Following your rules and being patient journal

Quote from EPrado:

Looking at the order book is a bad habit...I used to do it all the time...seeing all the noise can easily "talk" you out of a trade....what I do before the open is put in my bids/offers.....once I get hit on one side I put in the stop...put in the profit goals.....then I close(minimize) the book.....either I am gonna hit the profit goals..or get stopped....anything else in between is noise..the only time I maximize the book back is when my orders ger hit/lifted.....


After minimizing the book I keep an eye on a 15 min and a 60 min chart....much less emotional.....takes some of the "thinking" out of the trade....
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That's exactly what I need to do EPrado!!!

I have to get rid of a 'bad habit' and start correcting this habit on Monday.

I have all the P&L's turned off (except one) and while in the trade, I will cover the P&L up with another window. Then I just need to follow my rules and off we go.
 
of course dude, do whatever u see fit and works for u, my suggestion was just that, a suggestion...i thought u may find it useful but u may as well not.

good luck with u journey.
Quote from brownsfan019:

Bit - I can see what you are saying.

The purpose of this journal is to force myself to get rid of all these P&L's and focus on trading and letting my trading methodology to determine entries and exits. I am very confident in the trading setups that I use, I just have to give it time and room to work.

Example: I could get a setup on the ER2 and let's say my profit target is 2.4 points on this trade. My max loss is .8 pts. After the trade moves 1.2 points in my favor, I may watch the P&L and see around $1000 on this trade. Then, the ER2 comes down a bit and I watch my $1000 gain turn into $200 rather quickly. The immediate reaction I had was to flatten for fear of it going down even further and turning this into a losing trade. Now, what will happen A LOT is that I will flatten, this quick little retracement takes me out, and then continues into the direction of the profit target and hits the profit target. All of a sudden I have turned a profitable 2.4 ER2 trade into plus 2 ticks before commissions. Obviously this is frustrating on so many levels. This was a profitable trade, yet my P&L does not reflect it; which in turn creates frustration and means that if my next trade is a loss, I am negative on the day, yet I should be positive.

A few things I should highlight about my trading:
1) All trades have a max loss threshold that is predetermined based on the market.
2) While the max loss is always in place, the actual stop loss placement is dependent on the trade setup; therefore some trades do not even start at the max loss threshold.
3) My analysis has shown that for every one win, I can absorb 2-3 losses and be near break-even. This assumes that on winning trades, the PO is hit; which means that I have to give it time to work (sometimes over an hour). If I turn the winning trade into plus 2 ticks and my 2 losses are minus 6 ticks... you can see how the end result can vary dramatically.
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Well, for the first day of not staring at P&L's it took a little getting used to, but it did help to not stare at the P&L's each tick...

Still have some work to do, but not a bad first day as I was not sure how easy or hard it would be after being used to the setup I had for so long.
 
12/13/06

Great example today of how patience can pay off...

At 10:17am EST I took a long on the EC at 1.3276.

Stop placement was 1.3271.

Profit target was 1.3290.

At 11:08am EST profit target was hit for +14 ticks = $175/contract.

Sounds like a good trade just looking at that...

Here is how this trade played out though...
1) After entry it went up a couple ticks, no big deal.
2) At 10:38am, 10:53am it was within 1 tick of my stop loss. Never hit though.
3) Till 11:02am this trade did nothing. That is almost an hour of agony for me, esp if I was staring at P&L's the entire time. I definitely would have flattened if I was staring down the P&L's.
4) At 11:05am we finally got a pop - in the direction of my long - and profit target hit thereafter.

So, another great example of why staying patient and not staring at P&L's each tick makes sense. This EC trade was a winner, but could have easily been a loss if I was staring at the P&L's.

Side note: what a great morning today... this is good stuff!!
 
Quote from brownsfan019:

Bit - I have looked at short (1 min) to 20 min candles and have found the shorter timeframes work best for me. This keeps my risk/reward strongly in my favor. I found the longer timeframes get me into trades too late and then the risk/reward is not as profitable.
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Sounds like you are a bit trigger happy BF.

Anyway, have you given any consideration to Volume charts, rather than time based charts.
 
I personally think the title of your journal says it all.

It's not about how many charts, p&l, markets, time zones, etc.....

It's about DISCIPLINE. Without it, the rest is worthless...
 
Quote from fearless9:

Sounds like you are a bit trigger happy BF.

Anyway, have you given any consideration to Volume charts, rather than time based charts.
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fearless - no doubt, I am very quick to hit that flatten button when I am staring at the P&L's tick by tick. Now that I have elminated all but one P&L (and it is covered up during trading), that is helping alot.

I have looked at other charting timeframes, setups, etc. but have found a lower timeframe that is time based works best for me... When I stay patient.
 
Quote from optionpro007:

I personally think the title of your journal says it all.

It's not about how many charts, p&l, markets, time zones, etc.....

It's about DISCIPLINE. Without it, the rest is worthless...
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So true optionpro. Hopefully if nothing else, another trader now or in the future will stumble across this journal and my suggestion of removing as many P&L's as possible will make sense to them and save them some of the headaches I have gotten.
 
Quote from brownsfan019:

fearless - no doubt, I am very quick to hit that flatten button when I am staring at the P&L's tick by tick. Now that I have elminated all but one P&L (and it is covered up during trading), that is helping alot.

I have looked at other charting timeframes, setups, etc. but have found a lower timeframe that is time based works best for me... When I stay patient.
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I am not comparing TF's, I am talking about vol bars.
Basically the market marches to price levels and volume. Whether this process occurs at this time or that time is of no consequence.
for instance, do you check your watch when executing an order?
 
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