RiskControlMaster 

Do you still have this type of feeling now everyday? Or what do you feel now after a trading session?

No, that feeling has passed and has been replaced with a sense of true accomplishment. You, too, can feel that accomplishment after you work through your issues and learn to accept what is happening and why. It sounds like mumbo-jumbo but to describe every part of it in detail would take thousands of pages. One day I intend to write some books on my personal experience in this area as it has been my experience that most traders go through very similar events in their journey, and it is helpful to learn how others have persevered.

But, this is not my thread, so this is getting off-topic a bit.

Mike

Big Mike 

No, that feeling has passed and has been replaced with a sense of true accomplishment. You, too, can feel that accomplishment after you work through your issues and learn to accept what is happening and why. It sounds like mumbo-jumbo but to describe every part of it in detail would take thousands of pages. One day I intend to write some books on my personal experience in this area as it has been my experience that most traders go through very similar events in their journey, and it is helpful to learn how others have persevered. But, this is not my thread, so this is getting off-topic a bit. Mike

Thanks for this post Mike. It is helpful......the feeling of almost being there is a similar one I had in the mortgage business. The month I ALMOST funded my first million dollar month was a huge month for me. The knowledge it was almost within my grasp was intoxicating.....then it took me three more months to do it....Kinda like a pull back after making a new high.....once I did it though, I never looked back. I don't think I funded less than a million for many years after that. In fact I was then targeting 2 and then 3 and after that, 4 million.....I think I averaged over the years 2.5 million a month....which in my company was enough to get me into the top 20 of producers nationwide and once or twice into the top ten.

Once I got passed the feeling of ALMOST being there, it was replaced by a sense of KNOWING I could do it over and over again and the only limit was my ability to sustain my energy, focus and passion for the game. It was no longer about money but rather about achievement, status, peer recognition and winning the cool trips every year. The money just followed. I never once worried about the money once I passed that threshold. I knew what it took and was confident I could repeat. And the funny thing was, it got boring after that.....I needed the challenge of making higher highs to keep me interested.

Here's hoping the same thing happens in my trading career....

And by the way, finished with +27 today.

On Monday, I will be on sim. (reason in a minute)

I noticed something today. I could see trades like never before. There was amazing clarity. Like I couldn't lose....baseball players talk about seeing the seams on a baseball as they are looking at an incoming pitch. Like time slows down for them and they can "SEE" the ball. I heard one say on the good days, the ball looks like a grapefruit and moving really slow.....today I could "SEE" the trade.

I am trading for 10 ticks at a time on CL and honestly, I saw twenty three trades in the first 120 minutes. 3 were losers....174 ticks.....I only took 5. Four of those were winners.

I have a daily stop loss of 30 ticks and a daily target of 30 ticks. My trading buddy asked me why I quit at 30...it was only around 7:30 in the morning. I did not have a real reason only that it seemed like a good spot to quit. Upon reflection though, I have decided to go on a marathon tick collection project. And here is the reason for the sim on monday.

I will trade the entire session and take every signal I get. I am going to see how many ticks I can collect by the end of the session. It will also be a test of my endurance, focus and discipline. If I can smash the 30 tick barrier, then on Tuesday I'll be loaded for big game.

I failed the test of trading the entire session. Couldn't take it today.....to slow. But I made it to 11:00AM my time....results:

High was +31 and low was -22 and I finished the day at -9.

Tough day for trading.....signals were there they just moved so slow I had trouble staying in.....and then I took a couple of fake outs when I was pretty certain they were fake outs.....

Overall though, being only -9 on a day like this is not bad.

Been away for a day or so. Have a lot of personal stuff going on.....will be away from the forum for about a week....maybe until after the holiday as we are moving this weekend and then Thanksgiving next week.....still trading every day though until Friday.

Yesterday was a decent day....+15 ticks and today was +10 ticks. Don't really have time for more right now due to getting ready to move.

Until after the holiday then....

aztrader9 

KNOWING I could do it over and over again and the only limit was my ability to sustain my energy, focus and passion for the game.

Ah and therein lies the rub.

I have a lot to do personally the next week or so after a successful move. My trading station is working fine and I did trade a bit over last week and this week. Fewer trades as I was super busy. However for the month ended 11/24, I am up 60% in my account. I take this as a good sign! Most of that was on days where I under traded! Fewer trades equals more profit. Go figure!

Anyway, I'll be back to posting somewhat more regularly sometime late next week. However, from a strictly writing standpoint, I've enjoyed not having to post every day. I've thought about not posting every day in the past and have always come back to an everyday routine. But after these last few days, I am leaning really heavily toward just a weekly post. I'll continue my daily journal and spreadsheet maintenance though. Its super helpful.

One thing I have noticed over the last few days and weeks is this; my least profitable trading times seems to be in the early morning. This runs counter to my stated desire to only trade between 6-8AM.....but often times I'll be out doing something, come back to the computer, see a trade setting up, take it and presto, another profit target. This seems to be even more evident around 7-8 PM at night. I have no logic for why this is happening but its happened several times now over the last couple of weeks. In fact, of the 20 winning trades since the 15th, only one has been before 7AM, 8 were from 7-8 AM and the rest after 8AM. Eleven of my winning trades were AFTER 8AM. Of my 14 losing trades, 6 were after 8AM and 8 were before 8AM. While this is a small data sample, it appears my win rate goes up after 8AM. I will pay close attention to this in the future.

We discovered through this move that we have WAY to much stuff. So next week is yard sale prep week. We're gonna try to down size our stuff by half. The home we moved into has a three car garage. Two of the bays are filled with stuff we probably have not looked at in 5or more years. So out it goes. I am looking forward to ridding myself of all that baggage.

We decided to stop buying stuff and when we do have to purchase something, we will only buy the very best we can afford. If that means saving for it, then that's what we will do.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Til next time..........

Happy Thanksgiving, AZ....

+20 ticks today....too many trades but overall a decent day.

Began the project of going through all the junk in the garage. I think I will make a fortune at the yard sale. Got all the easy stuff done, now its down to the details...sorting all the bits and pieces....I hate that part!

I've been trading CL in the morning and tonight gonna look at 6E for a few ticks.....in about an hour. We'll see how that goes....but 6E had been moving decent at night. Who knows if it will tonight.

+136 ticks this week.

Evaluating CTS T4....struggling with the dynamic dom....cant figure out how to make it stand still long enough to place an order!....anyone out there know how to do this?

Been handwriting my journal this week. Very interesting how the physical act of writing by hand connects you with the emotions of trading.

Have a great weekend.