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What do you do to stop overtrading / manage trades?


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What do you do to stop overtrading / manage trades?

  #1 (permalink)
muis2
Vancouver + Canada
 
Posts: 5 since May 2019
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Thanks Received: 4

I've had a couple of frustrating weeks resulting in a big drawdowns in my account.

I'm finding that I have spotted several good trades/trends over this period, but I get stopped out too early, then I chase overtrade and end up doing serious damage to my account.

What do you guys do to manage your emotions? How do you create a trading plan?

I have a serious tendency to focus on the markets and get an itchy trigger finger when the markets are open.

Thanks

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  #3 (permalink)
 
LittleFinger's Avatar
 LittleFinger 
Denver Colorado/USA
 
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I have an itchy trigger finger also and find it a blessing and a curse at times. The times when it helps me are when I have a plan for the day and when my setup is occurring, but not as pretty as I had imagined in my head. When I know what I expect to happen and I see a decent entry, I take it. However, I also get too excited about setups that look good, but aren't part of my plan. It is hard to accurately judge when the markets are moving hard and faking you out. So to answer the question, what I do is try to have a plan for every day that I plan on putting money at risk in the markets, but also have an idea of what might happen if your plan doesn't work out and an idea of what trade you would take for plan b.

Today my plan was to short equities if they showed weakness in the 1st hour. I did, but broke even on a pullback. I had to go back to sleep to be rested for work, so I missed the sell off that eventually happened. I did take one little stab at a short later in the day when it looked like upward momentum waned, but it was a small loss. In the past I might have gotten really irritated that I missed out on what I anticipated happening and started revenge trading to I would at least have something to show for the day. I resisted that and broke even today. Yesterday was one of the biggest winning days I've had for a while (gold), so this raised the probability if me trading poorly today and as preventative measure I told myself to only take A+ trades today and try to only take 1 or 2 strikes on an idea before bailing.

When I have 2 or 3 losers in a row I ask myself questions like this to try and decide if it's worth it to continue trading that day:
Do I know why the market is moving the way it is today?
Is there enough of a fundamental and/or technical story in the market today for a big move? If not, is it worth scalping?
Am I being impatient on setups?
Is this just a bad day to trade?
Are we waiting for big econ news and nothing is going to happen in the meantime?
Are we flirting with a big technical level that is causing whipsaws?

I think you have to feel confident that you have an edge in the market any day you are trading. Know what what signal you expect from the market to pull the trigger. Know when the plan is falling apart and it's time to wait for the next high probability set up. Set a hard limit on how many tries you will give a certain trade idea before moving on.

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  #4 (permalink)
 
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 Brandenton 
Virginia Beach, VA
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Knowing when to quit, is probably the least talked about subject in regards to trader development, but is one of the most important areas to master specifically for the purpose of account longevity and avoiding being on an emotional rollercoaster. Finding that stopping point is crucial and having something in your trading plan addressing it is an absolute must.

What’s worked for me for the longest time, if I had 2 losers in a row I was done trading for the day. No, if, ands or buts about it. I just had to walk away and most of the times it wasn’t easy. There's that desire to stay and trade, but I can tell you, it saved my account hundreds of dollars if not thousands. There is always another day.

Now a days, If I have 2 losers throughout the trading day, doesn’t have to be in a row, I call it quits.

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  #5 (permalink)
 
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 TraderTS 
Texas, USA
 
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IMHO,
I think you are trading too many products.

What works for me...
Read 'Trading in the Zone' by Mark Douglas
Zone into high probability trade setup
Allow only two bullets for each session on each product

... remember, not only let the trade setup comes but also wait for target(s) to hit, FIRST.

Good luck!


Find the missing piece of the puzzle... Let's be amazing, be awesome in trading today!
iTS
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  #6 (permalink)
 
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 Massive l 
OR/USA
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Program you strategy. It doesn't have to be automated...program it so it so your chart has entry and exit points. As long as you have a positive expectancy, stick to them religiously.

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  #7 (permalink)
 
bobwest's Avatar
 bobwest 
Western Florida
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I agree with the comments about having a plan for when things go wrong -- this seems obvious, but it isn't. A huge part of any plan should include when to pull the plug for the day, since there will be days when you just don't trade well, for whatever reasons.

When you start to overtrade, probably your mind (the rational part, anyway) goes slightly on tilt. This is exactly the wrong time to be doing more trades, and also the wrong time to be depending on your own judgement about whether to keep going to try to "make it all back."

Some very simple, totally mechanical rule that you don't let yourself break can save you. It could be as simple as "x number of losing trades," or "x number of losing trades in a row," or "x total loss for the day," or anything else that will just stop you from trading; no discussion, just stop.

Tomorrow will always have opportunities, as will the next day and the next. You can easily afford to miss any trades today if your objective results show that you are not trading well. This can be very hard to do, because you naturally want to make back your losses, and sometimes you can -- which makes things worse, actually, because it encourages bad behavior the next time, and it does not have a high likelihood of success.

Forcing yourself to have a pre-set "stop trading" point is like always having an emergency stop loss point in a trade, and it will stop the behavior, but only if you are willing to do it. You probably won't be all that willing when you have big losses, but you can force yourself to. Your account will thank you.

Sorry, I don't like this either . But I do practice it and it does work.

Bob.

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  #8 (permalink)
Wernersabel
Lisbon, Portugal
 
Posts: 35 since Jun 2017
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Unfortunately this is where the hard work starts. I can recommend working on the mental skills. This is about finding triggers that lead to the things you see yourself "forced" to do. Finding them is not easy I can forward you some stuff I recently have been given, please let me know your e-mail. Getting a mental coach can also have a very positive on ones trading. But in the end it is only you who can change you. I have been told the mental stuff is where about 90% of retail trades fail so I guess all of us have to address that at some point in time.

What I would do is switching to SIM and do proper self evaluation on your trades. If you have an edge and you are able to execute that edge with the confidence needed you will succeed if you are willing to put in the hard work. If you do not have an edge you may want to attend that first.

very interesting topic and good luck for your journey.

Cheers,
Wernersabel

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  #9 (permalink)
muis2
Vancouver + Canada
 
Posts: 5 since May 2019
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Massive l View Post
Program you strategy. It doesn't have to be automated...program it so it so your chart has entry and exit points. As long as you have a positive expectancy, stick to them religiously.

Can you clarify what you mean by program? Do you mean have pre-set Entry, SL, Targets before the day begins and only trade those?

Thanks

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  #10 (permalink)
muis2
Vancouver + Canada
 
Posts: 5 since May 2019
Thanks Given: 0
Thanks Received: 4



TraderTS View Post
IMHO,
I think you are trading too many products.

What works for me...
Read 'Trading in the Zone' by Mark Douglas
Zone into high probability trade setup
Allow only two bullets for each session on each product

... remember, not only let the trade setup comes but also wait for target(s) to hit, FIRST.

Good luck!

Downloaded on Audible already!

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Last Updated on August 18, 2019


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