The journal of steady, dull and uninteresting trading

[JoeF]

Didn't look at PNL once for the whole week.
The idea to not look at it for the whole month.

I'm more focused on the process itself rather than whether consciously or subconsciously trading based on PNL.

Had to eat a decent loss on a technical glitch with the broker. (it's a discount broker, they won't cover anything)
It's edging me towards a new broker. I have all the paperwork ready, just need to scan and send over. Afterwards to wire the money and hopefully start with a better fee structure and a stable system.

I noticed one thing this week on the mental side that I need to work on.
I've been invalidating my trading. I tend to negate any progress due to the state of the market.
I ought to be validating the discipline and quality trading. One can very easily lose big in this market.
I hadn't really noticed I was doing that until this week. That will change.

The mental aspects of trading often get overlooked.

I was shorting a lot more on Thursday and Friday. I had not really shorted much outside of KODK the last couple months as the market has been going higher. I can definitely trade to the short side, when I pick my spots and not get too big.

Another change is I put a note in front of my screens "Trade my own ideas"
I've gotten caught up in other people's ideas, chasing and all that nonsense when I really ought to do what makes most sense to me. I have more conviction on my own trades which leads to staying in trades longer when warranted and compiling more examples of patterns and ideas that work in current markets.

Glad it's a long weekend. Feel a rest is needed.

 

[JoeF]

Not a great week. Lot of distraction.

Was a strong start to the week.

Didn't trade much on Friday as I felt that I had zero edge.

Good to have the weekend completely away from the markets to reset.

I am rethinking the whole 'not look at pnl' to checking once a week for review purposes.

I think that is a better route.

I will stick to the full month just because I am committed to it now.

A weekly basis can provide lots of information. Any one day does not.

What's most important is progress each week.

A transition is coming...

 

[JoeF]

It was a week to forget (but I won't)

I decided to break the no-look-at-PnL game.

Much like an Aztrazenica vaccine trial with bad results, I had to end the no PnL experiment early.

Overall the month is going OK. 8 days left to make a push.

I trade better when I focus on base hits.

I got too large last week and going for bigger moves. The market isn't allowing it.

This upcoming week, back to basics.

Also less news reading. Way too much of that.

 

[JoeF]

I had meant to post a picture of my trading setup for a while.

Attached you'll find it.

It's from a couple weeks ago early morning.
An acquaintance was curious. I think he was a little surprised.

---------
In the midst of my weekend review.
The last two weeks have been tough.
I've still come out ahead, but just barely.

The biggest problem is the shift of 'I need to do well so I can quit my job' mentality.
That was an erroneous focus.

The focus must always be on the process itself, no matter the outcome.

Anyhow, I feel like I can move forward and just progress.
Constantly learning, changing and adapting.

 

[JoeF]

Another weekend is upon us.

The month ended mid week.
Able to make some gains to finish out a moderate month.
It was just slightly down from the previous month, yes pretty consistent to the 4 month avg.

It felt like the toughest month though. Had to really battle it out.

The new month started relatively slow.
Work will likely be a high distraction next week.
My resignation notice is coming soon...

Anyhow, seven months of constant learning in a rebooted version of myself as a trader.
Plenty of progress ahead to be had.

Earnings + election coming up.

All eyes on Trump's health this week.

 

[JoeF]

Submitted my resignation. One more week at day job.
Will start a part time job that I can do from home as a second income.

This week was stressful. I added a component to my trading that is useful yet harmful.
I have lifetime memberships to 3 trading chat rooms.

I've decided to stop logging in to any of them.
Being spoonfed ideas makes one a bit lazy.
Plus there is a tremendous amount of noise which is distracting.

I've always found that the trades I find are better because I would have more conviction and they align better with how I trade.

So it is about giving up some gains to really grow as a trader.

Will try to give more by tweeting and possibly streaming during the day.
I try not to follow many on Twitter because most seem to be there for the validation.

Earning season is coming up. I feel like the need to thread water a bit until then.
Not to mention all the changes personally happening.
Forward progress through.

 

[formikatrading]

Best of luck to you. How would you describe your process? What is the biggest mental shift that you have made and any that are left to make?

Submitted my resignation. One more week at day job.
Will start a part time job that I can do from home as a second income.

This week was stressful. I added a component to my trading that is useful yet harmful.
I have lifetime memberships to 3 trading chat rooms.

I've decided to stop logging in to any of them.
Being spoonfed ideas makes one a bit lazy.
Plus there is a tremendous amount of noise which is distracting.

I've always found that the trades I find are better because I would have more conviction and they align better with how I trade.

So it is about giving up some gains to really grow as a trader.

Will try to give more by tweeting and possibly streaming during the day.
I try not to follow many on Twitter because most seem to be there for the validation.

Earning season is coming up. I feel like the need to thread water a bit until then.
Not to mention all the changes personally happening.
Forward progress through.

 

[JoeF]

Best of luck to you. How would you describe your process? What is the biggest mental shift that you have made and any that are left to make?

Thanks!

The mental aspect of trading is huge.
I've been constantly experimenting with new ideas based on observations.
Feels like it has been one big lab experiment.

The biggest mental shift to date has been to have proper stop outs. Trading too tight results in getting out too soon. This means lower share size.

I have a ton of work ahead. Currently transitioning to full time trading + part-time (maybe full time in the future) work. It honestly has been bit of a struggle mentally, to try not to think about the monetary aspects of trading.
Over the last few weeks I have gotten away from successful habits and recognizing that, need to correct.

The market has had many shifts over the past several months, from a trading perspective.

It has taken a tremendous amount of work and screen time to get to a point where leaving my day job made sense. Trading with a lot less distractions will be welcome. There has been weeks where I was so busy with work, I could barely trade.

 

[JoeF]

I've decided to switch to monthly updates rather than weekly.

Will try that for a while.

 

[JoeF]

November has just 1 day left, time for an update.

Been quite the rollercoaster the last 6+ weeks.

I took a big hit doing something that I should not have.
I swung a position on sympathy rather than any technical analysis.
The stock was in a downtrend.

Mix in with that, leaving one job. Starting a new one. Doing all the training + working 'trial by fire'.

Relationship ended.

Just moved.

To say focus was out the window would be pretty accurate.
I got super stressed. Others noticed. A friend even got me to go to coffee with her to discuss.

All that is in the past now - thankfully.
This past week I got back to trading full-time, and with full interest.
My other job is essentially part-time sales. Which I can do in probably 1-2 hours a day...during the slow periods of trading. I do it to have multiple streams of income...plus sales is such a great skill to have.

I had a decent week with trading despite it being 3 1/2 days.
Sure, some froth in certain sectors.

I also converted to minimalism, got rid of about 70% of my stuff before moving.
I reduced my monitors from 3 to 2...which I realized was more of a distraction to have so much on the screens.

October was a sizable red month.
November is green but small scale, and realistically I traded full time maybe 7 days.

I honestly got shook by taking a big loss, and then subsequent losses trying to make up that loss.

Anyhow, I am back to a focused routine. Simpler strategy. Doing what I enjoy, finding my own trades. Doing research.

Been binge-watching Billions on Crave. It's good for tough trader mindset (apart from the insider-trading stuff).

Glad the elections are over too. That was a distraction.
I am getting rid of as many distractions as possible in life. Narrow that focus.

Looking forward to December and being prepared every single day.