rule... you break the rules you set for yourself and you (and you alone) pay the price. Focus MUST always be on good trading... financial gain is only the byproduct. Poor trading... "failing to follow rules"... will lead to ruin.
neke congrats on this year's journal. i know you have quite good programming skills and that you have automated some of your strategies in the past. i dont know whether you remember but i asked you last year why were you trading manual if had the chance of eliminating the downside of human nature thru automation? i use a couple of algos based on an heuristic process that is rerun on a daily basis for adaptation to market dynamics. i have discovered that most of the value of my automated strategies lies on this discovery phase and very few on the code itself. i would be inclined to paradoxically say that the most important aspect of automated trading is the manual part of it. i am saying this because i remember your last year comments on need to tune the automation further, which i interpreted as they are not making any consistent money yet. have you considered that automation by itself doesnt make any money but it will allow to replicate your heuristics through time without human intervention? focus on establishing a solid trading framework based on you trading skills and leave all the nasty execution part to automation. you'd still need to involve yourself in the process each and every day, but you'll leave no room for error and unwanted emotions, while capturing the essence of your edge. all the best
Grandeur.. GREAT QUOTE.. I posted something to this effect a few weeks back .. reduced risk automatically leading to gains is an illusion. 3 Months may not be long enough to deduce from, but it "seems" your average winning trade gas gone down a LOT more than you average losing trade has been reduced. At least have something to show for the risk, a.k.a. higher sharpe ratio. Are emotions to blame for blunting the winning trades or is it the system... only you know...
$$$lover, I'm very courious as to why such a deep pullback/draw down after such a spectacular +367% run? Was it attributed to some flaw in your strategy (e.g., position sizing) or was it something completely psychological (e.g., the tendency to give/spend away found money?) If you do not mind, please share your expirience/diagnosis with us. Thanks, $$$lover. Also what do you mean "don't be a cowboy on great days?" You mean don't be too gunho? too complacent? Thx.
You are very correct. I have not given the focus to full automation as yet. It is almost impossible to fully automate my reasoning processes. But the more I encounter these set-backs with my discretionary trades due to some psychological flaws, the more I get the feeling full automation is the way to go. Sadly, when I get the next set of gains from discretionary trades, I backpedal on the endeavour. However, now I am getting the feeling this is the way forward. I have a few strategies that lend themselves to full automation right now. As I apply myself more to this, I believe I will find a way to automate more things.