I took the full 10-tick stop in my face.




The conclusion of the last trade fiasco was obvious even as I took the trade and started typing:

1. Avoid entries which are not techically sound (and I don't mean entries that LOOK dicey, looks have nothing to do with trading - refer

Trading Well: The MOST Important Thing I am working on a research paper about why MOST people end up losing money in the markets - this includes long term investors, position traders, swing traders, intraday swing traders and scalpers too. This also includes professionals who keep minting …

)

My edge is always in the WAITING. Impatience and acting before my turn is not an edge.

Also having had to place that awkward stop was the real killer! That should have prevented my from taking that coin-flip trade!

Warning Sign: Once the awkward stop gets taken out I am too shaken to take second break the long!

Neither have I taken the test of that second break!

The second warning sign is that feelings of going on tilt are rising inside me. Need to fight them! Read my Post 1 for all those self discipline motivators! Reminder to myself!

Also:

1: would have been a good place to nimbly place a technical stop below pinbar

2. would have been a good place to move the stop i.e. breakout test of the pinbar low

In both cases I would still have banked a winner.

So WHY was I thinking about statistics?

Much of the journey in the trading arena is NOT getting trapped.

Trading is about the big and astute players laying elaborate traps, exploiting the small ones optimally (!!).

For example I kept gaping as I realized I had been a fool to take the previous trade and allow the market to eat my 10-tick stop and event I could see with a > 50% probability happening.

So this is how I would have let a loser affect me - had happened in the previous two combines.

Instead of having these feelings of entrapment, feeling like the court jester and any number of demeanign things all I can do is stay alert for the next trade to unfold itself.

Probably it will be on the long side but I am not biased.

I need to be very clear about who I am when I'm in this arena.

I am a trader.

I am NOT a chartist.

I am NOT an advisor who will be predicting the next turn of the market.

I AM A TRADER.

So I should behave like one.

I should take risk when the situation demands it. I need to be prepared for taking that risk well in advance.

Reminder to myself: I AM A TRADER.

Conclusion: Leave your crocodile tears outside and enter your trading room.

I will try to refrain from hindsight ponderings but thought I would post this to later improve upon how I keep 'reflecting looking back'.

I did not capitalize on last two opportunities, mainly for a valid reason that the setup wasn't there.




Note: ALL of the very first spiky upmove (at the beginning of the chart) has now been retraced by this downmove... I believe this is a tiny trend reversal on the cards.

So I waited for the setup (block break) and am short now in real time:



Need to wait for it to reach 10 ticks downwards

Not moving my target (discipline) - this is PAINFUL.. ouch!

It had almost hit it before forming that double bottom!



Waiting because there may be more pain for the longs still....

I am always tormented when price reaches 9 ticks and I AM NOT ALLOWED to close the trade out for the sake of dscipline.



Isn't that a skewed R:R? Giving up 9 ticks to make 1?

Vance @VinceVirgil I see you are reading this, can you give some insights?

This again lends validity to the idea of implementing a pinbar stop (the premise is that pinbars are fakeouts and in this case at the bottom of the range are also false breaks and hence need to be given full respect):





This trade is going to take out my stop AND THEN reach my target... gnash!!

As I said the trade has a high probability of taking out the stop and THEN reaching target....


Almost Happened!

Stopped out twice today! (after taking out those stops the market reversed exactly each time indicating that I was impulsive in entering) ....And each time a pinbar stop would have saved me. :-)

From the king of the court to court jester the in a blink of an eye! See chart:







A question to myself: If I see these opportunities semi-consciously why don;t I capitalize on them? I am a trader not a pattern file clerk!

I have to test out that "pinbar stop" idea now...... it will be a technically valid tipping point and that would still mean a good trade because at all times our decisions must be guided by technical reasons and not impulses.


Note: @kevinkdog is an example of how a good trader follows STRICT discipline... he does not wilt in the face of adversity but stays on course!


Second note: I finally did take the next trade which was a double doji break and that reached the same target that I had been waiting for earlier! So it is important to RESET yourself before each trade!

The trend went downwards to test the pinbar. It reversed quick and high after the test giving making this three losers in a row!





Stopping for the day!