Mincer #05
I had a plan to carefully increase my account with scalping NQ in order to switch to Vintage trading later. For 10 days, I grew from $1054 to $1302 for 1-2 transactions per day. In parallel, every day I scalped a lot of NQ in a demo account, where there were crazy numbers of results. Everything was too calm and good - the real account is growing, I’m god for the demo, the participants in other journals are doing fine and I’m neatly sewing deals.
It was this “warm bath” situation and the concept of “neatness” that played a bad joke with me. Expressed in a psychological language, my internal state did not correspond to the environment of activity. I was too calm in an aggressive, risky environment. In terms of "human archetypes," I was a "magician", not a "warrior." "Mage" is preferred for monotonous system trading. For scalping, a "warrior" is needed. For scalping NQ with a deposit of $1200, the state of a “warrior” is doubly necessary. Despite the fact that I scalped well on a demo right now, I atrophied an important feature in myself - an instant reaction to a sudden risk.
On Wednesday, at one of the entrances I didn’t even have time to put a stop, as the market fell badly against me. Plus for a few seconds there was a datafeed delay. A surge of hormones and chemistry in the blood. A demo account does not give the main thing - the ability to make instant decisions and actions in conditions of large negative emotions. This is a skill that must be constantly maintained in a functioning state. Like a physical form. With my neat scalping and systematic approach, I lost my real form. A few seconds of delay cost me several tens of percent of the deposit. I blew the account. The last time I blew the score so seriously six years ago.
And then everything is standard:
- I'm cool on the demo, which means you can aggressively raise a deposit;
- the total amount of the deposit is small, which means that it is not a pity;
- NQ is too much leverage, which means we are switching to MNQ.
Disco went. That's just always at such a time you forget that in a state of stress you change the assessment of reality. Those. on a demo, you analyze reality with a cold head and you have good beautiful trading. And in a real account with a hot head, you get a mixture of sober ratings with emotional desires.
Of course, on this day I woke up:
So, on January 30, another reality began for me. Account $264.
NQ is not enough, only MNQ, where the commission is 2.5 times higher. Due to the very large commission, a very important limitation for scalping arose - I can’t go to 0 or +1 tick in an unpleasant situation, the commission will eat me up. I have to be doubly careful in choosing entry points. But I can’t do 2-3 super-sloppy deals a day - extremely low profitability. And I cannot be "sloppy" - the shoulder will kill me. I need to be very smart, very sober, very restrained, very resolute, very competent. Too much of the word "very", especially considering the 12-hour time difference in my time zone.
Firstly, the key difference between scalping MNQ from NQ - it doesn’t make sense for me to take 3-4 ticks. Minimum 5. This imposes severe restrictions on behavior. Strong headwind fees.
Secondly, you need to trade 1 MNQ contract in the database with another contract on a safety net. Trade and not think about the past, about the future, about future plans. Everything will be wrong and not even vice versa. Just trade gnawing cents from the market right here and now. Trading is very effective, adequately balancing risk. How many days it will take me before the transition from MNQ to NQ I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter. It is only important to be in the right psychological state at the right time in the right place and to take the right actions.
The practice of the last two days has shown - 42 transactions with one MNQ contract and 4 times connected the second contract: