Thanks for the info but pls allow me to say that you are not trading, you are gambling. Actually, you conceded (confluence of bad judgement and boredom ) that your style is that of a receational trader who according to prof. Lawrence Harris gets external benefits from trading.
MK, The title of this thread is a bit misleading. Trading is actually not all that hard provided one uses sound judgement and discipline. Your trade sounded like an ill advised gamble. Buying $8.5m of SPY while a nuclear reactor is melting down and there's so much inaccurate information coming out about it, is probably not a good risk/reward scenario. Not to mention the big spike in the VIX. You're right about trading being a hard and arduous journey. Made harder by exercising poor judgement. You know what you did wrong. Solution is simple .......... don't do it again. cheers, Red
Meaning do what you know you are supposed to do...and ONLY what you know you are supposed to do. I've been at this for quite a while. But I still have trouble making it through a week without trying to grab a quick trade that is completely discretionary, then 9 times out of 10 hating myself for it. Like a crack addict on the wagon. If I had the money back on every losing trade made out of boredom and hunting charts over the past 10 years, I could pay cash for a new 911. And fill it with fuel. mksummy, you admitted to trading out of boredom and trying to grab a quick scalp. Man, you are not alone. We are all capable of doing some very stupid things when faced with constant temptation. My only solution? I now remove the temptation. I display no charts other than the S&P until my system targets an alert and sends a buy limit to my broker. And I keep reminding myself every morning that the time to be creative is not during the trading day, but during systems development. Play all you want after the market, not during the market. If I feel my fingers itching, I take a deep breath and walk away. Any other trading addicts want to share their compulsions and solutions, feel free to post.