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Mindful and day trading journal.
I have learned the price action technical approach from my older brother who has been in the business since 2001.
He does very well for himself and has been my inspiration to also do well.
I can say that i'm really proud of how far i have made it considering it has only been a couple of years since this journey started.
My problem is absolutely mental. Trading is about execution. And i'm shit at execution.
Being mindful and analyze the chart i'm good at, but being mindful and execute the trade plan, i'm completely useless.
Thankfully i have a very patiently supportive sibling who understands the pains of a wanna be newbie.
To know the market i need to know myself. One moment at a time, one day at a time. The more i follow my rules the more i will learn to trust myself.
I do structure my life so everything would stay the same, and the market has no structure only unlimited possibilities. And that is the main issue here.
Therefore the market is the perfect mirror of my own attitude. I have never been in an environment where there exist such things as unlimited possibilities.
And my attitude reflects that. I freeze whenever i see the potential. The question is: What do i want ? And i have no reply. At least not yet.
I must work on learning to control my perception of the market. In order to attain a higher degree of objectivity and to interact with it properly.
My trading approach is technical price action. Observing the weekly and the daily OHLC levels.
If the price is not moving higher then yesterday high then it will be moving lower and vice versa.
I'm tracking for the buy or the sell signals around the prior weekly or daily Highs or Lows.
The weekly and daily charts are the main bias points and 180m 60m 30m and 10m are used for stops, entries and targets.
The funded account is $12K i will trade 1 to 3 lots depending on the set ups.
I had the ES on the charts today. The plan was to find a sell trigger.
The price rallied @ OPEN to retest yesterday's high level and there was a very nice divergence showing sell.
I did not take the trade. I was playing a frozen Popsicle instead. Everything inside me turned upside down.
Talk to my brother after. We were both happy that i did my homework properly. The only happiness of the day for me.
The ES did end up doing what the analysis suggested.
Incredible how an emotion of FEAR limits the range of my perceived opportunities and responses by narrowing the focus of my attention.
Fear really just wants me to stay in fear and keep feeding it.
Mark Douglas in his books talks about being frozen and having a tunnel vision. It's quite an experience!
Off to do my meditations again. And get ready for day 2 tomorrow. (to play the frozen popsicle again i imagine)
Was observing ES, CL and GC today and did not take any trades.
Played the frozen Popsicle again today instead.
I adopted new mental principles and points to help solve my issues.
My 4 Market principles
1. every moment is unique
2. anything can happen
3. i don't need to know what is going to happen next to make money
4. there is a random distribution between the wins and losses on any given set of variables that define my edge
My 7 Points of consistency in my mental environment
1. i am a consistently successful trader because i objectively define my edge
2. i predefine my risk on every trade
3. i completely accept that risk and i am willing to let go of that trade
4. i act upon my edge without reservation or hesitation
5. i pay myself as the market makes the money available to me
6. i continue to monitor my susceptibility of making errors
7. i understand the absolute necessity of these principles of consistent success and will therefore never violate them
Hey zmaj. These are good observations, almost a snapshot of some of the stuff Ive been through.
''Being mindful and analyze the chart i'm good at, but being mindful and execute the trade plan, i'm completely useless.''
Mindfulness can be useful but you have to learn when to switch if off. This sounds counter intuitive but think about this:
How do you stir muddy water until it becomes clear? You cant because your stirring keeps circulating the muddy particulate around. If you just leave the water alone, the mud will settle by itself and you will be left with nice clear water. That mud is still there but you are not agitating it.
Muddy water is your mind. Stirring is your thoughts. You cannot think yourself into a state of less thinking.
What is your natural response when a trade is slowly grinding against you? Mind goes retard and starts doing the only thing it knows to do in this situation - more analysis, more thinking, more scenarios... but its a trap. Thats why we balk out of perfectly good trade opportunities because mind is trying to think its way out of the mess. What was your ally becomes your enemy.
And the reason its all so damn difficult is because we are not trading the market but our beliefs, wishes and desires.
If i might just highlight something else I noticed, if you are adamant about mindfulness mantras and such things then try using more positive phrases. You have a lot of negativity masquerading as good intent but overall it will keep you suppressed. Remove words like risk, hesitation, susceptibility, violate, error, reservation.
Observing the CL, ES and GC.
Had a set up long on all three instruments around 8am.
Froze on taking the CL. The ES became a daze. The GC was in focus. I kept repeating my 4 mantras
1. anything can happen
2. every moment is unique
3. i don't need to know what is going to happen next to make money
4. there is a random distribution between the wins and losses on any given set of variables that define an edge
4 attempts to go long on GC
Set up was on the 30m chart / the trigger was on 10m
First trade was stopped out as my entry was protected +3
Second trade was a loss -4
Third trade was a loss -1
Fourth trade was a win +21
Mentally i held myself together well throughout the 4 trades, except that on the forth trade, once i was in the profit, i lost my objectivity and bailed out @ +21
Even though my target was + 40 ticks away. And the price did reach that +40 target
I understand, that i must keep my 4 mantra points going.
When i started, i was focused on the process, and towards the middle i lost my objectivity completely.
Instead of keeping my mind on the process of trading i started thinking about the outcome of trading.
notes to myself: i am committed to take the same set up for the next 20 times when the set up shows up
I believe the consistency of my edge will show up by the time i reach 20 sample trades, and help me establish a good mental base
Thank you for your thoughts and suggestions GrantX.
I agree 110%
We trade our beliefs, wishes and desires. We trade the outcome as oppose to be mindful of the process.
That's why i see mindfulness as simply being aware of the process.
Understanding myself, i know that i'm unable to turn my emotions off,
but ever so slightly i am able to do the next best thing and keep my mind on the actual process of day trading.
I surf and ride motorcycles and i use the same "focus on the process" methodology every day.
Surfing i think of the process of surfing, on what i have to do, not on falling off the board and hurting myself.
Even though that is a part of the process.
Also riding a motorcycle. I'm focused on the movement not thinking about actually falling off the bike.
Even though that is also a part of the process. And why i wear the protective gears. My "stop loss".
Why day trading business is so fascinating to me, my mind just does not shut up.
A constant chatter upstairs about the outcome of each trade as oppose to the process of trading.