A very exciting week for me! I should have very easily eclipsed 40 hours for the week for the first time in three or more months, and it is the first time in that period that I feel so completely overwhelmed with everything I've learned that I have no idea what I did yesterday -- the kind of feeling that got me into this business, and drive thing I'm sure will keep me going.
What I accomplished: completed bulk of screensaver project, got through two and a half more books (some of the best work Iâve seen so far â Trade Chart Patterns Like the Pros and The Harmonic Trader), finally rethought my lot sizing and leverage, some very quality online research, and some good trading as well.
Although many traders have told me to stick to screen-watching, I am very happy with my decision to cram a big leg of research. I am certain that internalizing discrete patterns in price movement is an indispensible asset, I think this is better for me personally. This is partly due to the fact that I believe it would take me an extremely long time to do and would like to be able to begin trading patterns profitably, and also because I like being very good at everything I do, which means I have to know and understand everything about what Iâm doing â clearly impossible to do with the market, but the kind of never-ending goal that is a lot of fun.
It will take me a while again to incorporate all the new things Iâve learned, but I have plenty of time and screensaver-watching ahead of me.
As for my new lot sizing and money management policy: my new trading size is 2500 units, roughly $0.25/pip. My new drawdown limits are 100 pips and flat, or 120 pips and open (at which point I immediately close), to cease trading for the day. Numbers very subject to change. Iâm taking two analyses from this: a humiliating day is a loss of $25-$30, which is the essence of stress-free trading it seems. On the contrary, a very good day will net maybe $10-$30.
As this by itself clearly indicates I will likely have to get extremely good extremely fast, or more likely get a full time job over next summer, I really canât understate how much it blows. Anyway, Iâm really not going to worry about it right now, and Iâm sure there will be many changes in my trading and lot sizing after this. For now, I am just going to have to think of it as a pill in order to protect my account.
I would also like to point out that, although I doubt I have many readers with all this writing and lack of expertise (lol), I have really been committed to reworking my stuff (such as money management and such) and keeping my journal well up-do-date. Even though I have a 25 page journal/reflection document with me sounding like I'm talking to my imaginary friend, I'm very thankful for it.
