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As we talked about earlier, you need to define “overtrading”. If you are trading compulsively it does not matter if it’s a live account or a Sim account, you will eventually blow up.
I consider myself a trader in training. I did opt to go back to Sim trading for training purposes.
I suppose some of it could be considered over trading but I am focused on mental analysis and trading the correct way from a mental and psychological perspective. Opening myself up to what the market is offering and not making typical trading errors is my goal.
The objective is to consistently define risk before each trade, execute entries without reservation or hesitation, quickly except a loss and exit a trade that it is not working. And have a systematic approach to taking profits on trades that are working in my favor.
I still need a few more weeks of training but I have been profitable on a daily basis trading my Sim account and it only took me four times reading through the Mark Douglas book “trading in the zone” to start figuring out what he was talking about.
I have always been a little slow to catch on, but I’m actually starting to believe that a correct way of thinking produces consistent winning.
A free-flowing state of mind is possible, but it is not something that can be forced. It requires training the mind to believe in, and be unafraid of, the uncertainty of price movement.
Having a correct belief system about the uncertain (anything can happen) nature of the market is a counteracting force that eliminates the four basic fears of trading, fear of loss, being wrong, missing out, leaving money on the table.
Without fear of getting in the way, it is much easier to perceive what the market is offering and avoid trading errors like overtrading or trading compulsively.
I like the idea of programming and automating multiple strategies, so the computer enters trades instantaneously when and only when the predetermined conditions occur. Similarly, there are predetermined exit instructions for each strategy which I admit I occasionally (but not often) override, for example if there are unanticipated extraordinary gains that I want to lock in while the market is at a strong resistance level which I expect it will fail to exceed. There are some products on the market which are reasonably priced and can assist you in designing your own strategies. Using such a program, you can incorporate a neural net into the entry conditions for your automated strategies. The neural net will often strongly limit the likelihood of an entry into the market in such a way that the chance of a favorable outcome is significantly increased. This can certainly help to avoid the over-trading issue. Since the computer will determine and execute the entries, you can trade multiple markets at once - only a small percentage of strategies are likely to actually enter a trade on any given day, but the chance of success and an entry into a favorably moving market may be better than you will achieve by closely trying to follow and react to price movement of only one or two markets. Alternatively, you can program your own strategies with entry filters that you create, usually from higher (longer) time frames than the time frame on which you are trading. The computer is much faster than the human being and it never gets distracted, loses concentration, or reacts emotionally , etc.
fear of missing out.. leads to overtrading. everyone faces it to a certain degree
find out how 'emotional' you are.. find out your personality on one of those free online tests & learn about yourself. knowing & acknowledging a fact like 'i am neurotic' can already work wonders for your trading
one self prescribed cure is to have a current pic of you, side by side with an aged +30 or 40 years pic of you. will the old you approve of this trade? missing out on moves/trades dont matter. it surely wont matter to an 80yo you. there r much more important matters in life, like playing with grandkids
only when one can see fomo in oneself, only than can one seriously consider trading for a living
for the thinking inclined, backtesting, programme trading. follow the plan, nothing is left to fallable discretion
Anytime I have found myself overtrading in the past it was because I was groping around for a decent trade to make up for any losses I had from being stopped out. In any case I kept building up losses while I was trying to avoid losses.
This has been helping me. I defined three outcomes to my live market analysis:
1. I do not understand the context of the current market-behavior - I stay out.
2. I believe I understand the context of the market-behavior but it does not fit my playbook - I stay out.
3. I believe I understand the context of the market-behavior and it fits one of my playbook entries - I may enter.
My playbook is a set of entries that have specific characteristics and need to kind of "fit" the current market behavior.
For the emotional side, it has just taken practice and making lots of mistakes to get away from re-entering right after losses, or on rare occasions, feeling invincible and jumping in impulsively. Trading the micros, and then Journaling my experiences, as well as going over other's journals here has helped a great deal in this regard.
Eventually good habits will stick, it just takes time to learn, and I'm never going to be 100% there.