Maintaining Self Discipline

[studentofthemarkets]

Not sure what you mean by structure?
But I do like the NAZ with the Heikin-Ashi 10mn chart, put on your V-wap and see that green candles when it closes firm above the V-Wap.

I just mean the chart looks choppier on the YM than the NQ.

Thanks, I'll take a look.

 

[a drop of water]

I blew it today.

I don't know what I'd be like if I didn't have a journal to report to, because this helps me to focus on finding what needs to be improved on and working on it.

So, here's the problem: revenge trading took over again. It's been a really long time since the last time, but it happened very suddenly and I lost all sense of how to trade and stopped looking for set ups. I reacted and then I recognized it, decided to be done for the day....but as I was closing my charts, thought I saw price was actually going to do something....drop....and so got in....and it did. I made back my money and made a little extra. Then I thought I saw the "big one" ...what if this was the big drop where the bottom falls off and I miss it simply because I am only suppose to take one trade a day....clearly, I was not thinking straight, because I didn't care about set ups or following my rules. I got in...and price reversed....Thankfully when it was at negative 38 ticks (so down 29 ticks for the day) I decided to just take the loss.....I had even moved my stop loss back to around -50 ticks, which I NEVER do....to give it a lot of room.....this day could have ended a lot worse....because I gave it the opportunity to potentially end badly. Should have stuck with my plan.

There are many things I don't like about trading. But the potential I have to undo everything in a few minutes of time is the scariest thing of all. I've known that. I've tried to build safeguards against that, with rules. But I am prone to not care about rules when in revenge trading mode.

So, what will I do about it?

I need to stop trading live for a while. I hate writing that, but I have to. I really don't know my set ups very well. I keep changing things. If I have confidence that I can read the market and trade well, then...surprisingly, I will be less likely to revenge trade. It will be easier to take a loss and say I can do better next time. Instead, I took a loss and thought if I don't catch a move to make it back, I might never make it back. Which is completely irrational...if I can't trade well, why would I want to trade more?

So, I won't trade live again for at least this week, and won't start again until I am positive in demo for ???? I guess I should make a plan for this. I should have 3 positive days in a row in demo, not counting today, before trading live again.

And the other thing I have to do before trading live is finish going through a book I have on self-discipline and watch at least 2 of Brett Steenbarger's videos. I'm writing it here so that, hopefully, I'll have the discipline to follow through on this, and write back on here that I did these things before my next live trade.

If I have a rule to only take one trade a day live and have a stop loss limit.....I HAVE TO STICK WITH IT.

If there is one thing to be thankful for after today, it's that I am now aware that I am still struggling with revenge trading and that it can overtake me instantly. Not making excuses, but I was kind of caught off guard because it's been such a long time since I've experienced it. In fact, the last time I remember was a day last Spring which led to quitting the NQ for a few months. I felt like it moves too fast for me to overcome my tendency to revenge trade, so moved to a slow moving instrument, which led to finding out that I don't trade slow moving instruments very well. Not going to switch instruments again, but when/if I get profitable on the NQ I might try something else that is slower, if it is reliable.

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Nice thought process. I have read the books by Brett Steenbarge. I would suggest you to read the book trading in the zone by mark douglas.

Mark’s definition on self-discipline: it is a mental technique to redirect our focus of attention to the object of our goal or desire, when that goal or desire conflicts with some other component of our mental environment. Based on this definition, self-discipline is not a personality trait; people are not born with self-discipline; as a technique to be used in the process of personal transformation, anybody can choose to use self-discipline. In this book, Mark used his journey of becoming a runner to illustrate the underlying dynamics of how to apply the self-discipline technique effectively.

When a trader really understands the content in the book by Mark, i believe it is very challenging not to be a consistently profitable trader. How to know whether really understanding the content? It happens when a trader can freely and effectively use the material from the book.

 

[Zodiac4u]

I just mean the chart looks choppier on the YM than the NQ.

Thanks, I'll take a look.

Choppier is not a bad thing, just use a larger time frame, often times that's the best habit to have, run through all the time frames preopen, and choose your style. The only bad about a larger time chart is that the range of the bar is longer and your stop risk is larger, but that would depend on where you enter. A big benefit is that you will see where the noise will be, so your stops that you use may not be hit.

 

[studentofthemarkets]

Nice thought process. I have read the books by Brett Steenbarge. I would suggest you to read the book trading in the zone by mark douglas.

Mark’s definition on self-discipline: it is a mental technique to redirect our focus of attention to the object of our goal or desire, when that goal or desire conflicts with some other component of our mental environment. Based on this definition, self-discipline is not a personality trait; people are not born with self-discipline; as a technique to be used in the process of personal transformation, anybody can choose to use self-discipline. In this book, Mark used his journey of becoming a runner to illustrate the underlying dynamics of how to apply the self-discipline technique effectively.

When a trader really understands the content in the book by Mark, i believe it is very challenging not to be a consistently profitable trader. How to know whether really understanding the content? It happens when a trader can freely and effectively use the material from the book.

Thanks. I haven't read that book yet, but see it mentioned on the forum a lot. I'll read it.

 

[studentofthemarkets]

I'm hoping and thinking that the YM will be something I can scalp in the direction of the trend. It should give more opportunities to get into trades, because it has more pullbacks than the NQ. I do like a lot of things about the NQ but waiting for, what I was looking for to enter a trend didn't happen very often and I seemed to miss the entries. Rather than focusing on trends with YM, because it doesn't trend as neatly, I will just be taking smaller profits, but getting in more often, which is how I'd rather trade...if I can do it with a high win rate and low risk, and it looks like that should be easier to do with YM than with NQ. But time will tell. At this rate, every time I come up with a plan I change it within a day or less, so hopefully this will be something I can get to work and stick with.

 

[Zodiac4u]

I'm hoping and thinking that the YM will be something I can scalp in the direction of the trend. It should give more opportunities to get into trades, because it has more pullbacks than the NQ. I do like a lot of things about the NQ but waiting for, what I was looking for to enter a trend didn't happen very often and I seemed to miss the entries. Rather than focusing on trends with YM, because it doesn't trend as neatly, I will just be taking smaller profits, but getting in more often, which is how I'd rather trade...if I can do it with a high win rate and low risk, and it looks like that should be easier to do with YM than with NQ. But time will tell. At this rate, every time I come up with a plan I change it within a day or less, so hopefully this will be something I can get to work and stick with.

Define trend? What are your parameters that define a Trend? A Trend is not revealed until after the fact and look backs are what they are.

 

[easymon1]

I'm hoping and thinking that the YM will be something I can scalp in the direction of the trend.

What timeframe charts do you like?
Have you compared RTY to YM?

 

[studentofthemarkets]

Define trend? What are your parameters that define a Trend? A Trend is not revealed until after the fact and look backs are what they are.

A trend to me, is what I look for intraday...is it tending to go down or up in the first 2 1/2 hours after the Open. I don't trade after that. There's usually about 2 trends during that time...and chop.

 

[studentofthemarkets]

What timeframe charts do you like?
Have you compared RTY to YM?

I'm using the 1 min and 5 min charts. I do drop down to smaller sometimes, but find that I lose track of the overall picture if I watch smaller timeframes too much.

Yes, I have tried the RTY a few times in demo mode, and compared it with the YM. Maybe I should take another look. Thanks!

 

[Zodiac4u]

A trend to me, is what I look for intraday...is it tending to go down or up in the first 2 1/2 hours after the Open. I don't trade after that. There's usually about 2 trends during that time...and chop.

Implementing a method with your parameters, may not work very well within your time period, have you looked at this? plus If your using the 1mn or 5mn chart, than your view is a small one, market chop will show up within those time frames, but the picture is often times much brighter when I'm looking at anything greater than a 30mn time frame. It takes 30- 1mn bars to be laid down every 1/2 hour, the minute and the 5minute can dance and do all kinds of somersaults, but still end up closing and staying within the longer term 30mn chart formation.