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Drink water when trading as much as you can.
create a new rule that says if you have a loss...you must wait 30 minutes before taking another trade...or some time element.
Your story rings loudly with every trader here on this forum.....they have experienced it in their journey, your not alone.
I'll present a counter opinion here -- of course, being dehydrated is just bad in general, for health. And as such, it certainly won't help your trading if you're dehydrated. Assuming you are not seriously dehydrated though.. drinking water will not help you trade better.
Losses are a part of trading. While some rule could be put in place to prevent a string of losses exceeding some amount, it's counterproductive to suggest that a loss should result in a "time out" ... I would imagine that this would practically paralyze a trader to the point of being unable to act, for fear of losing, thus facing the "no trading for 30 minutes" punishment.
Just my opinion, but I think traders are too afraid of losing already. We must be able to put on risk. That's the job of a trader -- put on calculated risk, learn how to lose small, and learn how to let the market pay us when we're aligned. We can't get paid by the market if we can't learn to put on risk, and we can't put on risk unless we are comfortable taking a loss, albeit a controlled/small one.
Good points Josh! I was semi-joking about the face palming, I did it a couple times and laughed.. I watched my session videos for the last couple days and was a little disgusted with how many trades I took that were not part of my setups. Considering I have 11 setups, wtf?! But I keep in perspective that I've had issues with discipline for a long time and they don't go away overnight.. Each day I get better and better.. By watching the video replay it brings another layer of awareness. I'm also doing some visualizations and imagine myself being tempted and then asking the question, is this one of my 11 playbook setups? And then, no its not, sit on your hands buddy. Each time I'm tempted to make a trade I will journal about that too, feeling really tempted right now but consistency is important to me. Hopefully the undisciplined trades will be in the rear view mirror soon. One thing that helps which I've been slacking on lately is using the replay function in sierra charts, since I trade renko, I can click brick by brick and make decisions. They're a little blind because I don't have my market profile levels but its good for enhancing my discipline and renewing confidence after losing days.
The distraction thing has been huge for me. For now I just focus on trading one market only. I'm developing and testing some ea's, I'm running those in a separate account and check them before and after my manual trading session. I've had to learn this the hard way. Before I was trying to manage swing trades in one account while trading short term in another and it was a losing battle. Gotta build the discipline muscles!
You're right about the fear factor part, not pulling the trigger has never been my issue though, its been pulling it too much.
I know I need a break when I start swearing in my trading journal.. I'm getting better at pulling myself away for 5-10 and then when I come back putting the emwave on and doing the diaphramatic breathing. My tendency is to go into fight mode and the anger makes me totally irrational. (monkey brain mode)
what I found interesting......in checking the color of your urine in the morning....in the last paragraph...if real clear..to much water..... if real gold in color not enough but without doubt dehydration can cause cognitive issues...based on research...not forum opinion
And any trader that does not have a "time out" plan of some sort....is not balanced in the risk category.....
according to Mark Douglas and Andrew Menaker...who write books about the psychology of trading
Wow, thanks for the offer Mike! Yes. May would be a better time for me and the audience as I'll have a few more things to share then..
P.S. Someone who I think would be an awesome guest is Steve of Paracurve.com (Formerly: No Brainer Trades). I did a 3-day course with him in 2014 when he was just trading forex. Since then he's made the leap to futures.. I think it make for a really interesting interview about that transition.