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Finally Turning the Corner, tha "its 80% Psychology" thing...
There is an old trader proverb, those who pick bottoms get stinky fingers....
I used to be on that rollercoaster too. I found it to be a stressful way to trade. For me understanding volume profiling and the auction process made a huge difference. I trade extremes (tops and bottoms) only when its a rangey environment, not on a trend day..
my 2 cent . When you start trading off your plan usually your brain is overload info . I only make money when i trade for 4hrs 8-12 and 3 max trades . I traded over night a few weeks ago and was tired lost 5% of my account . I compare it to drinking and driving you seem ok to trade but the next day . What the f^^k happen last night.
Yes. We make all kinds of recurring mistakes, then we make up rules and try to follow them, usually unsuccessfully, but if we keep going through all the pain and screwups - with a ton of perserverance and hard work, change happens - and it's exciting! For some reason we keep wanting to put our hand back on the stove, but eventually we remember the last time we got burned and make new choices.
1. Not taking a planned trade
2. Interfering with our pre-planned trade management once we're in a trade
3. Chasing a trade from FOMO (fear of missing out)
4. Technical errors, order entry mistakes (clicking buy when you want to sell, 10 lots instead of 1, etc)
5. Allowing outside influences to bias the trade (This has been my hurdle lately, I decided to not watch FT's hypos anymore, I get too biased from his info because he's my #1 mentor and it causes me to stop seeing things objectively)
6. Accidentally entering a trade (hit a button totally unexpectedly, cat walked on keyboard, etc)
Have you made any mistakes lately that are psychology related?
Most will agree that psychology is at least 50% of the succe$$ful trader equation but how much work have you been putting into it vs time spent trading?
Answer for yourself and if you're not happy with your trading, work on psyche! Otherwise, you've got a looooong way to go.
For those that think psychology is bullshit, you need to go a few levels deeper then the "visualize what you want to happen" kinda advice. Think about psychology as a prerequisite for being able to perform/execute a successful trading process over a long period of time.
Here's something special for you today, this is Pure Gold... actually, its better then gold, it's Pure Bitcoin! I just discovered this gem today, somehow I missed it, anyway its perfect timing and a great reflection for how far I've come this year.
Happy New Year Traders!!
Are you focused on making it happen this year?!
Here's some tools to kick it up a few notches:
1 - Presentation: "Strategies to Stop the Bleeding of Your Account" by Benjamin Lee.
It's about fixing your weaknesses & optimizing performance.
2 - I've been really enjoying these talks by 40 year veteran trader Chris Cady who is also a meditator.
3 - If you struggle with recurring destructive patterns, you definitely want to read The Psychology of Trading by Brett Steenbarger
and buy a notebook to start journaling your insights, identifying patterns and creating strategies to maintain optimum trader states.
Great videos . . thanks for posting. I especially liked the Chris Cady talk. I am planning on listening to his other ones. His curiosity mindset is definitely a positive way to approach a trade and greatly relieve stress within the trade. Brings your focus to the trade and not the outcome. You can control your emotions, not the market.
A book that might be of interest to those that wish to incorporate psychological /meditative techniques and trading is Thinking Body, Dancing Mind by Chungliang Al Huang and Jerry Lynch. Although primarily geared toward improving athletic performance, one can easily transfer the principles to trading.
I have also enjoyed reading the rest of your thread . . much appreciated!
Thankyou for your kind words and recommendation. I'm intrigued and just ordered the book!
For everyone reading this, in my experience its really, really easy to intellectually grasp ideas/concepts, have light-bulb moments and think you are a changed person. Then you end up repeating the same stupid mistakes over and over (often for years). Dr. Andrew Menaker talks about why this happens in his webinars (see the process vs outcome video on youtube). Dr. Brett Steenbarger talks about this in his books also. It doesn't mean there's something wrong with you, it means you need to internalize the knowledge. I've been stubborn and even though I knew that I was the problem and spent all this energy to learn and grow - changing has been a challenge.
As Dr. Steenbarger put it, you need to create new endings to old stories. This takes bringing awareness to your destructive patterns in real time and invoking new routines. It's easier said then done. There are many techniques that can help with this - writing about your thoughts & emotions in a journal is very helpful to "exercise your chimp" (from book The Chimp Paradox). If you are lucky to trade in your own environment without anyone else around, you can videorecord your trading with the audio on and talk out your mental dialogue. This is a powerful technique and listening to it later you'll start to notice the different parts of your personality. (I use OBS free software)
Powdrpig, there's some videos on youtube by Bruce Bower I think you'll enjoy also.
I just discovered this gem today, somehow I missed it, anyway its perfect timing and a great reflection for how far I've come this year. 
