Do you constantly check your P&L throughout the day?

S

sunggong

What do you guys do to keep yourself motivated and concentrated throughout the trading hours?

I tend to get more conservative as the day goes on to protect my profits, and I'm very good at minimizing LFT as a result, but at the same time, I feel like I'm not making as much as I can with this approach.

I am still profitable every week and so on, but I feel like my monthly income has become rather static lately, and I'm trying find ways to take my trading to the next level.

Should I get rid of my P&L window and just keep trading away?
 
I check it constantly. I keep myself motivated by setting profit targets. I'll give myself a goal of say 1.5k. Hit the target and there's still 2.5 hours left in the session, so let's try for 2k. Up 2150 with an hour left? Let's have a run at 2.5k. Etc.
 
Getting rid of the PNL is one of the best things I've ever done. I found that on up days I became more conservative to "protect profits" and on down days, I tend to be too aggressive to "make it back".

I find profit "targets" function the same way. They might lead you to force trades in order to hit your number, and once you reach that number, you might pass up opportunities.

I have a general idea of where I'm at. If I take a hit of 10% of my account, I know that I should reduce my position sizes appropriately, but other than that, what does your PnL matter?

Sometimes I check at the end of the day, and sometimes I don't. It's fun to be surprised after not checking for awhile.

The only exception I make is when I am testing out new strategies, as I want the feedback to see what I need to tweak, or whether I should in/decrease my position sizes.
 
Quote from repoman888:

I found that on up days I became more conservative to "protect profits" and on down days, I tend to be too aggressive to "make it back".
More...


this is why 95%+ fail.....risk averse when right......and risk seeking when wrong.
 
Quote from sunggong:

Should I get rid of my P&L window and just keep trading away?
More...

No Signal, No 'set up,' No insight results from watching your P & L. Price, Volume, Support / Resistance, Supply / Demand or Squiggly Lines (whatever your bag) provides the input a trader needs to trade. Monitoring one's P &L simply invites fear and greed into the equation - and nothing more.

Educate yourself thoroughly on the methods you have chosen to trade. Internalize every facet of your methodology. Perform the due diligence required to understand the rewards and the risks involved with each trade and all your trades. Position size accordingly. Know the 'target' and the 'stop' and Pull the trigger. Manage the trade accordingly by knowing, "What must come next if your trade sits on the right side of the market," and "What must come next if the market says your trade sits on the wrong side of the market. Have the discipline to take action as required.

None of the above involves monitoring the P & L.

Good Trading to you.

- Spydertrader
 
Quote from repoman888:

Getting rid of the PNL is one of the best things I've ever done. I found that on up days I became more conservative to "protect profits" and on down days, I tend to be too aggressive to "make it back".

I find profit "targets" function the same way. They might lead you to force trades in order to hit your number, and once you reach that number, you might pass up opportunities.

I have a general idea of where I'm at. If I take a hit of 10% of my account, I know that I should reduce my position sizes appropriately, but other than that, what does your PnL matter?

Sometimes I check at the end of the day, and sometimes I don't. It's fun to be surprised after not checking for awhile.

The only exception I make is when I am testing out new strategies, as I want the feedback to see what I need to tweak, or whether I should in/decrease my position sizes.
More...

Sounds like you understand exactly what I'm talking about.

Although I don't revenge trade anymore when having a bad day, I certainly do have a problem becoming conservative when I hit my daily goal.

I'm going to get rid of my P&L window for a few days and see if that helps.

I'm also bumping up the share size by about 5% on my system.
 
Quote from chewbacca:

this is why 95%+ fail.....risk averse when right......and risk seeking when wrong.
More...


What you are saying is true. I've learned not to seek more risk when having a bad day after getting my ass kicked several times.

However, I'm certainly still having an issue with "risk averse when right" part.

I need to get rid of this mental block of certain profit for the day being good enough....
 
A nice post. I certainly do a good job executing my system like you mention, but the issue arises after I hit my daily goal.

I need to work on mental incentives somehow to keep me motivated to keep executing the system regardless of how much money I've made that day.



Quote from Spydertrader:

No Signal, No 'set up,' No insight results from watching your P & L. Price, Volume, Support / Resistance, Supply / Demand or Squiggly Lines (whatever your bag) provides the input a trader needs to trade. Monitoring one's P &L simply invites fear and greed into the equation - and nothing more.

Educate yourself thoroughly on the methods you have chosen to trade. Internalize every facet of your methodology. Perform the due diligence required to understand the rewards and the risks involved with each trade and all your trades. Position size accordingly. Know the 'target' and the 'stop' and Pull the trigger. Manage the trade accordingly by knowing, "What must come next if your trade sits on the right side of the market," and "What must come next if the market says your trade sits on the wrong side of the market. Have the discipline to take action as required.

None of the above involves monitoring the P & L.

Good Trading to you.

- Spydertrader
More...
 
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