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What do you do when you want to change everything?
To you who have been there, what did you do when you want to change everything to get rid of the pain of failure: start over, buy another system, apply new indicators, change your chart frame, pretend you'll get through it or deny this urge to escape for these emotions and urges by changing things.
I made a big dumb mistake on Friday. Right now it is now 9 am PST Monday morning and I want to change everything and experiment with sim trades - I feel like I can't even read a chart - I want to start over - look for better indicators, a different chart frame (maybe tick charts or even time-based the 1 min maybe?) - it is desperate feeling of frustration, disappointment and embarrassment - need to change things, find a better system - Big Mike suggested not to change anything - good idea except that right now I want to change almost everything - I feel lost as if I have never done this before - been here before - the only difference is I am writing about it and owning it - these feeling really suck and I want to run from them by searching for a better indicator, better chart frame, a book, anything to get me out of this feeling - and I feel alone even though I doubt I am - what am I trading - double tops and bottoms, retracements, abc's? - right now I couldn't tell you.
Changing indicators or timeframes isn't going to change a thing in your performance. Suggest what you start over doing, is writing down your trading plan and post it in a journal on futures.io (formerly BMT). Then post at least a daily recap on a chart of the trades you took for the day. There are plenty of examples here on futures.io (formerly BMT). Read through a few and pick a style that you like and start posting.
As an editorial comment, it sounds like you don't have one specific setup that you like. If that is correct, pick one that you like, document it, and trade only that one so you can get REALLY good at seeing it and nothing else. Let that one be the one that you create a trading plan around and let that one be the one you learn how to trade with. After you master that one setup, then maybe and I mean maybe you can add another setup. The main thing is not to muddy the waters, meaning you mind, with anything more than this one setup.
Most of us have been there more than once. It's understandable... and par for the course.
1) Take time off, seriously. Whenever your emotional 'indicators' are all over, you need some time off to find your bearings again. Stop trading, and spend time away from your computer.
2) Despite your feelings of confusion, you likely learned a lot on your journey already... Don't throw it all away. When you're ready go back... see what worked for you best in the past (i.e. the best fit between your personality and technicals). Yes, everybody talks about it... but few of us find it. Know thyself, grasshopper.
3) Last point... check out the Sedona Method to release any unwanted feelings that sabotage you...etc. Sedona is something like emotional martial arts aimed at processing and getting over one's inner obstacles. Simple and effective.
Platform: Sierra Charts, Investor RT, Ninja Trader
Broker: VanKar
Trading: NQ
Posts: 520 since Sep 2009
Thanks Given: 583
Thanks Received: 1,248
Mindful
I know exactly how you feel. I just went through those same emotions over the past few months. I had a method that worked well and was profitable for me, but I kept adding other trades that caused some issues. I stopped trading in early November until January. In the interim, I looked to refine my system. I came back in January with a new system and promptly lost money. I took another break, cleared my head (or so I thought), came across a different system, tried it on sim with success, went live and suffered more losses.
My frustration came through in my Journal. Big Mike suggested I stop trading for a while, come back and sim trade, and gradually get back to live trading. I followed his advice. During the time I stopped trading, I explored a system I had used a few years ago, and found it worked well. Details can be found in my thread.
Using a journal is important. Focusing on process goals (rather than money) is equally important. Process goals concentrate on execution. Write down your method in the journal, state the goals you are working on, and daily put down how you did. You will get feedback that will help you.
Oh, I changed brokers, charting service, time frame, indicators, charting colors....in short, absolutely everything. It was not easy, but I am now comfortable where I am at.....
trading is all about being unemotional and methodical ... so preserve your mental capital, or else the mistake will take place once more..
what you should ask yourself is what lead you to the mistake, what were you doing when you made it, what was your state of mind, why did you do it, did you know you were doing it and couldnt help yourself, how significant is your method, is it profitable without your errors???
once you have honest answers to all those questions, write them down on a journal if you need to or find a really good friend that wont judge or comment and just talk to that person, walk through the mistake with them... anyhow, once you have some answers, they will generate more questions... keep asking and answering... until you arrive to the root cause..
once you are all done with that, move on... take some $$$ fly out to vegas and gamble a litlte and laugh it off... but most importantly, move on.
your mental capital is best spent looking for the next trade... the past trade is already gone and no sense on dwelling on it.
And when I arrived at exactly the same place..
I changed everything...
And when I arrived at exactly the same place...
I didn't change anything "outside"
I just changed the way I saw everything I kept changing.
Until I realized that failure is only relative to success, equal opposites.
Then I realized that success was an illusion, it was just a measure by which I had believed
I should "judge" myself.
So I changed that "measure" from "success" to being "true" (to myself)
And my truth was to be happy, which meant I had to be truthful about everything
that I believed would bring me happiness that was actually an illusion.
This present moment is (imo) the gateway.
Fear relates to the future.
Regret to the past.
Neither of these two actually exist except in our mind.
Our awareness of the present moment is a measure of our ability to see our truth.
