I have a problem with discipline also. When I realize a loss I trade a lot trying to make up the loss which mostly leads to a bigger daily loss. I overcome this with pure will power to stop trading when I hit my preset limit.
Good luck with everything!
The following 2 users say Thank You to blackgrey45 for this post:
I've been learning trading (part time while living a busy life) for 8-9 years. Early on I would be up $2000 one day and down the next...with a slow steady progression down hill long term due to losing days being WAY worse than winning days. At this point I am actually at the breaking even point...which if you ask around on this forum...is a seriously good milestone. If things improve even slightly more i will be into consistent profitability.
All improvements I have had have been hard fought battles been my own ears. I have learned a ton and continued relentlessly to work on myself. There is all the info you need in the journals on this forum from books to systems to personal experience like mine. Now...it is up to you. Will you trade small to save your capital? (I SIM traded for 2 years after losing my first 5K account). Will you show up every day and work hard? Will you get up early and stay up late studying and working towards your goal??
There is an unlimited amount of profit potential available trading the markets. And yet people are surprised it's not easy for some reason.
Bit of a rant...sorry for that. It is meant to be helpful...hopefully you can take it that way.
best of luck,
Craig
Remember that the minute you take your first step into the life of your dreams, the first to greet you there will be fear... Nod. Keep walking.
The following 12 users say Thank You to Blue Eagle for this post:
The only thing that helps me is trading smaller. The Apex and other combines are just worth the trailing drawdown max amount ($50K = $2.5K, etc.). One of the most highly regarded experts on position sizing strategies, Dr Van Tharp, says that if your positions are over 3% of your account, you are a gunslinger. 3% of $2.5K is $75. So your max loss on a position for a $2.5K account, to avoid being a gunslinger, is a max $75 loss. That's 3 MES with a 5pt stop. And you'd get stopped out a fair amount with that stop size nowadays IMO. What size did you trade? Usually, size is what undermines us most, I think. Al Brooks says the only size you should be trading is "I don't care" size. I found this blog piece helpful: https://adamhgrimes.com/are-you-losing-position-size-matters/
If you have an edge, you keep your size small and work through the combines slowly, it should be no problem. But it's no easy feat. Keeping it small is incredibly difficult, especially if you don't have 100% faith in your edge or system. Because we always try to do a "one-off" make up trade when we're losing with a system, and it's never really a one-off, because we actually don't know how to win otherwise. So we are always bound to blow up, and the more we do the more every potential and actual loss releases all the pain from previous losses. And we do that over and over again. There are some Mark Douglas videos out there. These have really helped me. I've read a lot of behavioral finance psychology, all the poker player behavioral and pop psychologists, etc. Many, many such books. Mark Douglas is the only one I have found very helpful. He exudes compassion and was himself a trader who understood traders deeply. You can find him on Youtube. Listen to his tapes over and over again. Watch out for popular traders who hype themselves as "high stakes" traders. Hope it helps.
The following 7 users say Thank You to bwolf for this post:
What helped me a lot was to change my general approach to trading from aiming for profits and results to focus on process and execution. It’s my daily goal to behave perfectly and execute my rules, no matter if I the day is profitable oder not.
Of course this is easier said than done and so I have another essential tip for you: Understand that in order to become a profitable trader, you have to develop the brain of a profitable trader. You need a „trader‘s brain“. Your time in front of the charts should be seen as a gym workout for your mind. Understand that your brain has 3 levels: 1: reptile brain: fight or flight, manages organs and so on…, 2: limbic system: your emotions and feelings, 3: neo cortex: rational thinking. When you trade and analyze the chart you need level 3, the neo cortex. So we study and practice and learn more and more about the markets - but our performance is still not improving because of emotions. Why is that? Because the lower levels 1+2 get overly active and take away resources from your Neo cortex. You know what’s right to do, but it’s like looking through a fog when your limbic system is too active. Your Neo cortex is strong? Discipline may avoid a bad read this time, but it will take a lot of energy and I promise when 2 or 3 more setups show up and your limbic system kicks in another time your neocortex will be exhausted without you even being aware of losing focus.
What can we do now? First of all this is completely individual and there is no one size fits all. But when you struggle with discipline, either your Neo cortex is too weak OR your limbic system is firing up impulses all trading day long so your neocortex has no chance to endure this. That’s the key to understand here: We have different brain areas that don’t always work together, but against each other!
There are many highly profitable traders out there that are super emotional but they have trained their tech game and neocortex so much that they can keep their impulses all together during the entire session. And there are many highly profitable traders that are just complete zen and their limbic system is calm, keeping any additional strain from the neocortex so it has lots of resources for proper analysis.
So either you exercise your mental muscle and make it so strong that you can keep up discipline long enough, or you work on your subconscious so it doesn’t fire up impulses that your neocortex has to keep in control. In my opinion the neocortex should have all his resources free for analyzing and not handle the impulses additionally.
There are only 3 ways for an adult to make changes in his subconscious:
1. trauma (no we don’t want that)
2. excessive repetition
3. hypnosis
Working on the subconscious is not easy and you can do things worse if done wrong. Books or a professional should guide and assist.
Hope this helps!
The following 3 users say Thank You to ApolloEleven for this post:
https://tremper.com/ Discipline Manager it sure works faster than my brain and fingers do! And no I have no affiliation with him (Mr. Tremper)
Good luck.
