Frosty's e-mini journal

For me Frosty your happy posts when things go well and your mad posts when you start making mistakes remind me of my own seesaw.

I do think that both positive and negative emotions are two sides of the same coin. For me either extreme gets in the way.

I have an issue now when I have an upswing in my equity curve I get excited, start thinking about money, and start trading badly. Then I keep trying to get back to that good trading I was just doing so easily and this makes me overactive and lose more money. Then, the negative emotions kick in and I have to go thru that extreme, with more bad trading.

At this point that swing is getting old, like an old game that doesn't interest me so much anymore, tho I still do it. I hope my next step is that I can see this game starting far in advance and maybe have some specific tactics for stepping away from trading for some period of time.
 
Quote from myminitrading:

It took me over 6 years to get were I am, remember " it's always to soon to quit" "anything worthwhile is never easy"

Learning to trade is the hardest thing you will ever attempt to do.
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I know. I keep saying this is the hardest way to make easy money. I have spent 15 years trading mostly breakouts. But I started out with stocks and options. I don't think I would still be in the game if I would have started in futures.

Please don't think I am being critical. I really want to see Frost succeed. I am just feeling his pain when I see him overtrading.

4re
 
Chris,

I know EXACTLY what you mean.

Looks like its going to be a LONG road before I am succesful..... but I know I will get there. Must keep making progress, and continue recongizing when I am letting my emotions get me. I can trade fine when I dont let my emotions get in the way. One thing I have been doing better is basing more of my trades on real signals instead of gut feelings... but i do still have the ocasional slip up.. I still find myself entering a lot of trades and then hoping my signal sets up so that I have a real reason to have been in the trade... The worst feeling is entering a position, then hoping to get one of my legit signals to give my entry some validity and then all of a sudden I get one of my real signals but telling me I should have been in the other direction and then freeze up and watch my position get hammered ;)

I would venture to guess close to 50% of my loosing trades happen in this fashion.... baby steps though... I'll get there
 
Frost,
I'll show you what my 2 trades were today. I know this is the ES and not the YM but maybe it will help you see what I was seing today. I don't know what you use for your signals but I am a breakout trader. I mostly use S/R for my entries but I also use chart formations. Today I saw 2 very nice ones that I couldn't pass up. I actually draw these on the chart as I see them and only take the trade if they do break out of the pattern.

4re
 

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Quote from frostengine:

One thing I have been doing better is basing more of my trades on real signals instead of gut feelings... but i do still have the ocasional slip up..
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That's interesting, because after I wrote that I kind of wondered to myself what I actually have improved on slowly lol, but, I now almost NEVER take trades that I can't at least prove where valid, even if perhaps more risky than I should be bothering with. Also when I do get so bad as to be taking totally wrong trades, it stands out as a big warning flag at least.
 
Yea its a clear signal that your either overtrading or revenge trading when you look closely at a trade you just entered and no matter how hard you try you can not find any valid reason within your setup criteria of why your in that trade.

Sadly, this still happens far too often for my liking. I am in the process of writting down on paper about 3 setups I routinely trade. Writting down every criteria that MUST be met for me to enter the trade, and I plan on checking each criteria BEFORE I hit the buy button, and only hitting the buy button If they all match..... Sounds like a good plan in theory, but I doubt I'll be able to follow it right away...
 
Quote from frostengine:

Yea its a clear signal that your either overtrading or revenge trading when you look closely at a trade you just entered and no matter how hard you try you can not find any valid reason within your setup criteria of why your in that trade.

Sadly, this still happens far too often for my liking. I am in the process of writting down on paper about 3 setups I routinely trade. Writting down every criteria that MUST be met for me to enter the trade, and I plan on checking each criteria BEFORE I hit the buy button, and only hitting the buy button If they all match..... Sounds like a good plan in theory, but I doubt I'll be able to follow it right away...
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If you will do this and if your method has been proven. You should in the long run be profitable. Make a promise to yourself that you will stay strict for 20 trades and see what the outcome is. If you are in the money promise to do another 20 trades. If you are not in the money examine and tweak your method and start over. I hope this will work for you.
 
Well trading plan is "mostly" all in place.... I know even with this I am going to be very tempted to overtrade.... will be interesting to see what happens...... I feel like I am conducting some sort of pyschological experiment on myself ;)
 
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