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Another crappy day on the CL, I got just 2 signals all morning, when I generally get around 10. You might want to think about some sort of filtering mechanism to keep you out of unfavorable market environments like this, unless you think you just could not get your personal mojo going today.
I have a confession....I have felt like my personal mojo has take a vacation and not invited me along for the trip.
I battled some of the old demons today. The desire to constantly be in the market. I think this comes after a losing streak because I understand that without being in the market, money cannot be made and that if I am not in the market, I will miss the next big thing.....
All bad emotions.
Instead, I need to recognize I have an edge designed to keep me OUT of the market unless there are favorable conditions to be in the market.
In hindsight, I did have signals....enough to make it a decent day or perhaps a scratch day depending on how long I was prepared to sit and wait for the market to make it to my targets.
In real time, my emotions overrode my edge and created out of thin air, fictitious signals I was compelled to trade even though I knew it was against my self interest. It was almost impossible to control today.
In a way, these days are very valuable, they point out weakness and points of interest to work on. On great trading days, its not hard to remain in control. On poor trading days, it can be impossible. The mark of a good trader is not how they trade on great days but how they trade on poor days.
By that standard, I am still a beginner.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
To me, setting expectations of wins every day is most likely unrealistic. Market conditions change and I have noticed a tight ranging on the CL which is not good trading for your system. To me that is just market conditions and you adapting 'on the fly' to those, and you will get better over time.
However, the key is to stay positive and not count your ticks/pips by the day and focus more on the longer term windows of opportunity. I am a very judgmental person on myself as well as others, and I always want to measure my performance from a metric that doesn't matter. Measuring off of a daily makes no sense as if you didn't have losing days you would be the richest person in the world as your confidence would be unstoppable.
Your body can't run a marathon every day and reach the same times. At some point things will snap, pop, ping and you will have some downtime but it is temporary. Losses are inevitable and I am not telling you anything you don't know or already feel.
In terms of expecting to win everyday, I understand what your are saying, but there is a slight nuance. I expect to win everyday I sit at that trading chair. If I trade well in accordance to my plan and market condition, and still have a losing day, that is perfectly acceptable, that is the way it goes sometimes. But, if I have a losing day because I made numerous mistakes, or took unnecessary risk, or went outside of my plan, wrong market condition, or was sick, in a bad mood, wrong mental state, etc. etc., then that should not be acceptable, I need to identify these things and work on them.
I think it's a good idea to quit while you're ahead sometimes for emotional capital. Sometimes I feel it is important to do that after a bad day or string of bad days etc., to regain that emotional capital lost.
