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Detroit MI/USA
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Multicharts, Custom own
Trading: All Futures
Posts: 66 since Sep 2017
Thanks Given: 41
Thanks Received: 206
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A few thoughts related to some of the issues you have identified and a few pointers.
I totally agree with Bob - leave the sim behind and trade real money. Although sims have been the cornerstone of the futures trading industry for years in order for new traders to practice on, I believe they might be doing a lot more harm for new traders than the good they are supposed to do. They lull you into a totally unrealistic sense of well being so when real money is on the line, all your well prepared and thought out plan gets influenced by emotion and you start reacting and second guessing yourself due to fear.
Micro contracts have changed the game for new traders. Use them instead of the sim. The markets are psychological warfare and you have to be in the trenches with your opponents, not hiding in the sim where no-one even knows you're there except yourself. In a conventional war, recruits don't practice with BB guns and then get into battle for the first time and realize that they are now strapping a huge Howitzer on their back which they aren't used to, and don't know what the effect of using it will be. Get used to having some money at risk, but not an amount that affects you in any way at all. You need to use the micros's as if you are trading the full contracts. Don't concentrate too much on your winning trades, be very mindful of those that you are losing. You seem to indicate that your losses are much larger than they should be - you need to identify exactly why that is (is it your methodology/system at fault or is it you) and get that dealt with. To me, that should be your primary focus at this time, as it seems to be something that is becoming a chronic issue. Nip it in the bud now and do whatever you have to, in order to rectify it. If you need help with that, post a chart with whatever your setup for a trade/trades is/are and there are a lot of people on here who could assist you.
Something that I think also might help you or any other traders is to have your trading plan in writing next to you all the time. Never deviate from your trading plan during market trading hours, only change it if you feel it needs changing for whatever reason, after the market is closed. So based on your trading plan of trade setup, entry, risk stop and profit target, place the trade, the stop and the profit target and try leaving the computer for the first 5 or 10 minutes of the trade so that you don't get emotionally attached and involved in this trade. It can do wonders for your psychological training, as when you return to the computer, you are not looking at the trade through an adrenalin(epinephrine) haze, which always messes up the most well planned and intentioned trade. You can clearly see what has actually happened in the market since placing the trade - you might be out with profit or stopped out, or you might be on the way to profit. Wherever the trade is, you will see it through a totally different lens than if you had been sitting watching the ticks going up and down, see your profit increase and then go into a drawdown and now all the negative emotions and fear appear and you'll start thinking maybe I should get out, was my analysis correct etc etc etc.
Successful trading comes down to your mind - train it properly from the start to accept what goes against everything we as humans are taught to believe in throughout our lives. Don't make the mistakes a lot of experienced traders were forced to make years ago because the tools and assistance was not available then like it is today. I do have to concur with comments I've read on here many times - having FIO is something very special for newer traders as there is so much sound and sage advice which can shorten your learning curve dramatically and hopefully allow you to eventually be able to reach whatever goal you have set yourself in this very difficult endeavour.
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