My Journal of Trading Mistakes and...

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4DTrader

I am starting a journal to focus on my daily mistakes, to keep myself disciplined. You can help me by giving your comments, observations, suggestions......

I am thinking of following my method religiously next month, July. I want to give myself some more days of messing around.

Today is a day of no discipline, absolutely no discipline.

Mistake:
Entered many trades and watched them go against me without taking any action. Am I taking trading seriously, I wonder. If I take trading seriously, why did I ignore my method?

Mistake:
Watched set up showed up but didn't take any action.

Ok, I am giving myself one more week to mess around. When July begins, I'll be serious. I think I must be kidding.
 
Made 10 mistakes today:
1. exited too early
2. missed a good opportunity
3. missed another good opportunity
4. missed yet another opportunity
5. exited too early
6. ignored the exit point (No, didn't get killed this time)
7. exited too early
8. entered the wrong set up
9. ignored the exit point (No, didn't get killed)
10. exited too early

Got tired and slept an hour, this may be a mistake too.
Still changing my method, ok, I admit I have no confidence in my method yet.
 
made numerous mistakes, one major/recurrent mistake is

M4. Fail to Exit.

Yes, I am still human.

Made some changes to the method, tightened entry standard. Unfortunately, this will result in some opportunities slipping away. The good result is I won't have to enter as frequently as I did before, that will take some pressure away from exit, fewer entries mean fewer exits.
 
Quote from 4DTrader:Made 10 mistakes today:1. exited too early2. missed a good opportunity3. missed another good opportunity4. missed yet another opportunity5. exited too early6. ignored the exit point (No, didn't get killed this time)7. exited too early8. entered the wrong set up9. ignored the exit point (No, didn't get killed)10. exited too earlyGot tired and slept an hour, this may be a mistake too.Still changing my method, ok, I admit I have no confidence in my method yet.
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_exited too early is not a mistake.why do u say exiting too early was a mistake?_ Had the price shortly thereafter gone against the trade severly..... it wouldnt've been a mistake would it? it would if been "exellent trade... got out just in time...." , # 6, 8, and 9 are mistakes... as far as the others go, you cant and wont be able to be in every trade that looks good. When a lion sees a herd of zebras running by, it does it think "darn missed a good one, missed another... and another.." no, it focuses on one animal after it scanned the herd... picked out the weakes... or youngest... slowest... giving itself the highest odds for a kill. Same as what you should be doing when looking to enter a trade.theres no such thing as.... darm... i missed the awesome price movement... whats the price.... so what if the DOW makes a 200 point move.. what is it moving into????? thats what you watch... your wins are not made in huge moves ... its made in small most likely ones. Is the price running up right into resistance while on a down trend...etc??Forget about what you "missed" ... study what most people will likely do when the price nears a certain area or point.What are the affecting sectors or imdustries doing?Then take into account the geo-political atmosphere... its just some of the things that increase your odds BECAUSE..... you can be sure...... that if a trade looks really_ really good on its own... its most likely someone on the other side that wants you to buy or sell.Finally... as far as not getting out on your stop and "not getting killed this time" its not the shark that gets you.... its the paranas.Have a hard stop... that way if its hit.. your out... no matter what.(and for the most part the price will reverse after it hits your stop) THe road is hard my friend......
 
Quote from lilduckling:

THe road is hard my friend......
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I am going to take this road, little duckling.

My goal is to retire early with a couple of million dollars. With my current job I will never make it. This is the only way out. I have no choice.
 
Quote from 4DTrader:
My goal is to retire early with a couple of million dollars. With my current job I will never make it. This is the only way out. I have no choice.
More...

Are u making or losing money at the moment? if losing consistently, then it's best to stay in your job and save up. This is the only way out.

Continuing to trade and lose will drain your resources both money and mind.
 
Quote from 4DTrader:

I am going to take this road, little duckling.

My goal is to retire early with a couple of million dollars. With my current job I will never make it. This is the only way out. I have no choice.
More...

you cant think like that. you cant trade with your back against the wall.... it will never work.

think of all the millions of people in this world who have to listen to their kids cry because they are starving.... and theres nothing they can do about it...

you make 40x more per hour in wal-mart then what some other people make in china.... they have next to nothing..... their one dream is to one day own a small compact car.....

you feel the way you do because you have certain expectations
....and youre not there yet and are not sure if you ever will.

so you have the "must do it.... no other way... there are hundreds of other ways to make money and thounsands of other ways to find happines.

you need to change your outlook.... or you will never make it in trading..... dont care what anyone else says.

Before i started trading i had my mind made up that it didnt matter if i made one $ or loose 50k... that way i wasnt trading with my back against the wall.

(and because of that, one of my early trades i lost 4k in about 20 minutes.... and i wasnt even phased by it.. was no big deal. but thats another story. Later on i realized what a fool i was lol)
 
Still changing method, the current method has medium high probability, though there is a high-probability method that I can use, but it takes a lot of patience and leaves some decent opportunites on the table. This high-probability method will almost guarantee that I am a profitable trader, but I need action and right now choose the medium-high probability method.

About today's mistake:

First trade went against me, left it to develop into a 25.50 points loss, huge loss. Well, the usual mistake: did not exit.
The same mistake was repeated for a 10.25 points loss.
Aslo entry rule was not followed, a few sloppy trades.

Changed into a different intrument. Scored 15 success trades vs 2 failure trades, however, the second of the failure trades cost 10.75 points, that wiped out all of the win points: 9.00. Cause: failure to exit a short position during the end of the day rally after GM's better-than-expected numbers were released.

Will do a little more thinking tonight.
 
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