Hey Robert, I went to sleep at 5:30 am, and then this girl in bed with me kept me up to 6:30 am. So although I could not sleep, I did not get out of bed to trade. Why did I not do this, well if its not in one of your books, the reason is trading requires you to be in a good state of mind and body. Your mistake was not in your trading. Your mistake was getting back up to trade when you did not have enough sleep. Here are some rules for you. 1) Don't trade if you did not get enough sleep. 2) Don't trade on vacation. 3) Don't trade if you are bored. 4) Don't take a trade on BIDU short, if GOOG says that it is leaving the China market. Or just take a brief moment before you trade to see if a significant event took place. For example, one day I woke up to the news and saw a bomb or bomb scare in London, I shorted the GBP, and made money by ignoring TA, since it does not work during these times. So for example, don't go long Berkshire, if news just comes out that Warren Buffet has died. http://www.essortment.com/lifestyle/stresslackslee_ttal.htm
Robert, this has obviously been a continuing issue with your strategy. 3 steps forward and 5 steps back. No matter if you increase your size or keep it at odd lots, the strategy will overall bite you in the butt as it has done for the past couple years. I am not sure how many times someone must be burnt by fire to know not to touch it. I hope the best for you, but now might be a good time to set aside the real money and focus on risk management and a better strategy before returning.
There is really nothing wrong with his strategy, he did not get enough sleep and made stupid mistakes. For example, trading a different stock than the one you thought you were trading was caused by sleep deprivation. Also, its always hard to hold winners and cut short losers especially if you have been having a good week. I did not want to take a loss on a long trade on Friday afternoon especially since we were very oversold and I had a good week, so held it through Sunday till it made me some money.
You just need to stop trading for the day once $x amount in loss is accrued- that's what you did last month one or two big losing days and trying all month to crawl out of the crater with ant legs. If you got ant legs make sure the hole you are in isn't big enough that one day you can't crawl out. It's just part of trading to avoid bad days- days that you don't have the vibe and only way to find out if it is your day is the $$$$ you are making or losing . Stopping trading for the day is also a buffer and about self control, money management etc etc etc otherwise you are just sitting in a casino pulling the lever for the slot machine all day long - sure you get 2 $ back after every 5 pulls but trading is so much about being in control- control of your emotions, your trades, of your self and everything that only YOU can control
Hey Wizard, Great post. As a matter of fact I just took an ambian and I am making a rule that unless something has to be done by the next AM I am off the computer at 10pm I read your link and wanted to thank you for posting it. Best to you this week Robert
thanks Nesyo, Its not my strategy but my lack of proper execution. I am currently the weak link. four hours a sleep a night, homework coming out of my ears and pressure with a new son to produce some cash. Its a full plate to say the least. My first step is sleep which is what I am doing in 20 mins best to you Robert
I would agree with your statements and I would also add that it was my choice to do what I did so I am still responsible. Its not like I didn't know I wasn't tired. Its a tough thing though. I can be pretty tired and still trade well if I stick to the plan. last year I had double pneumonia and sinusitis and they had to run some tests to see if they were going to admit me to the hospital (I was in pretty bad shape). I still didn't miss a day from it though and just rested my head on the table while waiting for my computer to 'beep' to which I knew what to do. Funny thing is that when your that bad off your not looking to deviate at all from the plan and it worked out well from a trading point of view. The other issue I am working through is the new signals that I have been trading. I somewhat went through the same thing with gap ups and it cost me thousands of dollars and now its one of my best trades that I hope to get most days. It was a matter of working out the bugs. Of course working out the bugs dead tired doesnt work any way you cut it Robert
Very good point. Makes me wonder if I had other traders in the same room if things would be different
those are just excuses- you are you and no one knows you better than you yourself. Other traders are not going to replenish your account for your losses. One other thing this strategy ( stopping at a fixed loss) will do is that eventually there will come a period oftime when your primary strategy doesn't work- for any number of reasons - it will let you ride that trough in losses longer than if you just keeping on trading thinking you are going to be dusciplined and onlyvtske good entries etc etc etc Keep losses small or at least the losing days small- take out the big losing days from the previous months and corresponding number of your top profit days and see how you did- I used to see you posting 4-5 figure gains last year and your losses used to be small back then - see what and where it turned you must be always improving - sometimes small sometimes big change is necessary
There are good points. What I meant by having others in the same trading room is what types of changes happen with group dynamics. Not that anyone is going to receive or loss from anothers gain/loss Best to you Robert