Just a random trade story

[SunTrader]

Grab them profits. Forget letting winners run. If price runs after you grab them profits jump back in. But by grabbing profits you avoid a winner turning into a loser and have a higher win rate. I been preaching it.....“Grab them profits.” Not many concur with me.

Grabbing small profits is the easy, feel good thing to do. Trading is about "getting paid" when you are right, not being thrown a few crumbs or avoiding losers at all costs.

basic example

win 9 out 10 ES trades for a tick profit/loss = 8 ticks

win 4 out 10 ES trades for a 4 tick profit/1 tick loss = 10 ticks

 

[orbit23]

Many times i was expecting a breakout, i saw a setup, i joined, and i was up good 500-1000$ bucks, and i always thought, okay let's let this run, higher timeframe charts say breakout soon HOORAH..., but no. You are too early , shit dumps back down, stops you out, and then it either goes up without you, or you notice that the case still holds , you re-join and from having fingers burnt, seeing a 1000$ dissapear literally in seconds, you can't help but take profits quickly when it starts going up. And then the real breakout happens and tears start dripping down your cheeks. You've managed to fuck up.... Again.


Even if it might be simple, it requires a lot of skill and experience.

 

[volpri]

Grabbing small profits is the easy, feel good thing to do. Trading is about "getting paid" when you are right, not being thrown a few crumbs or avoiding losers at all costs.

basic example

win 9 out 10 ES trades for a tick profit/loss = 8 ticks

win 4 out 10 ES trades for a 4 tick profit/1 tick loss = 10 ticks

In essence I agree but I certainly was not talking of scalping a tick. I scalp 1 to 8 points. When I talk about grabbing profits I mean in that context. 1 to 8 points and 12 to 20 on volatile days. Absolutely, I want to avoid losers but not at all costs. But I do my damndest to avoid them, that is for sure. I have no interest in maintaining a low win rate.

The case in discussion I believe he was up around 1500. Of course he should have grabbed those profits and not tarried around till he ended up at BE.

 

[themickey]

Many times i was expecting a breakout, i saw a setup, i joined, and i was up good 500-1000$ bucks, and i always thought, okay let's let this run, higher timeframe charts say breakout soon HOORAH..., but no. You are too early , shit dumps back down, stops you out, and then it either goes up without you, or you notice that the case still holds , you re-join and from having fingers burnt, seeing a 1000$ dissapear literally in seconds, you can't help but take profits quickly when it starts going up. And then the real breakout happens and tears start dripping down your cheeks. You've managed to fuck up.... Again.

Even if it might be simple, it requires a lot of skill and experience.

The reason is, I'm on the other side if your trades, you need to cover up your monitor camera - I am watching you every minute of the day.

 

[orbit23]

I would like to say i have learnt so much from this experience. But the truth is i haven't. I've done the exact same thing 3 days in a row lmao. Wanting to let them profits run when conditions were clearly not appropriate. When market is choppy, you gotta be quickly in and out at nearest levels.

But maybe i did learn now, that it takes me too long to learn and that i repeat the same mistakes too many times before i get sick of it.

The reason is, I'm on the other side if your trades, you need to cover up your monitor camera - I am watching you every minute of the day.

Camera's been covered for a long time my opsec is on point. The problem was not you watching me every minute of the day, but me watching the charts every minute of the day. Get it? Watching 1 minute charts all the time. Stressful as fuck. If you just trade the 1min chart and manage the trades there, it's working, but if you try to get an entry and stop loss on a 1min and hold for a HTF trade, it's very unlikely to work. And then when you expect or anticipate something, but it's not happening, and it's not as you would want it to be, it's a great source of anger, frustration,...

For some reason i thought if you want to be a "daytrader"/scalper and make serious money, YOU HAVE to be on a 1min chart.

 

[themickey]

Has anyone mentored you?
How much study have you done? How much reading and listening?
How much screen time have you achieved?
How long have you traded this particular instrument.

Slow down, relax, be patient, remain focused.

 

[Bugsy]

Up 1500 on the trade. "This one is going to be a nice one. It ain't even started, expecting a 10x more..".

The unbiased scalper in me checks the chart. We are at HTF resistance, unlikely that we just break-thru i think to myself. "Looks like a top too". Even say that to my friend. At the same time i realize, yeah if it is the top, i might look smart, but i am not taking any responsibility and action... All i see is a fucken potential 15grand reward.... "Let your winners run i say to myself", and i do nothing.

I go to sleep. Fuck, it was a top indeed. Dumped, but bounced back up when i woke up at same profit. It's not looking good, higher timeframes now look like a top too and price is rejecting. "Should i close?" I think about the potential profits, i do nothing.

I even get a short setup on lower timeframes, i wanted to atleast hedge the position.
"Volatility is too low, i can't make a profit, it probably only dumps 0.2%, i'd barely cover the fees".
"It will dump a little, but then go up higher, have to hold " (That's what i thought and believed).

I went on to meditate for 10mins, and i noticed it. "I feel like I am slightly derailing….lacking off..if it ain't happening it ain't..manage the situation..!". Wrote that in the diary before shit happened. I knew that i was getting away from what i do well, which is playing the god damn setups and managing the positions.


And baam it dumps down hard. I wasn't actively watching there( i didn't even want to watch, i just hoped to come back to profits), but i just happened to check the monitors. I was lucky to have just not been stopped by a damn tick, the price bounced back to my entry so i close the position at breakeven, probably slight loss after fees.

It was an instant reaction, i did not know what i was doing, but i could feel the fucking was coming and did the right thing. So there was atleast an element of luck, or i would've lost 500.

Angry as angry gets. When i get angry though it's usually just a burst that goes thru my body very quickly, lasts a few seconds, i stomp on the table unconsciously and curse, but after that it clears the fog and brings me to focus very quickly.
I feel fucking nothing if i lose a trade, i feel even less if i win, but if i don't act as intended, if there are regrets, I WANT TO FUCKING CARVE MY EYEBALLS OUT.

Anyways i used to have a tendancy to keep perpetuating the bad feelings, but by the time i finished this post, honestly i don't even care anymore. Even though i felt clear, there was still that element of wanting to fight back and do something, so i decided to write a post about it instead.

Kinda ironic though how i say that i don't care about winning or losing, but pretty much every time, when i think about a big reward, my mind goes fucking crazy. Holy shit it's like a firework goes off. Might be a slight of a gambling issue there, because as they say it's not the reward by itself that feels good, but the anticipation of.

Why not set your stop and exit prices and let it do what it does? Takes the emotion and guesswork out of it. Contrarily, you could also hedge with a few puts at that potential breakout top so after you stop out you still have potential upside should it continue to fall selling the puts for a nice profit over and above your stop out loss. If it does breakout at the top you can sell the puts without much of any time decay, and even though it eats a tiny bit of your upside it is nothing compared to the 15X profit you are planning to make on this trade.

 

[orbit23]

No, unfortunately no mentoring. ( Don't try this at home)

When i started out i watched lots of youtube videos, learned some concepts, but when it came to practice none of that really helped at all lol. If only it were that easy.

Probably around 3000-5000 hours would be my guesstimate.

I have a very nice playbook of trades with edge now, am really really proud on that.

What i am working on right now though is actually better defining the rules for the system. Clear instructions are important, so that your body knows what to do. I don't want to think. Want to condition my body thru repetition and reinforcement, so that when the time comes, the decisions are automatic.
I can do that to some extent, but it's still far far off.

The other important component is putting myself into the right mindset consistently. Because when i fuck myself, i don't fuck myself for the lack of skill.

 

[themickey]

......Because when i fuck myself, i don't fuck myself for the lack of skill.

Very important that when you do, you don't beat yourself up, eg, cursing, swearing and complaining.
Highly important, laugh and move on to the next one, no negative emotions.

I witness many ocassions on ET when a trade goes sour they react negatively.
Don't fall into this camp.

 

[orbit23]

i used to get really frustrated and i would dwell on the feeling too. It could get really really bad. The worst is probably when you are kinda doing well and then a very bad loss comes, the emotional swing that comes with it is so hard to bear. It really sucks lmao. You can't live thru many of those.

I still get angry and react negatively now, but i reset and move on very quickly.