I'd like to become a better trader

  • Thread starter Thread starter PO
  • Start date Start date
I am having an anxiety before starting trading in the new year, so I need to keep it in check tomorrow and take only my system's trades. It’s Ok to miss a few trades. I rather miss trades tomorrow then overtrade. I rather make 0 then loose money. I will be working on my patience and discipline tomorrow.

The reason for my anxiety is my fear of losing money, but the only way I loose a lot of money is if I'm not disciplined and place too many trades outside of my plan. So the solution to my fears is discipline.

Nobody can make me disciplined but myself, this is my job for tomorrow.
 
PO

The way to come to terms with your fear – is not discipline…


It is to acknowledge and accept you are fearful – then telling yourself it is okay

It is to accept you fear/ hate losing money – then tell yourself it is okay

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We are human – we have feelings…

We can’t shut them down, or ignore them – for then they only become stronger and louder – demanding our attention – clouding our judgment – and controlling our actions

And no amount of discipline will over ride them….

But if you acknowledge your emotions…, allow yourself to experience them… and then accept them – soon they simply subside and allow you to get to the business of trading

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

To this day – I still get scared, anxious, nervous – and I am okay with that – hell I am only human

But those feeling will not deter me one iota from always acting in my own best interest when I trade (being the self centered bastard I am)

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If I were betting – I would bet I will lose money tomorrow… but I would also bet I will make money

No biggie


Here’s to you doing the same Sir


So how about we kick 2012 off being scared together…

Tomorrow; We’ll make our plan, then execute it…., and be scared – all at the same time

:)


Discipline, Patience, and Focus are absolutely necessary... but so is accepting we are only human

RN
 
We are opening above R3 with 20+ gap up. Large gap up usually means a trend day up or down. Monday gap is the least likely to fill. So I'm expecting a trend up day today. So the plan is to buy pull backs unless we decisively break 1270.75 - overnight low. We have a few reports at 10 that can change this.
 
Quote from Redneck:

PO

We are human – we have feelings…

We can’t shut them down, or ignore them – for then they only become stronger and louder – demanding our attention – clouding our judgment – and controlling our actions

And no amount of discipline will over ride them….

But if you acknowledge your emotions…, allow yourself to experience them… and then accept them – soon they simply subside and allow you to get to the business of trading

Discipline, Patience, and Focus are absolutely necessary... but so is accepting we are only human

RN
More...

RN, thanks for commenting. It makes sense and I think just by posting my feelings I acknowledged them and that helped me .
 
Today was a trading range day after all, I took a number of trades and was at b/e for the day.

These were the mistakes I made:
- didn't wait for the bar to close before placing a trade
- Trading in a congestion zone.

I need to pay attention to these tomorrow.

Also, I closed my winning trades too soon today because I didn't set targets. I will work on that tomorrow, targets help me to be patient, to trade less and to separate my swing trades from scalps.
 
Quote from PO:

A little introduction
I've been trading on and off, not full time for almost 3 years.
I've lost money for the first 2 years and made a little money last year.
The time has to come to either make it or break it - I have till the end of this year to see if I can do it.

More...



the year ended. do u plan to "break it?"
 
Quote from PO:

Today was a trading range day after all, I took a number of trades and was at b/e for the day.

These were the mistakes I made:
- didn't wait for the bar to close before placing a trade
- Trading in a congestion zone.

I need to pay attention to these tomorrow.

Also, I closed my winning trades too soon today because I didn't set targets. I will work on that tomorrow, targets help me to be patient, to trade less and to separate my swing trades from scalps.
More...

Same day today - b/e for the day, but made the same mistakes:

- didn't wait for the bar to close before placing a trade
- Trading in a congestion zone.

the good news is that I made fewer mistakes, but I need to improve my discipline still. As RN said, we are all humans, we make mistakes, but we need to acknowledge them and learn from them. I'll try again tomorrow.

I still feel that emotions influence my trading way too much:
Sometimes, I'm afraid to miss a trade and buy too early before the set up is triggered and actually miss my trade because when the set up comes, I don't believe it. I need to be more patient and wait for the proper set ups and focus on the big picture.
Other times I close my profitable position too soon instead of waiting for a target to get touched. Setting targets and writing them down should help.

Another thing I need is to focus less on the money, but instead focus on taking proper set ups.
 
Quote from PO:

Same day today - b/e for the day, but made the same mistakes:

- didn't wait for the bar to close before placing a trade
- Trading in a congestion zone.

I still feel that emotions influence my trading way too much:
Sometimes, I'm afraid to miss a trade and buy too early before the set up is triggered and actually miss my trade because when the set up comes, I don't believe it. I need to be more patient and wait for the proper set ups and focus on the big picture.
Other times I close my profitable position too soon instead of waiting for a target to get touched. Setting targets and writing them down should help.

Another thing I need is to focus less on the money, but instead focus on taking proper set ups.
More...

It's time to work, PO. When you analyze the market at the time you turn on your platform, only analyze what you see, not what you think might happen (might go up, might go down). If there's a gap up overnight, write down three things price could do in the first 15-30 minutes after the open that would signal further upside and three things price could do in the first 15-30 minutes that would signal a deep retracement or even a gap fill.

Choose whether or not you want to trade any of those potential setups, then go for it. Once positioned, allow the trade to reach stop or target with no micromanagement UNLESS a reversal setup appears in which case you double your stop order and move the stop to the price at which the reversal would trigger (stop-and-reverse or SAR trade).

Keep a written journal in front of you and write down any thoughts that prevent you from trading a valid setup. Also write down any thoughts that are enticing you to trade before a bar closes, or while price is in no man's land (congestion/consolidation/barb wire/outside bars, etc).

If you're in a trade based on a valid setup, write down any thoughts you have about exiting early. Is there a good reason to do that, a reason that's part of your trading plan? If not, hold your ground.

The act of writing down those thoughts (by hand) forces you to stop and often recognize in advance that you're about to make an error that you generally regret every time you do.

Hope you are inspired to DO THE WORK; let us know how it goes. :cool:
 
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