Daytrading the whole session versus calling it a day after reaching a profit target?

[SanMiguel]

Life doesn’t bend itself according to your understanding.

Look at the thread you're on...

 

[heypa]

Look at the thread you're on...

Parados law or rule works for a lot of things

 

[Sekiyo]

Parados law or rule works for a lot of things

Yes.
Pareto holds for many processes.
Especially power law, natural, phenomenon.

@qwertyjjj

I wasn’t talking about PnL but opportunity.
There is a difference between x and f(x).

In principle you abstain from arguing,
As you’d abstain from trading,
If you don’t understand.

Not saying you can’t understand.
But you jumped too quick into a conclusion.
You’re lucky I am not a tiger otherwise you’d be dead.

 

[KCalhoun]

Yes.
Pareto holds for many processes

You’re lucky I am not a tiger otherwise you’d be dead.

True re Pareto as in 20% of my trades generate 80% of my profits...

Literally lol re tiger, thx... my wife is looking at me like wtf

 

[SPYAlgoTrader]

That means you'll need to avoid rapid blood sugar drops by consuming 5 - 6 small meals throughout the day, and the foods you eat should elevate blood sugar evenly over time, like complex carbohydrates and proteins.

excellent post... just go straight to zero carb or carnivore diet and your BS will be at 80 +- 5 all day

 

[Overnight]

excellent post... just go straight to zero carb or carnivore diet and your BS will be at 80 +- 5 all day

Beer and beef. The ag industry will love ya'!

 

[Howard]

Your brain makes up 1/ 50th of your body mass but consumes a staggering 1/ 5th of the calories you burn for energy. Most of your trading decisions are happening in your prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain responsible for focus, handling short-term memory, solving problems, and moderating impulse control. It’s at the heart of what makes you human and the center for your executive control and willpower.

Very interesting! I was not aware.

So what we can learn from this is that willpower is a mental muscle that doesn’t bounce back quickly. If you employ it for one task, there will be less power available for the next unless you refuel. That's why you can start off the day making good trades but then eventually see your decision-making ability and discipline go right out of the window later in the day.

To maintain a high level of critical decision-making ability for the entire trading day, you literally have to feed your mind, which gives new credence to the old saying, “food for thought.” That means you'll need to avoid rapid blood sugar drops by consuming 5 - 6 small meals throughout the day, and the foods you eat should elevate blood sugar evenly over time, like complex carbohydrates and proteins.

What about those of us who eat low-carb and/or are into intermittent fasting?

I'm very active, excercise and eat healthy. Usually, I don't eat more than 3-4 meals per day. With the exception of pre/post-workout, I generally eat a low/moderate carb diet.

Regardless, what you're saying still does seem to support the case for not trading the full session as you're not likely to sustain top level performance over the entire sessions. Particularly if you're a discretionary day trader where you're making decisions/observations continuosuly throughout a session.

In the recent market turmoil - all this is turbo-charged with a 30 minute session exceeding what's normally done in a standard 6 1/2 hour session.

 

[Howard]

Hi guys,

Thank you for all the comments. I'm a bit surprised to see so few, if any at all, who advocate using a daily profit target/time based target or some other rule to protect profits on any given day.

Equally - do you guys not believe in daily loss limits? Because if the logic is that each trade should be taken to realize the long term edge of a system - there's no reason to arbitrarily stop trading after being down a certain amount of dollars or N trades in a row.

In theory - I agree with everything which is said below. I even wrote it myself in my opening post.

I'm well aware that volatility and opportunity fluctuates.

I'm well aware that these last weeks have offered as much opportunity as you normally get in 6 months.

I'm well aware that theoretically, you should trade the full session to exploit your edge and not sell yourself short/leave money on the table.

But all this assumes top-level expert playing in the markets and being able to sustain that performance/concentration over 6 1/2 hours or more.

Sadly, I'm not there yet. And I'm wondering if it would be better for me or someone like me to focus on daily profitability/consistency instead of maximizing returns with the additional risk that entails.

Regards,

Howard

I can’t stress enough how awful a “hit target and log off” strategy is.

There are times (like the last few weeks) where you can make a month or year of “daily targets” in one day.
Conversely there will be days in July and August where you will be wishing for anything on your screen to be moving.

Make hay while the sun shines.
Good luck

Quitting after a daily target is a horrible idea in any business, not just trading. When things work, they usually work well and then you have periods when nothing works.

If anything, best to do the opposite. Quit when there's nothing going on.

 

[Clubber Lang]

I'm well aware that theoretically, you should trade the full session to exploit your edge and not sell yourself short/leave money on the table.

But all this assumes top-level expert playing in the markets and being able to sustain that performance/concentration over 6 1/2 hours or more.

Sadly, I'm not there yet. And I'm wondering if it would be better for me or someone like me to focus on daily profitability/consistency instead of maximizing returns with the additional risk that entails.

You don’t have to trade just because you’re in front of your screens.
Train yourself to put full days in and watch the markets.
The more time you put in the better you will be. Just like anything else.

 

[Howard]

You don’t have to trade just because you’re in front of your screens.
Train yourself to put full days in and watch the markets.
The more time you put in the better you will be. Just like anything else.

Ah.

Maybe I wasn't clear on that in my first post.

I am putting in full days and then some. I'm not suggesting to turn off the computer and do something else as soon as I'm in profit.

I'm suggesting to either

a) Stop trading completely after reaching a profit goal - while continuing to watch the market and/or simulator trading the rest of the session

b) Decrease size significantly after reaching a profit goal, but still trading the rest of the session. Example being if I normally trade 1 ES - I can then trade 1 MES.

c) Another alternative could be to have a peak-to-bottom drawdown rule to ensure 'green days'. For example, if I'm up 5 points - allow one more trade with a maximum risk of 3 points to ensure the day ends green. If stopped, I'm up 2 points for the day and still profitable.

The idea is to become more consistent on a daily basis first, but in time grow into actually trading the full session profitably.