We cannot know everything but we can learn to detect bullish and bearish pressures at work. Institutions cannot hide entirely what they do as it shows up in the charts. Institutions move the market. We can’t know why they do what they did in the sense of their “reason” for doing it but we can come to conclusions why the market moved and that is based on the pressures they inserted on the market. So when I say why I mean not their reason but the effect their behavior has on the market.
Complacency in trading.
- Thread starter Laissez Faire
- Start date
I'm a part time trader, so I don't trade every day and on many days I miss the 2-3 initial hours of the RTH session. Those days are the worst as I usually miss the main move and am left picking up the crumbs. With the volatility being good this year there's usually some juice left in the afternoon as well, though.
April 3rd I made $1425 gross, April 4th $1050 gross and April 5th which was my worst day so far on this account I lost $1450 gross.
I don't spend too much time dwelling on past trades, but since you asked, I looked it up.
April 4th was an Outside Day. According to my system, I had a very high probability of that day closing back in range - which happened by the Close. My prediction was that we'd see a failure to take out the prior day low and rally back in range, but in actuality we dropped lower than that before reversing higher.
So, I lost money going long too early as I was too confident in my trading model and we dipped further than I had anticipated. When I saw that I didn't have any chance to make it a green day I called it a day.
Thanks for being so transparent.
Rough week. I was treading water all week and was back at equity highs by Friday and wanted to close the week on a high note thinking I'd be happy with just a small gain and ended up with my largest losing day so far.
I wouldn't say I got over confident and started thinking it was all easy, but definitely did some bad choices not respecting the care and discipline that's needed for profitable trading:
- Multi-tasking, i.e., taking trades in the EU session while doing an online course from home at work.
- Taking on too much leverage a few times and not taking B/E exits on trades which at some point were well in the green.
- Letting a few trades that were > + 10-15 at some point go all the way back to B/E. For example, yesterday could have been down only - $1200, but greed got the best of me and I let it go all the way back to even.
- Trading while sick (I think I catched another round of covid or the flu) yesterday and Thursday.
- Trading without an edge, i.e., when the market's in a range and I have no realistic expectations of discerning whether we're moving higher or lower.
On a positive note, I didn't do something supremely stupid like revenge-trading and over-leveraging trying to get back to a green day. In the past, I could have done that yesterday, but when the market settled in a range I knew it was not likely with a move that could make me whole, so I accepted the loss and called it a day. I also recognized most of the days fairly accurately and didn't make any unrealistic projections for what the day would offer, although I didn't trade them all that well.
What's done is done, so I'll just have to accept that and get back in the saddle next week with better focus and discipline. Not much room for error or being sloppy in this business.
Hope you guys had a more profitable week than me.
I wouldn't say I got over confident and started thinking it was all easy, but definitely did some bad choices not respecting the care and discipline that's needed for profitable trading:
- Multi-tasking, i.e., taking trades in the EU session while doing an online course from home at work.
- Taking on too much leverage a few times and not taking B/E exits on trades which at some point were well in the green.
- Letting a few trades that were > + 10-15 at some point go all the way back to B/E. For example, yesterday could have been down only - $1200, but greed got the best of me and I let it go all the way back to even.
- Trading while sick (I think I catched another round of covid or the flu) yesterday and Thursday.
- Trading without an edge, i.e., when the market's in a range and I have no realistic expectations of discerning whether we're moving higher or lower.
On a positive note, I didn't do something supremely stupid like revenge-trading and over-leveraging trying to get back to a green day. In the past, I could have done that yesterday, but when the market settled in a range I knew it was not likely with a move that could make me whole, so I accepted the loss and called it a day. I also recognized most of the days fairly accurately and didn't make any unrealistic projections for what the day would offer, although I didn't trade them all that well.
What's done is done, so I'll just have to accept that and get back in the saddle next week with better focus and discipline. Not much room for error or being sloppy in this business.
Hope you guys had a more profitable week than me.
_I wouldn't say I got over confident and started thinking it was all easy, but definitely did some bad choices not respecting the care and discipline that's needed for profitable trading:
- Multi-tasking, i.e., taking trades in the EU session while doing an online course from home at work.
- Taking on too much leverage a few times and not taking B/E exits on trades which at some point were well in the green.
- Letting a few trades that were > + 10-15 at some point go all the way back to B/E. For example, yesterday could have been down only - $1200, but greed got the best of me and I let it go all the way back to even.
- Trading while sick (I think I catched another round of covid or the flu) yesterday and Thursday.
- Trading without an edge, i.e., when the market's in a range and I have no realistic expectations of discerning whether we're moving higher or lower.
On a positive note, I didn't do something supremely stupid like revenge-trading and over-leveraging trying to get back to a green day. In the past, I could have done that yesterday, but when the market settled in a range I knew it was not likely with a move that could make me whole, so I accepted the loss and called it a day. I also recognized most of the days fairly accurately and didn't make any unrealistic projections for what the day would offer, although I didn't trade them all that well.
What's done is done, so I'll just have to accept that and get back in the saddle next week with better focus and discipline. Not much room for error or being sloppy in this business.
Hope you guys had a more profitable week than me.
View attachment 312663
Looking at the chart, it seems your losses are relatively big comparing them to profits. How is that possible? Are you trading according to a trading plan?Rough week. I was treading water all week and was back at equity highs by Friday and wanted to close the week on a high note thinking I'd be happy with just a small gain and ended up with my largest losing day so far.
I wouldn't say I got over confident and started thinking it was all easy, but definitely did some bad choices not respecting the care and discipline that's needed for profitable trading:
- Multi-tasking, i.e., taking trades in the EU session while doing an online course from home at work.
- Taking on too much leverage a few times and not taking B/E exits on trades which at some point were well in the green.
- Letting a few trades that were > + 10-15 at some point go all the way back to B/E. For example, yesterday could have been down only - $1200, but greed got the best of me and I let it go all the way back to even.
- Trading while sick (I think I catched another round of covid or the flu) yesterday and Thursday.
- Trading without an edge, i.e., when the market's in a range and I have no realistic expectations of discerning whether we're moving higher or lower.
On a positive note, I didn't do something supremely stupid like revenge-trading and over-leveraging trying to get back to a green day. In the past, I could have done that yesterday, but when the market settled in a range I knew it was not likely with a move that could make me whole, so I accepted the loss and called it a day. I also recognized most of the days fairly accurately and didn't make any unrealistic projections for what the day would offer, although I didn't trade them all that well.
What's done is done, so I'll just have to accept that and get back in the saddle next week with better focus and discipline. Not much room for error or being sloppy in this business.
Hope you guys had a more profitable week than me.
View attachment 312663
Trade should end either in a small profit, small loss, or big profit.
Cut all those big losses out and you will do much better!
Good luck!
I posted more detailed data on page 5 or 6. Up until yesterday my largest winning day far exceeded my largest losing day and I had 81 % winning days.
I agree that I need to watch the downside more carefully, but it’s not as simple as just using small stops as those will typically have a high chance of stopping out and they quickly add up. Yesterday, my win % was simply low. No huge single losses.
Why don't YOU trade and find out how it is possible. Yes? He gave you his reasons this morning at 6:30 AM post. READ it, man.
Hilarious!