Then maybe you should step away from full discretionary. I think even the best discretionary traders probably have some general systematic rules they follow, which they then embellish with some discretion, for better or worse. So why pursue the path of most resistance? If you go full discretionary, especially on a short-term trading basis, then you're always making hard decisions from beginning to end on the fly. Frankly, that's just too taxing for anyone, especially for older guys like us. Of course you should pursue your dream. But if you find yourself up against a wall, perhaps it's better to go around it than to pound it with your fists. But whatever you do, don't dwell on the sunk cost of time and effort you already put into something that arguably isn't getting you there. Try something fresh. Not necessarily 180 degrees different, but maybe adding some hard rules to your entry/exit criteria (for starters) to take some of the burden off real time decision making. Rules/criteria that you can test for efficacy and hone with both historical data and in real time. In the first 150 pages or so that I read of Brooks's first book when it first came out, which I then returned for a refund, I don't recall any firm rules or guidelines that he adhered to. His approach was all over the place and had the stability of gelatin. That's great for after-the-fact color commentary, but perhaps less than ideal for real time short-term trading.
Aloha Padu! Nice to see you posting again. Your threads always attract a lot of attention and bring out some knowledgeable people whos posts can help many users on ET. Sometimes it comes across as harsh, but it's well worth it for what's offered. Thank you for facilitating this. We all take bad trades (especially in hindsight). One of the major things that changed my trading was redoing days in playback mode. Bad days and good days. If I have an especially poor performing day, I'll redo it several times and if I'm straight up pissed off at myself for bad trading, I redo it right at market close. First re-do, I try not to think about what price did that day (yes, it's hard to do when you know it went up all day). Redoing days is to reinforce your plan and tame your emotions. It is not to find perfect entries and if you have an unprofitable plan, this doesnt help much. If you stomped it on the first re-do you dont need to move on. Likely it was a brief lack of judgement that caused the error. Second re-do, study the after the fact chart first. Mark, mentally, where you should have exited/entered based on YOUR plan. Playback the day and make sure you executed perfectly this time. If you didnt execute exactly as according to your plan, redo the day again until you do. Then redo one last time to make sure you nailed it twice in a row. Rewiring the brain is very difficult and the best way I've found is to rewrite right on top of your mistakes to try and replace the clouded and/or fearful thinking. Often, a trader does not nail a day perfectly, and the re-dos arent to make the 'perfect trades' for that day; you're re-doing YOUR trading PLAN, win in or lose. It's all about following your rules. Thank you, padu, for your transparency with your wins and losses. Some will say your determination is pure insanity, but I think it is admirable Mahalo!
I said I'd move on here but here I am violating my own 'rules', lol... Honestly, persistence is not always a good thing. Think of the guy who wanted to bag a girl that was unavailable to him and persisted for years, only to find out in the end she wasn't nearly what he thought she was. Not to mention all the lost opportunities along the way to really be happy. This whole very American mentality of 'only losers quit' is not to be taken as an absolute. It takes a mature adult to be able to assess and make a firm decision to abandon that which isn't working, as with trading methodologies, as with trading a certain market, as with trading as an enterprise in general. Time and health are finite resources. I'd say if you find you're not doing some basic things like back-testing, forward-testing, journaling, review, etc. you're not giving yourself a chance. First time I spent 2-3 months just backtesting and yes, I got my ass handed to me badly when I went live anyway. But then I realized this is an iterative process. It's all about gradual improvement and adjustment. If you can't operate on the Keizen principle you're not cut out for this business.
Hello PPC, If you care about @padutrader trading career and journey so much and you see him struggling so badly and losing money and time and you stated you made a few million trading, why you do not Private Message @padutrader to teach him how to make a few million trading? Why not offer to help him make money trading, if you made millions already? Please explain.
It’s a slow day today so might as well… I’ve seen so many people on here (I was one of them) who come here, make a lot of noise, are given good advice, then don’t take that advice (or take it for like 3-4 days, then go back to their old ways) and then they’re back grasping at something else. Honestly, most people on here CAN’T be helped. Because they don’t do what they’re supposed to. So many people just want the fish, they don’t want to be taught how to fish, and they don’t want to do deliberate practice. Also there is only so much a trading instructor can do. Even if someone is diligent and works hard, the trading methodology may simply be a bad fit for them. They may start trading it when the market is stale and get discouraged. That’s just how it goes.
Hello Georgii, Please stop making trading complicated. I 100% disagree with everything you said. I disagree. If I wanted to teach someone how to make money trading, I simply fly them to my house have them sit next to me and watch me trade or do a Teams Meeting or Skype screen share and let them watch me trade everyday of the week. Only a winning trader with verified proof can make losing trader a winner trader. No-one on this planet will listen or do exactly what an instructor says do, if the instructor can not prove to the student he/she is making money. The reason Padu and others lose money, can they do not believe anything their instructor is saying because the instructor is not making money. Stop the with complicated stuff. @padutrader is not struggling trading, he is still trying to figure it out. You figured it out already. So kudos to you.
Hello Georgii, I agree. The harsh reality is trading for some people take time, maybe even years. It is what it is.
I may be opening up a can of worms here but I don’t think anybody ever has truly ‘figured it out’. Just because you’ve pulled out money from the markets doesn’t mean you can’t suddenly be in need of more information about the market and yourself. Pride comes before a fall…
Hello Georgii, I can not tell you how to think or what to believe. But I strongly disagree with you, 1000%. I guess we all different man. I just think you should allow traders think and feel however they want to.