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In talking to another trader here, someone in their first year, and trying to put the pursuit of "learning to trade" or getting a "trading education", into a nutshell, I came up with this thought; Succesful trading requires one to experience many things that cannot be taught but must be learned.
When I first decided to be a trader I was brave and optimistic. I freely told friends and family that I was going to learn to daytrade, and about 50% of them even said, "you know, never thought about that, but you would be great...". I was proud of it maybe even, because it seemed somewhat like intelligence and hard work meets the X-games.
Later, it became something awkward to talk about. Catching up with people, having a drink, "How is your trading going?", they would ask. And the answer changed over time, ran one direction or the other for awhile.
Then it progressed to being able to say I was doing it. And calling myself a "trader" was something to be proud of maybe even. I can look back at my first post here on futures.io (formerly BMT) and see where I was in that process. But you may learn how to make money here, or survive here, or catch some good rides, but overconfidence is the next sin. The next part I would prefer not to describe, but it is not fun.
Today I am enjoying trading, and hoping I do not even think about the money. It felt this past week like a few guys getting together to play some game. The rules are not that complictated; take what you know, apply it, share it, and figure out how it works together.
We had a birthday party at the house I am renting, and I opened the house up. Fireplace burning, house speakers set low. The house did not really have an extra room, but the main area is large and my trade desk is currently front and center. I am happy to sit at it and offer to play it like a piano if anyone willing to see will watch, and at least 9 of 10 politely decline.
Tonight, a neigbor had owned Apple stock as it fell off a cliff, and I sat down with her to look at basic chart structure. And as we later went through the residual talk, I was proud of it maybe even, because it seemed somewhat like intelligence and hard work meets the X-games.
The world moves in cycles. What was will be again, what is will cease to be, and the only constant is change. But even in that there is probability. And Market Profile fits that way of thinking.
Gary, this is has been dawning on me for a few months now and as a result the challenge appears much more straight forward. Thanks for your journal, I love your perspective.
Today's price action was down, but it wedged itself into major support, psychologically locking me out of trading. I started to scalp and realized I should quit. There are better conditions than that.
I allowed myself to get shaken out of a long entry today. Not that I was taking heat, but I had lost my confidence in the trade going forward. Caught the bottom of a hard move down, but had been wrong once already for the day. I tend to be more interested in scalping back my loss than taking a true win sometimes, and today was one of those.
I am being very selective about my trades, feeling very calm about them, making money, no large losses, good numbers overall... and even with all of that, something like what I did today has been running trough my mind off and on for the past 5 hours. I'd almost rather get stopped out than have my confidence fail.
Price had come down into deep support, this time being a cocktail of some favorite numbers; Major 618, Major trendline, Major pivot area, and XFib2, all within a 30 cent range. The only thing more I could have asked for was the exact mindset I neeeded in that moment. I bought around 89.45ish, then jumped out to think. I was not looking for a long distance trade, I was looking to get positive on the day. I know the saying, "Be careful what you ask for", but had momentary amnesia from being shaken too hard.
I have been stalking a reversal for at least a week now, 5 entries today, all from the long side. I joke with myself that it is because my chart backgrounds have all been changed to white recently. Ryan Green was trading short on Friday, I was all long, his charts were black, mine were white, it wwas almost like we were synchronized. Classic.
I like the white background better, it just feels happier. Tougher to read sometimes (I need a new color for XFIBs, most things actually. Black is the best for contrast), but keeping the mood up is worth it. Black charts seemed to get very hypnotic after awhile.