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After something I saw this weekend I have decided to add a section in my trading plan titled, "That's not my money." This will help me keep from trying to catch everything on the page. Just thinking about this before it has gone in my trading plan has help me immediately. I look at my chart, and think, "That's not my money, someone else can have that. I'll take if from them when it is my money." I even think that way when I'm not at the computer trading. If I've decided to be away from trading then that's not my money. No would have, should have, could have..... Mentally, it has help me already.
Hi @gordo, I know you were taking some time for reflection -- what have you learned about your trading? Any changes and updates to your plan? I'd like to see you continue the journal, I hope you will.
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN???!!! Do you not know that you have to keep up your journal if you want to be successful? I think the forum deserves an explanation of your whereabouts!!!
All valid points. I have been a bit out of touch, but I have been busy working on my programming in my spare time! J
Last Friday was nephew’s birthday. 1st birthdays always need a cool cake. So we made a cool cake (first attachment). Saturday and Sunday were clean the garage, get ready for winter days.
Monday was grandson Marek day (number eight for me! - attachment). At this point in the process, I don’t even break a sweat. Just tell me where to be and when. I will try my best to make it happen!! However, I don't do delivery rooms anymore. Not my place. I HAVE DONE MY TIME!
Tuesday was surgery day for the wife. Brand new knee, just like Lewtenant Dan. Pretty cool pic, huh? 51 staples 10 stitches, two titanium joints and a piece of Teflon. The painful part is going to be taking out the staples and stitches. Glad it’s not me! Now we go into rehab, pain control and home health care. And no…I do not wear a white Nurse’s outfit!!
So, I do what I can working on my strategy and writing a program to back test, but for the most part, I am the nurse. She will get better, it will just take some time. We had the other one done in June, so I know the drill.
Then to throw something fun into the mix, two serious personal issues in my life were resolved and now I get to deal with the consequences. It’s not important what they were, but they were significant.
Oh yeah, I forgot! I had to throw a birthday in there too! What did I get? A cool RO unit for the fish!! Speaking of the fish, because I was spending all my waking hours with the wife at the hospital, two died. There were no funeral services, but cards are welcome!
I say all these things to say, trading is hard when life is happening. … BUT, I’m good. All is well, and I am on my way.
Today was my first good day trading with my indicators and market watching. I was finally back in my office and I got all of my screens moved back from my laptop to my desktop system. I took a screenshot and marked it up to show what I am looking for. I think I will dub this my Borg System. If I ever get the automated strategy into a form for the forum, that is what I should name it. We have the Collective Moving Average which will have to be renamed ‘The Collective’; the Fantastic Four indicator which will have to be renamed ‘Seven of Nine’ (I just LOVED watching Jeri, although I had a hard time seeing her smile on other shows, just didn't seem real to me. Borg don't smile, they just asimilate…she made a good Borg); and of course I would have to change the colors on the AdxVma so the horizontal line is a red laser beam and rename it ‘Locutus’. [I met Gene Rodenberry when I was in college back in '73. He was touring across the country when Star Trek first came out. It was a real treat for me, but there weren’t a lot of fans then. Made the time more special for me. All my kids say is ‘Who???’.]
***[sigh]***
Back to trading…
I am looking for price action to pass through the yellow ‘gate’ and either climb or fall. Then I am looking for the first retrace on that move and then going long/short right above/below (2-3 ticks) the retrace. If the retrace never materializes, then no loss. I am also looking for the background flooding on the Fantastic Four and the slope of the Collective MA to be in the same direction. There is a bit of interpretation sometimes because these indicators lag, but not much. It was a great day for me today. Three trades, $424. I could get used to this.
Tomorrow is play electrician day for a job my Son-In-Law has, so I will probably not trade.
Monday was take care of wife day. No trading. Got half the staples out. The rest come out Thursday. That staple puller is the COOLEST thing I have seen in some time.
Made some good trades today. Watched the price action and stayed with the strategy. I only had one that made both targets, but I did not get anxious or try to take trades that were not mine. Like you guys said, that wasn’t my money. But I did get the money that was mine. I did a good job following my strategy and playing my game.
I reviewed my performance charts (attachment three) today and show improvements in trade rates and error rates. Both good signs of good trading discipline. Not only that, but it just feels good and yes the money is there too. I attached three trades I made today. They looked pretty good on the right hand side of the screen in the heat of batle, and it turns out they don’t look too bad in hindsight.
This has been a rather humbling ride for me as of late. Last week was certainly a demonstration of the high, and the low. Well I made the money and lost it all and then some. So what did I learn? I think I am trying to go too big on my indicators. Yes, I know I can roll a whole bunch of them together into one indicator (FantasticFour) and make it look pretty. I am a fair programmer. But can I successfully trade with it? I think not. So what to do. Back up, and regroup. Today, I made two trades. I looked at a lot of them, but only made two. What was it about those trades? Well, first I have gone back to my roots and look at the indicators I have looked at for months. I can’t just glance at them, I have to watch them and get in sync with them. That means if I go for a cup of coffee and come back, I have to get back in sync. The trades I made, were good solid trades with good solid price action which made the indicators look good. I have to keep reminding myself that the price action makes the indicators. The indicators do not make the price action.
I press on.
I made good trades today and there is tomorrow. The interesting thing about my trading losses last week is I was up $200+ on each of those losing days and managed to trade it all away and then some. Not good for my mental health. I wasn’t very happy with myself and was doing some real soul searching. I really appreciated Big Mike’s comment. A lot of what he said spoke to me. I know it was a bit of a stick as opposed to a carrot, but sometimes we need the stick.
On a VERY positive note, I am getting better in my head with my trading mind set. I think I am making progress there. Today was a good trading day. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to demonstrate to myself more of the same trading restraint.
My XXXXXXX (un-named relative whose identity I want to keep secret) is in a battle at work over a project that didn’t turn out as well as ‘management’ wanted. The root of the problem is they are in a dying industry and they want to blame the workers. They want someone’s head. My XXXXXXX says he thinks his industry will be all but gone in five years. Another buggy whip company bites the dust. Why think about that? Why mention it here? I was in the corporate rat race. I WAS the ‘management’ idiot beating on the workers. What did it get me? Fired. So now I work for myself. I can yell and scream all I want but the bottom line is I am responsible for me. I have no one to blame, punish or discipline. Just me. Why yell and scream? Won’t do any good. I don’t respond well when I yell at myself.
Today was a long day. It was long not because of the hours, but because I made more trades than I would have liked. For the most part I traded okay, not good, just okay. Grade…hmmmm…let me see…B-/C+ ish. [Those are graduate level grades which as you know, are not good.] Now as I reflect on the day and look back, I made three errors. Nothing new, same old bad habits. So I have decided to look at them in a different light. Had I not made these errors (things that I know about myself) I could add $250 to my bottom line. WOW! I need to stay focused and not make the errors. I think if I focus on what my errors cost me, I might be less inclined to make them. At least it’s worth writing down. If I write them down, bear my soul and I get better…great! If I don’t get better, than I better get my corporate resume dusted off.
Today’s errors were:
1. Chasing a trade: Saw a trade form, too late, pressed the ‘market’ button and when I got in, price action retraced and stopped me out. (Cost me 20 ticks) I was bored and had taken my attention away from what I was supposed to be doing and paid a heavy price. When I am trading, I need to trade.
2. Trading scared money: Got out early and gave up 5 ticks. Not that much, but not my trading philosophy.
3. Moving my stop to keep me from getting stopped out. I got away with it today, but I know this is wrong and I have paid thousands for this error.
To sum up today’s efforts, I need to get up and walk away if I am getting bored. Otherwise, I need to stay on task. My goal is to trade error free. My goal is to wait for my trades. My goal is to take my money and let everyone else take their money. My goal is to be a good solid, boring, day-in day-out trader who follows his own rules and makes a solid income.
So I didn’t post yesterday, but I have a good excuse! What a couple of days this has been. Take a look at my stats. Good stuff. Not the money so much as just the renewed efforts on trading error free. I owe a great deal of thanks to two great people on this forum: Big Mike and Sharky. They have both been an inspiration to my trading and I thank them for that. Keep up the good work guys. I love reading your forum posts.
Yesterday was my first day getting the youngest granddaughter. We watch her on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. That means I drive 40 minutes in and 40 minutes back. I get back to the house 45 minutes after the CL open cry start. So I am late to work. So my first trade of the day was a rush job. I didn’t get set and in sync and I took a hit. Bad trading on my part. Now I have learned my lesson [At least I hope I learned my lesson].
As I look back, Cory and Andrew admonished me in this thread that the money before I start is NOT MY MONEY. I have used that phrase on myself over and over and over. It’s good stuff. If I choose not to trade at that time in order to spend time with my granddaughter and help out my kids, then “It’s not my money!” Good stuff.
Anyway, so I traded better the rest of the day until about 1130 I just took a trade. I was pushing it and wanted to make it happen so I could quit. The great news in this potential disaster is I realized immediately what I had done and got out of the trade. That was the best trade that I made that day. I realized I was wrong and corrected the error. I made one tick!
10/15/10
It is getting hard for me to trade, babysit the granddaughter, tend to my wife with the new knees (2), write in my journal, keep all of my books up to date, mow the church lawn (my week to mow, four hour job), fix the Lincoln, truck, son's car, bulldozer, Lexus... Not only that, but guess who came to visit???? ALL THE GRANDKIDS!!!!!! That was some good times. Here's a picutre of them out in our field on a hay bail.
Anyway, I traded. This was a high error day (3). The interesting thing is I am all over the map with my errors. I am almost wondering if I am actually trying to sabotage myself. Could be. Some people can't take success. This is looking to be one of my best winning streaks since I started journaling and really focused on what I was doing when I traded. That is a good thing. Any hoo… I had a feel good day. I limited my trading errors and finished up a positive week.
10/19/10
Time to get these posts into my on-line journal. Today was good. I made one error. I was listening to one of my colleagues and got into a trade that I should have stood on the sidelines. TRADE MY STRATEGY! Other than that foolish error, I did okay. There was some really fast moves in CL today. My three winning trades all lasted less than a minute. Fast stuff. I like this a whole lot better than I ever liked the ES. If I get myself in a jam, I can dig my way back out. In the ES, if I got myself in a jam, I was history. I am now on my longest winning trend EVER, seven days!! WOW!! I think I really owe this success to this web site. I have been able to work out my strategy, read the successes and failures of those around me, develop indicators that helped me and hopefully helped others, found a great product to trade and just generally am having a good time.
I have included my trades for today, my trading record, my error log and my graphs. They might help someone, but more importantly, they helped me a great deal. Wahoo!!
Now I know that there is always the day of potential loss. I realize that is the nature of the beast. However, I am trying to be focused and trade smart. The CL goes on. It is okay to sit and watch and wait. I intend on doing that.
