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I just went back and read my journal posts starting this year...and it's all same mistakes repeating again and again
1. Fear
2. Waiting for confirmation
3. Able to predict but unable to act
4. Get in but cannot hold on
Unless I increase my contract size I cannot scale in unless I scale in I cannot maximize...for now my main goal is meet my weekly goal for 80% of the time for six months i.e till June...then I consider myself consistent till then struggle goes on.
Hi bmtrading9,
I know how It feels giving back what you have won.
I learned to recognize that in those occasions where I had a profit (good profits) the only error I could make was giving them back. But at the same time I knew how important is letting profits run. So, what I decided to do was to exit a third of my position whenever the price break the trend-line. If the price tested the trend-line but did not break it at the close of the price bar then I decided to adjust the slope of the trend-line waiting until a break to exit.
Sometimes, what happens is a breakout of resistance (or support if you are short) and have a burst in price movement. What to do? Simple, draw a new trend line (big slope this time) and continue the process until a bar close breaks It. This way, I learned to let profits run while at the same time kept most of my paper profits.
Don't try to forecast the next market move. That's a waste of time. Forecasting gives birth to expectations; and when you have expectations you feel obligated to fulfil them. That will keep you unaware of the now moment.
Since I need to build confidence I am taking it slow again, Just took ywo trades First ES short trade at OR low 1930 with hesitation by seeing OIL breaking down and closed it at 1926.5 and second TZA based on 2 hr chart, will try to swing this TZA but I might close it before Friday. The real profitable trade would've been buying ES/YM at S2 support of oil because that bounce combined with EUROPE close.
I hope I'll be able to help you. I use to do the same mistakes. It's all about emotion. So you need to reduce your exposition to trade comfortably. Don't close your actual trade. But your next trades have to be less risky for you. With smaller trade you'll be able to trade wisely. And If you get enough confidence and enough discipline try to engage a bit more of your capital. Add in your profitable system keep a good money management system according to your emotion. Then you get more confidence and discipline again so you can add more or get funded with TopStepTraders.
The key is to be wise. Be wise with yourself. Listen to your emotions telling you "I'm doing an error.." Whats is this error ? Hmmmm I may be engage to big money. So ok let's try to train with less but with a few at least. You have to get something to loose in the market to know how to trade the beast. But start small. When you get emotions is because you don't respect rules or you didn't have confidence in your rules. So test your rules with small position then get confidence and at the end trade a bit bigger etc...
Best Regards,
P.
PS : I confess I'm French and so sorry to rip English language.
When you identified the long from oil @S2 and didn't take it- Why did you walk away? You missed the perfect entry so no other entry will suffice? The mkt began cooperating at 1 pm on the dot and was begging people to get in. More chances were available after the initial move. Where were you? I'm trying to help by asking you to examine your thoughts at the time. Did you stare at the screen and watch it work higher? We're you afraid because you didn't get the entry you wished you had gotten and felt it was too risky later?
I came in with a mindset of not to trade again this week because I am going on vacation on Saturday and lot of work to do before that but couldn't resist took that short trade and closed it and started doing my work, looked back again to see what Europe end will bring us and saw the bounce but was totally not in a mood to trade again so didn't took it, then went out for lunch and didn't open my trade laptop
If you ask 10 people for advice, you will get 10 different advices.
I can only tell you what helps me and it's up to you to pick what is relevant or applicable for you.
Having said that, I believe that P&L is the endresult of having the right discipline, the right mindsight, an edge, proper execution of entry/stop/exit management, etc.
So instead of focussing on the P&L, I believe in focussing on getting these basics right.
P&L is only the endresult and totally irrelevant. How about that, huh?
What helps me in getting the basics right is keeping stats on my discipline, the entry, stop, breakeven, adds and exits. Every month orso (after a reasonable amount of trades) I evaluate it, see if I've made progress and what to focus on next.
I don't look at stats like % winners, profit factor, etc. Instead, I look at the charts from hindsight view and collect data like: did price move indeed in my direction after entry, how many points did it move, was the stoploss too tight or not, how much did price move after my exit, etc. This helps me to straighten up the basics.
Regarding discipline, I'm not sure if you've read "Trading in the zone" of Mark Douglas (must read). At the end of his book he suggest doing an excercise on discipline. I've done the excercise and this was the moment that I got my discipline right.
It takes approx 20 days to implant a new behaviour. I use this knowledge on my kids also. They get a present once they do stuff like cleaning up their toys, sleeping in their own bed, etc. after 20 days in a row. If I make changes in my trading, I'll be doing the new, uncomfortable behaviour for 20 days and evaluate it then. Note that this approach does not work on wifes
I believe it was @TheTradeSlinger who stated in some thread: In order to hold longer, you will have to hold longer. Wise words and very true. In order to change behaviour: do it for 20 days, keep stats of you doing it and evaluate it after 20 days. That's how I make changes to myself.
We had a couple of pm's going on price risk versus information risk. Next to Douglas' excercise, my 2nd game changer was trading price levels instead of getting confirmation from price patterns. Our common friend and hero is not looking for confirmation in his entries either, he enters on price levels and accepts the risk of being wrong in exchange for a good entry location. You might consider skipping the confirmation-part in your trading for 20 days and see what it does on your entry efficiency.
One last thing, I notice you trade various instruments. All instruments have a different characteristics, for example: CL is a very thin market while ES is not. Your edge might not be applicable in all markets. Why not focus on 1 instrument and get the basics right?
I'm not here to tell you what to do, or not to do. I can only tell you what works for me sofar.
The above is in short what I do and what helps me.
Good luck with your personal journey.
I enjoy reading your posts and will be keeping a close eye on your journal!
Thanks alot! Yes, I am aware of my position size that' why for swing trading I use etf's such as TZA, TNA, SPXL, SPXS, I generally don't about those position that much. TopstepTrader combine is one I am looking at right now but I don't if I can operate under those strict rules...
