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I had a terrible time finding my stride today. So I just kept taking trades and letting the trail stop protect me, which it did an admirable job of today.
Because I had no feel at all today, I passed on a number of good trades but I simply did not understand what price was telling me today so I waited until I thought I had sure things to trade. Of course this was a crap shoot but the trail stop protected me and I ended the day -2 after 14 round trips.
I also took a break after the first 1.50 hours and did a little better after that. Max lots traded was 1 today.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Lots of trades today. To many to post actually. I've provided the first hour or so.
Net result, +18 ticks. Not so great with trade selection but worse yet, not so great with actually taking the trades. There were far more that I passed on for varied reasons than I actually took.
I realized I can be a lot more aggressive now that I am a scalper with a tight stop. Losers are mostly smaller than the winners so no reason not to trade aggressive.
I added size twice today and had losers both times. Never made it past 2 lots.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
What happens if you hit market on a live CL trade. How many ticks difference are we typically talking? I am guessing you buy/bid, sell/ask or are you buy/ask, sell/bid?
I would think to get filled you may be buy/ask, sell/bid or "Chase" a couple ticks on the ATM?
I think you use CT4 though right? How is that software coming along. Are you still doing the gauntlet thingy with TopStep or whatever?
Just curious. Share only what you feel comfortable and just making conversation and am interested.
I've taken a small break from trading this week. I found I was exhausted mentally and physically. The toll taken on my body, my mind and my soul as I have struggled to find out who I am as a trader has been overwhelming. So my daughter is out of school this week and I promised I would spend some time with her and thus a week of rest was produced at a very opportune time.
Just because I need rest does not mean my body clock resets. I've woken up at 4:30AM every morning just as normal and today I decided to get out of bed and go to starbucks where I am currently writing this post from.
It's been a bit since my last post. Mostly because I just haven't felt like posting for one reason or another. Since that last post, I've taken another step toward profitability.
After two years of struggle, I've finally come to terms with the fact I get very tired trying to constantly analysis everything and that due to my technician leanings, I need to really systemize everything. The EMyth is a great book that I read years ago. Some people are entrepreneurs and others are technicians. I have about a 50/50 split between the two. Which means I love to take calculated risks but when things don't work according to plan, I can analyze it to death in an attempt to perfect and worse, I tend to get bored when something I start works really well and I start looking for something else to do. I can start businesses but I hate to run them day to day.
So over the last few weeks, I've created systems as to trade with and to manage my money with as a good technician should and then I did something that I think was a stroke of genius. I decided to trade for a certain amount of time with my profitable system, and then exit the work place. I mean get away from the office completely. Getting bored with a method or system leads to tweaking where none is necessary. But if I am otherwise engaged, my natural tendencies can be circumvented. So 2-3 times a week, I am volunteering at my church. In fact, later to day I am sweeping and mopping some floors. Menial work to be sure but the important thing is that is focused away from myself and onto serving others even if it is in some small way. Other days I am spending with my wife away from the house. She is off Monday and Tuesday's so those days we have plenty of time together. We got to breakfast, ride a bike, etc. And starting in a week or so, I am joining a gym a few blocks from my house and I will begin a lifestyle change to finally make physical fitness part of my life.
Since beginning these changes, I've become comfortable with myself again, more certain about how I trade will bear fruit over time, and perhaps most important, I finally ditched the desire to be right all the time and the overwhelming pressure to get rich quick. I've settled on a methodical long term trading plan that will in time fulfill all my dreams but the near term is simply one foot in front of the other.
I'll never again chase the Holy grail in terms of indicators or methods. What I have works. Why change. I don't need to make 100 ticks a day to fulfill my dreams. So why try. Just grind it out and add size as money management allows.
Next week I think I will be back on sim. I intend to test one final aspect of my method I think will pay dividends but I since what I am testing is a removal of something instead of an addition, I think sim is best.
One last thing. Over the last few weeks, I've come to really accept that 99% of this game is mental and psychological. I am convinced that almost all methods work at some level. But its the patience to wait for the set up, the aggressiveness to take every one that presents and finally the discipline to take profits where the method says to take profits that count. The holy grail is: Patience, decisiveness, and discipline. Discipline manifests in many areas of life but nowhere is it more important than trading. Lack of discipline will blow your account out faster than anything else.
Yesterday I was speaking to a friend and he blew through three days of stops in one day. Psychologically this is very damaging. It will take him 3-5 days to recover from this if he follows his trading plan to the letter over the next few days. Worse, not honoring your daily stop is not being honest with yourself. That stop says I am not trading well or my method is not working to day. By not honoring it, you are in effect saying you are better than the market.
If I paid someone to take trades until a certain amount of profit was achieved or a certain stop was hit each day and they violated those instructions, I would fire them immediately. Not honoring stops is basically grounds for being fired. At that point its just gambling and gambling against a very strong house edge. Just stupid.
Anyway, I've decided to relax, trade my plan and stop putting so much pressure on myself. Just trade the plan and let the results play out how they however they play out. After all, this is supposed to be boring. All this stress and pressure is just drama........
Ok, time to head back to the house and wake my kid up.....she's always a joy in the mornings....one of my favorite times with her is when she's just awakened, curls up in my lap and makes those little cute purring sounds she makes when she's happy......not to many things better than that.
Cheers.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris