Terrible trading day today. Traded premarket, which doesn't move like regular markets. I should have waited till market opened. Stopped out.

Tried to trade again, but luckily got taken out.

Alot better day today. Amazing what one day can do to clear your mind and boost your confidence. I don't assume bad days are never ever going to come, I just make sure they don't do too much damage to my account.

Need to be more patient before I start reversing, especially after big moves. The market need to do some work.

How about an emotion (or sentiment chart) with just a price chart & comments about your emotional state of mind at different time intervals or market turning events. It will be fun for us to read, but work for you

Just one trade for the day. Didn't try to force it.

kashmiami 

How about an emotion (or sentiment chart) with just a price chart & comments about your emotional state of mind at different time intervals or market turning events. It will be fun for us to read, but work for you

Yes, I've been thinking about posting charts. Problem is I don't want to give people the impression that there's some magical technique.

Was being alot more deliberate and patient today. Despite missing the first move, but still took a couple of good trades. Really shows how there's always a good trade round the corner. Rather than feeling nervous and desperate for the moves, and fearing that I might miss out. Which is really a key part about keeping your expectations about each trade neutral, because chasing trades and fearing that you will miss out implies that you know where the market is going to go. Setting up such expectations just hurts you when the trade goes against you, and you stay longer than you should. Because there's always a random element in trading, where anything can happen.

On the other hand, I don't believe there can be absolutely no expectations involved in a trade, there's always some lingering thought in the back of my mind. But you manage it enough, so you can still execute correctly and move through it, rather than let it paralyze you.

I still get pissed and annoyed when trades don't work out, but these days I trust myself that I will get over it by tomorrow (if I max out my daily risk limit). I always know that tomorrow I will feel pretty neutral about things, and have a clean slate. You can intellectualize about the market not doing what you want it to do, but in the end for me it's about knowing whatever emotional reaction I have is temporary, and it will go away like a bad cramp! But blowing a hole in my account, that will stay with me tomorrow.

Read the market well today. Felt good trading today, despite one loss but still kept my cool.

Times like these is when I need to be more vigilant in my trading, and not let success get to my head. Stay process focused, and don't think I have a crystal ball. Stay risk focused, and not try to force anything.

Took a couple of trades today. Second trade has a poor exit, which I should have scratched out earlier, but I ended up holding it and bumping my stop!

Have to be careful about wanting to make profits for each trade, and not executing the trade as it is. Need to take my losses when it comes, and not be stubborn about what the market is telling me.

This is where I need to become even more deliberate about my trading, and really zone in on executions.

Going to take maximum of 2 trades today. Pick your spots, always be ready to get out even if it means I miss out.

Took it easy today, only one trade. Coming to the end of the month now, lets finish the month off strong. So be patient in your setups, get out quick, and watch my risk!!

No trading for the past 2 days because of the hurricane. So I'm going to do a monthly summary.

Monthly PnL%: +10%
Days traded: 15
Days profitable: 9
Days with loss: 6

Weeks traded: 4
Weeks profitable: 2
Weeks with loss: 2

Trades: 30
Long Trades: 14
Short Trades: 16
Percent Profitable: 56.67%
AvgWin/AvgLoss = 1.24

So there it is, I'm rather pleased with the outcome of the month. Considering my daily risk limit is 2% of my account, and I made some bonehead mistakes earlier on in the month.

It really shows the power of trading in sample sizes, and staying within my daily risk limit. I know there were times when I was tempted to keep trading and get my losses back. Those days could have really blew a hole in my account, and I would either be flat or loss for the month.

In terms of my trading performance, definitely can be improved and looking back it really highlight how those bad trades could have really added to the bottom line this month.

Some of these mistakes I could have avoided include:
- Trading around News
- Watch out for entries around the MA
- Trading premarket
- Scratching out if market goes against you and entering better prices.

Some of the improvements to my trading will be:
- Utilizing volume profiling alot more.
- Better scaling out methods
- Waiting for good entries that are way outside of the mean.

I'll also be posting a chart or two. Plus I'm going to try recording my thoughts at particular times of in the trade in a voice recorder, and later on transcribing that in this journal. This should flesh out any psychological tendencies that I may not be aware of.