Darn trading...

[digitalnomad]

You aren't alone. It is very, very hard to stop out and not try to pick another bottom

It's best not to perceive bottoms, or tops at all. Euphoria and capitulation appear obvious only in hindsight. Best to build a model that navigates within the unknown extremes.

 

[Millionaire]

I make sure that I dont get bored, watch porn and play Battlefield until I see a real good opportunity.

I dont know whats worse, your statement or that so many people liked it.

Trading is a serious and difficult business, it leaves little room for errors.

How can you 'see a real good opportunity' while you are distracted doing those other two things?

 

[algofy]

I dont know whats worse, your statement or that so many people liked it.

Trading is a serious and difficult business, it leaves little room for errors.

How can you 'see a real good opportunity' while you are distracted doing those other two things?

Porn I don't agree with but some mild game that can be paused while waiting for a setup, I might try. I'm thinking chess or a Rubik's cube sort of game for me.

 

[Jack1960]

There is a good way to accomplish what you want. Be more clear in you head. To be more clear, meditate. Look for someone who specializes in meditation for trading to teach you.

 

[DDR]

I do a lot of mental rehearsal. I expect the inevitable long losing streaks and drawdowns so when they come i am totally prepared.
I also journal all my losing days here on ET.

You must have faith in the long term outcome from your trading plan/system.
And make sure you don't feel pressure to win in the short term.
If short term results are important to you then its hard to perform with 100% flawless execution.
I aim to take all my losses with minimum emotion, sometimes going several months without a new high water mark in my equity. I never try to force setups or force winners. That nearly always ends in even deeper losses. I learnt that the hard way many times. I think it was Ed Seykota who said when trading 'trying to play catch up is lethal'.

This is a very good description of "trader and the market interaction."
Overtime if you can just tame your emotions you can become one of the 5% ers.
Chasing losses, oh dear what a nightmare outcome when one does that !!

Good post Millionaire

 

[algofy]

There is a good way to accomplish what you want. Be more clear in you head. To be more clear, meditate. Look for someone who specializes in meditation for trading to teach you.

Any suggestions or recommendations on where to start looking at this, seems interesting.

 

[DeltaRisk]

Was taking small stops all day today in crude and got down a little bit, instead of stopping for the day or switching to sim, I thought it would be a great idea to 5x my size and a super tight stop, worst case I'd be down slightly more than I was and I'd quit for the day. Well I ended up taking a 3x my normal stop. Been doing this for over 5 years and I still do stupid shit on occasion. I'm sure other experience this dipshit decision making blackout from time to time, what do you do to be sure you are 100% surgical and always act in your own best interest?

Get out of the trade. It isn't so much right or wrong. It's preserving capital.

 

[algofy]

Get out of the trade. It isn't so much right or wrong. It's preserving capital.

Agree 100%...I do it correctly 19 days a month, I just have to learn to accept a moderate loss day.

Also for comparison sake, I took about a 6x average winning day loss today.

 

[CALLumbus]

I dont know whats worse, your statement or that so many people liked it.

Trading is a serious and difficult business, it leaves little room for errors.

How can you 'see a real good opportunity' while you are distracted doing those other two things?

I understand this might not work for many or most. It depends on your personality and your type of trading.

I am a person who likes to be busy and to have fun. In a trading environment like 2008 or even 2015, where I had a possible trade every few minutes in FESX and FDAX, it was not necessary for me to utilize any distractions like videogames to not get bored. The market was like a fast videogame himself, very fun, with lots of action to trade.
These days there are also fantastic opportunities, but only maybe 5-10 during my full trading day, which gives me on average a trade every 1-2 hours.

My style is VERY simple, I dont need to rethink or analyze my trading opportunities once they are there. I just click the mouse. Enter. Click again. Exit. Thats it.

Because of this combination, the simplicity of my approach, the frequency of opportunities in the market and myself wanting to be engaged in some kind of action, I chose the distractions I mentioned before, among others. Reading and posting on Elitetrader is another welcome distraction between trades. Thats one of the reasons why I am on this forum.

I understand that this is not for everybody. If you have a different trading style or personality, what I do might seem or be complete nonsense or even dangerous for your account. So be it the market or Battlefield... play at your own risk

 

[propwarrior]

Was taking small stops all day today in crude and got down a little bit, instead of stopping for the day or switching to sim, I thought it would be a great idea to 5x my size and a super tight stop, worst case I'd be down slightly more than I was and I'd quit for the day. Well I ended up taking a 3x my normal stop. Been doing this for over 5 years and I still do stupid shit on occasion. I'm sure other experience this dipshit decision making blackout from time to time, what do you do to be sure you are 100% surgical and always act in your own best interest?

yeah been there. You have to address the root cause of it and found out why you are doing it. For me I found the reason was undercapitalisation and the majority of psych problems just don't occur if you have more capital. I saw guys with larger accounts be completely chilled leaving for the day after taking a small loss or scratching. The guy risking $500 per trade on a $25k account has very different pressures to the guy risking $1500 per trade on a $500k account. The latter is completely chilled and objective 99% of the time, takes on the spur holidays. The guy with the smaller account is thumping the desk, drinking every night and more volatile. For me the more I had to make money the harder it was to make money. Of course I don't know your situation but so many psych issues come down to capitalisation imo.

edit ps - so in your situation is there something in your subconscious telling you that you must not take a loss for the day/week or you must make a certain amount every day/week/month, if there is remove it and the problem will clear up imo.