Any ideas?

[NZDSPeCIALISt]

Quote from jessop:

NZD,

The other thing that helped me was risking only a very small % of my trading capital.

My trading plan says the maximum risk per trade is 1% of capital.

At the moment I am only risking 0.25% per trade until my rule following consistency improves.

Therefore why hesitate when I get a valid proven signal - the only fear is if I get 400 losers in a row

Good idea. At present I am risking more per trade and that no doubt is one reason that I am feeling performance anxiety. I rationalise it by thinking that my trading frequency is less than most and my success rate is correspondingly better. If I was to day trade - then yes 1% max is a good figure - that is what I would do as a catastrophic loss scenario.

 

[NZDSPeCIALISt]

Todays harvest so far - hold over the weekend! (You can see the first call I made on ET a few hours ago here:

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=69429&perpage=6&pagenumber=3).

Sorry, but I'm a swinger through and through guys!!

But the question remains, I was watching the trade for about half an hour and then I decided to let the trade go when price moved two pips away when i was about to buy. I said stuff it - wait for another one. Then it came back a couple of minutes later to the same spot - chart signal still valid from my data feed, and the first thought on my mind was. Maybe I am wrong - why is it coming back so fast. Even though a mintue before that I was saying I will put the trade on it comes back to the same place. I HAD TO FORCE MYSELF TO PUT THE DAMN THING ON. Then I close my charts and platform up as I get petrified with each tick. And then four hours later I open it up and I am in the black - put stop to BE and relax. And now I am thnking of a reason to exit whilst I'm ahead - when I was mentally saying to myself all afternoon (my charts are set to GMT but I live in Australia - best time zone for FOREX IMHO) that I will hold over the weekend. It is like I hate myself or something - thats why I cant day trade - I would have been out hours ago.

 

[ivob]

Hi,

Saying "just take the trade" is not the solution. You need to find out why you are not taking the trade. For this you need to study yourself in my opinion.

Look at your background. The way you were raised and the environment in which you were raised. It could be subconsciously you are afraid of succes because after all you do take trades so why not the better setups as you see them? All I am saying is that it's not as simple as saying "Just take the trade". It's deeper.

For example in my family making money was never stressed so much so I found out that I do not enjoy / celebrate a good trade as much as I should but a bad trade does affect me more than it should. So I started to change my system all the time even though I was profitable. Also it made me look for excitement and challenges instead of profit which is bad. I would bet the opposite or too big size (to see if I could make a killing). I mean still if I have appointments I leave too late just to see if I can make it on time for the challenge. Turning everything into a game, taking unnecessary risks etc. Realizing this helped me a lot in my trading.

anyway, just some thoughts. Our backgrounds can make us do illogical things. Not easy to solve but realization is the first step.

Ivo

 

[NZDSPeCIALISt]

Quote from ivob:


Look at your background. The way you were raised and the environment in which you were raised. It could be subconsciously you are afraid of succes because after all you do take trades so why not the better setups as you see them?

That one is easy - it's my fathers fault. Ever since I can remember he has been spitting out these lines (to this day whenever we talk it's the same old story):

"If your born poor you die poor"
"We have never had luck in our family"
"I made so many mistakes in life"
"We can't reach the heights of the wealthy - they are too smart"
"No-one in our family was ever rich"
"You will only get rich winning the lottery"

Thats all I ever heard growing up - day after day. Trading somehow is bringing me right up and facing that stuff - and the scoreline is the bottom line - whether loss or forgone profit. I would become mince meat day trading because I still havn't dealt with that stuff - only "clever avoidance".

 

[nononsense]

Quote from NZDSPeCIALISt:

I have noticed that very often just when a good trade settup emerges - I usually feel uncomfortable, I usually experience a kind of "minor freeze" almost as if I have to force myself to put on the trade. I am looking for every excuse not to put on the trade, when I am about to go for it, and many times I manage to talk myself out of it (especially the really good trades). []

Solution:

(0) Stay away from psycho threads. Your problem lies not there. It only will make you a permanent member of that huge dopey loser's society;

(1) Fear is often very rational. It is symptomatic for your lack of skill in trading and has probably saved you lots of money up till now. Stop trading and start working on your technique or strategy. Be warned, this will probably take many years.

nononsense

 

[NZDSPeCIALISt]

Quote from nononsense:

Solution:

(0) Stay away from psycho threads. Your problem lies not there. It only will make you a permanent member of that huge dopey loser's society;

(1) Fear is often very rational. It is symptomatic for your lack of skill in trading and has probably saved you lots of money up till now. Stop trading and start working on your technique or strategy. Be warned, this will probably take many years.

nononsense

My system is sound it’s that my lack of application of it that I want to hone in and change because nothing is worse than potential that is not properly applied. If I have a “breakthrough” then undoubtedly I will be trading more than I am now, instead of watching opportunity after opportunity go by because I am restraining myself. In economics it’s called an opportunity cost - the cost of something in terms of an opportunity forgone (and the benefits that could be received from that opportunity).

As for hanging around psyche threads like you mention, it all depends on the participant’s willingness to explore and keep an open mind to constructive criticism. I find that without exception everyone’s contributions so far have been positive and constructive.

 

[NihabaAshi]

Quote from ivob:

...Saying "just take the trade" is not the solution. You need to find out why you are not taking the trade. For this you need to study yourself in my opinion.

Look at your background. The way you were raised and the environment in which you were raised. It could be subconsciously you are afraid of succes because after all you do take trades so why not the better setups as you see them? All I am saying is that it's not as simple as saying "Just take the trade". It's deeper...

Ivo

Completely agree.

Just as important, it would be interesting if NZDSPeCIALISt would describe in-detail his current trading environment at home or office.

I've met too many traders that were trading in an environment not suitable for trading and for some odd reason...

They would stay in this environment because it was too difficult to leave.

Here are some examples I can remember hearing about in the past year:

* Trader trading from college while a full-time student with a dorm roommate several times per week saying...

Loosing any money today.

His roommate was the least of his problems.

He was trading with some serious money while caring a full academic load along with dealing with all the normal distractions associated with dorm life.

* Trader that's well capitalized but with too many debts and knows that in a few months he's going to need to start using some of his trading capital to pay bills.

* Trader trading from home and takes care of the kids while spouse goes to work.

* Trader with serious marital problems (heated arguments several times per week).

* Trader with serious health problems.

* Trader is one of those individuals that needs constant encouragement or hand holding sort'uv speak...

Not getting it while trading but use to getting it in other aspects of their life.

* Trader is under-capitalized, hangs out with losing traders and/or associates himself with them.

Blind leading the blind.

* Trader has failed at just about everything else in their personal life or business ventures...

Doesn't think trading will be any different.
___________

Most of the time, not being a successful trader is not always dependent upon your trade strategy and is more dependent upon your interaction in your environment as your interacting with the markets at the same time.

By the way, all the above I saw cause the same problems with serious athletes.

Simply, trading is no different from sports (individual sports)...similar like realities (same head games).

Mark

 

[NZDSPeCIALISt]

Quote from NihabaAshi:

Completely agree.

Just as important, it would be interesting if NZDSPeCIALISt would describe in-detail his current trading environment at home or office.

I've met too many traders that were trading in an environment not suitable for trading and for some odd reason...

They would stay in this environment because it was too difficult to leave.

Here are some examples I can remember hearing about in the past year:

* Trader trading from college while a full-time student with a dorm roommate several times per week saying...

Loosing any money today.

His roommate was the least of his problems.

He was trading with some serious money while caring a full academic load along with dealing with all the normal distractions associated with dorm life.

* Trader that's well capitalized but with too many debts and knows that in a few months he's going to need to start using some of his trading capital to pay bills.

* Trader trading from home and takes care of the kids while spouse goes to work.

* Trader with serious marital problems (heated arguments several times per week).

* Trader with serious health problems.

* Trader is one of those individuals that needs constant encouragement or hand holding sort'uv speak...

Not getting it while trading but use to getting it in other aspects of their life.

* Trader is under-capitalized, hangs out with losing traders and/or associates himself with them.

Blind leading the blind.

* Trader has failed at just about everything else in their personal life or business ventures...

Doesn't think trading will be any different.
___________

Most of the time, not being a successful trader is not always dependent upon your trade strategy and is more dependent upon your interaction in your environment as your interacting with the markets at the same time.

By the way, all the above I saw cause the same problems with serious athletes.

Simply, trading is no different from sports (individual sports)...similar like realities (same head games).

Mark

None of the above apply to me. I have complete privacy to focus without any external factors that are mentioned above hindering me - apart from lower back pain (l5/s1 prolapsed disk - bloody painful early morning and late night and maybe it is part of the reason I feel like i do sometimes).

 

[coolweb]

Quote from NZDSPeCIALISt:

None of the above apply to me. I have complete privacy to focus without any external factors that are mentioned above hindering me - apart from a bit of lower back pain.

Lack of knowledge, experience
Simple as that

You don't know the quality/outcome of your entries.

I had that problem before awhile back,
I miss very little trades now because I know where the price is going to end up if I do miss it, and I know how much I will lose if the price doesn't go where I want it to.

 

[NZDSPeCIALISt]

Quote from coolweb:

Lack of knowledge, experience
Simple as that

You don't know the quality/outcome of your entries.

I had that problem before awhile back,
I miss very little trades now because I know where the price is going to end up if I do miss it, and I know how much I will lose if the price doesn't go where I want it to.

How many trades does it take then? (Or rather how many trades did it take you to be at the space that you miss few trades?). You don't feel anything holding you back when EVERYTHING is a go these days?