Feedback appreciated. My Journal Begins...

[jsmacksem]

Been having the same issue trading dax, its to fast and the chop is to many pts.

Its been a Im in, im up 12pips, this could go more, im at BE at in instant and SL is hit, did that 3times in a row yesterday very annoying and costly, increased SL to 15 and got back to in profit on the day.

Got to adapt to the market conditions, ebola and ISIS news are creating huge swings.




Keep going learn from above, and trade YM its much easier, or DAX if you can.

Yes quitting the job sounds great! I'll stay until I have to quit. I've always been interested in the DAX, having lived in Germany for 4 years. I believe the contract is a lot larger though compared to the NQ, and since I'm still in the learning curve, I'm trying to limit that risk. I've look at YM, but even in SIM with tradestation, CBOT goes down at least once a day. Pain in the ass. What if I'm in a trade? Once again sounds to risky for now. I love the spread, able to keep risk small. But having CBOT crash like that worries me. Maybe it's just tradestation.

Thanks for the advice man,
smacks

 

[harami]

Anybody else every feel completely schizo when they went live? It's very hard following your system live. I learned in SIM. Real money on the line is a completely new ball game.

Yep. SIM is the easy part. Now the real battle begins- the battle against yourself. This is 99% of the game, and may take a very long time. Trading has a particular knack for bringing your submerged psychological faults to the surface and throwing them right in your face.

But don't worry- It will get better. It will probably get worse before it gets better, maybe even a lot worse. You will have days which make you seriously doubt your sanity, but you'll eventually get there if you just keep putting 1 foot in front of the other. Your struggles aren't unique- everybody faces this to some degree or another.

Just keep slogging through it no matter what. Keep your trades small, and don't punch stuff. That's all I got. Good luck.

 

[Turveyd]

Yes quitting the job sounds great! I'll stay until I have to quit. I've always been interested in the DAX, having lived in Germany for 4 years. I believe the contract is a lot larger though compared to the NQ, and since I'm still in the learning curve, I'm trying to limit that risk. I've look at YM, but even in SIM with tradestation, CBOT goes down at least once a day. Pain in the ass. What if I'm in a trade? Once again sounds to risky for now. I love the spread, able to keep risk small. But having CBOT crash like that worries me. Maybe it's just tradestation.

Thanks for the advice man,
smacks

I keep damaging and losing my hard earned earnings on a friday, with the plan, if I make enough like 2K-3K and get back nicely over the 10K mark I'll dump the well business in my case, REALLY WANT to, blew 2.5K ish no time back to -1.1K though

I trade via spot from a forex broker FXCM so don't know the contract sizes, trading $25 area per pt currently, get upto $75 which gets scarey pretty quickly in my stupid times LOL

I trade via TradeInterceptor so I can have nice charts on my phone / tablet, that's been stopping recently aswell, cost me some money, stopped for 30mins Friday missed a good trade

DAX and YM pretty much follow each other during the US Session, DAX follows YM, if YM starts downtrending or breaks through a 00 number then odds are DAX will follow it.

You'll notice on DAX aswell, if it runs up 20pts it will stop at the high for like 30seconds no movement at all, if I'm in I pretty much exit when I see a pause odds are it'll dump straight back down!

 

[Redneck]

The emotion's will exist, but let them exist. Almost embrace them, allowing them to play out...personally, not in trading.

Want a tool to assists in this - say so


And btw..., I do mean embracing them completely - anything less will never cut it

Mkt has the uncanny ability to expose every little chink.., nook.., cranny.., and flaw - in us

And in no way am I suggesting one need be perfect - to trade successfully


But a trader needs to perform consistently..., and correctly - every trade / every day - no matter what the mkt throws at us

So to whatever extent we need clear up the internal BS to do so - is where we must get - and remain

======================


Just a reminder to keep your focus on your plan - execute it to the letter - and don't deviate one little smidgen - while trading

If/ when this not doable - step away and recollect yourself

======================

Likely the first urge will either be..., to change the plan..., or seek out "better" / "more" entries (this the typical response)

As likely - neither of these will resolve / solve anything - other than cause one to pursue wild geese


===========================


It is (and must be) entirely within us..., to detach..., get/ remain mentally neutral..., trade the plan objectively..., remaining focus entirely on this process..., and screw the results of any individual trade


And don't become discouraged if the above doesn't..., just..., or immediately happen

Not only must we build our approach/ plan..., We also must build a trader..., who able to dispassionately and repeatedly administer the damn thing


Yippy kai yay

RN

 

[jsmacksem]

Just keep slogging through it no matter what. Keep your trades small, and don't punch stuff. That's all I got. Good luck.

Thanks Harami. I'll need to stop damaging my property here soon. I didn't realize the battle with one's self is that real, or even that it matters "that" much in trading. It's got so real.....

 

[jsmacksem]

Want a tool to assists in this - say so


And btw..., I do mean embracing them completely - anything less will never cut it

Mkt has the uncanny ability to expose every little chink.., nook.., cranny.., and flaw - in us

And in no way am I suggesting one need be perfect - to trade successfully


But a trader needs to perform consistently..., and correctly - every trade / every day - no matter what the mkt throws at us

So to whatever extent we need clear up the internal BS to do so - is where we must get - and remain

======================


Just a reminder to keep your focus on your plan - execute it to the letter - and don't deviate one little smidgen - while trading

If/ when this not doable - step away and recollect yourself

======================

Likely the first urge will either be..., to change the plan..., or seek out "better" / "more" entries (this the typical response)

As likely - neither of these will resolve / solve anything - other than cause one to pursue wild geese


===========================


It is (and must be) entirely within us..., to detach..., get/ remain mentally neutral..., trade the plan objectively..., remaining focus entirely on this process..., and screw the results of any individual trade


And don't become discouraged if the above doesn't..., just..., or immediately happen

Not only must we build our approach/ plan..., We also must build a trader..., who able to dispassionately and repeatedly administer the damn thing


Yippy kai yay

RN

A tool to assist in completely embracing the emotions that can wreak havoc on a trader? Of coarse! I'm all ears...

You said the likely urges are to change the plan, or seek out "better"/"more" entries. I resonate with that. On that live day I was definitely seeking out "better" entries. These were obviously flawed because of my very not neutral mentality. As mentioned in previous posts, at last half of those trades weren't according to plan.

So naturally, my plan needs to be executed to the letter. I would have lost a lot less.

I replayed that day 4 times bar by bar according to plan. Each time, I ended the day down 2.5 points, compared to what...11 points?

 

[Redneck]

I didn't realize the battle with one's self is that real, or even that it matters "that" much in trading. It's got so real.....

This exactly where one must consistently trade from

A place where one’s self does not matter.., nor even factor in

And the quicker / easier one can get there – a whole lot less hell they'll suffer


=============================



The tool – consists of pencil…, paper…, honest introspect…, and elbow grease


Get a pencil…. and a sheet, or several sheets, of paper

Draw a line down the middle of the first sheet

Left side label – emotion / issue €

Right side label – because


example

Issue;

I am mad

Because;

I don’t know the outcome
I missed this trade
I don’t like losing
I am afraid
I am nervous
I don’ know if this is the right trade
I don’t trust what I’m seeing
I don’t read a chart well enough
I don’t know where to exit
Etc.., etc…,


After you've written down every “because” you can think of for the initial emotion / issue


Next..., take each of those because(s) and do the same exercise – list each of the original because..., individually..., under emotion / issue

Then drill down by listing each of its because(s) to the right


Continue doing this till you can drill down no further for each of the initial because(s)

Be sure to work through each because individually - otherwise it easy to get in a perpetual loop that serves no insight



The last thing you write under the because heading - is the root for the initial emotion / issue..., and what you’ll need to resolve first..., and ultimately..., in order to fix the rest


Take your time - think through this - be honest - write down each because till you get to the root cause

Fix the root cause


Doing anything less than this entire exercise through to fruition - is a temporary band aid that won’t last (I know this)


This a tool I stumbled across on my journey - it's simple..., yet works wonderfully - to the extent you do the work (and trading is real finicky this way - each of us must do the work - whatever that work ends up being)



RN

 

[jsmacksem]

10/20 Prep

We have hit the extreme bottom of the 09 trend channel. Price will likely revert to the mean of that channel, or range at the low for a while. I wouldn't doubt if price even broke the extreme low a little bit.

The one chart that is really confusing right now, is the hourly. Maybe it's not confusing. I'm just not liking what I see. Where I used to see an obeyed trend channel etc... I'm not seeing that. I see yet another uptrending broken sideways, and wedge formed breaking down. With all these broken channels maybe price is ranging for now.

At 930 what am I doing exactly?

3800 seems to be a nice value area. At least over the last 4 to 5 trading days. Price might try to head through the 9/19 down channel, finding a lot CHOP. or it could simply clear it.

To the downside if 3684 is taking with confidence, price would head for 3650.

Again, probabilities suggest reversion to the 09 channel mean at about 3890.

No chart. Hourly made me a bit confused. If anything see the daily.

 

[jsmacksem]

This exactly where one must consistently trade from

A place where one’s self does not matter.., nor even factor in

And the quicker / easier one can get there – a whole lot less hell they'll suffer


=============================



The tool – consists of pencil…, paper…, honest introspect…, and elbow grease


Get a pencil…. and a sheet, or several sheets, of paper

Draw a line down the middle of the first sheet

Left side label – emotion / issue €

Right side label – because


example

Issue;

I am mad

Because;

I don’t know the outcome
I missed this trade
I don’t like losing
I am afraid
I am nervous
I don’ know if this is the right trade
I don’t trust what I’m seeing
I don’t read a chart well enough
I don’t know where to exit
Etc.., etc…,


After you've written down every “because” you can think of for the initial emotion / issue


Next..., take each of those because(s) and do the same exercise – list each of the original because..., individually..., under emotion / issue

Then drill down by listing each of its because(s) to the right


Continue doing this till you can drill down no further for each of the initial because(s)

Be sure to work through each because individually - otherwise it easy to get in a perpetual loop that serves no insight



The last thing you write under the because heading - is the root for the initial emotion / issue..., and what you’ll need to resolve first..., and ultimately..., in order to fix the rest


Take your time - think through this - be honest - write down each because till you get to the root cause

Fix the root cause


Doing anything less than this entire exercise through to fruition - is a temporary band aid that won’t last (I know this)


This a tool I stumbled across on my journey - it's simple..., yet works wonderfully - to the extent you do the work (and trading is real finicky this way - each of us must do the work - whatever that work ends up being)



RN

Thanks a bunch man. This exercise sounds incredibly similar to some other self-reflection I've done in the past. I will definitely do some of this today.

Had a hard morning with trading again. It seems I need to spend some time on this, and also double check all of the backtesting I did. The system proved very profitable. I logged SIM results and bar by bar plays. However, I continue to be stopped out.

So further analysis is due, not only on the plan, but also with myself.

I'll let you know what I find.

 

[jsmacksem]

Review:

7 trades: 1 winner(B/E), 6 Losers.

1. - 2 points. --> Premarket. A wedge breakout occured. This was actually a well-thought out trade, and would have been successful for 10 points. However, I set my stop too close. 2 points away from entry. I was immediately stopped out, and trade continued to go in my favor. Bad start to a live day.

2. -1.75 points. --> According to plan went long because traders came in at 3793 premarket, and probabilities say they retest that point. It retested, and LOLR was up. Long on first retrace. Immediate 3 points profit, and then a nasty evil long bar stopped it out at 0933. I was mad here. 2 losing trades already? Come one. I'm executing my plan. Does my plan work? I've tested it! I have an excel file documenting its probabilities. Successes are wonderful in SIM. Really going to do the issue/because RN suggested. Also, I'm probably thinking about spending the day deciding whether this hump is simply the "going live" hump, or if I need to go back to step one. More later.

3. +.5 points. --> A winner. I exited this trade based on fear. I already had two losers, and didn't want more. Would have been 11 points if I held through fear. Bummer.

4. -2.25 points --> Wanted to get in on trade 3. I have this idea in my mind while live trading that I can always exit, and get back in. This is true, and for some an effective strategy. For me, It's almost a defensive response, and that isn't good. It's also expensive.

5. -1.75 points --> same as 4.

6. -2 points. --> Went in my favor then stopped out. In a range/CHOP now.

7. - 2 points. --> What can I say.

Loss of 11.25 points.

==========================================

Steps to Take to Get on Track -->
1. I'm going to take a quick look at my backtests/system and figure out why I'm not trusting it.
2. I'm going to replay a few days far in the past and see the outcome.
3. Consider reverting to observation and a written hypothesis that I could potentially exploit like clockwork. (which I thought I had/have)
4. RN's issue/because exercise.
5. Review my plan as I continue forward.