There are too many things to focus on for improving so I've decided that for tomorrow, I'm going to work on trying to recognize entries that will give 60 ticks with a 30 ticks stop loss using only 1 contract. I still like the idea of using 3 contracts...eventually. But no matter how I work the numbers, it doesn't make sense to use 3 contracts the way I want to if I can't get the 3rd one to about 60 ticks most of the time. I also plan to try to trail trends, but I feel like if I use 3 contracts and try to trail, it's too much going on. I'll still keep to my plan of 2 entries per beginning of a trend, etc. I might choose a different focus every day until I feel like I can tie it altogether to make low risk multiple contract entries that travel far.
Maintaining Self Discipline
- Thread starter studentofthemarkets
- Start date
Ended up with 17 ticks profit after bouncing around a lot between losses and profits.
I think using 30 ticks for a stop loss and 60 ticks for a target, and not adjusting them was helpful. It forced me to try to think through if I thought a potential setup could make it to 60 ticks, instead of trying for around 20 and hoping for more. Not being able to adjust the stop loss might be the best training exercise because most of the time today I saw the trade go against me and was reminded that my entry wasn't exactly right....I tend to see movement and jump in without timing it, waiting for a small pullback. With how many times I did that today.....I could probably make a winning system out of countertrend trading for 10 to 30 ticks at a time
but that's not in my plan, so I won't.
I did follow my rules for only 2 losing entries per trend....but that backfired a little because every time I changed directions, even within the same 5 minute candle, I counted it as the beginning of a new trend, so I still took too many trades. Also, I have a rule for only 1 trade per 5 minute candle and I didn't follow that today. Once today I took 3 losing entries trying to enter a trend (the last short trade taken....and it didn't work.) So I need to work on the self-discipline of following my rules. However, I like my rules and I think if I can get to the point where it's just a habit that I always follow them, I'll be more consistent.
If I can consistently be profitable using 30 ticks stop loss and getting 60 ticks with 1 contract, no adjusting, then I can work on adding contracts and managing them and that should lead to more consistent profits and more potential.
I think using 30 ticks for a stop loss and 60 ticks for a target, and not adjusting them was helpful. It forced me to try to think through if I thought a potential setup could make it to 60 ticks, instead of trying for around 20 and hoping for more. Not being able to adjust the stop loss might be the best training exercise because most of the time today I saw the trade go against me and was reminded that my entry wasn't exactly right....I tend to see movement and jump in without timing it, waiting for a small pullback. With how many times I did that today.....I could probably make a winning system out of countertrend trading for 10 to 30 ticks at a time
but that's not in my plan, so I won't. I did follow my rules for only 2 losing entries per trend....but that backfired a little because every time I changed directions, even within the same 5 minute candle, I counted it as the beginning of a new trend, so I still took too many trades. Also, I have a rule for only 1 trade per 5 minute candle and I didn't follow that today. Once today I took 3 losing entries trying to enter a trend (the last short trade taken....and it didn't work.) So I need to work on the self-discipline of following my rules. However, I like my rules and I think if I can get to the point where it's just a habit that I always follow them, I'll be more consistent.
If I can consistently be profitable using 30 ticks stop loss and getting 60 ticks with 1 contract, no adjusting, then I can work on adding contracts and managing them and that should lead to more consistent profits and more potential.
2 wins and 1 loss using 30 ticks for a stop loss and 60 ticks for a target....no adjusting. Net gain of 87 demo ticks.
If I only took 3 trades a day like this for the rest of my life, I'd be a happy trader.
If I only took 3 trades a day like this for the rest of my life, I'd be a happy trader.
Lost 6 ticks. Still using 30 ticks for a stop loss and 60 ticks for a target and not adjusting them.
Things to work on:
I need to be better at waiting.
4 trades broke my rule to not trade more than once every 5 minutes. 2 of those trades worked. 1 of those trades (the first winning trade of the day) had other entry opportunities if I had waited. It is better for me to stick to my rule of waiting a minimum of 5 minutes between trades than to risk high losses with overtrading. I need to keep my rule and stay committed to following it.
I took 3 losses trying to go short this morning, and continued to take 2 more short trades, which broke my rule to only take 2 losing attempts at a trend. This rule is hard to follow. I knew when I made it that it wouldn't make any sense while trading to be in losses and watch the trend happen and know I could probably get in and get a trade. But that's exactly why I made this rule. If I have to go through that agony of watching where I see entries that are likely to work, and not being allowed to take them because I took trades I was guessing on, just maybe it'll give me the motivation I need to wait for better opportunities. I need to work at patiently waiting to get into those times....and not waste money beforehand. So, taking only 2 attempts per trend is also a rule I need to keep and be determined to follow.
I think having the target set to 60 ticks has been helping me stop trying to grab just a few ticks when I see movement.
Overall, I'm happy with today. I think I did better than I have in the past with trying not to revenge trade. I was trying hard to be OK with losses, even if I had continued losing and had large losses for the day. I continued to trade after taking 5 losses in a row in order to work on trying to trade according to the opportunities I saw, rather than trading to get losses back. When I get better at recognizing good trading opportunities I plan to be much stricter with how many losses I take.
Things to work on:
I need to be better at waiting.
4 trades broke my rule to not trade more than once every 5 minutes. 2 of those trades worked. 1 of those trades (the first winning trade of the day) had other entry opportunities if I had waited. It is better for me to stick to my rule of waiting a minimum of 5 minutes between trades than to risk high losses with overtrading. I need to keep my rule and stay committed to following it.
I took 3 losses trying to go short this morning, and continued to take 2 more short trades, which broke my rule to only take 2 losing attempts at a trend. This rule is hard to follow. I knew when I made it that it wouldn't make any sense while trading to be in losses and watch the trend happen and know I could probably get in and get a trade. But that's exactly why I made this rule. If I have to go through that agony of watching where I see entries that are likely to work, and not being allowed to take them because I took trades I was guessing on, just maybe it'll give me the motivation I need to wait for better opportunities. I need to work at patiently waiting to get into those times....and not waste money beforehand. So, taking only 2 attempts per trend is also a rule I need to keep and be determined to follow.
I think having the target set to 60 ticks has been helping me stop trying to grab just a few ticks when I see movement.
Overall, I'm happy with today. I think I did better than I have in the past with trying not to revenge trade. I was trying hard to be OK with losses, even if I had continued losing and had large losses for the day. I continued to trade after taking 5 losses in a row in order to work on trying to trade according to the opportunities I saw, rather than trading to get losses back. When I get better at recognizing good trading opportunities I plan to be much stricter with how many losses I take.
Last edited:
I'm gonna go back to trading 2 demo accounts. One will be for taking trades in the first 15 minutes or so after the open.
For the new account I will wait for at least 5 minutes between each trade. I think I'll be flexible on the stop loss size and I'll try to trail. I might trade using 2 or 3 contracts.
The trades and statistics will be easier to analyze if I have 2 accounts. If I ever get to the place of trading live then I'll have a better idea of whether I should trade the open or wait.
For the new account I will wait for at least 5 minutes between each trade. I think I'll be flexible on the stop loss size and I'll try to trail. I might trade using 2 or 3 contracts.
The trades and statistics will be easier to analyze if I have 2 accounts. If I ever get to the place of trading live then I'll have a better idea of whether I should trade the open or wait.
Made 82 ticks in the main demo trading account. Used a 30 tick stop loss and 60 tick target and did not adjust them.
For the week that puts me at +266 ticks.
I stuck to my rule of waiting at least 5 minutes between trades. I also only took 2 losses per attempt at a trend. A winning trade or change in direction reset the attempts, so I ended up overtrading again. However, having these 2 rules really helped by putting a restraint on my urge to trade everything that moved.
I only took one trade in the Trading the Open account. It lost....but since I had 3 contracts on it the total loss seems huge. I'll add it in with the losses and gains to next weeks totals for that account. I don't think one trade is enough to be discouraged about. I guess if there is anything positive about it, it would be that I only took one trade in that account.
For the week that puts me at +266 ticks.
I stuck to my rule of waiting at least 5 minutes between trades. I also only took 2 losses per attempt at a trend. A winning trade or change in direction reset the attempts, so I ended up overtrading again. However, having these 2 rules really helped by putting a restraint on my urge to trade everything that moved.
I only took one trade in the Trading the Open account. It lost....but since I had 3 contracts on it the total loss seems huge. I'll add it in with the losses and gains to next weeks totals for that account. I don't think one trade is enough to be discouraged about. I guess if there is anything positive about it, it would be that I only took one trade in that account.
Lost 32 ticks in the Main Demo Account. Still using 30 ticks stop loss and 60 ticks target, no adjusting.First trade: winning trade, but reversed right at the target...so this could have easily been a loss. WAITING would have been better. A better entry came 10 minutes later. I didn't take it because I didn't want to over trade...and I wasn't sure it would drop very far. But that was the trade I should have taken.
Rest of the trades: I think I'm not timing my reversal trades very well with the bigger trend picture. I went long because the shorter term timeframes looked like long was right, but the large drops just before should have been a warning that they were counter trend trades, not the beginnings of reversal trend trades. It's something I've struggled to recognize over and over, and really need to cement it in my mind not to trade against strength.
Homework: Later today go through charts and find similar trending conditions and mark where the pullbacks are and compare them to charts when similar "pullbacks" actually did turn into reversal trends.
Decided to stop for the day while my losses are small. My good days from last week were about 80 ticks, so if I can keep my bad days much smaller than 80 ticks, it would give me a better chance at having a positive week. Also, my biggest problem is revenge trading and so I'm trying to learn stop trading before losses get too big. Revenge trading is one of the reasons I'm hesitant to go live....the other reason is that I'm still making too many mistakes in demo trading, intraday drawdowns are too large and happen too often....and I'm barely profitable, in fact, I'm not sure that I'm profitable consistently.
The positives about today....1. I think I can fix the countertrend trading I did today....if not, when I begin adjusting stop losses, these entries would be easy to move to BE quickly. 2. I didn't allow myself to continue to trade after 3 losses in a row.
Took only one 3 contract trade in the Trading the Open demo account. Barely ended in profit with a 1:1 risk to reward. There was a strong push up and I would have done better to trail the 3rd contract instead of closing it early out of relief that it was a winning trade.
Last edited:
Gonna give the pre-market NQ another try. Seems I try it for a little while, then give up, then try it again. It has a different feel than the RTH. It's often spiky or doesn't go anywhere, but it could be that I didn't put enough time into it to find a way to make it work.
I didn't trade well today. Still not sure why, I'll need to analyze my trades later and see if I taking my entries right. I felt like I was guessing for each trade....and apparently, I was. I got the trend direction wrong a lot. It really helps me to not over trade to have a time limit to wait to enter after my last trade. Didn't break that rule in the Main Demo Account or Premarket.
Main Demo Account: Made 79 ticks but I'm not happy with the way I traded. Don't want to trade like this live. Still using a 30 tick stop loss and 60 tick target with no adjusting.
Premarket Demo Account: Made 20 ticks, took one trade. Used 20 a 20 tick stop loss and 20 tick target. I will adjust in this account. I got into this trade way too late...partly due to just then sitting at the computer and taking the first trade I saw. However, I did like the price action for the premarket--it seemed better than how I remembered it.
Trading the First 15 minutes of the Open: Lost 156 ticks. I decided, while trading, that it was too difficult to follow the rule of waiting 5 minutes between trades so traded more...which doesn't make sense...I wasn't doing well, couldn't understand what price was doing, and I let myself take trades more often than my rules permit? I also "managed" these trades.... Used 3 contracts each trade. Used a 40 ticks stop loss and took 9 trades (9x3=27) so had a total of 27
contracts traded. That could have ended with a lot more losses. The point of using 3 contracts was to get in at the beginning of a trend and trail, but if I'm going to take on that much risk per trade, I need to be a lot better at getting in when there is a trend and staying out when it's not trending. It took a while, but I finally realized that we were forming a triangle and then mostly stayed out. Really don't like the trades I took, or the price action. I'll continue to trade this account, for the practice, but I might not ever trade the first 15 minutes live, unless I can trade it well, consistently.
Main Demo Account: Made 79 ticks but I'm not happy with the way I traded. Don't want to trade like this live. Still using a 30 tick stop loss and 60 tick target with no adjusting.
Premarket Demo Account: Made 20 ticks, took one trade. Used 20 a 20 tick stop loss and 20 tick target. I will adjust in this account. I got into this trade way too late...partly due to just then sitting at the computer and taking the first trade I saw. However, I did like the price action for the premarket--it seemed better than how I remembered it.
Trading the First 15 minutes of the Open: Lost 156 ticks. I decided, while trading, that it was too difficult to follow the rule of waiting 5 minutes between trades so traded more...which doesn't make sense...I wasn't doing well, couldn't understand what price was doing, and I let myself take trades more often than my rules permit? I also "managed" these trades.... Used 3 contracts each trade. Used a 40 ticks stop loss and took 9 trades (9x3=27) so had a total of 27
contracts traded. That could have ended with a lot more losses. The point of using 3 contracts was to get in at the beginning of a trend and trail, but if I'm going to take on that much risk per trade, I need to be a lot better at getting in when there is a trend and staying out when it's not trending. It took a while, but I finally realized that we were forming a triangle and then mostly stayed out. Really don't like the trades I took, or the price action. I'll continue to trade this account, for the practice, but I might not ever trade the first 15 minutes live, unless I can trade it well, consistently.
Last edited:
I forgot to change the colors marking winning and losing trades in the 2nd chart. So, in the 1st chart, a white line now means a losing trade. In the 2nd chart, the dotted white line means a winning trade.