Ok, after I calmed down from wanting to reach through the monitor and grab you by the throat... and 48 hours have past, and I read your post a few more times... first, let me say thank you. I am grateful for your advice. What you are talking about is accountability. I get that. It is an intriguing idea. I live in one of the retirement destinations of Canada, so for sure there would be a bored old timer around who would love to learn how to daytrade oil. My concern is what happens in the future when that old timer isn't there? Is the new behavior instilled going to work in times of high stress when there isn't any oversight from others? Will I have instilled the discipline that will protect the trading plan? Believe me, I am fucking serious about what I am trying to accomplish. For months I have been getting up at around 5:00 am following a routine, honestly journaling what I am doing, and trying to learn and improve.... then I go run a business and work a full day, and raise two teenagers single handedly... but each night before I go to bed I do my market homework and plan out the next day's trading. This isn't a video game for me. For now, I am back to the basics. I am not a trader. I am a rookie. I don't deserve to trade OPM. I am not qualified right now to even trade my own money. Trading 101, and I am taking baby steps. Each day, I just want to focus on this new routine in my trading behavior.... "Perfect execution of the process of that single trade", and then put a check mark in my trading journal. Good Trades (and thanks), Yukoner
Focus on that perfect execution of the process, and the desired outcome has an amazing tendency to materialize.
@monoid thanks for the input. Not harsh at all... just a realization that what I thought was mindfulness, is as per your definition, only awareness. I have read your post a few times now, and I can I see a part of what you are referring to. Will need to read that book you recommended.
Day #20 (Baby Step #1) - Slept well, even though it was a short day, I still went though my regular pre-market routine. My focus was strictly on perfect execution of the process of trading. I do everything else normal, but I put that one extra routine into the trade, and write it down in my journal and a check mark if I executed perfectly. I did expect more movement than we got today, and my first two trades ended up with small losses (-3 and -2), however my third trade got up over 10 ticks and at one point I was tempted to just cover it with 7 or 8 ticks so I would have a winning day... BUT I reminded myself that wasn't part of the plan. I had entered that trade with a different profit target, and to violate that simply because I wanted a winning day wasn't a valid exit. Trade #1 - Check! Trade #2 - Check! Trade #3 - Check! Heard a great quote today... "The two strongest warriors are time and patience". All I want now, is to train my brain to execute perfect process when in a trade. I don't care if the trade wins or losses. I just want to have done the correct procedure. -61
I love it when tough love works - makes being a dickhead worthwhile ======================= btw Yukoner - Trading 101 is only how I trade Any time I try progressing to trading 102..., or beyond - mkt shows me for an idiot Sticking to the basics is always best - least for me Good Stuff Today Sir RN
Sitting in one of my favorite restaurants, reading a book I lost months ago and found just before I left for lunch today, "the Talent Code" page 94... And I quote: "However well this finding may support our thesis, it's real use is to paint a vivid picture of what deep practice feels like. It's the feeling, in short, of being a staggering baby, of intently, clumsily lurching towards a goal and topping over. It's a wobbly, discomfiting sensation that any sensible person would instinctively seek to avoid. Yet the longer the babies remain in that state -- the more willing they were to endure it, and to permit themselves to fail -- the more myelin they built and the more skill they earned. The staggering babies embody the deepest truth about deep practice: to get good, it's helpful to be willing, or even enthusiastic, about being bad. Baby steps are the royal road to skill."
Alrighty..., 2 down (last Fri / today) -> rest of your career to go Every day...., Every trade = Do your job Screw the results Trade well tomorrow Yukoner RN
Day #21 (Baby Step #2) - Slept well, and woke up ready for the day. It was interesting pre-market as I had felt pumped about trading... but then a part of me felt bored about trading. So I feed that part that was bored. I wanted to be good and bored about trading. Standard routine prior to trading. Then went through the day, check mark, check mark, check mark. I fat fingered a trade and that almost was enough to disqualify me from trading, but I reacted well and that was the correct thing to do. Check mark! I caught myself during the day with a serious bias to the downside... and once I was aware of that, I kept asking myself what was the market trying to show me and what was the correct trading process to do... and that slowed me down enough to reconsider. Once I had done that, I was able to see much more clearly. Now the next thing I had to fight with, was the desire to trade when I couldn't be at least 85% present. And that sucked, because I could see what was starting to happen and I didn't want to take a small loss for the day (which makes no sense, but that is an old habit), so I repeated like a mantra to myself - Don't trade unless you can be completely focused. I then felt that emotion start to leave, and I closed down my trading platform and called it a day before I endangered my routine any further. -$110
"It appears" to me Your thoughts / emotions are all over the place Why? And what are you doing to quiet them..., to get / keep yourself in a centered / unbiased frame of mind Any bias we develop - always originates from hindsight (it impossible to have a bias about something we don't know / can't know) Whenever you find yourself reverting to the past - acknowledge it..., then draw yourself back into the present - and direct your focus on the present - to assist with remaining in present ================ These 3 were good decisions (modifying the loop little by little / small steps) Keep em as part of the "modified" loop RN