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I'm curious how many others experience this problem. For me, it's around four trades.
If I am straight winning, I notice my emotions start to heighten and discipline start to drop so the best thing to do is walk away before I do something against the rules. If I'm losing too many trades, I can feel frustration start to rise up and take a break before I go on tilt and do something stupid. But no matter what, emotions start to ramp too much to trade after five trades for the day. There is a little more too it too... I can feel the objectiveness going away and myself going out of sync with the market.
I usually do my best trading and maintain the best discipline for the longest if I start out with a losing trade.
I want to master the ability to keep myself perfectly together for more than a few daytrades a day.
Here is my normal daytrading routine. I glance at the headlines and weekly calendar fifteen minutes before market open to check for anything important. I watch the market for around 15-25 minutes and check the internals. I start trading once I feel like I am in sync. I have pretty much always traded this way. I allow myself to get in sync with the market before starting to trade. Not to mention, my technicals also need a bit to sync up.
I think that possibly a half hour nap and some meditation at lunch might get me back in the zone for late session. Will have to try some different things...
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
I was like this till mid-2013... till my (proverbial) 'click' moment.
Now outcomes of individual trades no longer bother me... win or lose it is all the same (and boring, if bored is an emotion).
On Thursday I took a trade with my fixed size and lost FULL, i.e. the max stopout.
I hate losers. I really really hate my losers. But the only action I take is to check if I was at fault or if this was normal variance at work. If it is the later then I accept the loss and move on.
It is the first thing that bothers me. For some reason I did not follow my system and then as a consequence, I lost (the most expected outcome).
Then it is time to get back into the zone, a mindful place (not a calm place, not a timid runaway, not a craving-to-be-back-into-positive-territory, not positive thinking) - simply AWARE.
I take my next trade when that happens... essentially I have reset myself and not allowed previous outcomes sway me.
The only problem is that this has taken me all of five years to taste a limited bit of mastery - first there is the market to understand (when to trade, when to stay out, when to exit) and then there is yourself.
So I see myself going on and on and on.... there is essentially no 'endurance test' because you move with the market in a tango and pause to take rest, improve.
All I wish to say is that: The limits are superimposed by a superficial ego.
We first start with a search for the perfect method, something that will improve our results, soe magic method.
But finally trading boils down to this - ironing out the kinks in oneself so that one's mind becomes clear enough to see what was right in front of him instead of trying to 'control'.
Then work trade by trade by trade (almost like a day job for scalpers, like a day job for swing traders just stretched out)
And my number one kink was that I hated to lose so much that this almost pathological hatred of losing was a much stronger force than my desire to win.
'One often finds his destiny in the path that one takes trying to avoid it.' (Kung Fu Panda, 2008) Thanks again, @PandaWarrior
We come to trading because we feel that we have to solve this unsolvable equation:
IF only x would happen THEN I would change myself to y.
Examples include:
If I crawl out of this drawdown as a result of this stupid trade I took, I would never take a stupid trade again.
IF my equity curve reaches over this arch THEN I would implement a money management plan and stick to it.
So long as the market provides thrills, that is all it provides.
Hmmm... That kind of rings a bell. I never goto casino's or gamble because I don't play games I can't win. I do have issues with losing at anything or being wrong. What helps that?
For me the emotions start to kick in once I've lost most of the amount I made the day before and I realize there's not enough time to make it back in the rest of the day.
R.I.P. Joseph Bach (Itchymoku), 1987-2018.
Please visit this thread for more information.
I was thinking carefully over my trading, and you know what really irks me and starts getting me worked up...
Doing the right trade, but timing the entry off enough that I have to wait through the trade drifting near my stop before it heads the right way. It's worse than a bad trade hitting a stop!
