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TST is something I have considered as I think it might be beneficial for me to work within a business framework where I have to answer to someone else other than myself. I am a long way from feeling confident in setting about taking it on as I am far from achieving the consistency I would like.
Whilst having coaches or scouts available to discuss trading with if you meet some of the criteria to improve on any shortcomings you may have is good, for me at this point in my trading endeavor I am struggling mostly with the psychology involved (I have a good idea what the problem is) when I am live in the markets. I have read a lot of books and been through a lot of webinars and I might be wrong but whilst others can help only I can solve these issues.
But saying that I do like the setup it is easy to kid yourself on when the results are not matching expectation but with a business behind you I would expect them to be purely results/performance orientated and would be quick to flag up any issues that they might have in regards to a traders performance. It might be something I go for down the line when I feel more confident in my capacity as a trader.
(Chicken and the egg) Would I be better off as a trader doing it now and failing or better off waiting until I feel more consistent?
Just as I thought, last week was an exception and I have come back to earth with a bit of a bump, this is more the norm for me following success with failure but you cant win them all so lets see what went wrong.
So far this week I have done 3 trades 1 for Monday 2 on Tuesday and 100% fail rate for a total loss of 25 ticks, I'm a little disappointing with the trades as I think they were sloppy and should have been avoided I think I passed some of the better ones and a little boredom might of crept in that may have had an influence on my decisions.
1. Not sure what I was thinking, too focused on the small picture and not considering that price has come off a major number that price has multi-topped at took long @14972 target @15000 stop @14963 immediately knew I was in trouble (funny how that happens once you click the button) so sat back and took it like a man.
2. Went short as price hit lower channel line on the expectation it would drop off soon rather than later, price held onto line longer than expected and again another stop out. Entry @14951 target red trendline stop @14961 stop was still under trendline but I feel I have to get out somewhere as I am not sure if it will keep hugging the line and grind up against position.
3. Probably one of the worst ones I have done for a while with very poor reasoning. Thought it would move lower and that it was a small pullback Short @14834 target 14800-14760 me being me I am unlikely to hold all the way down to where I think a resumption of the move down is likely to hit. Stop @14840 again like trade 1 realised that the price had created a higher high in blue box and this probably meant my trade was going to fail but as it was in profit thought it'll be fine, profit eroded and stopped out.
So. I think I must have forgotten about last weeks performance as I have traded pretty poorly so far this week, I feel I have been looking at the small picture and tried to make things fit into that picture the results have been what I should expect when I think/trade like this.
Next post is going to be looking at the bigger picture which I think I have lost sight of in recent weeks and I am a little shocked at what I am missing out on as I put the blinkers on and narrowed my view.
I have become too focused on just what happens during the day and have gotten slack on keeping my eye on the culmination of several days of price movement. At the start of each trading session I clear my charts and usually only put in horizontals I'll often look left until I have a few levels marked off that are above and below current price. I don't give much consideration to trend lines as I like to see how things unfold throughout the day and this mentality might be a problem.
I have a few charts on each chart book that I experiment on with lines and time frames so some of my charts can be really messy. I flicked onto this one at the weekend and the only thing on it at the time was the blue dotted line but as the chart was zoomed out to the max I got a little surprise. As I was looking a lot of things seemed obvious and I have to admit when I look at my trades in this context I find myself questioning why I am getting involved where and when I am.
I need to think this through some more this is all hindsight even though there are a couple of trades in there that I would have been stopped out of and of course the other issue of whether or not I would have taken them at the time or held them for the duration?
I know the chart is a cluttered mess and I am skipping over flags and breaks but to me at least it makes a little sense.
Also bearing in mind some of these are trades that I have to knock back due to rule limitations. It would be really easy to misinterpret the meanings of the rules when faced with these opportunities.
Its actually a really good chart, thanks for posting it, maybe just keep concurrent downside channels available as well.
I share all the same psycho weaknesses and then some. Each week I wish for the sitting on hands ability to rise forth and dominate me - I'm still waiting.
The usual cycle of things as the title suggests 5 trades 5 losers for a total of -46.
Very disappointed with myself this week as so many mistakes have slipped in this week that I did well to block last week maybe I was lazy or rested on my laurels I don't know what the deal is but it's not good enough by any stretch of the imagination.
So to begin with where it went wrong. I was not prepared at all for the day ahead did not look at the charts until 5 minutes before my first trades, traded at a time I am not keen on and try to avoid (first half hour) Entered 11 points to late on first trade with stop to tight (should have been 21 which is too much instead I had 10 which is/was not enough)
Second trade was right after first trade was stopped and for lack of a better expression the lights were on but no one was home, thought as it was under red line it was now broken and rejecting and was going to move down again stop was also to tight.
90 seconds between first entry and second stop which is madness and if I carry this attitude into my business I deserve the results I get. I'm going to have to revisit my rules about getting ready prior to the start of the day and give a little thought about how to focus more during the day, ex. I need to get more sleep during the week, I need to have a better routine prior to getting set in front of the screens, increase my alertness basically all the good stuff but at the end of the day this has been a terrible performance the worst in a long time and I need deal with this sharpish.
Just a quick note, Now at my day job so I am not in a position to do any trading this week or over the next two weeks so I'm out of the market until the end of the month.
I have had some time to cool down after last weeks performance and taken the time to mull over what happened, I'm also giving a lot of thought about the week previous to last where things seemed to fall into place and at the minute I think there is a big difference in approaches between the two weeks even though it did not seem like it at the time.
Going forward my focus is going to be on reassessing my trading plan and how I approach the day so that I am in the best frame of mind and prepared for the trading day ahead.
I'll update with thoughts over the coming weeks so nothing exciting to see here.
Finally back on Terra firma and now back in a position where I can watch and get involved with the markets and put some of my thoughts from the last 3 weeks into practice. I was unable to look at any charts for the duration of my absence and after watching yesterdays action could not help but feel a little lost, but it always seems to take a couple of days to get my eye in so its going to be slow and steady until I feel a little more comfortable with what I'm looking at.
I have had 3 weeks to think over a lot of things, starting off with the 2 last trading weeks I had where the last week of June was a good week and the first week of July was a bit of a disaster as far as I am concerned.
To start on June, I went into the week imposing a lot of rules on how I was going to trade as part of an experiment to try and avoid some of the mistakes I had made in the previous weeks (this is where the journal came in handy) so this limited the setups I could take. I was also going to in a sense force myself to take the trades or act with conviction. I had strict rules on what I was allowing myself to trade in terms of setups and this forced me to think a bit more on my analysis and define more clearly what I was doing.
What am I looking at: Is it a pattern I can trade, is it support, resistance a trendline or channel.
How should I trade it: Do I trade initial break or the retest, do I wait for confirmation or get in on a touch of a line.
Where should my orders be: Do my targets and stops make sense do they line up with the what and the how do they come within my overall plan?
Whilst my results for the week were not stellar they were a step in the right direction, having a plan of attack on each trade and defining my actions made it a lot easier to take the trades once they came to fruition and when I did have a loser it did not feel that bad as I feel I accepted the risk as part of the plan.
And now onto July, Forget whats above fly by the seat of your pants it'll be fine. This pretty much sums up my approach I think my head was out of the game with the break midweek for July 4th holidays and the fact I was in the last few days prior to going back to work, so at this point was not focused squarely on the task at hand and the results showed. A motto from work is very fitting here. Fail to plan, plan to fail!
So all I get out of this is, Its all about the plan I am less worried about my TA and more concerned with the psyche side of trading, I need to get a better grasp of understanding why I do what I do when it conflicts with what I know I should be doing.
So not a whole lot of posting over the last few days but there has not been all that much to post about so I'm going to keep this one short and sweet. I think I may have spoken to soon when I said in my last post I was not as worried about my TA now as I was in the past.
4 trades since my last post with a 100% fail rate which I think takes me up to 10 losers in a row, I'm finding it very difficult to make out whats going on and whilst there have been opportunities the last 4 or 5 weeks look like they have been very challenging. I find it hard going watching the price move to what I think is support, resistance or a trendline being clear in my mind on what I am going to do just to watch the price drift through and invalidate the trade.
I think I have forced the trades that I have taken since my last post they were not the greatest especially when I am struggling to work out what it is I'm looking at, So for the time being I need to exercise more patience and study more to try and understand what I'm dealing with.
On a side note, Charts for post 22 and 23 are MIA is there something I have missed lately?
One trade today 1 loser but it's not all bad I think the markets have moved in a way that feels a little more familiar than what I have seen over the last couple of weeks.
Today's trading was hampered by my lack of confidence in my TA, it's not so much the losing streak I'm on, I feel I have struggled to get into "IT" if that makes any sense.
I also need to be more consistent in my journal so if I come across this situation again which I'm sure I will, I can use the journal to see how I went about tackling and hopefully overcoming this obstacle.
Another day another challenge, One trade for yesterday and that has been it so far this week.
Took a short entry playing it off the descending trendline , results aside I don't think it was the worst trade unless there was something I was missing, price breached the line slightly and as I saw a little rejection shorted with the intention of sticking with it down to about 405. Price did not seem to reject like the other times and after 10 minutes I really wanted to flatten as I had no confidence in the trade but I still had to let it run it's course in the event it did go as planned.
1. Thought about buying in this area but thought it would come a little lower so missed the trade.
It has been a really long time since I have been this light on trades, I mark off areas of interest and wait only to see price stop well short of the area or slowly meander through. I'm also not used to trades taking so long to prove me wrong, I have the opportunity to get out for a few ticks in most trades but it's not my intention to take a trade on the premise that I will exit after it moves 4 or 5 ticks.
We will see how the rest of the week pans out, I will again be away for 2 weeks and I will have to consider during this time if I am going to make a tactical withdrawal back to paper trading or wait and see if things are more visible.
