Maintaining Self Discipline
- Thread starter studentofthemarkets
- Start date
Decided I'm gonna try to get up at 4 am my time, (6 am CT) to trade the premarket, so I'll add a premarket demo account to the other 2 accounts and still trade until 11 am CT. Not sure I'll be able to make the changes to my daily routine to make it happen, but I thought for starters, I'd write it out here, so that I'm more likely to follow through on it.
One of the reasons I want to try it is that the movement is not as volatile as the regular trading hours.
I don't think I'll post my trades from it for a while because it might take some time before I learn to trade it. But I will try to update on here sometimes whether or not I'm still trading it and how it's going in a general sense.
One of the reasons I want to try it is that the movement is not as volatile as the regular trading hours.
I don't think I'll post my trades from it for a while because it might take some time before I learn to trade it. But I will try to update on here sometimes whether or not I'm still trading it and how it's going in a general sense.
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Trading the Open Demo Account: +108 ticks
Pre-Market Demo Account: +20 ticks
No trades in the Trend Account
No live trades
I wasn't going to share results from the Pre-Market account yet, but since they're good, I couldn't resist.
I had an errand that had to be done early this morning so after taking these trades I quit for the day.
Pre-Market Demo Account: +20 ticks
No trades in the Trend Account
No live trades
I wasn't going to share results from the Pre-Market account yet, but since they're good, I couldn't resist.
I had an errand that had to be done early this morning so after taking these trades I quit for the day.
Attachments
Trading the Open: +9 ticks
Trend Account: +11 ticks
No live trades
I didn't do very well with following my method. Part of that is that on bearish days I have a harder time reading where to get in, so I tend to want to wait for long entries. I can tell it's partly a psychological issue because I notice that I'm resisting trading according to my plan. I will see signs to go short but not trust them. It all looks so clear in hindsight....should have traded short all day long at each pullback.
Decided to quit for the day with only 2 two-contract losses (not my limit of 3) because I'm slightly positive in the account and if the next trade loses, I won't be able to take another trade to try to recover.
Trend Account: +11 ticks
No live trades
I didn't do very well with following my method. Part of that is that on bearish days I have a harder time reading where to get in, so I tend to want to wait for long entries. I can tell it's partly a psychological issue because I notice that I'm resisting trading according to my plan. I will see signs to go short but not trust them. It all looks so clear in hindsight....should have traded short all day long at each pullback.
Decided to quit for the day with only 2 two-contract losses (not my limit of 3) because I'm slightly positive in the account and if the next trade loses, I won't be able to take another trade to try to recover.
Attachments
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I decided to post a "report card" each day for a while and see if it helps me to focus on following my plan. It's coded, so it won't be of any use to anyone else, but it will help me if I feel like I need to post it, to actually do it. Here's the one for today. It doesn't look impressive, but actually, studying the trades to classify them for how well each stuck to different areas of my plan helped me catch a few things I didn't see earlier.
Trading the Open: Lost 50 ticks
Trend Trades: Lost 14 ticks
No live trades
Some areas to work on:
1. Still not reading price action very well. Some entries were good but I didn't see the downward move coming after 9 am and I think that's something that maybe with more practice I'll be able to recognize faster.
2. I switched my entry chart to a slightly larger candle size and that might have accounted for getting stopped out when the trade direction was right on a couple trades. I need to work with it some and get a better feel for the right stop loss size to be using.
3. It seems that there was more choppiness today than it has when it trends strongly, and that didn't help. I need to learn to recognize that and either stay out or adjust my expectations.
3. I've really tried hard the last 2 days to catch a trend....guess the first problem here is that I'm trying to trend trade when I didn't get into a trend, I got the direction wrong. When I have gone into profit, I've been expecting a larger move and my determination to stop closing trades too early has ended up hurting me. I could have been at least at break even or maybe in profit if I had trailed each trade today. I need a balance here and it could be that for a while I need to trail my 2nd contract closely, knowing that I won't get the full potential of the trend, but I will be capturing at least a portion of the profits instead of losing all of them. Another thing I might try and sometimes do is to trail tightly when the trade is in profit and my account is negative.....really hate it when I'm negative in my account, get a trade that brings the balance into positive, then I'm faced with...do I close now and forfeit potential profits or do I loose some or all of the profits just in case it runs? That might always be a dilemma I'll go through, but I think the best thing is to keep the account positive. So, having that mindset would have changed the outcome today, even though I have to say, my trades don't reflect at all the way I am striving to trade, the way my plan says to trade. Maybe they will someday.
Trend Trades: Lost 14 ticks
No live trades
Some areas to work on:
1. Still not reading price action very well. Some entries were good but I didn't see the downward move coming after 9 am and I think that's something that maybe with more practice I'll be able to recognize faster.
2. I switched my entry chart to a slightly larger candle size and that might have accounted for getting stopped out when the trade direction was right on a couple trades. I need to work with it some and get a better feel for the right stop loss size to be using.
3. It seems that there was more choppiness today than it has when it trends strongly, and that didn't help. I need to learn to recognize that and either stay out or adjust my expectations.
3. I've really tried hard the last 2 days to catch a trend....guess the first problem here is that I'm trying to trend trade when I didn't get into a trend, I got the direction wrong. When I have gone into profit, I've been expecting a larger move and my determination to stop closing trades too early has ended up hurting me. I could have been at least at break even or maybe in profit if I had trailed each trade today. I need a balance here and it could be that for a while I need to trail my 2nd contract closely, knowing that I won't get the full potential of the trend, but I will be capturing at least a portion of the profits instead of losing all of them. Another thing I might try and sometimes do is to trail tightly when the trade is in profit and my account is negative.....really hate it when I'm negative in my account, get a trade that brings the balance into positive, then I'm faced with...do I close now and forfeit potential profits or do I loose some or all of the profits just in case it runs? That might always be a dilemma I'll go through, but I think the best thing is to keep the account positive. So, having that mindset would have changed the outcome today, even though I have to say, my trades don't reflect at all the way I am striving to trade, the way my plan says to trade. Maybe they will someday.
Attachments
Another losing day....unless I count my pre-market trades, then I made 2 ticks for the day. It isn't a good practice to only mention my winning days in this account if I don't mention my losing days too. Reminds me of all the slick teachers that only want your money so they show you their winning trades only. But I really hate posting that I had a losing day....especially if I didn't...just nearly did. 
I changed my stop losses to a larger setting, which only hurt when I had losing trades in a row, so for the last trades I put it back to where I usually had it and then adjusted to structure.
Trading the Open +3 ticks
Trend Trades -43 ticks
Premarket +42 ticks
No live trades
I changed my stop losses to a larger setting, which only hurt when I had losing trades in a row, so for the last trades I put it back to where I usually had it and then adjusted to structure.
Trading the Open +3 ticks
Trend Trades -43 ticks
Premarket +42 ticks
No live trades
Attachments
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Also, decided not to continue with the report card the way it's set up. Looking at a chart of numbers and letters does nothing for me when trying to review my trades. I need to come up with phrases that will emphasize what I did well and what I need to improve on that I can review quickly.
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Premarket +18
Trading the Open +40
Trend Account -92
Net Loss: -34 ticks
None of my trades were right. Although I thought I was trading in the direction of the trend except for the last trade, none of them got the trend direction right.
This week the Trend Account lost 138 ticks. Months ago this account was doing pretty well. I think I haven't been trading it like I used to. For one thing, I used to only allow one trade only every so often. This morning I took 3 losing trades all within 6 minutes. I guess what I need to do is review my trades from a while back and remember how I traded it.
This week the Trading the Open Account made 110 ticks.
This week the Pre-market Account made 59 ticks.
No live trades this week. I tried, but never felt comfortable with any of the trading days this week.
Net for the week was +31 ticks profit, but only because I'm including my premarket stats.
The stats starting from July 7, 2020, when I switched back to NQ from trying other symbols, until today are:
Trend Account: + 147 ticks
Trading the Open Account: +169 ticks
I'm still profitable overall, even though this week wasn't great. If I had taken these trades in a live account, there was way too much inconsistency to be comfortable with trading like this. I'm just hoping that if I keep working at what I'm doing and I'll keep get better at reading charts and trading with discipline.
Trading the Open +40
Trend Account -92
Net Loss: -34 ticks
None of my trades were right. Although I thought I was trading in the direction of the trend except for the last trade, none of them got the trend direction right.
This week the Trend Account lost 138 ticks. Months ago this account was doing pretty well. I think I haven't been trading it like I used to. For one thing, I used to only allow one trade only every so often. This morning I took 3 losing trades all within 6 minutes. I guess what I need to do is review my trades from a while back and remember how I traded it.
This week the Trading the Open Account made 110 ticks.
This week the Pre-market Account made 59 ticks.
No live trades this week. I tried, but never felt comfortable with any of the trading days this week.
Net for the week was +31 ticks profit, but only because I'm including my premarket stats.
The stats starting from July 7, 2020, when I switched back to NQ from trying other symbols, until today are:
Trend Account: + 147 ticks
Trading the Open Account: +169 ticks
I'm still profitable overall, even though this week wasn't great. If I had taken these trades in a live account, there was way too much inconsistency to be comfortable with trading like this. I'm just hoping that if I keep working at what I'm doing and I'll keep get better at reading charts and trading with discipline.
Attachments
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I'm wondering if I should switch to the YM for a few days and see how it goes. The NQ is cleaner and I like the way it trends, but I can't seem to get into a trend without getting stopped out. Sometimes it's because I have the direction wrong, but sometimes it's because of the volatility. A 20 or even 50 tick stop loss is really not enough. Sometimes I catch those bursts that can have very little drawdown, but when I move the 2nd contract to BE it's been getting stopped out. If I could just get into the trend in the first place, it seems like with some practice I could learn to trail and catch the really big moves. Having to time the trend with a precise entry hasn't been working very well. It might, with more practice, but I always feel like I'm guessing.
The YM doesn't trend as much and I'm even more likely to have a stoploss at BE get taken. The candles don't stick as smoothly to moving averages. However, it's much less volatile. A 20 tick stoploss gives a lot more to play with.
At this point, I'm just looking to become consistently profitable. It seemed like catching trends on the NQ would be safest, as long as I could get in safely. If the YM turns out the way I think it will, it will be easier to get into and get to profit quickly. It won't make as much as the strong trends of the NQ, but I don't need it to. I just need consistency.
I like the NQ during the premarket and I might still trade that. Not really sure what I'll end up doing on Monday but I'll probably trade the YM.
The YM doesn't trend as much and I'm even more likely to have a stoploss at BE get taken. The candles don't stick as smoothly to moving averages. However, it's much less volatile. A 20 tick stoploss gives a lot more to play with.
At this point, I'm just looking to become consistently profitable. It seemed like catching trends on the NQ would be safest, as long as I could get in safely. If the YM turns out the way I think it will, it will be easier to get into and get to profit quickly. It won't make as much as the strong trends of the NQ, but I don't need it to. I just need consistency.
I like the NQ during the premarket and I might still trade that. Not really sure what I'll end up doing on Monday but I'll probably trade the YM.