wHAT WORKED FOR ME. 1. Get in the habbit of talking to your self, the way you did when you were getting ready for a Date. BUT KNOW that you are doing it. 2. I told my self that there is nothing wrong with the number of consecutive loosers to occur. Only thing wrong is that the instrument is not behaving Idealy and I must wait. 3. zoom in and out of small/ Large time frame to see if the side i am picking is in play ? Is there even a momentum visible or I am just getting Chopped. ususally its the later. I dont know your strategy and can never understand the wires you have in your brain that execute them. However, you are the best judge of it. If they worked ever - They will continue to work. When you psychologically agree to a fact that you HAVE to stop after a certain number of bad trades it causes the monkey brain fight it. Its just the human nature. Also, after the first bad trade your brain will start to tilt already! subconciously, since now you can only make 2 trades to go break even or make a profit. IF god forbid the next one goes bad too. you will be ALready on the tilt trying to get to break even. your focus will switch from the trade setup (let the winner run) to a Goal that you never wanted - to break even in trading. Being down is normal and is a part of the game. Getting control over that is tuff but becoming Unemotional to loss of money is PRICELESS!! Try http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=219031
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Ask your broker to set a daily loss limit on your front end. Once you're over that limit, you're locked out from entering any more trades.
hi bstay, attached are the past two days' results on demo. i cannot describe how revelating it has been for me since i started the thread. i took your challenge to proof that i can re-qualify myself back to live trading. while i haven't yet encountered the out-of-control day, in fact i'm looking forward to it the next 3 trading days. i have been very careful with my trades today and yesterday knowing i have something to proof in public, and i know it's a cliche to say i had an !epiphany! while staring at my charts looking for setups and wanting to be conscious when i entered into the mad state of mind or the "idiot" state. i can't say i'm now in full control of discipline but i noticed that i am now willing to let a trade go pass me. i don't take it, i don't jump into it. somehow, by not wanting to enter a trade, i was able to pick up winners. i don't know how to explain this, but i hope the next 3 days will be the same and my confidence comes back after that disastrous day. it's almost like a different (mad, idiot) person was sitting on this chair hitting that 0-7 losses, i still can't believe it. i don't know how i will do when i start to hit losers in a row, but i want to experience it and in fact i won't get back to live trading until i hit a losing day in demo and analyze it in public.
again, please ignore the statements as i show it to proof no manipulations. attached is the tally after two days. in DEMO. Day 1 challenge, +$603 demo. Day 2 challenge, +$503 demo.
frank I see from ts statements that you trade with more than one lots, I'm trading my strategy with one lot and try to let the profit run, but it is very hard because you know you often give back good profits this way, starting from monday I will simulate with 2 lots, do you have any advice about multiple lots you can give me... many thanks
Looking at the statements, I think Frank has much better chance of fixing his problems than darktrader, lol. Frank, your winning rate is very impressive!! Are you showing off? Yes, looking forward to seeing how you messed up your day when you start to encounter 3 losing trades in a row. Not only will the losers drive down your winning rate, they will also reveal the mad state and then it is the "idiot" that is trading for the rest of the lousy day, trying to trade and trade to get back the losses. Dr Alexander Elder in his 1993 book Trading For A Living talked about the "destructive mode". darktrader, I don't think anyone can effectively trade with 1 single lot. It is not flexible and you can't take partial profits. You don't know how far it will go, and you will never be happy with your exits. I trade with even number lots, so that I can take profit with one portion at a smaller, discretionary target, and the remainder portion at a larger technical target. But splitting your exits will lower your Sharpe Ratio, it is one way to address emotional issues. Just curious, darktrader when you go on demo can you also produce that kind of winning days like Frank? He has one problem to solve, that's the psychological issue. You seems to have TWO problems to solve: finding a technical edge, and psychological issue.
The real question is why did you not identify the day as chop (a most likely scenario, one we have all been through in formative years)? So yes, quit if you are losing, but more importantly identify why you were losing.