The Trader in Prison

I dont know about making ur system into algo, i believe you are good at reading PA. thats my style too.
the thing that i believe you need to work on is to, realize that what exactly are you doing when you are trading ?
if the answer is anything other than managing risk you still have to put in few months or yrs in to trading.
while not knowing your length of experience, i put your issue on experience.

Once you get "THERE" you will know why you were profitable this yr, and if you weren't - again why!

trading IS gambling with better odds - when you are winning - it only means one thing that Odds are in your favour and you need to size UP and take advantage of the market situation. there are days when you just cant get one trade right - ITS OK as the situation is just not offering good enuf odds. best thing to do is cut down on size immideately - or begin with a smaller PROBE trade every time.

Loosing trade is just a bad bet and nothing more, its gambling 1-0-1. you loose cuz you have to loose some times in this game. you are not playing with absolutes, but averages.

hope this helps.
 
Quote from TheGoonior:

What about getting a friend/family member, etc to place trades for you? You do all the analysis and they simply throw the orders on when you tell them? Obviously this won't work if you are trading small time frames, but maybe this would be the small disconnect you need?
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Currently I am alone during the day.. But good idea.. Almost worth paying someone to do.
Business idea!? Suffer no more. We place your trades. Seems extreme though. Hope my ego will allow such an idea. Thanks.
 
fear of loss is the ultimate reason why traders lose.

Read this article:
http://www.autosystemtrader.com/7-habits-of-profitable-traders.htm

its one of the most insightful, i've came across.

if you'll continue to make manual traders, it might be impossible to get rid of the fear.

when i've started in 2000, one of the best tips i;ve heard was:


wanna be a trader?
take $100 bill out of your wallet and burn it.
if you feel OK after that, you may start trading
 
Quote from Rashid_G.:

Currently I am alone during the day.. But good idea.. Almost worth paying someone to do.
Business idea!? Suffer no more. We place your trades. Seems extreme though. Hope my ego will allow such an idea. Thanks.
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I think you have the answer in front of you.
Imagine giving detailed instruction to a third party order placement person.
That means you have to have a trade plan.
If it is a limit order with a profit/stop loss / trailing stop based on Pivot,S1,S2 etc you can give a limit order your self and walk away from the screen.
If you need some one to watch and place trade according to some criteria,then define trade trigger,exit,stop situations.

I think your ego will let you go as you have a written plan infront of you
to trade eiether your self or thro others.
 
Quote from keviniyengar:

I think you have the answer in front of you.
Imagine giving detailed instruction to a third party order placement person.
That means you have to have a trade plan.
If it is a limit order with a profit/stop loss / trailing stop based on Pivot,S1,S2 etc you can give a limit order your self and walk away from the screen.
If you need some one to watch and place trade according to some criteria,then define trade trigger,exit,stop situations.

I think your ego will let you go as you have a written plan infront of you
to trade eiether your self or thro others.
More...

I agree with this completely. The process of trying to communicate this, even to an imaginary person, has helped tremendously in my trading. I actually have a blog where I used to post my trades, and, at the time, believed other people could possibly be reading them. This gave me a sense of, "I've got to get this right, and follow through. They'll know if I change my post in hind-sight." I traded really well during that 2 months. Now I write emails to my wife before trades, but the blog thing, or a hand-written journal of some sort is a great idea. It forces you through, not just the steps of the process, but the "why" of each element. And that is where a lot of the self-deception comes to light.
 
Quote from Rashid_G.:

I would seriously love to do this but how do you automate a fluid Price Level based system? (No indicators involved)
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Seriously, why does everyone want to automate? Are you all that lazy?

Things aren't easy enough just sitting in front of a screen pressing BUY and SELL day in and day out -- you need to get to the point where you're not even making decisions on your own during a trading session?

And you expect to get rewarded for this "effort"? What am I missing here?
 
Quote from illiquid:

Seriously, why does everyone want to automate? Are you all that lazy?

Things aren't easy enough just sitting in front of a screen pressing BUY and SELL day in and day out -- you need to get to the point where you're not even making decisions on your own during a trading session?

And you expect to get rewarded for this "effort"? What am I missing here?
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Who are you? Have you ever traded real money before?

No, they're not that lazy (at least I hope not). They want to automate to avoid the fear and insecurity that is common to traders. Emotions like that result in deviating from the trading system and making dumb decisions. Automating is sought by some as a solution to deviating from their system. Nothing to do with laziness at all.
 
Quote from J.Joseph:

Who are you? Have you ever traded real money before?

No, they're not that lazy (at least I hope not). They want to automate to avoid the fear and insecurity that is common to traders. Emotions like that result in deviating from the trading system and making dumb decisions. Automating is sought by some as a solution to deviating from their system. Nothing to do with laziness at all.
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13 years and counting.

Controlling your emotions is part of the battle, you cannot avoid it. You either deal, or lose.

The tenets of a "successful" system include "trust" and "hands-off" -- and these terms just cannot be self-reinforcing over the long run. Not in these markets.

The truly successful automated programs, well, we know who they are. We deal with them every single day. You cannot expect to compete on that level. What these programs have taken away from us, they've given us no choice but to learn to make a judgement call, amidst an ever-shifting landscape, to the best of our abilities, in order to survive. The time frame for trend changes have been cut exponentially; information gets priced in, then forgotten, faster than ever. This is your modern day blitzkrieg.

If emotions of gain/loss cloud your ability to make this judgement call in the heat of the moment, learn to FIX it, not avoid it. Think of it as emotional muscle that gets stronger the more you use it.
 
You are both the prisoner and the warden. Only you can free yourself. No one outside can.

Apply the book The power of now; and you can get free no matter what depth you are in.

There are better books to help as well.
 
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