Dealing with stress.

[drasfs]

I've only developed an intra-day, semi scalping strategy where a position is only held for 1 minute to 8 hours..

It is profitable, since one can more easily harness the benefit of leverage with the increased risk control(tighter stops) that is given to you when you are intra day trading. On the other hand-it requires more labourious effort and causes stress and possibly chronic weariness. I've noticed that it has a negative impact on the appetite and causes some slight sleeping disorder. It sucks up your energy...

Are there any ways to mimize these bad effects? I guess being more routinized and not getting emotionally involved when you are losing/earning money. Having a good trading plan,where you have some idea what you will do in advance, in order to minimze stress.

Well i would like some advice from anyone who have gone through any of the mentioned problems and how they dealt with it.

 

[showyouwang]

My trading setups are pretty stressfree, I have a laid back personality so it suits me well. Dialing up the time frame usually works well. The way my trades work I could do something else like watch a movie, etc. while the trades play out.

 

[dev]

Can you codify your method and automate it?
I can recommend this to anyone if your strategy is clear enough, but even then it can STILL be stressful.

I can't imagine my trading being done manually. With multiple trades in multiple pairs every day, anywhere from 5mins to 15 hours in each trade and constantly changing entry/exit orders, it would grind me down.

 

[drasfs]

Dev:What kind of program/platform/software do you use to automate your trading? Esignal,prosuite or tradestation?

Well i guess my strategy could be codified,but it would be quite complicated. Which automation software is most powerful and diverse? And is it possible to trigger signals that the program spits out automatically into a real trading platform?

 

[dev]

Quote from drasfs:

Dev:What kind of program/platform/software do you use to automate your trading? Esignal,prosuite or tradestation?

Tradestation 2000i.

Well i guess my strategy could be codified,but it would be quite complicated. Which automation software is most powerful and diverse?

There are two things to consider with this:
1. a platform to test & run strategies on
2. software to send the orders to your trading venue.
There are other platforms I haven't used yet, like metatrader and wealthlab, but I use TS2000i for now.
In terms of third-party automation software (add-ons for existing platforms like TS or wealthlab), I'm afraid you'll need to do read peoples opinions and then try it out for yourself on a demo account.
I only use TS because I am familiar with it, and you can hook it up to pretty much any broker these days (With the right programmer or software, of course). Also you don't have to pay monthly rent once you've bought it outright, unlike TS8.
But most important for thickos like me, it comes with its own language that you can program your own indicators & systems in. It's not hard to learn.
It's called, surprisingly, easylanguage.

I fancy playing around with wealthlab but don't have much time spare right now.

And is it possible to trigger signals that the program spits out automatically into a real trading platform?

With the right third-party software, yes. As I said earlier, you can have your own solution custom built by a good TS programmer, or buy/rent a product that's already out there to do this job. All you need to get automated is the chart data coming in reliably, and functions to buy/sell/limit/stop/amount/get position/get balance etc from your platform of choice. You then rebuild your strategy to accommodate these functions, in easylanguage. (In reality there are more things to consider when live trading, but that's the general idea.)
I used a custom solution for Oanda for automation (for just short of 2 years), am currently trying Currenex and Hotspot using Hyperorder. (http://www.hypertrader.it/hyperorder.shtml)

 

[nazzdack]

Having a "time horizon" ranging from 1-minute to 8-hours, (480 minutes), is too large of a "spread". Which is more stressful to you........the 1-minute trades or the 8-hour trades? Try to filter out the time frame that causes the most stress and have confidence in your system to do what you expect it to do.

 

[drasfs]

Dev: thanks for the information. It sounds really promising if i could fully aoutomate my trading strategy with tradestation using easy language,since i use a lot strategies that I've come up with. One thing worries me is whether the strategy can take into account fundamental factors.(i guess not,because i cant imagine how it could be done) If not, could you make it not to trigger signals when scheduled news are about to be released, or change strategy when some news are about to be released?

And i guess it costs a hefty amount of money to hire a programmer-especially if there aren't any available in your home country(I live in sweden)

 

[dev]

If you can hook into the right news feeds, I'm sure you could program the logic to switch off trading on certain news events, assuming the format of the news feed has some kind of regularity to it. Simpler still, you could program the shutoff times manually for the week ahead, based on a good news calendar.

You don't have to hire someone in your home country. It will cost something, but you may be surprised at what you can acheive by shopping around and doing some homework. Some of the 'off-the-shelf' programs, the programmers who built it may well customise it for you for a little extra cash.
My personal preference is to pay for something once and have unlimited use, rather than rent it on monthly subscription or 'per trade' arrangement.

You also have to remember that when you automate, you lose one set of problems (fatigue, emotion, fat finger, breaking rules) and gain a new set (reliability, connectivity, program debugging etc)
I found it a good swap though.

TS isn't the cheapest way to go; there are other platforms with this capability too, so don't discount them either.
If you want to try easylanguage out, you can get a no-brokerage subscription to TS8 for a month or two. Better still, find someone with TS2000i who will let you use it to see if you like it.

In the meantime, try to remember that there is life outside of trading - take some time off, go recharge.
The worst thing you can do, is to do something so intensely that you either end up hating it, or it kills you.

For what it's worth, I'm at the point where I only check on the trading every few hours, and normally don't have to intervene. In the meantime, I can get on with other things.

You can also program your trading to alert you via email/sms on trigger events you have chosen.

good luck.