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Hope it soon passes, but take your time to get well: was a good start, so be encouraged and there is plenty of time in this combine for you to resume when you feel up to it. Be patient
Best
JS
It is currently two steps forward and one step backward with recovery.
Just as we thought the younger one is fully recovered, here she is collapsing into my arms - my shoulders are aching with alternately carrying two weary children.
Though worn down and hazy there is a glow inside me - I have found my family again.
I just read @FXwulf's lonely journey here and I actually cried. I also stumbled back to my terminal yesterday and traded the Indian index futures with real money - I don't know why I did that since I can hardly think from the weakness but ended up losing 10% of my capital for no reason (and the things I did were plain silly - did not remember how many lots I had sold high up and covered twice the number on the half way down thinking I was flat when I had long positions in a falling market and then realizing the NEXT day (gap down) what I had done.)
I suddenly realized that the time I give to trading is just "time at the workplace" - I did not want to go from one workplace to another one - life is still confined and restricted (by bosses and now by the Big Boss Mr.Market).
Perhaps I am feeling desolate more because of the illness but I am seriously thinking of giving up intraday trading.
To that effect TopStepTrader may not be the best fit for me - it is purely for an intraday trading style.
I will tone down on my quest for intraday setups i.e. stop monitoring the charts all day long.
I will focus on trading as a longer timeframe pursuit, and will minimize time spent in front of the screen.
To that effect I will not be aiming for a TST funded account any longer and will trade with my own minimal capital. It still can be quite profitable I guess.
My friend, I sympathize. The hardest time to be disciplined is when one is BELOW peak, hence the rule: only trade when you are in peak condition. Even then, trading is difficult and demanding, unless you are really good. Don't watch the market, as it drains energy, just wait till you feel better and THEN make your decisions.
Sorry if this sounds bossy, but you know it's right.
Keep on keeping on.
JS
Lying in bed powerless to do anything made me want to get up and do 'something' - unfortunately by habit that something became trading. What an unnecessary waste of capital!
I am flat and lying down flat till I can have the energy to be disciplined.
Hey my friend Im so sorry that my post affected you so deeply and caused you a loss of your own confidence and of a portion of your account! please understand this was NOT my intention.
My intent was to share my personal journey and shed some light on some of the mistakes and pitfalls that perhaps others can avoid by being aware of the potentials before they embark on their journey.
We all walk our own path ultimately. For some folks, trading comes naturally and easily. In fact one of my dear friends is a young woman who saved up $5k for a tradestation futures account, wielding only that with a few youtube videos on supply/demand(courtesy of sam seiden) doubled her account trading crude in 3 weeks and went on to creating a $1/4 miliion account within the next 6 months! She continues to excel in a way ive NEVER seen replicated, a natural, pure and simple.
My best friend(I was best man at his wedding) has about the most simple system in the universe. He has about 30 markets he looks at. Qualifies good zones high/low on the perceived curve, places his trade with a 10:1 R:R and likes to travel about the world riding motorcycles with his wife. His winning % is abysmal by most standards( like 17%), but he routinely more than doubles his account every year and makes a darn good living working no more than 3 hours a week!
For me personally i can tell you that I spend very little time trading now. I swing trade very large TF's in the forex markets, trade ETF and various stock options(average trade length is about a month), and I spend about 1-2hours from 8-10am EST placing a few short term NY session futures trades and another hour around 7-8PM placing overnight trades in the futures markets for some Pac-asian markets. My hours are not conducive to london so I dont trade it.
Decide what you want in life my friend, what lengths you are willing to go to achieve it, and then do it. If you fall short then walk away or simply adjust your aspirations, NO REGRETS.
I guess I am depressed due to the continued illness.
I feel I am "almost there" (i.e. things are working) and here I go and blow 10%+ of my account. Agreed I began in a groggy state which was not the best for trading out of anyways, so I will let this one instance go and remind myself to trade only when fit.
I hope to join the ranks of the traders you listed AND spend lesser and lesser screen time so that I can be with my family.
Really great discussion here. I sympathize to IQGod and wish him well to recover soon both his health and his account! Wulf's story touched me too and I think what he did was to ultimately change many aspects of his personality to allow him to succeed in trading, rather than just "learn" it. Trading is simply analyzing psychology of masses, nothing more really.
As for intraday trading, I do believe trading longer term swings can be more suitable for more people, and perhaps more profitable too bar rare cases, but the problem with it is that experience building is very slow when you trade few times a week, as opposed few times or more a day. I consider my own intra-day trading being first and foremost an experience-building procedure rather than long-term life-style pattern.