Quote from NoDoji:
bigpapi, that's a great idea. I stopped journal-style trade documentation as of this week, because writing up my reasons for entering, my trade management, my exits, my mistakes, etc. was causing me to lose focus on other good setups forming.
Even just an audio recording to review with the chart at the end of the day would work well.
TF, your journal reminds me so much of my own. I was averaging around $1000/day during my first 3 weeks day trading, then I had this brilliant idea to put on some swing trades with really wide stops because these momo stocks had wide swings and so I placed stops where price would NEVER go...
Next day one stop was hit for a $6500 loss. I don't think I traded any more that day. The day after that the other two stops were hit right after the open for a net loss of $10700. I immediately detached myself from those losses. I said to myself, "You're an excellent day trader. You netted $17K in your first 3 weeks day trading. Then you gave back most of it by changing what worked. Just go back to what works." I got right back on the horse, had a $100 losing trade, then had a couple trades that netted nearly $1000.
My losses were a result of changing what was working well for me. Your loss was a result of straying from your rules.
These are things that can be fixed, and you are right to throw away the "number" and resume doing what works.
But don't ever throw away the lesson. Unfortunately, my early lessons had to be repeated several times, because instead of developing a set of strict rules, I continued to let my personal opinion influence my trading. The problem with that is it works really really well until the day it doesn't.
