Quote from mark1:
Let me tell you, you start trading right at the most difficult time of the day, with your enthusiasm all pumped up only to be confronted with chop action, not good (that's not always the case ofc , I'm talking about probabilities).
Always keep an eye on the big picture, an hourly chart with a couple of weeks of data is just fine, draw your major TL, R/S and patterns as it was your base chart, but and this a big buttdon't be overly biased by its look, it only represents the boundaries of your playground, the real game for you is inside, be ready to change playground (break of a major support for istance) if the market dictates it. Start placing your trades later, did you notice the big moves often happens after 14:00 NY time? I'm sure you did. Most pros just trade from
9:30 to 11:30 and from 14 to 16. Less work more profit.
Trading choppiness requires great skills and I prefer to avoid it even though I'm often caught in the same mistake, see yesterday.
I know that the doldrums are not so good for trading because of the lower volume, but you got it spot on. I get to the charts as soon as I'm home from work, all pumped up and eager to go. It's addictive (but I don't have to tell you that). As I miss half the tradingday I try to 'make up'. Which is not good.
I have to pick my trades more carefull.
That's something you'll avoid once you realize internally that there's nothing to revenge for. The mkt doesn't give a rat about you, revenge against who? The mkt is a mirror, you see what you feel, nothing more nothing less.
Yes, spot on (again). and I know all that, but when I'm trading I'm still trigger happy. Reading a good book about that: Enhancing Trader Performance by Brett N. Steenbarger.
You noticed the mkt was spiky, you can clearly see that your risk has increased because the pivots (your logical stops) ar far far away, long bars all the way,what do you do? you are in Sim mode so you practice because money is not on the line, it's like saying I'm training for tennis championship so I screw my training because I'm not playing in Wimbledon right now.(I can see Agassi , kicking your @ass, LOL). No you learn your discipline in Sim mode, you don't trade and you wait for a CLEAR, LOW RISK set up. No set ups today? Fark it , tomorrow I need just 1 big trend to make it up for today.
Valid point M, I should treat the papertrading more like real trading.
PS: I prefer Kournikova to play with (doesn't have to be tennis).
Keep working on your discipline and listen to what the MKT has to say and you'll see big improvements, and if this makes you feel better, after 10 years sometimes I still have no clue, and I will post my bad days when they'll come.
Almost forgot, Think about implementing a daily and a weekly stop loss, say 1 day you are down 0.5 % of your account you stop right there, you close down the PC , that's not your day. That's it. They should invent a trading software just like that, which forces you to close down hehe, Button trader has a similar function I think.
I agree, for a real account, but I need the screen time. Will take every setup I can get when papertrading.
Tnx M for the feedback, really appreciated!
