Yukoner, I don't know how you trade, but I appreciate the honesty you are displaying in this journal. Here is something you might consider: When in a rut, cut your size in half and reduce your daily loss limit. Play a tighter game. You may have more days of less than optimal trading coming, so this tip will preserve your mental capital until you get in the groove again.
Yea @Redneck , I asked myself that same question after I finished posting... Why?... then I gave myself a bit of a stern talking to. Along the lines of nut up, etc. My goal today was to stick with the plan... trade the freaking plan... following the rules... do the steps the way @monoid asked me to. Which I did, so why am I frustrated? Cause some ticks didn't count for me... "well, suck it up YK"... I did my job and that is what I was supposed to do today. Today, might have been the most challenging day yet for me in following those steps. I had to feel that wall of frustration, and just leave it alone and not act on it.
Hi @monoid yes, i am incorporating the profit target too. $500 daily profit target. I will allow the trade to work through to completion, which theoretically can end the day higher than that.
Day #40 (Mo step #12) - Didn't sleep as well as I normally might have (GR), so slept in a bit and waited to trade until EIA. Trading went okay enough, but I just wasn't in the zone... plus the market was acting weird, and it was hard to get any follow through... lots of small losses. To top it all off, my son was sick and there was a bit of parenting going on there. I hit a point, where I asked myself... "Why am I trading right now?" It just wasn't clicking. Felt like I was fighting the market. Felt like I was fighting with myself. So I shut it down with a small winning trade and called it quits for the day. Might have been a combination of EIA, FOMC, and rollover to May contract... or just an off day. Key point, I did my trades, I did my Mo trades, and I stopped when I felt like I was up to the task. Actually felt really good about that decision. Felt like I protected my mental capital. -337 +240 Mo Ticks
Out of curiosity, to these observations only occur after you begin trading or do you have the ability to make these observations "before" you begin trading. For example, pretend you had a difficult night with your family and you wake up very tired (you didn't sleep well). Do you see these observations appear before the first trade or do they only appear to you after you begin trading ? My point is this...I'm curious if you're documenting of these observations involving your morning routine or mental readiness before your trading day begins or is it only documented after you've completed your trading day as a "review" (hindsight).
Good question. Quick answer, yes I usually notice it before trading, but not always. One of my routines prior to trading, is I sit down at the computer and before I turn on the computer I go through a mental checklist. How is my body feeling? Is there any pain? Do I feel tired? Is there anything bothering me? What is my job today? (newer one) I then do a summary, and ask myself if this "score" qualifies me to trade or not today. In your example, that difficult night and waking up tired... I wouldn't trade, as I know from experience that I take on more risk when I am tired.
Do you snore? Not a joke, few years ago I was waking up very tired and come to find out I had sleep apnea, now use CPAP machine to help my breath and wake up much better. Morning at worst for me, takes 90 minutes before I feel human, but I don't want to wake up at 4:30am, so I roll out at 5:45am then laptops, coffee, restroom, pour coffee back to office, check out overnight, have crude oil charts up, make another cup of coffee, and ready to trade. I keep same routine. At this time in my life I don't write down what I feel, I am sick almost all the time, have a pail next to me just in case, stomach sore, body pain, each morning/day, but if I don't steal all that I can, someone else will get it. I don't get the goodies if I am not there making widgets. I still wonder your entries or management after is real reason you not doing well enough. Methods can be the best when designed but if you don't have enough faith in them, your losing days will be on average more than winning days.
Day #41 (Mo Step 13) - Slept well, woke up feeling good and ready for the day. Started my day off as per normal routine. Stuck with the game plan. Trade - checkmark. Mo Trade - recorded. I was looking to make my profit target, and at one point both trade types combined would have been well over, but that didn't matter because it wasn't in the steps I was taking. Kept writing if I felt anything in my body. Then I hit a point, were a series of losses happened and I could just feel the frustration build. I had been up, and now I was back basically to breakeven. I wrote down the fact that I was frustrated, and why I was. Then I just stopped for the day. I was also out of available time to trade. All though it was really tempting to just throw a trade on and walk out the door... Looking back at it now, I knew that I was running out of time... and I think that I might have been trying to force something to happen. I could see the opportunity start to setup, and I wanted to be in on it... but I couldn't be. (FOMO) A few other thoughts to the day, that I might add later on. -27 +310 Mo ticks