Maintaining Self Discipline
- Thread starter studentofthemarkets
- Start date
There comes a time when you have to take a step back and say something is definitely not working.
I'm not giving up and I'm not going to stop trading my system. But I have to look at how I'm trading and say this isn't working and do my best to fix it. What I'm changing right now is taking only 3 losses a day. I think it's a good thing to do, if you know how to trade. But for now, I can't do it. I will lose the screen time for the rest of the day and although I could study charts the rest of the day, there's nothing quite like real time trading....and I'll probably develop habits that will hurt in the future....but I can't read the Euro. I'm trading terribly. I'm not following my indicators. I did better on the NQ, sometimes, when I limited my trades, but I think that was only because I spent a lot of time working on following my indicators and getting to know how they move. I could choose to do that in replay on the Euro, and I will, but I think I need to do it in real time too, where I don't speed it up.
I'm sad for this....but the thing is, it will help me to train myself to follow the indicators and price and evidently I need need a lot of work to get good. The downside is developing habits of overtrading and not learning the discipline of stopping when I need to, but doing revenge trading. Well, my trading is bad enough that I'd rather work on improving my accuracy at this point....because limiting only losing trades isn't ever going to bring in profit. If I can learn to take winning trades, then I can work on developing habits of self control. Rules are good, when they make sense to follow, but there are times when rules have lost their purpose and that's when it's good to re-evaluate and change the rule.
So, for the rest of today.....maybe in the future too, I'm not going to limit my number of trades and I'm probably going to try to work with tighter stop losses. I don't know if I'll post how I do on here.....probably not, because there'd be no point...unless I somehow have a breakthrough and start trading right and I can post my progress.
I'm not giving up and I'm not going to stop trading my system. But I have to look at how I'm trading and say this isn't working and do my best to fix it. What I'm changing right now is taking only 3 losses a day. I think it's a good thing to do, if you know how to trade. But for now, I can't do it. I will lose the screen time for the rest of the day and although I could study charts the rest of the day, there's nothing quite like real time trading....and I'll probably develop habits that will hurt in the future....but I can't read the Euro. I'm trading terribly. I'm not following my indicators. I did better on the NQ, sometimes, when I limited my trades, but I think that was only because I spent a lot of time working on following my indicators and getting to know how they move. I could choose to do that in replay on the Euro, and I will, but I think I need to do it in real time too, where I don't speed it up.
I'm sad for this....but the thing is, it will help me to train myself to follow the indicators and price and evidently I need need a lot of work to get good. The downside is developing habits of overtrading and not learning the discipline of stopping when I need to, but doing revenge trading. Well, my trading is bad enough that I'd rather work on improving my accuracy at this point....because limiting only losing trades isn't ever going to bring in profit. If I can learn to take winning trades, then I can work on developing habits of self control. Rules are good, when they make sense to follow, but there are times when rules have lost their purpose and that's when it's good to re-evaluate and change the rule.
So, for the rest of today.....maybe in the future too, I'm not going to limit my number of trades and I'm probably going to try to work with tighter stop losses. I don't know if I'll post how I do on here.....probably not, because there'd be no point...unless I somehow have a breakthrough and start trading right and I can post my progress.
Just an update....I took a lot of losing trades this morning, but finally, in the last hour of trading for today, I think it kind of clicked in my mind how to follow my very short term indicators and did a little better...enough that I feel like if I just work at getting the way the 6E moves, I might be able to trade it. These were very short term trades, and I didn't worry too much about the bigger picture, and if I can get better, it should really help with getting better entries into the higher timeframe moves, eventually. Here's a list of my last hour of trading....don't want to share the chart because I'm still not reading the direction well and don't want to lay out all my mistakes when I'm still learning, doing that makes me feel very discouraged. I'd rather use the journaling process for help in getting better at what I know to do.
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What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so. - Mark Twain
What indicators do you use ?
Are the signals clear and well defined ?
How long have you been trading this way ?
What percentage of your account do you risk ?
“3 losses a day”
You better give yourself a daily amount.
Let’s say ... 2%. You will trade more cautiously.
If you can get only the best deals for your money.
It’s not about losing a trade.
It’s about spending too much on a trade.
You can lose 3 times and blow up.
You can lose 3 times and be happy.
It’s about being happy to lose a trade.
Because it was worth the money.
If you’re bothered with a loss,
It’s because the trade wasn’t worth it.
You paid too much for the hope of a profit.
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I’ve been thinking about what you wrote and it dawned on me that it’s true. It’s a lack of self-control that led to taking many of my losing trades this week, with the most obvious being the 3 losing trades yesterday with lousy setups and 1 stop loss too large. It makes sense that it’s a lack of self-control that is keeping me from following my indicators and plan. I should be recognizing each problem and thinking through better ways of dealing with them rather than losing self-control and making poor trading choices or overtrading.
Thought I’d write out how I plan to improve:
1. I’m not recognizing valid entry signals to my plan in real time.
Plan: Work on memory recognition of my setups and find where they appear in historical charts. Work on finding failed set ups and try to find what early warning signs could be that the set up will not work. Make a habit of tallying up # of setups that worked and # of set ups that didn’t, each day.
2. I’m taking high risk to low reward setups and missing low risk to high reward setups. And I’m not timing the entries well.
Plan: After I’m done trading with the day, review all the low risk to high reward set ups (ones that worked and ones that didn’t) and use sim replay to fine tune entries as well as cutting losses on the ones that failed.
3. I’m missing out on screen time when I stop out too early in the day.
Plan: Stay engaged with the chart until my normal stopping time. Use the time to mark up the chart, watch the price behavior, work on seeing how the different timeframes all move together. It might actually be good for me to watch a slow moving chart for hours a day without being able to trade. Might help to teach me I don’t have to be in a trade constantly.
4. I’m struggling with self-control when trading.
Plan: Try to work on being aware of how I’m doing with self-control and what factors are influencing poor trading decisions. If I can identify the different things that lead up to not taking a trade according to my plan, then I can make the effort to deliberately work on those areas.
Really appreciate that you pointed out that I'm having a problem with self-control. Thank you!!
I use moving averages and an oscillator. Are the signals clear? Well, not clear enough for me to read them in real time...yet, but I see them in hindsight just fine which means they do work. I just recently switched to 6E from trading another symbol and I’m struggling with having to learn how it moves. I’m hoping this is just a learning phase and I’ll get past it someday.
3 losses a day limits my very awful habit of overtrading. If I'm trading well (66% winrate or higher), it gives enough wiggle room to make good trades if I’m trading well and stop for the day if I’m not trading well. There are so many variations of how to manage stop losses. Kind of want to just have one plan and stick with it until I understand using it then make adjustments. But your point of giving myself a daily loss amount is probably exactly what I’m lacking. Of course, if I only have a loss amount, I’m likely to overtrade by setting the stops way too tight...might be a personality thing, I don’t know. I’m thinking of having 3 stop losses but a maximum per trade as well as total for the day….why didn’t I think of that before?
I seem to do so much better with rules to follow when trading. There’s a reason I was using 3 stopouts per day and yet it led to increasing the stop loss size so that I wouldn’t be stopped out very often, which backfired, in my case, because I keep getting the direction wrong so often.
Adding a daily stop loss amount should fix that! 
Thanks for your reply!
Another awful day....but this time I'm noticing it's me...I'm not taking trades according to my plan, even very clear signals, and I'm taking the countertrend ones where the signals aren't clear at all. I'll stick to my plan to rework where the trades should have been taken today and hope that will train my mind to read the signals better. I'm feeling really hopeless about this at the moment....but I'll work at it and see if I can rewire my thinking.
if your system's tight, (granted, a big if) then you got no problem, lighten up. All you want to do is wait until the next train / trade going your way rolls into the station, climb on board and watch for your stop.