Maintaining discipline

Two trades today. Followed rules well.

On the first one, broke rule and took profit on 1/2 position and left 1/4 profit on the table.

Left the desk so I don't over trade rest of the day. Yesterday was tiring and unfruitful. Don't want another day like that.
 
Today, overtraded. And uncountable breaking rules, in the last hour.

Main reason being I kept chasing shorts 'cos the system had high short bias today. The real good signal came midday for a few points.

I should have stopped after an average profit day. But I chased the shorts in the last 40 minutes without signals, and gave up all the profits from morning, yesterday, and a bit more.

If I am smart, I should not trade tomorrow. Overall still an up week if I stop right now. Just rest and start next week afresh.
 
I am not sure if you have noticed but futures rollover can typically be a really good day or ugly day. Price action is erratic often as people roll. Just something I have noticed.
 
yes aware of rollover. plan for today was clear.

i simply ruined it by not applying discipline. my head was not clear today. i think i need sleep :)
 
This journal could have been my journal about 8 months ago. You are looking for action instead of good trading opportunities. This is extremely dangerous, believe me I know. I finally just got tired of using my gut to get on board what I perceived as a freight train. We trust our GUT too much. Screw your gut. Remember everything in your gut eventually comes out of your ass. :D

Find a way so your screen shots will NOT show your profit for the day. You will be surprised how much more FOCUSED YOU ARE WHEN YOU DO NOT HAVE THIS INFORMATION IN FRONT OF YOU. You think about your trade only, not where you stand and how much more you need to be profitable. I know others have brought this up, but sometimes we need to force it by not ever seeing it on the screen. Try not looking at daily profits for a week, and I will bet you will have one of your best days in weeks.
 
Having discipline problems myself (not today but in general). Enjoying reading the thread. Thanks for starting it. There was a blog post posted early on in the thread about things to help your self-control. After reading it, I've forced myself to eat or at least drink something during the day with a little bit of carbs or sugar (blog post says glucose levels drop while exercising self control). That has helped me, I tend to get very busy and not eat much and just drink water. It also helped me because it said that if you exercise self control in another activity before the activity you are concerned with, you kind of use up your self control. I'm careful now on days when other things are challenging my patience. Try to catch the cues that I'm losing it early on those days if possible.
 
Slept 9.5 hours last night :) Woke up feeling great so I traded today.

First trade was long and good discipline and good profits.

Second trade, many hours later, 1/2 size, and stopped out with small loss.

Third trade was long 1/2 size and stopped out again with small gain.

Should have just quit after the first trade. My system did tell me to quit after morning.

Next week is options expiration. Should continue to be volatile. Rest well weekend. Extra focus on discipline next week.
 
4 Shorts. Third short stopped out.

Stops were in as we were curiously strong until the last hour.

I also took the last signal in the system (breaking a rule that I don't trade after bond close). Took the trade because this is an anticipated end of bounce area.

Relatively frustrating day after the second short. For the rest of the week, should still maintain open mind as this is opex week.
 
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