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I have cut down the number of trades dramatically and am now asymptotically approaching an average that easily meets the target of this journal - it's been a good few weeks since I had one of the 15-25 type of red mist blunderbuss days, maybe even a couple of months.
I think two or three will be even better than five, except on junky scalp days like today and then five is still plenty, three would have done for today except for taking one full stop out that needed making up for (so it's still a bit personal, I guess, lol.) If I was smarter I probably could have just walked away from the charts once they got that sort of junky day look.
Last Thursday was annoying where I lost sight of reality and the dominance of the trend and took two dumb stops but it didn't cause the reaction that it would have done in the past, I just worked out a solution - maybe you can teach old dogs new tricks!
This may sound like a mad idea but a co friend of mine who was a professional trader who used to work in the city actually only trades once he had had a few beers ( any drink of your choice ).He found that this approach enabled him to think more logical and be more " relaxed" and not to get to emotional when a trade he has on goes off side or his stop is hit.Maybe its worth a try to try and subdue any negative emotions ?
Only by accepting our emotions and feelings can we control our behaviour, and thereby make better choices of what, when and where are interesting or even optimal trades to place.
Only by accepting that each live trade is a honeypot of uncertainty, …
And realised that yesterday I had accidentally (hmmm) created a nexusfi.com (formerly BMT) Emergency Technical Code poem:
When all else fails
Put out
A shout
For Harry @Fat Tails
Penalty price of a weird wired brain, ho, hum.
Cheers.
Ps where abouts are you in Birmingham?I used to live in Edgbaston, Im up there this weekend if you fancy a few beers on or around Broad street etc.?
Col.
It has always been about the psychology for me and continues to be so. One aspect I have never thought about before was CARE - yes that's right, just being plain damn careful, boring isn't it?
I still struggle massively with the trigger pull hesitation issue (passing on at least 80% of decent setups) and I currently leave at least the same percentage of profits on the table and never manage to hold a 2-3X, let alone a runner, unbelievable. So many trades I pull just seconds before they fly that I have to laugh out loud now, at least it keeps me happier, and maybe healthier.
And yet, with no more than 5% self-confidence but with 95% execution care this is still possible:
Test account, over-leveraged 5%/trade stop, no more than five trades a day, usually just two or three, 10 point stop dropped to 5 on green, pulled for 10-15 profit (usually way too soon) and Y-axis in farthings
What is trading? I'm buggered if I know. Can I remain careful for a whole month or even a whole year? I'm trying damn hard. History says the probability is zero, but after the last month's self-sorting it feels like something is changing for the better - can care do that? Can care alone stop the Y-axis returning to zero?
Or is it just scared money? Probably. Is it just the leverage? Never feels like that, but I'm not sure. Do you really need the mega account sizes that some write of? I don't have one and I don't know, so that's a tough call for me.
Can I ever get the confidence to just take the setups that are given to us? I don't know, but other posters (e.g. Welly and co) have recently given me much food for thought. My fear is that I still have to get past the thinking and find the animal....
p.s. Itching to pull the trigger, but taking care to write something thoughtful instead of trading on a Fed day.
You're lucky your methodology seems to allow you do alright despite lack of confidence. The method I'm using seems to fall apart completely when I start dithering. The other explanation is that the method doesn't work, which would justify my lack of confidence. That's why I'm going over historical charts to get to the point where I can prove it one way or the other.
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
I can relate well to that, and although I know I have good edges I get easily distracted, lose focus and zone in on the latest piece of the puzzle while ignoring the bigger picture that I should never lose sight of. Posted a good run equity curve yesterday and then this morning I might as well have been throwing darts while blindfolded - so much for care, and so much hard work still needed to make sustainable progress rather than just upthrusts and fakeouts....