jasinhbca's quest for discipline, knowledge & profits

[jas_in_hbca]

Thanks Hooti. Not doing what you think you're doing. I'll have to give that some more thought.

On trade review I was actually speaking of post -trade review. I find that most helpful for me. During the trading day I will sometimes begin to make notes on my charts to keep me focused on the key price action so that's a little pre trade review. Overall I learn most from after the trade review.

Quote from Hooti:

I had a time also when I thought losing was just to be expected, part of the price you paid to learn.

Then NoD started talking about having losing trades but... when she followed her rules... which you might call reviewing your trades (before you place them!)... she said she basically had no losing days.
No losing days is a very realistic goal.

My latest bump up in quality of trading came from considering Xspurts observation that when he trained people, one of the commonalities was that they would start by saying what kind of trader they were and how they would trade. After watching them trade for a day he'd ask them if they traded the way they had said. They said 'yes' and totally thought they did. But he observed they were not doing what they were thinking and saying they had done.

I hope I am representing what he said rightly. At any rate, I started looking for places I was not doing what I thought I was. Which is an odd thing to do! I finally found some, and my trading improved immediately. Tho what I was doing.. that I didn't think I was... had become a habit, and changing that is much harder than it would appear, even with awareness.

In terms of 'reviewing their trade' I'm not sure if you mean before or after placing it? Sounds like before. I totally agree. The process of reading the market, deciding what it means, looking for valid reasons to pass... also if it doesn't do the expected, to reverse. Continuing the process with placing an order and trade management. This 'process' is far more important than the setup itself. If I skip any part of it, pffft, the trade becomes an amature thing and the data from it is meaningless. There is really nothing to learn from these trades, IMO, but to become professional and create data that you can learn from.

It was recognizing that my data was not useful that made my ear perk up when Xspurt make his observation about traders he mentored. His POV on it and way of describing it was very helpful.

I do EWT also, think I know where you were. Tho I don't always catch them! And the counts and fibs lately are not lining up as nicely as sometimes. All the best

 

[jas_in_hbca]

Good trading leads to good trading and ......

Missing too many trades overall. The trades I missed today are driving me crazy. I will be doing market replay this weekend.

For the week I was +27 ticks. This is a good result for me compared to last year but well below what I expect I should be doing. On the plus side i'm trending in the right direction.

So why am I missing trades ? Probably fear of loss/being wrong. I took breaks at the wrong time, or it was the "wrong" time of day to trade or waiting for a bit more confirmation. And there's the bad trades I take that then make me hesitant. Not losing trades but fighting the trend too soon trades.

I think there's some psych. issues that may take a bit of time to figure out regarding the fear. Eliminating some of the bad trades shouldn't be difficult. I'll need to review my trading plan and charts and that usually helps.

Sometimes I think I need to stop analyzing so much and just trade what I see. My god man, It's a numbers game ! Relax !

I am closer than I've ever been. I want a breakthrough to the next level. But trying harder doesn't mean trading more.

OK, enough rambling.

 

[jas_in_hbca]

A good week overall. Tues and Wed I was frustrated about missing trades. Thurs made the week with a + 86 tick trade. It was my best trade management to date IMO. Net for the week was + 67 ticks ($600 after commish)

The trade was very quickly + 28 then retraced to only be up a few ticks. I had moved my stop to BE+1 and very luckily avoided being stopped out by 1 tick. I kept raising my target and thought about closing at + 30 and +60. Instead I trailed my stop and had a very acceptable exit. I did think about adding but did not.

I'm thinking in the future i'll probably not place orders for targets. I rarely use them and it's just one more thing to think about while in the trade.

I'm again looking at trading two and scaling out. In reviewing my trades, if the right target is picked it always improves my results.
I am finding lucky 13 seems to be a good number. I'll review this more at end of month. I have an excel (open office) spreadsheet that I can dump my trades into and play what if with and see what happens if I exit 1 at various targets.

I've attached the weeks trades. You can see there were several that went > +12 but were closed at minimal profit. Assuming the trades
were closed at +13 when possible and the losing trades were twice the amount actually taken then I still end up with 37 more ticks. this is somewhat hypothetical because it assumes the remaining contract is exited at the same place as actual. In reality I may end up holding for more gains on some and lesser gains on some. Still, in every month I get better hypothetical results by doing a scale out vs trading one car.

I'm still not trading in the manner I want to be so i'll continue to work on my weakness of missing trades.

Today only took 1 trade because I was a tired.

This was my best 1 week return since starting the journal and my third consecutive profitable week.

 

[jas_in_hbca]

This past week was difficult. Last weekend i couldn't get trading out of my head. I became obsessed with the thought i needed another week of profits so i could accomplish 4 weeks straight. And also thoughts of how can i increase my overall weekly profits. I didn't sleep well. I also had a couple projects at work that were causing some stress.

The result was unfocused and scared trading. Amatuers trade not to lose, pros trade to win. I traded not to lose.

The results were + 16 ticks for the week. After commish i was slightly positive. I'm glad to have this week behind me. I traded from home yesterday and called it a day early. This long weekend will do me good.

Now that i'm past my busy season at work i'm trying to exercise more. The good thing about being out of shape is you don't have to work out long to reach your limit. But yesterday i increased my jog distance. Feels good.

Oh yeah, tuesday i hit my pre-defined daily loss limit. Thought about taking one more trade but instead shut down the platform. I'm pleased with that. It's quite clear i only have an edge when i'm mentally focused and rested. The times i've hit my daily limit are almost always when i'm unfocused.

Two trades ( wed & thurs, i think) I exited when i should have held and which was a violation of my rules. Of course had i followed my rules i would have had a very decent week.

Going forward i don't expect to be putting pressure on myself to a "must be profitable" standard. I'd like to get back to a focus on state of mind management and following my rules.

There's a trading psychologist who is doing an online group class starting next month. I'm likely going to do it. I think i now know how to trade so the time is right in getting some help with the mental aspects, basically dealing with uncertainty.

 

[Redneck]

This journal/ your progress – Good Stuff Sir

Quote from jas_in_hbca:

Tuesday i hit my pre-defined daily loss limit.

It's quite clear i only have an edge when i'm mentally focused and rested.

We can be our edge…, our greatest hindrance…, or anything in between – every day we trade

Always bring your “A” game


Trading is one of the very few businesses where we have total control;

Over how we approach it
When we approach it
That we approach it on our terms

Quote from jas_in_hbca:

The times i've hit my daily limit are almost always when i'm unfocused.

Now you know this…, be on the lookout for it..., and willing to acknowledge when it’s present

Whenever you see it – either regain the necessary focus – or go spend time with your family / hobby / whatever

Mkt already takes enough money in the due course of business – no sense giving it one damn penny more than absolutely necessary

Keep on Keepin on Sir
RN

 

[jas_in_hbca]

RN Sir,

Thank you for your comments and encouragement. Very much appreciated !

jas

 

[jas_in_hbca]

Profitwise it was the best week yet. Tradingwise i still need improvement.

+84 ticks for the week, $ 787 after commish. For the month it was an even + 250 ticks, net $ 2,164

What concerns me is the distribution of profits. All the profits this week were from one +126 trade.

I have alot of small wins and losses, a few medium wins and a few big wins. I believe this is expected and common but i'd like to see a slightly higher win percent and more medium size wins. For the month i had 38% wins. Average profit was 3 x my average loss. There's a slight feeling that maybe i just got lucky in catching those big wins. I will say though that when i did get the big moves i managed the trades well and rode them. That's something i did not do when i started this journal or even last year.

My goals this month were to add to 2 winners and to have > 40% winners. i did not add to any winners. it's not a goal i'm going to carry into next month. More important is for me to catch more of the trades i'm missing. I always assume missing trades is due to an unclear strategy. Thus, more review of my plan, set ups and post trade analysis. I'm not going to ignore or discount my mental attitude/focus either.

My scaling out worksheet had some formula errors:eek: I was looking at it last week and really liking the results yet it just didn't feel right. Found the error and now the results are fair. Damn ! No easy road to riches.

Attached are tues -thurs trades. today I was -21. Actually now that i think about it the two trades i missed today were probably more mental than technical. One of them i cancelled my order less than 30 seconds before a nice move. The other i was just being too cautious. Hmm, it's possible i do know what i need to do , i just need to do it.

 

[jas_in_hbca]

+ 17 CL ticks for the week. $ 72 after commish.

Mental errors of taking profits too soon. Took a scalp profit on tues probably because on the prior trade I didn't get an ideal exit/profit. Price then explode up I think 150 ticks. Couldn't get my head in the game to enter on any of the valid pullbacks entries.

Going in to today I was -23 ticks for the week and again exited too early trying to just get to profitable for the week. There was an excuse to exit as price moved into resistance but given the strength (and EMA's) I should have waited rather than enter a target to exit.

On one hand i'm very pleased to again close positive for the week , on the other hand I feel i'm not trading with the discipline I expect of myself. I'm hoping the upcoming traders psych course i'm going to take will help.

Here's the chart. Hold or exit ?

 

[Redneck]

Quote from jas_in_hbca:

Here's the chart. Hold or exit ?

We don’t know JIH…, and never will

Bring up a longer TF, or two…, get familiarized with the overall terrain – monitor the premarket

Then do what price says
====================

Be detached…, observe…, exploit opportunities…, manage yourself..., manage your trades

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

btw, if I had a dollar for every trading mistake I ever made.., I'd have my own island

Acknowledge and learn from mistakes (if possible), but then, move on


RN

 

[jas_in_hbca]

Thank you for the reply, RN.

Correct me if i'm wrong but I believe you've said before that trading is nearly all psychological and a small part methodology. I think I've been proving that to be true.

Quote from Redneck:

Then do what price says

Yes, i'm too often trading the last trade rather than listening to price.

Quote from Redneck:


Be detached…, observe…, exploit opportunities…, manage yourself..., manage your trades

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

There's so much truth and wisdom in that short line. I agree completely and will keep working on it.

Quote from Redneck:

btw, if I had a dollar for every trading mistake I ever made.., I'd have my own island

Acknowledge and learn from mistakes (if possible), but then, move on

RN

Thanks for that. In the isolation that is trading it's easy to beat one's self up over 'mistakes'. At the end of the day I'm actually pretty good about letting it go.

I heard Linda Raschke say not long ago that she recently had hit the buy button instead of sell, or some silly thing like that. She said she still makes mistakes. It kind of goes with the job.

Thanks again, RN.

jas