Mindset is very important. In fact, I have a pending book to read: Mental Edge in Trading by Jason Williams. It's just stilling on my desk waiting to ooze out useful information. Thanks for the link. Will review.
6th full day trading. Felt more in tune today. Was able to trade sectors better. I have no idea where the market will go, I can only react and limit my risk. Didn't take much notes as was busy trading. Set up a watchlist today, which is immensely valuable to look at stocks I'm cycling through as well as where we are in the market. Will be ready tomorrow. Get the routine working.
7th full day trading. Rough morning. Lot of false starts and choppy action. I just needed to stay in the game and pick my spots. Taking larger size has not been beneficial yet. Smaller size I could let work more, and that's what I need to become better at with more size. Found an alert function which is highly useful. I was using a web-based one and it was spotty at best. Working out in the mornings helps to get out some emotional aggression. (I sound dangerous, and I am) I might need to work out during trading hours too. A quick glance at headlines posted in ET is useful. Lots of traders here sourcing the most relevant stuff, which I appreciate.
Eighth full day and first full week of trading. Scramble in the morning due to technical issues at day job + zoom breakfast meeting. Again this morning not exactly stellar trading. Mentally I was slightly shaken about the news and worried about friends and family as well as potentially getting laid off. Having that on the mind while trading is not ideal. A note I wrote: "I'm feeling antsy ... 2:03pm" I had to get out and go for an iced coffee. Get outside and relax a bit. I did better afterwards and pushed larger size when I felt I had bit of an edge. I am figuring out a few little things here and there that is helping. Weekend to get caught up on things and prepared for the week ahead. I have some charts to review of some key trades. Maybe I can find a chart or two worth looking at for Monday.
Ninth full day of trading. Working on trading larger share size when I can. The opportunities were few today for size. Didn't have a great feeling about the market being super red last night to ripping green pre-mkt with the announcement. Made me cautious off the open. Took a break around 2pm just to get away from the screens. I can sense when I am just off a bit and need a bit of space. Each day am learning new things about the system and my trading. I am taking more concise notes now. Start fresh tomorrow. Work the growth mindset.
Tenth full day of trading. Trading with more size continues to be a battle. It's really just mindset and risk. Oddly the stocks I traded were weak while the market was strong like ox. I believe I traded the most number of shares yet (in a day). My goal this week is about validating the trading process. Am learning constantly. My swear-o-meter is clipping along on max these days. Time to review and prep for tomorrow.
Eleventh full day of trading. I have been sub-par in the mornings with trading. The afternoons I fare much better. Been focused more on tape reading. It has been very helpful. It's been a bit exhausting doing this and full time job. No complaints though. 1/2 page of notes. In the early days I was writing 4 pages. Save the trees. I need to get large when the risk is on the right side. Review + prep time.
12th Full day of trading. Sloppy trading quite frankly. Nothing to trade size in today. Some decent ideas and a certain pattern is showing itself every so often, which can be very powerful. More quality trades, fewer loosey goosey trades. Back at it tomorrow.
13th Full day of Trading. Unlucky 13 it seems. Relatively small loss which is good. It's the big losses that really bite. A weekend break is necessary to regroup and come back on Monday fresh. A couple trading books arrived in the mail today, I shall dig into them.
14th Full day of Trading. Had the weekend to get my mind a little clearer. Read Nicolas Darvas' book. The main point I got out of it was to filter out all the noise and observe for yourself price action. That really is what I do best when trading well. I observe order flow and made decisions that way. Today was a better day. Getting back to base hits and order flow. I also spent some time on the weekend learning about features of the system. Some could be quite useful and started utilizing today. Trying to not clog my brain with too much info. Onto preparation for the morrow.