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Yes, in a way. The additional practice and honing of skills gives more confidence . That decreases fear somewhat. However, the dynamic of live trading is always going to have a different psychological component than SIM.
For example, you can go to a shooting range and get pretty good at simulated tactical shooting. You could end up blowing away all these simulated hostile targets with some great maneuvers. But then, you could end up in a real gunfight and find that you don't act the same as you did on the range. That's an extreme example, of course, but illustrates that things are much harder when they Count.
One has to trade live for a period of time to feel somewhat comfortable. The problem is..it's also easy to keep blowing out accounts.
What makes me nervous is when there is too much uncertainty. I found I was most uncertain and nervous in trades that required a great deal of prediction and speculation. On SIM, that uncertainty is easy to deal with. What I mean is certain setups..where you are thinking, "This seems oversold..this is probably going to reverse at this price." Or.."this is a head and shoulder pattern..maybe I should take that setup." Those type of trades are just educated guesses. Maybe they workout..maybe they don't.
I have tried to remove all setups, as of late, that I don't have a huge amount of certainty in. There are moves, where it is obvious to me, that the orderflow, momentum, market conditions and price action..for a few brief moments has very good odds that it will move explosively through an area..and at least hit a 20 tick target on something like NQ. I know, if I can be patient, and wait for those moves, then I have a much better chance than being in a speculative setup where I am guessing what will happen next.
Another thing is that I have tried to release all the psychological baggage that has hindered me. I was at a point, not long ago, where I felt tremendous pressure to succeed. After failing so many times..and after committing over 10 years of my life to this..each new losing day took on a very painful sensation. The dominating thought was that I had taken myself out of the job market for many years and now if I failed at trading, what else was I going to do?
I went through a pattern of failing at live trading, then switching back to SIM for a few months until I felt like I was ready. Then back to live only to fail again. Each time with more urgency and fear of failure. Finally, I pretty much gave up. I relinquished the dream of being a trader able to support myself from this. I comforted myself in the belief that hardly anyone else out there was making it as a retail trader, either. Then I had a day on my live account where I was down past my daily max loss..and I just said "F..k it! I'm not stopping. I hope I lose enough where I just convince myself to stop this idiotic endeavor." I sabotaged myself and lost several thousand taking pathetic trades. I didn't care and pretty much lost on purpose that day. It was truly horrible, especially after all the years of time, money and effort.
Strangely enough, after that incident, I took a few live trades a few weeks later. This time I had no fear or pressure..since I had mentally already given up. I just took those immediate momentum scalps like you see on my new videos. All of sudden, I started winning live, virtually every day. I decided not to go back to that pressure feeling anymore. I'll just scalp these setups and if I lose..so what? Except now I'm doing better than ever before.
I know this was rambling and maybe incoherent, but I hope I got my points across.
This is exactly right. However, the process of finding the right chart configurations to match up with personality, goals and risk tolerance can take a while. I have changed my charts countless times trying to find the right mix. I never thought I would end up with 10 and 30 second charts, but that's where I am.
I have also been experimenting with your 2 range line chart. It's really useful to see small pullbacks in a volatile market.
I know what you mean. Once losing is not a problem, things fall into place.
It reminds me of when I was attempting to roller blade.
I purchased the skates, pads, and shin guards etc. and went to the sidewalk to skate.
Fall after fall and shaky attempts ended up with only a few new scrapes and bruises.
However, I went back to the store and purchased a helmet.
When I went back out I felt invincible. I was a wild man on blades.
I did jumps, rails, with no fear.
Sure, I fell and had bruises but I was invincible and never even noticed them.
My son watched with his mouth open and could not believe the monster I had become.
Rejoice in the Thunderstorms of Life . . .
Knowing it's not about Clouds or Wind. . .
But Learning to Dance in the Rain ! ! !
Not in the slightest Lance, much appreciation for delving into all of it. I'm very much at the stage where you were earlier on and I know I have to find my own way... however it's extremely encouraging to hear what has helped others get through to the other side. Thanks man.
LOL good call on walking away... I'm successful at this about 50% of the time, and when I'm not it always seems to take a losing day and turn it into an exceptionally big losing day
It was tough to walk away. I felt if I waited for some good market conditions, I could most likely get back to even. But I also knew I was off and couldn't trust myself to perceive the market objectively. The lack of sleep and extreme nausea wasn't helping, of course.
