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This week has been terribly hard. A very very close love one is going through a very serious health issue.
There is nothing more I, or they can do at this point. Now it's a waiting and hoping game for a week or so! It's been the shit weeks of all shit weeks.
I try to help... I work... I trade... I read/write on FIO all in an attempt to distract, except for the first one.
I haven't felt the need to express this but seeing as I'm still trading when I maybe shouldn't I should journal it. (I think I'm afraid to get too personal but I don't need to go into details. I know what they are.)
It still serves to explain my mental state and how my trading deviated from when my heads clear. And its NOT clear.
I need to be able to trade through it all or know when to step aside.
So what I initiated the other day has worked. It not only stopped me from losing a shit ton but in this case I came out up. Actually putting structure and BOUNDARIES on my trades had an immediate positive affect.
So I sat in the hospital for the good part of the day today just waiting. It was horrible. I did trade to distract myself and still managed GREAT on the trading side.
Not because I was profitable, I was in this instance but not always, but because I've used the 50/100 tick ratio (thank you Lancelottrader) as an initial setup and found it bounds my trades.
My main new rules are you can bring 50t stop closer but NEVER away and 100t away preferably and not usually closer.
Todays results: trades in the pictures are the same. One the trades, the other the chart of those trades.
well how did it go today? we are hoping yu made money. nq was one of the best ones to trade today and i did very lil in it due to nursing my other positions all day
Stupid busy day. Days like today are normally my money makers as I'm pretty contrarian. But absolutely no focus today. I should not trade with everything I have going on but...
Great. Thank you for asking. Just catching up on here.
My new "constraints" as I've been calling them (cutting losses and taking profits at targets vs relying on a skewed R/R with bigger winners) I think have kept me from taking big losses. (It's a balance as I don't like stops but they are best for me right now.)
I lost money today but it could have been alot worse. Had I been watching the screen more closely I most likely(?) would have been profitable.
Sti happy with my progress. Alot of whiplash. Here's what I mean and what happened.
it looks like your stop is set to 1 point or 1.25 points. not sure why you would do this? very very close. also you are trading a lot for not being at the screen all day how much in fees did you pay? are you including fees in your posts? commission clearing. even if its demo that is ok but you gotta include fees.
Ya this is my last day for awhile. I'm not sure why but I'm trading. To distract myself from a loved ones health situation I think and to trying to cope.
But this is asinine! Its stressing me out and shes feeling it now too. NOT OK.
I don't trade like that normally and don't like it... but it stops me from catastrophic trading.
Yes it's easy to say just stop. I'm going to sim to fill the need to distract.
I have been live all year.
No those don't include commissions. I have tried may different ways to post. I dont like alot of the way guys post. I just dont look at them. They are just "noise".
I post the way I do so I can see at a glance what the day looked like?
I HATE STOPS. Not like I'm a little bitch and I dont want to take stops but like THEY KILL ANY STRATEGY!
This may sound strange to most but I dont give a shit about loosing money. I put it in there and if it's gone it's gone. But consistently loosing PISSES ME RIGHT THE FUCK OFF!
But I'm just being an idiot. I may have looked at the charts on maybe %10 of those trades the rest I just "hit the button". Not even kidding. Even the hardest core random walk theorist wouldn't do that!
Stupid. I'm stressed and scared to the MAX for my loved one.
This is no time to trade.
Cutloss you are so right. At first I found you tirade alot. But man that's me to the tee too! Very passionate lol. And you seem extremely smart and knowledgeable.
We disagree alot but clearly have ALOT to learn from you!
When I do trade (the way I want with a clear head) I don't use stops I use a max exposure point..be it dollars or cumulative points ect and scale in and out of both losing and winning trades.
This takes alot of effort and I have NOT being doing that at all!!!
I use this mind trick (it works for me) where minus $87 is minus is $8. I say I'm at minus $8 out loud.
Down $136? I say out loud "I'm now $13 dollars down". Then if I keep saying $15... $17... it's either getting stretched or it's going to keep going. THATS MY PROBLEM.
I can't tell you how many times then it went from $15 ($153)... $12($128)... back to 15 then dropped... 12... 9... 6... 8... 4... 0 (anywhere between -10 and +10) to plus $2($27)... 5... 9...
You see the WAY I LOOK at it is if you are in an open position and it goes from minus $150 to $150 plus you just made $300!!!!
So instead of stopping out at minus $150 and possibly taking ANOTHER $150 loss I try to scale out or hold.
That is my WHOLE strategy in a nutshell.
(Addendum: this just happened... went from minus $12 ($128) I removed all stops now at $2 ($28) to me I just made $100. Could still loose. Still open but I didnt LOCK in loss. You can see from the pic it's at the time $6 ($65) "Six dollars down")
I have yet to devise a better PROFIT TAKING VEHICLE though. That is still my biggest problem NOT stops.
As you can see from the other day STOPs are what saved me but they are also why I LOST money.
Today I started with the 50/100 "constraints" and it put me almost $200 in the hole almost immediately. Stop... stop... stop... stop...
Going back to MY way for today then back to sim next week with my way till profitable or home stressors relieve.
P.S. thank you again! @Cutloss as I found away to put commissions in every screenshot. See below.
Curious? Are you a predictor? Or look for good R/R spots? Levels? Don't need details at all just generalizations.
Do you have fixes targets and stops when you get in?
I get in at prior turning points (support and resistance loosely defined) as to me that's the only true levels on the chart at all nd only because everyone can see them and people are trapped. That's it. That's all I use. Period. No more. No trend lines. No indicators nothing.
It's all about trade management to me.
I was doing great for months then a family health issue hit our home like a ton of bricks and I've been trading like I'm in a shit storm. (Which I am).
I do not have the ability to weather the open drawdowns like I used to being so stressed from outside sources and cut cut cut at the wrong time.
Not that I knew where that was but I panick out instead of scaling out into dips in my direction.
That is the problem right now.
I removed stops and am short the MNQ and am almost $200 in drawdown on 2 micro NQs.
I don't want to panic out but I want to!!!
Hold man hold!
Wonder how you would have handled after entry @Cutloss?
Entry: 13704.25 in the MNQ. Currently screamed straight up to 13760. I'm now MINUS $236 (I'm $23 down on the MNQ... said out loud) in the open trade.