I'd like to become a better trader
- Thread starter PO
- Start date
Your trade journal will fail if you're not discussing critical aspects of your trading that's causing discipline problems.
For example, in yesterday's commentary of trades...not once did you mention you've reached your $600 dollar loss limit. Simply, I believe the reason why you didn't want to mention that critical piece of the puzzle in yesterday's trading session is that subconsciously you intended to continue trading.
Thus, had you wrote here in your journal that you were done trading for the day because you've reached the $600 dollar loss limit...you would have to make a painful decision involving your discipline. A very emotional decision to make. Yet, the worst thing isn't the fact that you lost an additional $592 dollars, its the fact had you made a profit to lessen the loss or finish the day at a profit...that would have instilled in you that it's OK to break the rules of your trading plan.
That's one of the hardest lessons to learn in trading to "accept that you were wrong and then stop to prepare for the next trading day". Thus, make sure you don't rate your performance based upon profits/losses. In contrast, rate your performance on your ability to follow your trading plan along with documenting accurately your progress of following your trading plan as it is occurring in real time if you're maintaining a trade journal.
By the way, have you tested your trading method on Emini ES, YM, NQ, TF, EMD or any other futures to determine if your trade performance is better on something else in comparison to the Emini ES? (most traders do not)
I asked because the Emini ES futures is one of the toughest games in town that's not suitable for someone with discipline problems. A weekend worth of backtesting should tell you if you should be trading the Emini ES or something else and you need to understand that you should never marry a trading instrument.
Your goal is to be consistently profitable and not to try to compete within one of the most difficult trading instruments out there in comparison to many other trading instruments. In fact, the Emini ES is one of the most advertised, marketed, discussed trading instruments out there which is why is suckers in many traders that have discipline problems.
Mark
You are correct, I should have written here that I'm stopping trading when I lost $600, but as you said, subconsciously, I didn't want to go home with a loss for a day, so I was ignoring the loss, hoping that the next trade will make a profit. And yes, there is no place for hope in trading, I need to accept that I am wrong and stop trading for the day. The problem here is that I realize all of this consciously, but in the middle of trading ... not so much. That's why thanks for pointing it out
The issue isn't switching to another trading instrument. The issue is that you need to determine if there's a more suitable trading instrument than the Emini ES based upon your trade method. Lets put it this way, if your testing shows that you "should be" more profitable trading something else...
Your confidence would increase along with improving your discipline assuming you'll have more reasons to be consistently disciplined while trading along with realizing you're trading something not suitable for your trade method in comparison to something that's more suitable.
Like I said before, a weekend worth of work in backtesting the performance of your method in all the Eminis or other trading instruments is not going to cause you any problems. Instead, it may reveal something you should be trying to exploit. However, like I said...most traders get married to their trading instrument and don't do the testing.
The goal is to make consistent profits even if it requires you to trade something you don't want to trade or isn't as attractive as something.
Mark