Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
For me, The Ego is an account killer
It covertly turns me into its illogical defender
From clear-headed reasoner to emotional nervous 'feeler'
Anything passes as rational when I'm in its mind-blender.
Today was a learning experience if I allow learning to happen.
I came to the market not really neutral of bias - the signs told me that an upmove was more likelier than a downmove.
The point where I shorted was in the EMA and an H1 H2 / Block Break with upside rbeakout had formed pointing to that upmove I had in mind but I shorted because the overall trend was bearish.
This was a clear case of the same problem I had talked about three posts earlier - focusing on bigger picture and enter sloppily!
Still not fixed.
I exited with a small profit (at the green line) but has a large 'unacceptable' MAE.
I need to find ways to improve otherwise this may well become an account killer.
Trying be The Perfect Person is when I get into trouble.
Striving for too much perfection is actually covertly hating yourself. That does not leave you in an unbiased state. You have now got to tend to your tender ego as well as listen to the nuances of the market.
When the voice says I HAVE to it actually means NOW OR NEVER or more insidiously it means YOU ARE NO GOOD. None of these two statements are true but it takes only a moment to get lost or take a misstep that can be fatal for you account.
Practice, then, is to stay neutral trade after trade, not intoxicated by the sweet siren song of the ego. Trading happens through you, not because of you. The first step is getting into the boring state that produces profits and stay there till the end of the trading session - at that point you realize you are not bored at all - that is when you have done it right!
I've been reading a book by Richard Esser called "Viltality, A Psychiatrist's Answer To Life's Problems".
Some ideas from it:
What is it in a person’s perception of living that leads to the worst of states and what is it that leads to the best of states?
- People in the worst of states were caught up in the pursuit of false rewards.
- The very worst of desperation is a mixture of six elements in different degree: craziness, rage, panic, violence, hopelessness and self-destructiveness.
- What helped them was a realization of what the real rewards in living are and how to get them. Such rewards are to be found in six different spheres of our living:
loving, friendship, learning, work, idealism and a private life.
Desperation is not something to be feared but serves as an essential resource that we need in our efforts to turn the worst of living into the best using the following method - by converting the negative to the positive:
- underlying the creativity–craziness linkage is imagination
- underlying the courage–rage linkage is power
- underlying the initiative–panic linkage is self-mobilization
- underlying the dynamism–violence linkage is self-assertion
- underlying the achievement–hopelessness linkage is ambition
- underlying the self-fulfillment–self-destructiveness linkage is self gratification.
Lot of SMALL successful trades for the whole month and ONE BIG loss today.
REMINDER: What to do after a losing streak:
Recovery after a Losing Streak or a Heavy Loss
I am starting fresh. I know what to do to win. I am doing the right things right now, and not trying to get back my money. I am not taking revenge—there is no one to fight with. I am taking it slowly until I get a good feeling. I am not complaining about my loss. I paid money for the lesson. Now I am applying my new knowledge to my trading. I am taking only trades that match my set of rules. There is no memory of money lost—my trading account is not money. It’s a tool for making money. I am rebuilding my confidence with many small wins. They let me feel the taste of winning. I don’t let events control me. I am in control of myself. I am going to remember the feeling of every win.
- - this causes me to tend to my trading like a garden. When the perfect blomoms are gone then life itself becomes meaningless hence I take trades out of the system. I also try to get hold of the big winners and kill myself. I need to refer back to the first page of this journal and look at the Perfection billboard again. It's not worth that much.
-I do not really look at myself as a trader. I kelp saying 'part-time,
- - this causes me to take trades and then run errands. Yesterday's big loss happened because I wanted a discounted lunch. That was an EXPENSIVE gourmet treat.
This is part-money not part-time.
And finally I look at making money off the markets as a sort of retail therapy. It needs to obey or I get mad.
-------
So we know the issues. What am I going to do about it.
- slow down. Sit and trade.
- dedicate - god moves mountains when I really dedicate myself