because you need those extra $300 to cover your losing days. or, to put it another way, if your goal is to average $500 a day, then walking away after hitting $500 will make you fall short of your goal in the long term. - jaan
for your comments, I just want to say that I feel totally comfortable trading the way I do. And while I appreciate the sentiment that some of you are showing, I think we just have to agree and to disagree and leave it at that. Why don't some of you post your daily P&L and we can discuss what you do right or otherwise so that we all can learn a thing or two. I am always willing to keep the communication lines open. Jagnotes, Not much different than briefing, just sometimes you get things in more details and some extra tidbits here and there.
Your previous trade(s) should have no effect on your next trade. If you had a losing trade or a winning trade, you should not hesitate to take a another shot if your strategy presents you another opportunity in the market. You must believe in yourself and your strategy completely. If you are taking the day off after the first hour of trading, you are cutting your profits short just because you're afraid of giving back your gains for the day. The only way this would be understandable is if you have a strategy that only works well for the open. Pretend you are at $0 and wait for your system to give you a clean shot.
jsmith, Your previous trade(s) should have no effect on your next trade. If you had a losing trade or a winning trade, you should not hesitate to take a another shot if your strategy presents you another opportunity in the market. Shoulda, woulda, coulda. While I agree with you in theory, in the real world pretty much everyone is affected by previous trades, even as they know they shouldn't be. Especially if they are losing trades, even moreso if they are a series of losing trades. I'm sure those robots are out there, but I haven't personally met anyone who isn't seriously rattled by a long string of (mostly) losing trades. You must believe in...your strategy completely. Again, while I agree in theory, unless your strategy has proved consistent over a long period of time and a wide variety of market conditions -- and even then sometimes if it has -- an extended string of losing trades will put the fear of God in just about anyone. Hmmm, is it me, is it my strategy, is it the combination, maybe it doesn't fit me as perfectly as I thought, it seems like I'm doing things the same, maybe something's different, maybe something new happened in the market, is my concentration just slipping... Theory is nice and makes for good conversation (especially with lots of shoulds thrown in), but real world psychology must be addressed and not ignored.
Magna, you tell them. I have decided to suspend my journal here indefinitely. I just find that it is too much headache to deal with. Thank you for all the kinds words y' all. I will still be lurking around.
Again, while I agree in theory, unless your strategy has proved consistent over a long period of time and a wide variety of market conditions, an extended string of losing trades will put the fear of God in just about anyone. Magna, why would you trade any methodology that has NOT been proven over a long period of time and a wide variety of market conditions? Everyone talks about discipline and psychology as the reason why most traders why lose, and while I don't disagree that these things play a large part, it is my belief that most traders lose because they have a losing methodology. Discipline and psychology just determine how quickly they lose.
Stockk, Thanks for your efforts and contributions so far, and I understand the headache part. Have enjoyed reading your progress and method of trading, best of luck to you and your team.
I think some of you are missing the point here. Yes, for a system trader, you must plow ahead and take every trade the system signals, else you invalidate the backtesting that confirmed the system (although I note some advocate trading the equity curve or holding off after a run of winners, etc). Hitman and Stockk are not system traders. Yes, they have a methodology but you could never code it. They are discretionary traders. Backing off after some winners or scaling back after losers is a common sense approach to real world trading, where you are no better than your P&L and, at least for prop traders, consistency and small drawdowns are highly desired. You could look at it another way. Part of their methodology is to sit on a nice daily profit and run out the clock and to scale back when losing. It's no different than a trading system that adapts it's approach to different market conditions.
dottom, why would you trade any methodology that has NOT been proven over a long period of time and a wide variety of market conditions? Lots of reasons. Either you haven't been trading for long (that kills the "proven over a long period of time" part), or you've mainly traded, say, a bull market like many who came up in the late 90's (which kills the "wide variety of market conditions"). In theory it's so gosh-darn easy, but in the real world it's often very difficult to distinguish and isolate a problem. How do you know your methodology won't be successful if you just keep plugging away? Maybe your methodology is practical and successful but you're just not implementing it right this month. Maybe next month? Where's that clear-cut line between your strategies and your discipline so you can always tell which is failing you? Etc., etc. And tell the truth, haven't you traded at least one or two methodologies that were NOT proven over a long period of time and a wide variety of market conditions? And it comes down to, proven by whom? If it was someone else, that doesn't apply to how you will put it into practice. And if it was you, then how did you go about proving it without trading it while it was unproven? Sure would be nice if this was all black and white, but if it were then I guess everyone would be doing it perfectly and there would be no market.
Too bad your quitting the journal Stockk. Can't you just place on ignore those "Protrader" types who's mamma slapped them around too much when they were young? It must be tough having 2,000 people looking over your shoulder and giving you advice though. I'm sure your hanging out with Hitman will get you consistently profitable and you'll be back again. Good luck.