The problem of mine which is the topic of this thread had lately begun to manifest itself in other, more pernicious forms... consistently (4 out of 5 days) making a good amount of money in the morning and then giving it all back and going negative, worse revenge trading... to the point where it actually began to threaten my trading career. I'm not sure I've solved it yet, but I've definitely made some progress - I recently had my best trading day ever, made it all in the morning, and didn't give anything back in the afternoon.
What has my solution been?
Take breaks!
If I'm up $150 and suddenly, after two quick trades, I'm up $68... I take a break. I get up, walk around, walk outside for a few minutes, then come back. If I'm up $42 and suddenly up $108, I get up, and refocus myself. Most of my losses/revenge trades/excitement-junkie type trades come in quick succession in a small period of time. Keeping myself away from the screen at times when I'm most prone to make such emotional trades - after rapid changes to my P/L - seems to do a good job of giving me a chance to re-center and focus.
I also allow myself to be bored. I've kind of realized... part of daytrading is boring. The morning is usually always exciting, because there's opportunity endlessly to be searched for, and throughout the afternoon it's usually exciting... but sometimes the market is slow for a few hours, and sometimes there are just super sloooow days, where for two or three hours you sit and look for opportunity and don't find much. What I realize is that there's nothing wrong with being bored. Overall, trading is far more exciting than almost any other job I can imagine... and even if it weren't, boy can it pay the bills. If the only downside to working this awesome "job" if you will, which is effectively effortless once you put in the effort towards finding a method/system that works for you and learning about your self-destructive/impulsive tendancies, is that at times for a few hours you experience mild boredom - which can go away in an instant when you see a great setup - then I guess I'll suck it up.
I'm sort of rambling, but the key lesson I've learned to anyone new to trading, especially high-frequency intraday scalping: take a break and then re-focus.
What has my solution been?
Take breaks!
If I'm up $150 and suddenly, after two quick trades, I'm up $68... I take a break. I get up, walk around, walk outside for a few minutes, then come back. If I'm up $42 and suddenly up $108, I get up, and refocus myself. Most of my losses/revenge trades/excitement-junkie type trades come in quick succession in a small period of time. Keeping myself away from the screen at times when I'm most prone to make such emotional trades - after rapid changes to my P/L - seems to do a good job of giving me a chance to re-center and focus.
I also allow myself to be bored. I've kind of realized... part of daytrading is boring. The morning is usually always exciting, because there's opportunity endlessly to be searched for, and throughout the afternoon it's usually exciting... but sometimes the market is slow for a few hours, and sometimes there are just super sloooow days, where for two or three hours you sit and look for opportunity and don't find much. What I realize is that there's nothing wrong with being bored. Overall, trading is far more exciting than almost any other job I can imagine... and even if it weren't, boy can it pay the bills. If the only downside to working this awesome "job" if you will, which is effectively effortless once you put in the effort towards finding a method/system that works for you and learning about your self-destructive/impulsive tendancies, is that at times for a few hours you experience mild boredom - which can go away in an instant when you see a great setup - then I guess I'll suck it up.
I'm sort of rambling, but the key lesson I've learned to anyone new to trading, especially high-frequency intraday scalping: take a break and then re-focus.