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So the trade has started... will post the charts later as am headed for office and won't be able to manage this 6E short, but here are some things of importance:
1. The trading range of 6E is now nicely defined and we are at the top - the areas is right for a short.
2. There are multiple setups starting to confirm the short.
3. The trigger is a pinbar - this is a single price bar and represents a sharp reversal and rejection of price - with a stop above its top, have entered at the break of its bottom.
This move may go on for a long distance, almost to the other end of the huge trading range.
I will try to watch a bit later and might get out and in again based on how it moves, though the umbrella theory is 'short 6E'.
Long trades hence will be ignored.
Also, in case I am wrong then the equity 'sell in May' thumbrule would've officially begun! (I would make one more short if this hits the stop loss, based on further developments.)
When the flight was about to land, return journey from the ashram, a bunch of kids from a family obviously returning from vacation shouted 'Home Sweet Home!'
I have been trading from home sweet home for three days now and the uncertain yet cozy feeling of being a proper trader is returning. Trading on the move changes the whole process, and there is added uncertainty about spotty internet.
However the real issue is thinking of time as a limited commodity (during travel) whereas at home, being a trader being at it, the time a trade goes on for can be limitless - even hours or half a day. Yesterday's rather long video post was a example.
This journal has become a tool for shaping my internal maps; by typing it all down based on the somewhat egoistic thought that it might help someone else - but realizing that ultimately it is helping me most. Perhaps that is all that is really required.
I have spent countless hours now in front of charts - if my ball park is correct then the mandatory 10,000 hours so much touted are now done.
Two microlots are helping my psychology as I close one fairly quickly and allow the other one to reach its official target.
I had actually believed in myself last year - was actually green and all, however in the last two months gave it all back and more (chronicled in my previous journal of 'Pleasant Surprise').
Now, however I feel the money will come naturally - I am over the 'learning curve' and am also trying to share my struggles and like other open journals mine is not pretty at times.
Also, here on this forum, in this protected place I feel a lot of other calm individuals whom I can really and truthfully call my friends - I've met only a few in person! However this is better, solitude and silence works wonders for our accounts.
So, saying this, let me finish up my official journal entry and really head to office. As usual, if you feel inclined, and no compulsion, please vote for me on the link below - it will help me a lot to realize my dreams.
Separation of the inner silent being from the outer active one, so that one has two-part consciousness or a double consciousness, one behind watching and observing and finally controlling and changing the other which is active in front.
Friday was good for rule based trading but an account killer if one had gone against the trend.
I initially bought and captured a fair amount of the move but then mindlessly shorted, shorted and got stopped out, stopped out - I was supposed to try my theory TWICE, however I went on a spree and attempted this six times, this was definitely NOT trading - death by a thousand cuts.
A greater personality sometimes
Possesses us which yet we know it's ours
There are times when one becomes conscious of the displacement of one's habitual ego bound, limited, working self by a new personality which begins to make itself felt and acts. It is important not to lose touch with this higher self which comes into its own. This is where we want to be, this is the state we want to sustain.
2. Moving my stop losses if the price threatened to take me out of a losing trade.
My hand would be on the mouse button and click... click there would move the stop away from the threatening price action.
Time and again I would fall prey to these two vicious habits. I needed to find a way to restrain myself.
Then I tested a 'committment device' - basically a kitchen safe with a timer which would lock whatever contents you put in for a few minutes, hours or even days.
Though intended for the cookies and candies I started dumping my mice in (these were the days of desktops, and there were no touch screens). Crippled without input devices I would HAVE to watch the market take out my stop or reach my target without fail!
Research has shown that precommitment i.e. commitment to do something in a SPECIFIC TIME BOUND manner is the ultimate way to beat temptation. Precommitment means committing early, BEFORE that moment, when you know you will be tempted by bad choices later.
Creating or changing a habit requires significant willpower. Unfortunately, willpower is finite. Every decision from choosing what to eat, what to wear, what to say, and so on, consumes our willpower. When we run out of willpower, we start making bad decisions; this is known as decision fatigue. Commitment devices help us conserve willpower and avoid decision fatigue by removing temptations we would normally fight throughout the day or week and leaves us freed up to expend our willpower against things that matter. This is especially true for traders (scalpers).
The best strategy is not to rely on willpower in all situations and save it for emergencies. There are tricks, such as using commitment devices, that enable you to conserve willpower for those moments when it's indispensable. These techniques require relatively little willpower to implement, and therefore leave you sharper for your most challenging moments.
One very important note if you using this is that THERE IS NO OVERRIDE. Once you put something inside the box, it will stay there until the timer counts down.
These devices are kinda obsolete - you can RDC to your desktop, laptops have built in input devices, touch screens are abundant.... however this post serves to remind me of the depth of the problems and the funny lengths I went to to solve them!