Are you familiar with Market Profile? The plan I use is above. The books I provided are also very helpful for all of the above.

Just trying to help, but the plan to stop counting the dollars is the first step I took in overcoming overtrading and really tried to understand the markets. My interest is in them more than the money. I see that as a by-product of understanding the market structure, weakness, and opportunity.

If you read Mind over Markets you will be blown away with the aspect of understanding the markets. I hope that helps.

OK, hello @Merkd1904 again.

First, let me tell you not to be too hard on yourself. Much of what you wrote could have been written by many traders starting out, as well as many who started out a while ago and still do some of those things. It's part of the territory. And dealing with them is too.

I do go along with everything @matthew28 said. I'll add a little, but he did hit the high points.

I would say you are trading too much size. I would say that you are probably making too many trades (without seeing a chart with the trades I can't be sure, and, as I said, I'm not opening your pdf's. ) I know, and you know, that you are trading emotionally, probably in terms of both "positive" and "negative" emotions, which I will get into in a second. I know, and you know, that you are not controlling your losses.

So, what to do?

On the emotion thing, which you referenced in different ways a couple of times (impulse trading, revenge trading and so on) -- it is impossible to live and breathe without having emotions, but it is essential to also not let yourself go nuts emotionally while trading. You can do a lot of things, such as drive your car, work at a normal job, conduct business, and never feel the need to go off the rails. Trading does in fact offer many, many opportunities to go temporarily off your rocker. It is a very good idea to pass them up. (I'm not saying this as someone who has never gone off the deep end. All traders do.) There is also the trap of what are normally positive states, such as confidence and elation when you do well. They will sink you just as fast.

Unfortunately, the way to stop is pretty much just to stop. You can help yourself by keeping what you have at risk smaller, which gets back to reducing your size, the number of contracts you use. Also, probably taking fewer trades. I don't know anything about your trading method, other than it clearly sometimes works for you, and sometimes not. I would look first, and always, at the two paired elements of risk management (keep positions small) and loss control (kill losses before they become large.)

On the position size front, traders often want to go larger because, naturally, they can make more. But in your shoes, I think you should put making more profit behind learning how to trade in a more consistent, controlled way, and simply give up the dream of high profits for a while. Dream of doing good, steady trades that work out, and keep your emotions quieter by keeping the trade size smaller.

How small? One contract is a good idea. Or a micro. But anything where the risk of loss and the thrill of winning become non-issues for you, because the amount at stake is too small for you to care, and it's only something you do for the sake of learning the craft. Use more, slowly, when you've learned more.

I could go on, but you get my drift.

Good luck

Bob.

There is also the trap of what are normally positive states, such as confidence and elation when you do well. They will sink you just as fast.

I would look first, and always, at the two paired elements of risk management (keep positions small) and loss control (kill losses before they become large.)

Well. Don't really know how to start this so i'll just spill it.

Another issue was just timing, and luck. Last night i was trying to fade the open as we had gapped up after a pretty intense impulse move lower. I sold the level in which they found resistance, and in ES that was even a marked level on the chart. ...

Being the flashes every so often of ingenuity young guy i am i wasn't going to let last night's move go to waste. I had a that i had not used for the combine, and opened up another combine account between getting stopped out, and the move starting. And, i'm glad i did as it turned out to be one of those rare flashes of ingenuity as i'm already at the profit target for the combine step 1. 80-90% of that netted in the overnight session.

I have been patiently waiting for this move since we started to show signs of weakness in NQ the end of June. Literally dreaming of it. I have an entire thesis built on it including trend, pitch, and time cycle analysis. This was my time to shine. But.. I was locked out of the account yesterday, and got locked out last night an hour before the markets slowly started to roll over. Yes, i was too eager. But my last contract i got stopped out on was when price broke out, only to do so for about 20 minutes. And again, i was in my own head and that's my own fault. But I *knew* the move overnight was coming just like i knew it was coming yesterday.

The advice given is well meaning and all very good. However, it was pretty clear that you weren't going to follow it. It wasn't until your last post that the really telling stuff began to jump out of the page.



So, when you got locked out, your "issue was just timing, and luck". Yet, your $12K one day new combine profit was a (albeit rare, in your words) "flash of ingenuity." Instead of this, could it be that your wins are just timing/luck, and that your losses are flashes of .. something else? I don't know what "gap up" you're talking about (we haven't gapped up this week), but when you fade, sometimes you get run over. I'm not sure what level in ES you're referring to, but I didn't know whether to laugh or think you're kidding when you said, "in ES that was even a marked level on the chart," ... just.. good one.



Sorry chief, 30 straight days (6/3 to 7/16) without even sniffing its 20-day moving average, most of it hugging the upper 2nd sigma of that, is not weakness. But I digress.

You might as well have married your idea. When you're that locked into an idea, the result is the inability to see any other outcome. "Pro" traders do not trade this way. The successful ones have the amazing ability to have conviction in their idea, and then the humility (or good sense) to cut, and often, reverse. They don't fight the market (at least, not with size that matters enough to hurt them).

But that's not the real issue. It's this: "I *knew* the move overnight was coming just like i knew it was coming yesterday". Say it with me: bull, f-ing, shit. Unfortunately, we have the element of time in trading outrights to contend with. If you want to lessen that impact, you have to pay a premium for it in the options market. I can't tell you how many times I've "called a move" only to miss it by a hair. It's what the market does, man. If we could all have a 20 minute grace period or a few ticks buffer to be wrong, we'd all be rich -- literally everyone on this site can tell exactly the same story you did: "almost nailed it, was off by a tick or two ... sold just a little early... " yada, yada, yada. You didn't KNOW anything. You were just like hundreds of other people -- you got it wrong, because being early, with size, is being wrong too.

Thinking that you know what's coming means that you don't *really* consider the possibility that you're wrong, which means you don't really need to be concerned with risk.. why would you? You can't lose. THIS is why you blew up, and it's why you are going to blow up again. Unless you change it, of course. In fact, to put a real wet blanket on your Friday, you're actually doomed to repeat this cycle for many years, unless you actually learn to respect risk. +$12K days mean squat if the same behavior that got you the $12K results in you losing it all, and more, over the next few days.

I almost forgot: stop f-king trading on a plane. I've been there, and it's the most moronic thing you could possibly do. Just stop being an idiot. If you did that at a real trading firm someone else's ass would be in your seat the following Monday. I'm not kidding. TST tolerates it because you have made more money for them than you've lost, because you paid for combines and resets. They know a gambler when they see one (you), and you'll keep coming back to the well enough to make it worth their while.

If you really want to improve your results, I have something that will help you, but I doubt you'll do it. Here's the challenge: don't trade at all on your new combine on Monday. In fact, don't look at the market. Do something else. Don't open the platform, don't check quotes. Log off today at 5pm and don't even look until Tuesday morning. Can you handle that? My bet is, not a chance in hell. This little exercise was designed (by me, for me, when I was also an addict) to remove a little bit of the punch bowl from your life. You are completely imbalanced (and your girlfriend knows this, and doesn't like it, btw). Regain a little balance, regain some clarity, and gain some consistency. You won't do it, but that's what I'd recommend, if you would like to step off the treadmill and start actually getting somewhere.

Gee, don't sugarcoat it like that Josh, give it to him straight.

Great advice. The truth about the nature of human experience (not just trading) is that we learn way more from failure than from success.
When we fail, we start paying attention and asking questions.
When we succeed, we just become complacent and tell ourselves how great we are.
So cheers to failure... and the growth that follows!
Wasn't it MJ who said "I succeed because I fail"?