NexusFi: Find Your Edge


Home Menu

 





Discipline problems


Discussion in Psychology and Money Management

Updated
      Top Posters
    1. looks_one bwolf with 16 posts (35 thanks)
    2. looks_two NGtrader with 4 posts (10 thanks)
    3. looks_3 SkyITL with 4 posts (7 thanks)
    4. looks_4 rezak with 4 posts (2 thanks)
      Best Posters
    1. looks_one Blue Eagle with 13 thanks per post
    2. looks_two OftenBonus10 with 9 thanks per post
    3. looks_3 NGtrader with 2.5 thanks per post
    4. looks_4 bwolf with 2.2 thanks per post
    1. trending_up 10,261 views
    2. thumb_up 121 thanks given
    3. group 31 followers
    1. forum 60 posts
    2. attach_file 4 attachments




 
Search this Thread

Discipline problems

  #1 (permalink)
AndreyyFX
Bucharest, Romania
 
Posts: 5 since Aug 2021
Thanks Given: 5
Thanks Received: 6

Hi there !

I have a very bad problem with my discipline and auto control.

I am not the best technical trader but I managed to complete 90% of one of apex funded trader programs with overall 75%-80% win rate.

In just one day, one hour…I destroyed almost 2 weeks of trading

Behavior is my answer to this problem.

I want some practical solutions from traders who got that problem in the past.

How do you get better discipline; behavior and auto-control?

Many thanks for your help and your time!

Reply With Quote
Thanked by:

Can you help answer these questions
from other members on NexusFi?
Better Renko Gaps
The Elite Circle
NexusFi Journal Challenge - April 2024
Feedback and Announcements
Ninja Mobile Trader VPS (ninjamobiletrader.com)
Trading Reviews and Vendors
NT7 Indicator Script Troubleshooting - Camarilla Pivots
NinjaTrader
Deepmoney LLM
Elite Quantitative GenAI/LLM
 
Best Threads (Most Thanked)
in the last 7 days on NexusFi
Get funded firms 2023/2024 - Any recommendations or word …
59 thanks
Funded Trader platforms
37 thanks
GFIs1 1 DAX trade per day journal
22 thanks
NexusFi site changelog and issues/problem reporting
22 thanks
The Program
20 thanks
  #2 (permalink)
 
blackgrey45's Avatar
 blackgrey45 
Marco Island, FL
Legendary Market Wizard
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Sierra Chart
Broker: AMP Global
Trading: MCL ES ZN MGC E6
Frequency: Several times daily
Duration: Minutes
Posts: 761 since Jul 2022
Thanks Given: 859
Thanks Received: 905

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!

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #3 (permalink)
AndreyyFX
Bucharest, Romania
 
Posts: 5 since Aug 2021
Thanks Given: 5
Thanks Received: 6


I was thinking about starting a video journal and post it on YouTube or somewhere else.

Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #4 (permalink)
 
Blue Eagle's Avatar
 Blue Eagle 
vancouver British Columbia/Canada
Legendary Market Wizard
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Ninja Trader
Trading: CL
Frequency: Daily
Duration: Minutes
Posts: 1,817 since Jan 2013
Thanks Given: 7,814
Thanks Received: 7,862

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

Until you make the Unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it Fate...
Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Reply With Quote
  #5 (permalink)
AndreyyFX
Bucharest, Romania
 
Posts: 5 since Aug 2021
Thanks Given: 5
Thanks Received: 6


Blue Eagle View 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



Thanks for your feedback !

I will take a look into trading journals too but I think starting from tomorrow I will start a video journal. Maybe will work !

Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #6 (permalink)
Lordvladislav
Bern, Switzerland
 
Posts: 13 since Jan 2023
Thanks Given: 10
Thanks Received: 22


AndreyyFX View Post
Thanks for your feedback !

I will take a look into trading journals too but I think starting from tomorrow I will start a video journal. Maybe will work !


Lately what I did to improve my trading was to:

-Hide my PNL from my broker interface, that way I don't trade the PNL. (of course I do use stop loss)

- Take only one trade per day. (This way I am forced to take the best setup)


PS: If you can/want, share the video journal with us. Could be helpful.

Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #7 (permalink)
 
bwolf's Avatar
 bwolf 
Los Angeles, CA
 
Experience: None
Platform: NT8, TOS, Tradingview, BH
Broker: Ninjatrader
Trading: ES
Posts: 258 since Aug 2019
Thanks Given: 682
Thanks Received: 564

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.

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Reply With Quote
  #8 (permalink)
ApolloEleven
Mainz, Germany
 
Posts: 23 since Jan 2019
Thanks Given: 32
Thanks Received: 42

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!

Reply With Quote
  #9 (permalink)
 davested 
Phoenix AZ
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader, eSignal
Trading: bonds
Posts: 3 since Aug 2015
Thanks Given: 2
Thanks Received: 1

https://www.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.

Reply With Quote
  #10 (permalink)
 
bwolf's Avatar
 bwolf 
Los Angeles, CA
 
Experience: None
Platform: NT8, TOS, Tradingview, BH
Broker: Ninjatrader
Trading: ES
Posts: 258 since Aug 2019
Thanks Given: 682
Thanks Received: 564



davested View Post
https://www.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.

In my experience risk management addons are no match for the subconscious.

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Reply With Quote
Thanked by:




Last Updated on August 8, 2023


© 2024 NexusFi™, s.a., All Rights Reserved.
Av Ricardo J. Alfaro, Century Tower, Panama City, Panama, Ph: +507 833-9432 (Panama and Intl), +1 888-312-3001 (USA and Canada)
All information is for educational use only and is not investment advice. There is a substantial risk of loss in trading commodity futures, stocks, options and foreign exchange products. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
About Us - Contact Us - Site Rules, Acceptable Use, and Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy - Downloads - Top
no new posts