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Well I took to heart something Jim Carey did. I wrote a check, a real one with a certain figure on it that I wanted to cash. Then I looked at it every day for a month, then every week for a year. At the end of the year I was able to cash it. I also took my current bank statement and whited out the current balance and hand wrote the number I wanted in there.
And I practiced visualizing the amount of business I needed every month to make this happen. And then I started telling people I was already doing that amount of business before I actually did...but only to people that couldn't verify of course!....
I basically told myself I could do it over and over again for a year.....
I told my boss, my team and my customers....every one that would listen.....I made myself accountable to every one. And I worked my butt off. There were day's I never saw daylight. At the office long before it got light, windowless office, leave long after it was dark. I did that for a year until I knew I would make the goal and then backed off.
Funny thing was, once I broke the barrier, higher and higher levels came easier and easier without all the extra work. My highest grossing year I worked the least. I made well into the mid six figures, far more than what Obama says is "the richest American's" and traveled 14 weeks that year. Some of it totally out of communication for days and days. When I was in the office, I never worked past 6PM and never on weekends. I basically had a part time job making what was for me incredible money.
Anyway, that worked for me. I also had some coaching both business specific as well as general life coaching. All of that helped.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
That's fantastic. Thanks for sharing a story like that. It's great to hear something like that from someone "real" - not an author or guru.
I did a similar thing when I got my 1099 from my broker this year. I made $70 profit for 2011. They send my statements as PDF's so I opened my 1099 in Paint and changed it so it says "$70,000."
I printed it out and hung it on the wall in my office, but I haven't been looking at it lately. In other words I haven't been using it like I should; like you describe.
In looking at it now I think that I need to change the amount to something that has more "meaning" to me (and looks more "real"), but you've inspired me to put it on the desktop of my computer here so I can see it every day.
"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
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"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
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Seems like every time I decide to be aggressive, thats when I should have laid off, and every time I elect to lay off, thats when I should have been aggressive. Thats a disturbing set of circumstances.
Deciding when to go balls to the wall and when to take a walk looks like the hardest part of the game. Great signals that look like runners turn out to be duds and crappy looking set ups turn out to be fantastic winners......
Solution:
1. Be aggressive all the time and take what you get.
2. Learn a new style of trading that attempts to predict these kinds of days...Market Profile comes to mind.
3. More screen time with my current method, looking for commonalities that might identify certain types of days and trade accordingly.
I am leaning toward #3. Case in point. Opening range plays. I have a somewhat proven theory about opening ranges. IF they are large, expect consolidation. If narrow, expect more of a trending day. What do evidence do I have to support this? Nothing more than almost 2 years of watching CL. Opening ranges larger than about 25 ticks almost always lead to chop. Safer to not trade or trade the extremes of the OR. If its a very large range, you can make some decent money in it but still have to be careful.
So far, I'm positive this week. Yesterday was a stop out day. Two stops in a row. First one was good trade gone bad, second one was a great trade terribly mismanaged. First one was an acceptable loser. The second one was not. I hate losing due to stupidity. Somewhere there is a switch that turns off or at least dials down the stupidness a bit......however, emotions rule the day, therefore working with emotions is the opposite of stupid.
Today I could do no wrong. Largest one day PnL since maybe last summer. 5 total trades, 1 loser.
I was expecting a rollover today that would test the lows after a trend line touch. What I got instead was rollover lite. It tested the 50% level for quite a while but now appears like it may try to retest the highs after hours.
Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with today's results.
Cheers
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Do you take into consideration previous sessions? Like the ON, or the last few days?
Talked with ElDuque at Rancho Dinero, and he had some intersting insight with reference to the CL contract.
Because it is so liquid, he recognises that CL does respects levels fairly well. Levels like previous highs and lows of past sessions, previous areas of support and resistance. Some of it is market profile based, but really, on a 5 minute, its a trend line where price bounced a few times.
I only mention this because I found it very unsetlling to trade the day based on the opening range and the overnight only. By incorporating a broader context, I have more confidence, which helped me to better trade management.
Here is an example from today...
After the move up at 7.00am, I looked at support at 8920. But not till much later in the session.
Failed break higher at 9:40...well that was what I anticipated as HOD.
If that's true, then avoid great looking setups and always take duds. Another way to say this is: pull the trigger only on the non-obvious trades. Just my 2 cents.
You are never in the wrong place... but sometimes you are in the right place looking at things in the wrong way.
2nd best day in a while. I didnt hold like I should have but to be fair, all the buying tails on the short side really freaked me out. I started taking what I thought I could get in a reasonable amount of time. I should have just held. My targets eventually got hit but in around 2-3 times the amount of time I normally will see targets hit.
Anyway, a good day that could have been great.
I only took signal trades today. I know I have an edge there and am getting more and more comfortable with them. I am also seeing counter trend trades fairly well although not taking those. I had 40 potential ticks on CT trades today. No regrets not taking them as they are currently NOT in my trade plan.
Yesterday was my kid's 10th birthday. She had her special breakfast she likes on holidays and birthdays, her favorite sunday lunch, then dinner at her favorite buffet last night. This place has a chocolate fountain she's in love with but it was out of order last night....she was disappointed but got over it like a trooper and indulged in chocolate covered strawberries instead. Oddly enough, she did not want a party but instead wanted to spend it with just my wife and I. Odd......we'll be throwing her a party in a few weeks after school starts and all her friends are back from vacation.
Cheers
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
I believed we would see a break out from these recent levels we've been trading at. I also figured it would come today or tomorrow after inventory report.
Well, we got it today. I was able to take advantage of it and ended more than 2.5X my previous best day. I made more today than I did all month. I am quite happy about that!
Anyway, one more week til my kid's back in school so doing some errands with her today and I think I'll get her a coffee to celebrate my win today.
Cheers.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris