Tips on the Mental Game

B

BobbiDigital

Can anyone share ways they stay consistent in their approach?

I feel like a different person after the market opens and I begin processing tons of information. It's like one big rat race and discipline/patience may go out the window (usually if I'm not having a good day then things slow down).

Perhaps some kind of mental checklist throughout the day to make sure I am still thinking the same way?

Or some kind of rating I give to each trade BEFORE I make it and then after it is completed as a better way to hold myself accountable. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

BD
 
Quote from BobbiDigital:

Can anyone share ways they stay consistent in their approach?

BD
More...

Simple 3 step process….

Step 1 – Ask yourself this question

Will today;

Be different

or

More of the same

Step 2 – Answer

Step 3 – Trade like it


Interesting little phenomena occurs after a while – the answer in step 2 reverses

Obviously step 3 never does

RN
===================================



btw schizophrenia has no place in trading - fwiw



Quote from BobbiDigital:

I feel like a different person after the market opens and I begin processing tons of information. It's like one big rat race and discipline/patience may go out the window
BD
More...
 
1. find out your comfort zone - risk, trade frequency, time frames etc.
2. devise the plan.
3. only trade what fits your plan and ignore everything - news, TV, voice in ur head.
4. take breaks and dont forget to breath


Just noe that if you feel uncomfortable, on the edge and it seems like a race. you are not there yet.

G
 
Quote from Redneck:

Simple 3 step process….

Step 1 – Ask yourself this question

Will today;

Be different

or

More of the same

Step 2 – Answer

Step 3 – Trade like it
More...

Many of the traders here probably aren't experienced enough to recognize this for what it is -- great advice about the mental game.

I rank this right up there with Henry Ford: "Whether you think you can or think you can't, either way you'll be right."

When I started trading in 1992 I had that Henry Ford quote poster over my desk where I saw it dozens of times every day. It was like it was tattooed on the inside of my eyelids. It became permanently embedded in my psyche. If I were starting out today, I'd make a poster out of your three-step advice. "Will today be different or more of the same? ... Trade like it."
 
Quote from BobbiDigital:

Can anyone share ways they stay consistent in their approach?

I feel like a different person after the market opens and I begin processing tons of information. It's like one big rat race and discipline/patience may go out the window (usually if I'm not having a good day then things slow down).

Perhaps some kind of mental checklist throughout the day to make sure I am still thinking the same way?

Or some kind of rating I give to each trade BEFORE I make it and then after it is completed as a better way to hold myself accountable. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

BD
More...

Have a plan with rules for:

* What constitutes a valid setup
* How a trade is entered (stop or limit order)
* How risk is managed
* How profit-taking is managed

Either write the reasons within your plan for each trade you're about to put on, or state the reasons out loud.

Teach your plan to other traders until you achieve success with at least a couple of them. Then you know you have a plan well-defined enough that it's possible to follow it in the "heat of battle". Amazing how easy it is to manage each trade when manually backtesting static charts, and how difficult it can become when price has the nerve to run back and forth inside that price bar that finally prints at the end of each time increment.

The way I did this was by spending hours a day talking to other traders via Skype. While I was developing my plan, someone would ask me why X was a valid setup and Y wasn't, even though the patterns looked very similar, and this compelled me to transform intuitive decisions into fixed rules.

Teaching trading to others was a critical part of development. As I shared my experience and ideas with others who then demonstrated the ability to trade profitably, I came to trust the concepts more and more until finally trading became very routine.

This will sound strange, but I'm sure other experienced profitable traders will understand what I mean: At the hard right edge, I very often "feel" that price can't possibly go to where my research told me it will go more often than not, but my experience has convinced me to trust the plan and I simply put on the trade when it fits my rules for entry.
 
Quote from NoDoji:

Amazing how easy it is to manage each trade when manually backtesting static charts, and how difficult it can become when price has the nerve to run back and forth inside that price bar that finally prints at the end of each time increment.
More...

Price runs back and forth for a reason.Do you have an IDed reason for that?
 
Quote from NoDoji:

Have a plan with rules for:

* What constitutes a valid setup
* How a trade is entered (stop or limit order)
* How risk is managed
* How profit-taking is managed

Either write the reasons within your plan for each trade you're about to put on, or state the reasons out loud.

Teach your plan to other traders until you achieve success with at least a couple of them. Then you know you have a plan well-defined enough that it's possible to follow it in the "heat of battle". Amazing how easy it is to manage each trade when manually backtesting static charts, and how difficult it can become when price has the nerve to run back and forth inside that price bar that finally prints at the end of each time increment.

The way I did this was by spending hours a day talking to other traders via Skype. While I was developing my plan, someone would ask me why X was a valid setup and Y wasn't, even though the patterns looked very similar, and this compelled me to transform intuitive decisions into fixed rules.

Teaching trading to others was a critical part of development. As I shared my experience and ideas with others who then demonstrated the ability to trade profitably, I came to trust the concepts more and more until finally trading became very routine.

This will sound strange, but I'm sure other experienced profitable traders will understand what I mean: At the hard right edge, I very often "feel" that price can't possibly go to where my research told me it will go more often than not, but my experience has convinced me to trust the plan and I simply put on the trade when it fits my rules for entry.
More...
right, so how'd that go when you were dating girls? When she asked you, "You want to get out of here and go back to my place? My parents are gone." Did you look at your notes and tell her, "How bout we go out for a coke? I know a great place where the kids are swell!"
 
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