I was looking at your charts from when you started this thread back in 2011, and I was looking at the indicators. Your chart is significantly different today from back then.

Interesting to see the changes. But that was over 100,000 views ago.

Congratulations. That's a wicked amount of views.

VV

Very cool, where do you see the view count? Over 100,000 served!

Very cool, where do you see the view count? Over 100,000 served!

My impatience is the reason I think for this failure. I'm not willing it seems as Jim Rogers says to, " Wait until I see money lying in the corner and just go pick it up".

Next week, my trading plan will basically revolve around two things, wait to trade and wait to get paid....as @Gary says in his signature line. No more than 3 or 4 trades per day, pick targets based on structure and projections and let the trades play out.

Cheers.

I think our impatience as day traders comes from the disconnect between testing ideas and then applying the resulting trade plan in real time. When testing (whether via computer-based backtesting, scrolling through a static chart, or running a market replay), we get fast results. When I do a statistical analysis of a trade idea, I can scroll through a static chart for a full day's session and collect the data well under an hour. When I tested market replay with Ninja, I think I was trading at 4x speed.

Then suddenly we're sitting at the hard right edge and it's totally different. It might take 5 minutes for a juicy setup to appear, it might take 45 minutes, it might only happen once or twice all day.

During testing we can know in seconds whether or not a trade reached target or stopped out. In real time price might inch its way to target, bouncing between "green" and "red" for what seems like an eternity before finally breaking solidly our way. This leads to impatience and over trading.

I recall so many times where I impatiently closed a trade break even, only to re-enter at a worse price, close again b/e, re-enter, and so on until I had 4 or 5 one-tick profits as price slowly traveled from my entry to my intended target.

Studying Bob Volman, Lance Beggs, or Al Brooks (with the help of an interpreter, lol), gives insight into the concepts of "double pressure", and "trapped traders". These are those price patterns where if price then does A, move B is likely to be fast and powerful. Learning to ignore the mediocre stuff and patiently wait for these setups is difficult but immensely rewarding.

Another thing helpful to me was to literally program myself to fear that feeling of "fear of missing out" (FOMO). That feeling for me is like a poisonous snake; I instinctively pull my hand away from the mouse when I experience it. Trades I've put on in reaction to fear of missing out on a move, whether it's based on chasing into a terrible entry price because I hesitated to enter properly, or jumping the gun and getting in before a valid signal appears, have very negative expectancy for me. As a very experienced trader once told me, "No worries, another boat will come along."

Another break even week. Frustrating to say the least...better than losing I suppose but still.....

I haven't posted in a couple of days for a few reasons....1. My dad is back in the hospital with some serious kidney stones. One of them is 8 millimeters and the other 14 millimeters....essentially marble sized stones.....surgery today, recovery next couple of days. 2. I've been doing some minor "coaching" for a couple other traders. Maybe coaching is the wrong word...discussing trading, some life issues, etc....I enjoy it, I've been through the coaching process before, it was good for me and I've often thought about doing something like this on a more formal basis for money....haven't really crossed that bridge yet but I do enjoy it immensely.

This weekend, I had the opportunity to attend a "motivational" seminar by Tony Robbin's former national sales trainer. The event was small so the presentation was pretty intimate. Basically it was a "how to find your passion, what you need to do to change your life" type presentation. We've all been to these and essentially I had planned on not going, but a friend of mine said I should go and my wife thought I should go as well so I went. I got in for free due to a relationship I have with one of the presenters so thats always good.

The presenter had us do a mission statement, write down limiting beliefs, etc....all standard motivational seminar type stuff. Good but not earth shattering. However, as I was writing this stuff down, I realized the one thing that could change my life for the better with regards to trading was this.....more patience. I've gotten better at not over trading....however, looking back over the last few weeks, I've come to realize something, I'm trading to much. Not picking my locations as well as I might. And once in the trade, I've become more and more impatient for some reason to have the trade run its course.

So in the section where the speaker asked us to write down the actions we needed to take immediately to change our live's, I wrote this: "My action I must take immediately is this; focus on taking LESS action."In trading, more action does not equal more and better results. In fact, the opposite is often true. More action often leads to fewer and worse results. So my action list reads; Take no action until action is demanded by the chart. Once action is taken, take no further action until it is once again demanded by the chart. The reason for this? I realized I am an instant gratification person. I want results right now. I get bogged down in the noise of the day and don't often see the bigger picture until its too late.

This hits home for me because over the last few weeks, I've often seen my ideas in terms of trade targets play out only to have either lost money or made a fraction of what was available within the context of that trade idea.

I did some market replay last weekend. First time in a long time I've done this: I essentially wanted to see if I went with my initial trade idea and just let it play out, trailing stops behind obvious swings, how would it have looked? The result was really mind blowing. Substantially more than I've made in a week before. So I tried it this last week and emotionally was unable to even really get started on it. In fact, the plan I came up with over the weekend was forgotten by the first trade on Monday. I revisited it on Monday afternoon promising to try again on Tuesday....once again, failure almost immediately. And so it went through the week.

My impatience is the reason I think for this failure. I'm not willing it seems as Jim Rogers says to, " Wait until I see money lying in the corner and just go pick it up".

Next week, my trading plan will basically revolve around two things, wait to trade and wait to get paid....as @Gary says in his signature line. No more than 3 or 4 trades per day, pick targets based on structure and projections and let the trades play out.

Cheers.

Money makes you stupid.....trade the process and not the money. Aha moment last few days.