Illiquid I guess you are right I just never thought about it in regard to discretional trading. Basically it's the same thing with over-optimized system. Better it works in a short run worse it is over longer periods. The only thing making me feel OK is that all that shitty period (15 trades) has been paid for by a single trade almost entirely. Now I should really stop crying
I think, the other way to put it, it's good to have just a little bit of a gambling instinct. I have none.
Consistency: to have it in daytrading one must play the day .. the whole day. If you only do set-ups, that is saying, 'I only want to understand certain parts of the day where I will operate'. What does that lead to? Only understanding certain parts of the day of course. If what you do is successful, then fine: 'If it ain't broke don't fix it'. If however the aim is consistency; the answer is, go for the whole enchilada.
I strive for weekly consistency. Not daily. Give yourselves a break and measure by the week and month. (even if you daytrade) DRT
You will not find what you do and having consistency are compatible. The % of the time in the market compared to your sideline time precludes considering yourself to be part of the market. Also just take a look at the % of what you take compared to what is there for your plays. The market does not do the "opposite" thing and you are doing the "opposite" thing. You can see the poker example is not applicable to you, for example. Poker relates to consistency and you do not.
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=62006 With this simple study, I don't need to trade the whole day for my type of setup (in fact I ran out and got a job). I really believe in "the turtle wins the race"... unfortunately I am not patient enough.
There 2 situations I like to get mentally prepared: 1) Stop loss by a tick and then market shots up to my profit target. 2) Market misses my profit target and then hits my stop. For situation 1, most professionals would recommend a plan of reentry. I would rather stay out since good logical entry is important to my setup while I am just scalping for 2 pts. Situation 2 for me is a matter of accepting the risk. For my style, I don't like taking partial profit except for maybe missing a tick. The sequence can also go from (2) to (1). All these sequences should be expected and either managed or accepted (retreat). I choose the later.