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I trade FT and also work FT. I'm extremely, extremely fortunate to have a FT job that for the most part requires oversight of things. I can devote most of my day to the markets.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
I am still in the combine. I have traded so poorly it's cringe worthy. There have been a couple of weeks where I was on vacation and a week plus a few days where I was so busy at work I could not really trade. These things I am okay with. But I basically abandoned my psychological work/queues which have caused massive fear and hesitation. I have skipped 90% of the trade signals I have seen.
I was taking trades very easily on sim before I started the combine. The ease of getting into and out of trades properly (to plan) was routine and I dropped the psychological work I'd been doing. I didn't expect the combine would be such a large step for me mentally but it has been. For whatever reason it took me a while to realize this and make a connection. It wasn't until this weekend that I realized what might be creating this gap between signal and execution. I had the same problems initially on sim until I got used to the feeling of pain and anxiety and was able to manage it.
This week I have been working more on my psychology and focus. My performance has been better but no where near peak. I will continue to work on this until I can become used to and live with the pain. I am taking next week off so I will really do some good mental work and prepare for 2019.
I should say that by performance I don't mean wins and losses or P/L, I mean trading to my plan. This trading journey is so hard, I can't express in words how difficult this is. It's by far the most difficult thing I have ever tried to do. I would never recommend this line of work to anyone, not even an enemy. I'm too deep to turn back now, and I'm a glutton for punishment so it suits me. But the level of difficulty is off the chart.
One thing that has helped me tremendously with trading psychology is meditation. I've been meditating daily for the last 5 years or so. Over time, I have gotten more used to not shying away from pain, and to kind of "separating myself" from the thoughts and emotion that flood in when there are losses. Instead of avoiding the pain, I try to explore it with curiosity. Over time the result has been a lot less suffering when there are drawdowns on my account.
The other great benefit: it has helped me have more peace-of-mind in general in life, and to be more compassionate toward others. So it packs two scoops of benefits!
Thanks for the comment and advice. I began a meditation practice a long time ago...it's been 12 years I think. This was when I began exploring and studying Buddhism. I've had a regular practice more often than not over those years but lately it has fallen off. The times that I have made real progress in my psychological approach to trading have usually coincided with me meditating regularly. Predictably I have not been meditating regularly for a few months.
I have this habit of doing something that works so well I quit doing it ;-) During the Christmas break I am going to really try to establish a more healthy environment/routine away from markets routine. More intense and regular exercise and re-starting a regular meditation practice will be the two things I will work to get going again.
Dude nice man! I know what you mean: sometimes the urge to meditate only comes when we really feel like we need it. And then when things are going well, it just doesn't feel like we need it anymore so we don't do it. But hey, that's probably a lot better than not doing it at all! Best of luck to you CK.
Sharing a couple of trades (sim) from this morning. I am trading ES live and have been doing so for 3 weeks. I've also been sim trading NQ during that time. I'm at break even on the live ES stuff including commissions, etc. I'm still working on following my system and rules, particularly with entries. On good weeks I'm running around 80% on entries and bad weeks in the mid 60% range. I trade 1M ES and 2M NQ and the last few weeks have been challenging with my methodology which is part mean reversion and part support/resistance. It seems like follow through at my inflection points has been weak and the indices have tended to grind a lot, which I can't take advantage of. I'm looking for overextension and quick moves off of an area.
The good thing here is that I've not been frustrated, I'm just trying to hit entries and let what happens happen. I have missed a few of the profitable trades; I could have a small profit over this time but it's fine - I'm getting more consistent and not beating myself up about anything. My plan is to just trade the ES for now until I get consistent and (hopefully) build up my account. If I can get these two things down then I'll add in NQ later.
I've also been experimenting with CL, trying to find a way to trade this. My focus has been CL but I've also added 6E. I would like to use a different time frame and methodology with these. I don't really start trading ES and NQ until after 10:00 so it's not a big deal to watch/sim trade CL and 6E before 10:00; after 10:00 I don't watch them as closely so I more mark trades that I might have taken. I imagine it will be a very long time before I will possibly trade CL and/or 6E if I ever do. I can't see me trading these live in 2019; I probably won't have enough sim trades or back tested results and I probably won't have the account size to the increased risk exposure this would bring.
Anyway, on CL/6E I'm really just looking at potential SR areas using volume spikes as a guide. I'm also looking for exhaustion and overextension using volume and momentum divergence. The 6E hit my target. The CL would have but I bailed at break even after another strong move down. The move down created potential resistance just above my entry so I saw no point in continuing to hold the trade.
I don't think I'll start this journal up in terms of regularly posting like I was, but I will probably add things here and there if something interesting or significant happens as I like the idea of documenting my journey online.