The CL/NQ experiment

Gabe2004 said:
It is very embarrassing to have losses of the magnitude I suffered today.
I thought of stopping my posts but I will not do that.
As soon as ET will let me upload charts I will do that.
Today should be remembered as another learning experience.

Gabe
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That's exactly how I feel, so I quit posting my trades in my journal for now. It's just plain embarrassing. I had 89% losers today. 2 wins, 16 losses. And that's after a ton of work & research & notes. I even made a flow chart. Scrolled thru thousands of charts since I've began all this. I feel like an idiot. :)

The one thing that just completely baffles my mind is how easy it is to lose 80 ticks like I did today, but on a good day it feels like I have to completely work my ass off to make 20 ticks.

Why is losing so incredibly easy?

(Keep posting, if nothing else it is charitable because it makes me feel better. It's good to help fellow traders).
 
NoDoji said:
Between 9:23 and 10:21 ET I had 4 break even trades and 1 loss (I think I shared your second trade to the tick). It was difficult price action.
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Ever since I spoke with you a long time ago & analyzed a bunch of your trades I always thought this was what you were better at than anything else. You are the master of getting out quickly at breakeven. I remember one day I had the same trades as you did. They didn't work out, but you were breakeven & I was down 20 or something like that. Big difference.
 
Gabe,

I did not understand that you are expecting an EVENT this thursday.
I guess very stressful.

The advice stays the same :

- only take trades that are defined exactly as your plan defines them.
- an nothing else : so reviewing your plan after each trade will reduce the risks of jumping right into a non-plan defined trade.

- as you are on a SIM, the most important is to follow your plan to the letter : discipline first.
 
smallStops said:
pay someone one to phone you 3 times a day, ask the question, and tell you to stop.
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THought about it but could not find anybody at the time. Now I have a trading partner.
[/QUOTE]- you said you did not check the 5 minutes : why?[/QUOTE]
I was to engulfed in drawing trend lines on the 1min.
- you said you did not check if the price was converging ? I wonder if you mean ranging ... : why?
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I saw it converging (range is getting narrower) and was hoping for a breakout.
So this means that you do not know your plan by heart.
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If you ask me to describe my plan, I can do it but maybe I don't know it well enough to act instinctively.
discipline.
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Tell me about it.
I am a fairly disciplined person in other field but trading gets the best of me.

Thanks for your post.

Gabe
 
macattack said:
Why is losing so incredibly easy?
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Never thought of LOSING being easy. Rather it is fast.

(Keep posting, if nothing else it is charitable because it makes me feel better. It's good to help fellow traders).
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Why is it good help? You don't seem to be here for blood?
I post because I think that it will help me be more disciplined.
I thought about why people feel embarrassed when they lose?
People are often embarrassed when they do or say something that is not socially acceptable.
The thing is, what is socially unacceptable in one place could be common in another
and even if they are not, embarrassment is over rated :).
It will pass. No-one will remember what you did or say after a short while.
The only risk in desensitizing ourselves with respect to embarrassment is that we will not learn from our mistakes.
So in trading, if we get used to be embarrassed and continue making trading errors, we might never be successful and that is what I am trying to avoid.

Gabe
 
Because trading in chop is not part of my plan, any trades I take under these conditions are "fly fishing" trades and I'm very quick to cut them off if they don't break the key level I'm looking at. Even in chop, I'm mainly trading from triggers off the 5-min chart. If you don't have a LOT of profitable experience trading under these conditions, just be patient and trade after the breakout.

Let the 5-min chart tell you how to trade; use the 1-min chart for precision entries. Draw the lines on the 5-min chart and set up charts so they appear on the 1-min as well. If you're drawing micro TL's on a 1-min chart, then your paying attention to the world of a micro-scalper and you have no time for drawing lines. I've only met one person who was adept at micro-scalping CL. I tried it in sim many times and failed.

Gabe, I think you know how to get in touch with me; haven't we spoken before?
 
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