• "Let your winners run; cut your losers short." Position management! Place your trades with a SL/TP bracket in place.
• "Make hay while the sun shines." (Clubber Lang) There will be minutes, hours, days and weeks and *years* when your proffered style of trade will be disadvantaged -- Develop an empirical standard for acceptable trading environment, and do *not* trade outside of that.
• "Trade without memory." Trading is often compared to athletics -- so ask your favorite quarterback about how they feel about their last pass: they don't give a crap! It's gone! Whether it was an interception or a touchdown or an incomplete, it's gone. The only scrimmage that matters is the one about to go -- the only pitch that matters is the one headed towards home plate right now. The only trade that matters is the one going on right now. If you're not focused on *that* one, then sit on your hands.
{soapbox on}
A very-related last note: Baron wrote (above) that "Willpower is a muscle..." Compare that thought with something posted some years back: "you can't trade with your mortgage payment..." Whether tick-scalping, selling option spreads, or [EOD] trend-trading, I have always traded to *earn* my mortgage payment. But I worked to do it *specifically* without emotion: mechanically, "rules-based trading" -- ending with a coded algorithm.
...So maybe a re-write: If you don't have the willpower to focus *only* on the trade in front of you, SIT ON YOUR HANDS. Let some go by. Scrub your mind. Go for a run. Do the dishes. Read the news. Evaluate your trades from your trade log, study/refine when you did better from when you did less well. Write down your results!! But Do NOT Trade.
{soapbox off}
• "Make hay while the sun shines." (Clubber Lang) There will be minutes, hours, days and weeks and *years* when your proffered style of trade will be disadvantaged -- Develop an empirical standard for acceptable trading environment, and do *not* trade outside of that.
• "Trade without memory." Trading is often compared to athletics -- so ask your favorite quarterback about how they feel about their last pass: they don't give a crap! It's gone! Whether it was an interception or a touchdown or an incomplete, it's gone. The only scrimmage that matters is the one about to go -- the only pitch that matters is the one headed towards home plate right now. The only trade that matters is the one going on right now. If you're not focused on *that* one, then sit on your hands.
{soapbox on}
A very-related last note: Baron wrote (above) that "Willpower is a muscle..." Compare that thought with something posted some years back: "you can't trade with your mortgage payment..." Whether tick-scalping, selling option spreads, or [EOD] trend-trading, I have always traded to *earn* my mortgage payment. But I worked to do it *specifically* without emotion: mechanically, "rules-based trading" -- ending with a coded algorithm.
...So maybe a re-write: If you don't have the willpower to focus *only* on the trade in front of you, SIT ON YOUR HANDS. Let some go by. Scrub your mind. Go for a run. Do the dishes. Read the news. Evaluate your trades from your trade log, study/refine when you did better from when you did less well. Write down your results!! But Do NOT Trade.
{soapbox off}
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