Lost 24 ticks
The recording revealed that I'm "self-talking" the right way but not doing what I'm saying. I'll say, "I should close this trade." But I don't close it. I'll say, "I shouldn't take a trade, I should wait." But I do take the trade. I said that my entries were late and that I didn't know what was likely to happen. But I didn't stay out. I even changed my strategy for the last trade (wanting to scalp) without thinking it through and then I wondered why I had opened the trade.
I'm not sure the video revealed anything helpful. It did show that I'm not making good trading decisions and I guess that's helpful. I'm not sure what to do to fix it.
One thing that I've been thinking about for a while is that I should go back to trading something like I did on the NQ with the 10 ticks stop loss and 10 tick target. I was really slow at improving my win rate and it never made much money, but it did help me to focus on trying to get good at one thing, with the plan that I would increase the target size after getting good at the 10sl/10tp. I think I need to do this on the 6E because I'm entering moves way too late, not taking reasonable profits, setting my stop losses too far out for what I want to be using, and my targets are usually 20+ ticks away and I can't recognize yet when that is a reasonable target, so I hold for too long on losing trades and let winning trades reverse.
Plan: Try 8 ticks stop loss and 8 ticks target for tomorrow. Rules: 3 losses only per day. Unlimited winning trades. No adjusting the stop or target (for now). That's a really frustrating way to trade, but it is helpful for learning to let the trade play out and trying to pick better entries rather than poor entries that you "fix" by closing early (which I have a tendency to do.) Also, by using a set 8 tick sl and 8 tick target my win rate will be a better reflection of how well the trades were taken than if I fiddle with the trades. After fees and commissions are factored in, it will end up as about a 9 tick sl to 7 tick sl which means I'll need to have a higher than breakeven win rate to cover fees.
With 3 losses allowed in a day, I need to have 4 winning trades to make $15.00 for the day:
3 losses = $165 (fees included)
4 wins = $180 (fees included)
Net gain=$15.00
4 wins out of 7 trades is a 57% win rate. That is what is needed to have a slightly above breakeven. My maximum loss for each day will be capped at $165. Trading this way does not make any sense at all. Risking $165 in losses and possibly, if I'm lucky, making $15 on a good day. Why am I even trading? Let's hope I can get a consistent winrate that's much higher.
This sounds better:
3 losses and 5 wins in one day is a 62.5% winrate. The drawdown would be $165 and win amount $225 and the net gain $60. I wonder how hard it will be to get a 62.5% win rate using 8sl/8tp?
I'm trying to work so hard at this and still not following my plan.