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I've implemented a spreadsheet that documents the entry time, the risk and the potential ticks available based on how I trade. At the end of the day, I am trying to get my actual totals to match the spreadsheets total gross. No coulda woulda shoulda trades allowed. Only actual signals and only real results. The vast majority of the time when I exit a trade early before it reaches my target, it turns out I should have held it. This could be either trailing my stops to early and getting an unnecessary loss or ending up with smaller profits than what was otherwise available had I held to my original target.
The purpose of the spreadsheet is to build some statistics over time to give me more confidence to hold trades longer and to have some sort of standard to meet in terms of available vs actual.
In any event, I took all my signals today, mismanaged one of them, ended up with an unnecessary loss, re-entered the same trade at the same price, held it for quite a while, and eventually got my PnL to within a couple hundred dollars of where the spreadsheet said it should be. A decently profitable day.
Cheers.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Week one of the spreadsheet experiment. I am both disgusted and encouraged. Disgusted because the profit potential from the trades I actually took was very nice. This does NOT include any kind of runner. Just targets based on risk. However, my actual PnL does not come close to this number.
Encouraged because even though its only one week, the edge I've come to believe in does in fact actually exist. And its a pretty good one as well.
The difference comes from interfering with the process with to much thinking. As I was speaking with my friend that helped me create the spreadsheet today, the edge is diminished by thought. Execution is critical and effective execution is reduced once a trader starts thinking he or she knows better than the law of large numbers.
Thinking to much leads to over trading, stop mismanagement and premature exits. All of which reduce actual profit vs available profit.
Next week my plan is to stick with the edge and focus on one thing only. Don't touch the damn mouse! My trading is far better when I leave it alone. The spreadsheet has proven that to me.
Time for the weekend....
Cheers.......
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
The Greatest Teacher taught us this lesson almost 2,000 years ago. Many have repackaged his teachings. Thank you for sharing your story. Although it is not about trading it is about how beliving and having faith then applying yourself to your beliefs will make them come true.
I've thought long and hard about trading less to make more, I've heard many others talk about it in seminars from traders and trading psychologists alike. Some call it decision fatigue. The longer you trade, the more tired you become and eventually your brain does whatever it takes to relieve the tension of having to make constant decisions throughout the day.
This leads to the classic make money in the morning, give it away in the afternoon.
My very first mentor in trading said come to the market, get your ticks and stop. He traded for 8 ticks a day in ES. I became obsessed with this goal and it grew ever more elusive. One of my trading buddies even said for me to stop being a pussy and trade the entire session like a job. I took this to heart and over the last year or so, have spent the entire trading session in front of the computer except for certain breaks of a personal nature. I never gave up on the idea of trading a defined edge and leveraging up as quickly as possible to achieve my money related goals.
The last couple of weeks, I've been experimenting with a spreadsheet that tracks not just my actual trades but also a few alternate exit possibilities and compares them. It has a running total for each trade and I have noticed something, I make money early most days and give it back as time goes on. The net result is this. I most often end the day somewhere less than had I stopped after the first 2-3 trades. Today it was 2 trades and yesterday it was four. This is true across all three potential exit points I have been tracking. I've experimented with a fixed target, this is great on choppier days. A 1:1RR system, this is nice because most of the time I don't have to hold very long and a 1:1.5RR. I am also looking at larger fixed targets for my instrument but that's a work in progress. Over the course of the week, the 1:1.5RR has had a far better PnL than any of the others. Each was profitable but the larger RR made the week very rewarding.
My trading friend has made the decision to trade for one hour each day. Well actually circumstances dictate those hours for him but it has served him well. The pressure to take the valid signals that come early make him be more aggressive to take them as opposed to passing all the while knowing others will come, is making him a better trader.
More importantly, its making me a better trader. Starting next week, I am doing a couple of new things.
1. Continue the spreadsheet tracking.
2. Leverage up more quickly than I have been. I have a defined edge and as long as I maintain the ratio of risk per trade to my daily stop, I am fine.
3. Stop trading after the first 90 minutes.
I'll see how this goes next week and report back.
For now though, its been a fun and insightful week.
Cheers............
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
What about those that trade bigger time frames and charts? We aren't taking trade after trade after trade all day long. We are instead waiting most of the time.
I assume that you may be trading in a style where you are long one minute, and short the next. This kind of thing would definitely cause fatigue, in my opinion.
Just a thought, you might consider taking several steps back. Cut size down, change to micros if you need to, keep risk the same but trade a bigger chart. Trades are less frequent, but encompass more movement. It's definitely what I prefer having done it the other way for a long time.
I agree, but you still have to make a decision at least once per bar. Increasing the time frame reduces the number of decisions but still requires you sit at the machine the entire time or perhaps even longer. I suspect some will be even more bored with that and do boredom induced stupid things even more. The point is, trade a time frame and style that suits your personality and skill set.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
dont believe anything you hear and only half of what you see 
