Good idea. I'm pretty well automated. All I have to do is push the button and leave the damn thing alone. But still...I find a way to fark things up! Luckily most of my stuff is profitable enough to even overcome my futzing with it. Maybe if I paid a big guy to wack me in the head every time I screwed up, I'd learn...
I have a poster of all my trading rules and if I break one of them I automatically go outside for a cigarette or a walk and think about the mistake I made. Then I come back to my computer and wait for the next trade.
Same way you stick to a diet or exercise regime - be extremely motivated to change, and then stick with it long enough (2-3 months of unstinting effort is normally sufficient) until it starts becoming an ingrained habit. Then, monitor any backsliding or rule-breaking and go medieval on any infractions. It also helps to have another person monitoring your performance or trying to achieve the same goal, so you stop each other slipping up.
Earlier whenever I broke a rule, use to suspend myself from trading for one day for each rule broken.
Try this <object width="450" height="370"><param name="movie" value="http://www.liveleak.com/e/11d_1176901832"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.liveleak.com/e/11d_1176901832" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="450" height="370"></embed></object>
Me too... I have such a bad habit of it. I've analyzed my history of trades in which I "intervened" and found that it was a negative number. I'm talking about hundreds of automated trades which I interfered with cause I thought with all my "experience" I would yield a better outcome. Yet, I still do it... although each day less and less... And I found that all trades entered manually and by discretion only had a profit factor of 1.05. Not worth all the headache and stress I go through with them. So now I distract myself by watching TV/movies in another room or by browsing the net for things to buy. And I monitor remotely with my blackberry or netbook, both of which have screens small enough that I can't interfere but can make sure everything is in working order. I'm a donkey when it comes to discipline.
Interesting. I think my "off-system" trades are about the same. Like you'd expect, I suppose. Our manual trades do no better than b/e. Yeah...but I know...I can do better...if I just...