Thoughts: It is how you handle losers is what ultimately determines how great of a trader you are. You cannot never really learn enough not to have losing trades. Thus, the only thing that is constant in trading is LOSING TRADES and LOSING TRADERS.
Day 15 CONSISTENCY, you got to be Conistency (even if you sometimes think its the wrong thing to do).. # of Disasters: 3 I have to stick with a system. I cannot impulsively increase my risk, stop etc. I just have to learn to be consistent. If you leave too much to be decided on the whim, you have to make too many decisions on the spur of the moment, and one of those could go wrong and you end being out of your rhythm. The only way to trade is to stay consistent with your system, method, risk, number of contracts etc. Because you are exposed to almost all the situations you system can present you beforehand and you are just reacting to the market rather than making huge decisions at the spur of the moment. Just got to be consistent...and just simply TRADE my consistent system.
Thoughts: You have to PROTECT your CAPITAL. PRESERVATION of CAPITAL must be the sole goal of your trading. You have to contain, limit, minimize your risks at the expense of rewards. You have to survive, your account has to survive, for you to be able to open yourself up to potential opportunities. You have to trade very small. Trade not to lose, rather than to win, or to make a lot of money. Trade to make a little bit of money, consistently make little bit of money, and keep on making it.
haha very good, i hope you trade the mini s&p, we need more people who are willing to lose their money...
Thoughts: Newbie traders are genetically programmed to destroy themselves. You are incapable of taking a loss; and when you have a profit, you take it way too fast. Because thats what feels good to us. Thats what makes us happy. Not taking a paper loss isn't really a loss, is it?.. and holding on through adversity, there is bound to be a light at the end of the tunnel. We are programmed to hold onto large losers and to take small profits. You take a trade and it is -103 pts against you. The loss is too much for you to take now, and the market has overdone it. It has to comeback. You baghold and finally it goes your way. And what do you do? you get out with a +2 pts "profitable" trade.
Day 16 A trader must TRADE.. # of Disasters: 2 I need to put myself in position to trade the whole day b/c after all I am a trader. I also need to start making some money, I need to shoot for living wage. Trade to not make a mill, but to buy burgers and stuff. I seriously need to get done with other things that need to be done at some other time other than the normal trading hours. After an entry: the dynamics of the price moving against your position and it is moving for you is different. It only takes one small move to the STOPLOSS for it to get triggered. While for the profit target, not only would the profit target be further away compared to your STOP, you might be profitable for a while and you might move your profit target a bit more and etc etc. Thus, it only takes one try for you to get stopped out. Thus, more than likely almost every trade has a higher probability that it is going to be stopped out.
This is a common occurrence when one takes a trade based on a setup to a specific time frame...then zoom in on a smaller time frame to set their stop loss. (in an attempt for high R/R ratio)
Discipline If you don't have it, find it before you give all of your money away to those who do. There is no need to take 100 point losses on a futures trade. You must set a hard stop the moment you enter the position. You have to take the human element out of losing, let the computer pull the trigger for you to get out if the trade reaches your stop. Mental stops are for those who are uncertain. And uncertain traders feed the 5% who are.