The Super Terrific Happy Hour

tt.texantrader said:
Lastly, if you're trying to increase your PnL, what do you think is easier to do right now. Change up how you're going to trade (ie. holding longer, therefore completely changing your win rate perhaps and also your R:R parameters), or just put on more size and trade exactly the same? The money part seems like its going to be a psychological barrier for you. But if you try and get there by both changing how you're going to trade it, but holding longer, which it seems like you don't want to do since you're watching order flow, and also adding in the psychological element of bigger gains, then you're changing too many variables at once. If on the other hand you change nothing about how you trade, but simply trade bigger size, then you will be able to figure out how to get comfortable with the money aspect of potentially bigger wins, and see how that affects you.
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This is the problem im struggling with right now, its very easy to just up my size a little and keep grinding for more money, but the thing is i realize thats not how good traders do it, if i want to keep grinding like that im in for a tedious life in the market looking at every single tick.

Any time you can swap "Holding longer" for "Adding size" you should always choose holding longer, because size becomes a hinderance, and also if you can learn to hold longer, then once you lean that you can always up size while you hold longer, you cant go the other way though.

Bottom line, the best traders i know are patient they look at the market like glass, the guy who was my mentor was up like 25k the first time i met him and didnt even flinch, PNL just straight up doesnt phase this guy, and i cant tell you how many lessons i learned from him.

I know i can just add size, and make a bit more money, but that tops out, and the kind of trading im doing is stressful as hell, id way rather learn to hold for 5 days with half the size.
 
vanzandt said:
Whoa Nellie.

View attachment 174049

I feel your frustration, but the "next level" will be there a year... or five years from now.
Time is on your side. There'll always be an open market and another opportunity.
Frustration leads to huge mistakes Max. Don't fuck up. Slow and steady wins the race.
I can read between the lines here and you are setting yourself up for a big hit. Scale it back a bit Max.;)
Slow and steady wins the race.
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Thanks again for this post, at first i kind of dismissed it thinking you were warning me like a newb but i re read it a couple times and you are absolutely right.

I keep getting bigger and bigger and taking less and less of the move, im sizing up to compensate for the fact that im trading poorly, which means one of these days im going to size in too aggressively and a 50 cent move is going to put me in alot of pain.

Time to dial it back and just start looking for more of the move, im not hurting for money, so it doesnt matter, i just want to do as well as i did before, so if i got to go back to making 500 bucks a day for a bit it wont kill me, but bottom line is im trading poorly and sizing up, its a recipe for trouble. You were right.

Thx for the advice you probably saved me alot of money cause usually i need to get dinged atleast once before i start honestly self reflecting, and adjusting the way im doing things.
 
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Chuck Krug said:
1) Great Journal! Please keep up the good work, it is appreciated.
2) Don't be so hard on yourself: 250 x 1700 = $425,000 a year.
3) Do you exercise? I find it helps me with my drive and ambition (make mental note for myself: I slacked off too lately)
4) Why don't you trade ES some more? or more size? It was your best trade on Friday.
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2) It was just an example. I meant to take a step back and look at the big picture and it's not that bad as you make it out to be. I'm not too proud to say that my best day ever was only 2.5k, and I think there are dozens of traders on here who would sell one of their kidneys to be able to make 200k a year trading and have a possibility of sizing up. Conclusion: Don't be too hard on yourself! :)
3) Some daily light jogging can even make a difference, even if it's 20-30 minutes.
4) Nowadays I only trade indices (S&P and Nasdaq) and only once or twice a week, but it took me many years to figure that out. Last Wednesday I shorted the S&P not long after the open around 2384, and held all day. It is very hard, and it is human nature to want to take your profits, escpecially when there are pullbacks, I remember there was a plus 10 point pullback and it took all my will power not to close the trade, but I didn't, because I had conviction (too much conviction can be dangerous too of course) Because the s&p traded in such a narrow range for days and something had to give (it was to the downside in this case) I remember I even tried to talk my friend out of closing his Dax short way too soon (Which I normally never do) But it was such a clean cut scenario for me. And I wished I could have done more size, but I couldn't. Anyway, when you see such good opportunities, instead of trading 6 contracts like I believe you did last week, trade 7, and next month trade 8, slowly size up. 1 contract a month, before you know it, you will be buying Beluga and Foie gras for everyone on elitrader. Haha
 
Chuck Krug said:
2) It was just an example. I meant to take a step back and look at the big picture and it's not that bad as you make it out to be. I'm not too proud to say that my best day ever was only 2.5k, and I think there are dozens of traders on here who would sell one of their kidneys to be able to make 200k a year trading and have a possibility of sizing up. Conclusion: Don't be too hard on yourself! :)
3) Some daily light jogging can even make a difference, even if it's 20-30 minutes.
4) Nowadays I only trade indices (S&P and Nasdaq) and only once or twice a week, but it took me many years to figure that out. Last Wednesday I shorted the S&P not long after the open around 2384, and held all day. It is very hard, and it is human nature to want to take your profits, escpecially when there are pullbacks, I remember there was a plus 10 point pullback and it took all my will power not to close the trade, but I didn't, because I had conviction (too much conviction can be dangerous too of course) Because the s&p traded in such a narrow range for days and something had to give (it was to the downside in this case) I remember I even tried to talk my friend out of closing his Dax short way too soon (Which I normally never do) But it was such a clean cut scenario for me. And I wished I could have done more size, but I couldn't. Anyway, when you see such good opportunities, instead of trading 6 contracts like I believe you did last week, trade 7, and next month trade 8, slowly size up. 1 contract a month, before you know it, you will be buying Beluga and Foie gras for everyone on elitrader. Haha
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Wow man great advice, thx, i could totally feel your pain when you were talking bout being ten points offside and then taking everything in you not to punch out lol. The daily battle with myself.... lol :D
 
Ok, i know i said i wa s going to hold but there was just literally zero volume and zero interest in omer so i just scratched it no point sticking around and guessing.
 
Really slow day, nothing i can see that makes sense that has any volume on it, I was hoping for a push to 1.70 on RADA to short into, but seems like theres just zero interest out there today on alot of these names, i suspect the markets = just going to get deader and deader until the long weekend.
 
Days like this i used to cost myself alot of money thinking i absolutely HAD to find a trade, there is just nothing out there today that looks good zero is better than losing money on a shitty trade.
 
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