hmm.. well, i can only share my experience.. there really is no "right" way to trade.. each person is different.. but speaking as someone who went through a long and painful (not to mention expensive) learning curve, i can say that not having a specific goal will make this journey alot harder.. the problem is that if you approach the market to "make the most amount of money" you can never succeed at your stated goal.. you will always miss a move.. not get filled on an entry.. have a trade touch your stop, reverse and go for the moon.. etc etc.. in a perfect world we would understand these things happen and it wouldnt bother us or cause any frustration.. but, we dont live in a perfect world.. personally, i need to approach the market in a way that allows me the opportunity to "win".. so, i set a daily goal of 10pts a day.. and a weekly goal of 25pts.. whenever i reach 10pts for the day im done.. the weekly goal is smaller because i realize that i will have a down day or a break even day every once in a while.. so, generally im done in the first 30- 60 mins of the day.. so dont i miss out on opportunities? well, i dont think so.. i ended up with 46pts this week and 45pts the week before.. i know some chat rooms that only average around 30 a week.. ive been at this game for nearly 3 years now.. i went through a couple years of trying new and different strategies but the mistakes i was making were the same old ones.. the problem wasnt my strategy.. the problem was that i was not aware of the things that put me into an unproductive frame of mind.. one of those things was starting the day with an open ended expectation.. its like going fishing and expecting to catch all the fish in the sea.. it cant be done.. im not trying to tell you how to trade.. just sharing my experience.. btw, you have very good discipline to go back to paper trading.. lol, i only have 4 wheels!! im not a trucker.. =).. i live in Ga and could have flown to Toronto but, i needed an excuse to see this girl in Va on my way up =).. good trading.. -qwik
Hi quik, I found your post interesting. Why do you stop at your daily target but not at your weekly? Many gurus say that when you're "in the zone" that you should keep going. Did you find setting daily targets improved your overall profitability or was it part of your plan from the start? All the best flea
i think of my weekly target as more of a stop loss than anything else.. if i come into friday up only 30 pts and i take a 4 pt stop right away, then i know im done for the week.. ever have a nice week going and then give it all back on friday? ideally id love to make 10pts every day.. but no one is perfect, so i plan for my mistakes.. yes, some "gurus" do say to push it when you are "in the zone".. but i found that after a certain point, i would start giving my profits back.. probabilities have nothing to do with the way im feeling.. the distribution of wins and losses is somewhat random.. and just because i had 3 wins in a row doesnt make trade #4 any more likely to be a winner.. see, what if i decided to push it and go for 12 pts? i make it.. then i come in the next day and what do i want? 15 pts? 20 pts? it causes the temptation to hold onto trades for longer than i should because of what i want from the market rather than what the market has a high probability of offering.. sometimes when im in a trade and its about to blow past my exit ill cancel my exit order and take the extra points.. but im not interested in trying for "home run" type days.. i want consistency.. i want the ability to duplicate what i did yesterday, today.. when i first started trading i was using daily targets just because im a goal oriented person.. i was trading for 1/16's and so it was easy to set targets and i did quite well.. then when decimalization threatened to close the spreads, i changed strategies.. and since i didnt really know what to expect from a trade, i stopped using a daily goal.. thats when i started burning cash.. part of that was because i was going through the normal learning curve.. but part of my problem was that i did not recognize how certain aspects of my trading plan (or lack of trading plan) affected me emotionally.. going back to setting a daily target added alot of stability to my trading.. also, it helps me think of my losses in the proper perspective as well.. i know ill only make 10pts for the day, so i know if i lose 10 for the day, im done.. before i would be down 10 but only remember the one day i made 35pts, and continue trading until i was down 20 pts.. trading isnt about mastering the markets.. its about mastering the monster in the mirror.. i went through 2 years of losing and losing and losing and thinking i had turned the corner just to get knocked on my back again.. and the whole time i resisted any attempt that i made to add real structure to my trading.. have you ever read in a trading book how really good traders dont feel elated after a good trade or become upset at a stop? do you know how they achieve this remarkable emotional control? they dont control their emotions.. they control the things that affect their emotions.. for me it meant defining every detail of my trading plan.. and i even had to work through some unrelated issues from years ago that were causing me to sabotage myself.. again, each person is different and will ultimately have to sort these things out themselves.. some people might feel like they are in handcuffs to be limited to only 10pts a day.. but it works for me.. Anchor.. lol.. -qwik
Thanks for a detailed and informative reply. I know the frustration of having a great morning and giving it all back (sometimes more ) in the afternoon and those dreadful Fridays when you give back most of the weeks profits I think these can be psychologically debilitating and can cause blow ups as frustration creeps in. I like your idea and for a while I did it myself, but I read that to do this was wrong and that one should keep trading when in the zone. I've tried this and it doesn't work for me,sometimes you make more but it doesn't make up for those times when it doesn't work and the feelings of despair as you give the mornings gains back. What you say makes sense to me and I'm going to try and incorporate in my trading plan. All the best flea
I see your 5min paper trading has gone back to 1min real time. Huios, you must be consistent. Regards
Houis, have you tried incorporating trendlines? It seems you miss the crest of the wave and exit too late for a quick scalp, or too early to catch a multiple wave run. Seems you're in no man's land on the exits. edit: your morning exits are different. I think using trendlines to keep you in trades longer would help your R/R.