jasinhbca's quest for discipline, knowledge & profits

Been reviewing and simming. It's going pretty well.

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One thing I've been trying to understand is the interaction of Me with the execution of my plan. My goal has been to get to a point where, with little effort, I see the signal, enter and strictly manage the trade with no emotion and little thought. The reality is my mood and energy level impact my results. If i'm unfocused or a bit tired I may pass on valid signals I normally would take. This always has confused me. It should be just like working the assembly line, right ? So i've tried to add rules to make the plan more specific then remove rules to make it more simple. * All hoping to achieve the “get me out of the equation, click mouse make easy money” routine.


Earlier this year I was operating under more of the idea that trading was similar to sports. Come in rested , a little pumped up but calm, confident and extremely focused. Then trade the plan with a bit of discretion that proper focus brings.** I've gotten away from that mindset. Partly because I wanted absolute consistency and also I wanted to understand every detail to my decision/trade process. Also partly because I believed other traders were operating with much more ease, clearer rules and a more neutral mindset than I was.


1) I don't know other traders exact plans nor how they think or act in the moment of trading. 2) I do not have the years of experience of some traders 3) Although I can and have learned from other traders, I should be concerned with My plan and My execution , not with my perception of what other traders may or may not be doing. 4) I'd found a mindset that works well with my plan and yet i've moved away from it. 5) I'm still growing and will continue to grow as a trader.


Why does a 'sports mindset' work for me ? I believe it helps me overcome the uncertainty that causes indecision. I see the set ups clearer and shake off losses quickly. Strangely the more engaged I am with the market , the more removed “I” become from the process.


It's taking me a while to figure this out. I was trying to trade more detached and more analytical and yet I think that actually caused more problems. I hope i'm correct that the consistency i've been seeking and got away from can be resolved by returning to the 'sports' mindset. Also, part of this mindset comes from trade review and after hours analysis. Just as an athlete or musician practices to maintain and improve their skills.


(*) In creating my plan this has worked well. At some point , for me, I must accept the plan is ' good enough'


(**) The discretion in my plan has decreased over time as my knowledge and plan has evolved. Probably more discretion on exits. For example, if my target is 20 but trade appears to be stalling at +18 then I may exit for the 18 rather than force myself to be disciplined and hold for a possible more two ticks.

jas
 
jas_in_hbca said:
If i'm unfocused or a bit tired I may pass on valid signals I normally would take. This always has confused me. It should be just like working the assembly line, right ?
More...

Not at all.

If you're working on an assembly line, you start your shift and you know you absolutely have to do your part over and over again or you'll be fired from your job, probably after a couple/three warnings.

If traders were fired after violating their trading plans more than three times, brokers would be out of business and traders would have a heckuva lot more money. :D

Happy Thanksgiving! :)
 
jas_in_hbca said:
Been reviewing and simming. It's going pretty well.

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

One thing I've been trying to understand is the interaction of Me with the execution of my plan. My goal has been to get to a point where, with little effort, I see the signal, enter and strictly manage the trade with no emotion and little thought. The reality is my mood and energy level impact my results. If i'm unfocused or a bit tired I may pass on valid signals I normally would take. This always has confused me. It should be just like working the assembly line, right ? So i've tried to add rules to make the plan more specific then remove rules to make it more simple. * All hoping to achieve the “get me out of the equation, click mouse make easy money” routine.


Earlier this year I was operating under more of the idea that trading was similar to sports. Come in rested , a little pumped up but calm, confident and extremely focused. Then trade the plan with a bit of discretion that proper focus brings.** I've gotten away from that mindset. Partly because I wanted absolute consistency and also I wanted to understand every detail to my decision/trade process. Also partly because I believed other traders were operating with much more ease, clearer rules and a more neutral mindset than I was.


1) I don't know other traders exact plans nor how they think or act in the moment of trading. 2) I do not have the years of experience of some traders 3) Although I can and have learned from other traders, I should be concerned with My plan and My execution , not with my perception of what other traders may or may not be doing. 4) I'd found a mindset that works well with my plan and yet i've moved away from it. 5) I'm still growing and will continue to grow as a trader.


Why does a 'sports mindset' work for me ? I believe it helps me overcome the uncertainty that causes indecision. I see the set ups clearer and shake off losses quickly. Strangely the more engaged I am with the market , the more removed “I” become from the process.


It's taking me a while to figure this out. I was trying to trade more detached and more analytical and yet I think that actually caused more problems. I hope i'm correct that the consistency i've been seeking and got away from can be resolved by returning to the 'sports' mindset. Also, part of this mindset comes from trade review and after hours analysis. Just as an athlete or musician practices to maintain and improve their skills.


(*) In creating my plan this has worked well. At some point , for me, I must accept the plan is ' good enough'


(**) The discretion in my plan has decreased over time as my knowledge and plan has evolved. Probably more discretion on exits. For example, if my target is 20 but trade appears to be stalling at +18 then I may exit for the 18 rather than force myself to be disciplined and hold for a possible more two ticks.

jas
More...

Not knowing how or how many entries you use, it could be too many and you will never get good. Have you ever considered just do two signals for a month, really get good to where you breathing these signals and just no insight of your brain needs to make a decision. It always comes down to not having enough in Trading Plan. I am like "0", "1", and "3", one signal like trend is "1" and counter-trend is "0", "0" comes first if within a zone and "1'" is not as good and when "0" is not in the zone, "1" is best. Now "3" means something is wrong with price structure or what some say "content", whatever label, but based on back testing, if I take some signal at this area, losing percentages goes up.

Start with what you understand and get real good at it, then slowly add, build like steps and keep adding to Trading Plan. Discretion should be replaced with solid rules.
 
Thanks Handle sorry for the very late reply.

I have 3 basic set ups , pullback in trend, reversals and range break. There are some variations on the first two which may have caused me confusion; i.e simple pullback vs complex vs another variation.

I've spent a good amount of time past few weekends writing out and clearing up the confusion I've had on some setups and writing clear reminder notes about context. It's helping a lot.

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Every set back I've had in trading I've eventually come out a better trader. I think this time will be no different. I'm already feeling like a new and improved trader.

On sim probably till end of year. So far this week I'm executing well. Seeing the context, set ups and triggers as I've written in my plan and managing the exits properly. Feels really good to 'see' things with a consistent idea of how to act (or not act). That's what I've been striving for and at the same time got me so confused for awhile.

I'm working on keeping stats with different exit strategies, all in vs scale out.

Mostly just trading the first couple hours.

more updates later...
 
Happy New Year traders !

Things I've been doing:

Took last two weeks off from trading. Even though Sim it was too slow and I needed a break.

Took a break from ET.

Setting up charts in the new Ninjatrader 8 program.

Slowly making my way through Mark Douglas' last book "The Definitive Guide to Mastering the Psychology of Trading". Only about half way through.

I realized that earlier this year I was exiting losing trades quickly, often based on my 'gut'. More recently I was trying to be more disciplined and holding trades to full stop. This was hurting my results and the fighting my gut was causing internal conflict confidence issues. In my recent review of my stats I see , as I've seen before, the big majority of my winning trades have very little to no MAE. Now I can build something into my system based on that and which will coincide but not rely on my gut. Either a time stop or a combination of time and MAE/MFE. Trades that show immediate MFE still should have room for a reasonable MAE but trades with no quick MFE more often than not fail. Having the freedom to exit trades quickly based on knowing this has given me better results and less stress and still allows for consistent execution. This area i'll keep working on.

I've rewritten parts of my plan to make it clearer in situations that frequently caused me confusion or hesitation. More objective guidelines so there's less thinking.

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I plan on simming for next week or two and if results and my execution/discipline are good then will go back live. If not, then will continue to sim.

jas
 
Honestly, I think I got burned out last year. For a few months in a row in 2015 a majority of my weeks were positive. I was executing with good or improving discipline. Then a draw down began and I couldn't see the trades or trade with patience. My after hours focus and drive to get back on track seemed to not be there. I think I had a -ride this out and things will return to how it was-attitude.

I can say there were times I was a little scared that I had lost some ambition. How could it be after putting in all this time, years, I wasn't still pushing as hard, at a time when I really needed to. It used to be the markets were seemingly always on my mind. But I'd go the majority of the day not thinking about it. This scared me, too.

Anyway, I did continue my studies, albeit at a slower pace. Kept plugging along. It was earlier this year it kind of hit me that I must have just got burned out. It had never happened before.

Where I'm at now is that the slow continual study resulted in some of my best work, I think, in clearing up areas of confusion I had. Stripped some things away that were habits I'd picked up when I didn't know as much as I do now. Mostly around how I read price.

I'm still on sim. I'm executing pretty well. Taking valid trades and managing properly. I go in usually with a 15 or 20 tick target depending on S/R levels. I'm not moving my target after it's in. This had been a big problem for me. I'm showing good patience. I trade calmly.

I'm still missing some trades. I can hear my internal dialog while watching trades set up. I hear myself point out reasons why to pass on the trade. So I'm working on changing my focus. Basically I'm reading price wrong and should be focusing on the key points of my set up that dictate to take the trade.

As some of you know, my busy season at work is beginning. I usually don't trade Feb - April. I will try to continue to trade the first two hours before I head to the office for as long as I can.
I may go live soon. When I do, the plan will be to trade Sim on Monday's and Live rest of week.

My enthusiasm for trading has come back. But I also realize that i don't need to think about the markets constantly. I'm OK with that and kind of like it.

I'll be back,

jas

K, I still owe you a book review. Hopefully soon.:)
 
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