trading and mental excercises

S

silk

I make dozens of trades in dozens of stocks every day. I employ a complicated trend system where i'm constantly having to take in 100's of data points on which to base my trading decisions. I'm looking at the relative performace of the various sectors, stocks within sectors, volume, moving avgs, futures, market tone, news stocks, tone of the CNBC anchors, ect. ect.

I'm basically asking my mind to be a super computer. Making split second trading decisions based on interpretation of complicated info. And some days i just blow it. In the heat of battle I make trades that are obviously against the rules of my system. Or one indicator will lead me astray, even though it is obvious by the action of the stock that it should not be bought.

Sometimes I will even find myself adding to losers even though it is a cardinal violation of my system.

Cafeinated Soda seems to help the mind work. But besides this, does anyone have any suggestions how to stay on course? I've considered hiring an assistant to help me implement my system. If he could keep me from blowing $100k just one day a year he would pay for himself.

Perhaps a premkt mental checklist on what your trading plan is would help. Maybe i should say to myself 20 times before mkt open "do not add to losers".

I'm sure there are others out there with complicated systems where discipline to implement it is part of the battle.
 
Originally posted by silk
I make dozens of trades in dozens of stocks every day. I employ a complicated trend system where i'm constantly having to take in 100's of data points on which to base my trading decisions. I'm looking at the relative performace of the various sectors, stocks within sectors, volume, moving avgs, futures, market tone, news stocks, tone of the CNBC anchors, ect. ect.

I'm basically asking my mind to be a super computer. Making split second trading decisions based on interpretation of complicated info. And some days i just blow it. In the heat of battle I make trades that are obviously against the rules of my system. Or one indicator will lead me astray, even though it is obvious by the action of the stock that it should not be bought.

Sometimes I will even find myself adding to losers even though it is a cardinal violation of my system.

Cafeinated Soda seems to help the mind work. But besides this, does anyone have any suggestions how to stay on course? I've considered hiring an assistant to help me implement my system. If he could keep me from blowing $100k just one day a year he would pay for himself.

Perhaps a premkt mental checklist on what your trading plan is would help. Maybe i should say to myself 20 times before mkt open "do not add to losers".

I'm sure there are others out there with complicated systems where discipline to implement it is part of the battle.
More...


I've been doing what RS7 suggested in a post about a month ago and it seems to be helping. I try to think of each trade as if it's my parents' hard earned money (other authority figures could do too). That accountability aspect appears to be helpful. I'm less likely to violate the system and do smth stupid just b/c I think I'm smarter than it on the spur of the moment.
 
Originally posted by silk
I make dozens of trades in dozens of stocks every day. I employ a complicated trend system where i'm constantly having to take in 100's of data points on which to base my trading decisions. I'm looking at the relative performace of the various sectors, stocks within sectors, volume, moving avgs, futures, market tone, news stocks, tone of the CNBC anchors, ect. ect.

I'm basically asking my mind to be a super computer. Making split second trading decisions based on interpretation of complicated info. And some days i just blow it. In the heat of battle I make trades that are obviously against the rules of my system. Or one indicator will lead me astray, even though it is obvious by the action of the stock that it should not be bought.

Sometimes I will even find myself adding to losers even though it is a cardinal violation of my system.

Cafeinated Soda seems to help the mind work. But besides this, does anyone have any suggestions how to stay on course? I've considered hiring an assistant to help me implement my system. If he could keep me from blowing $100k just one day a year he would pay for himself.

Perhaps a premkt mental checklist on what your trading plan is would help. Maybe i should say to myself 20 times before mkt open "do not add to losers".

I'm sure there are others out there with complicated systems where discipline to implement it is part of the battle.
More...

An old timer once advised me, "only a simple method can be executed with consistency". ("Price + 2 indicators, maximum" was his philosophy. Mine too, for ST trading.) :D
 
We all would love to be 100% mentally strong, but unfortunately human nature doesn't allow for it 100% of the time. I'm pretty consistent in my P&L, but every once in awhile, I lose it and break my own rules, which usually results in a losing day, or barely making money. As long as we can contain those days to a couple of times a year, there's nothing wrong with it. Usually it happens when I get pre-occupied with something outside of trading in my mind.

I've never met a trade who doesn't lose it every once in awhile.
 
Originally posted by silk
I make dozens of trades in dozens of stocks every day. I employ a complicated trend system where i'm constantly having to take in 100's of data points on which to base my trading decisions. I'm looking at the relative performace of the various sectors, stocks within sectors, volume, moving avgs, futures, market tone, news stocks, tone of the CNBC anchors, ect. ect.

I'm basically asking my mind to be a super computer. Making split second trading decisions based on interpretation of complicated info. And some days i just blow it. In the heat of battle I make trades that are obviously against the rules of my system. Or one indicator will lead me astray, even though it is obvious by the action of the stock that it should not be bought.

Sometimes I will even find myself adding to losers even though it is a cardinal violation of my system.

Cafeinated Soda seems to help the mind work. But besides this, does anyone have any suggestions how to stay on course? I've considered hiring an assistant to help me implement my system. If he could keep me from blowing $100k just one day a year he would pay for himself.

Perhaps a premkt mental checklist on what your trading plan is would help. Maybe i should say to myself 20 times before mkt open "do not add to losers".

I'm sure there are others out there with complicated systems where discipline to implement it is part of the battle.
More...


Yeah......Right.....
 
Originally posted by silk


Cafeinated Soda seems to help the mind work. But besides this, does anyone have any suggestions how to stay on course?
More...
Perhaps tossing off before trading would place your mind in the correct zen state.
 
Originally posted by silk
I make dozens of trades in dozens of stocks every day. I employ a complicated trend system where i'm constantly having to take in 100's of data points on which to base my trading decisions. I'm looking at the relative performace of the various sectors, stocks within sectors, volume, moving avgs, futures, market tone, news stocks, tone of the CNBC anchors, ect. ect.

I'm basically asking my mind to be a super computer. Making split second trading decisions based on interpretation of complicated info. And some days i just blow it. In the heat of battle I make trades that are obviously against the rules of my system. Or one indicator will lead me astray, even though it is obvious by the action of the stock that it should not be bought.

Sometimes I will even find myself adding to losers even though it is a cardinal violation of my system.

Cafeinated Soda seems to help the mind work. But besides this, does anyone have any suggestions how to stay on course? I've considered hiring an assistant to help me implement my system. If he could keep me from blowing $100k just one day a year he would pay for himself.

Perhaps a premkt mental checklist on what your trading plan is would help. Maybe i should say to myself 20 times before mkt open "do not add to losers".

I'm sure there are others out there with complicated systems where discipline to implement it is part of the battle.
More...
Until you said "...even though it is obvious by the action of the stock that it should not be bought" I was going to suggest programming the system into one or possibly a couple of models. This way, you only have to watch the model in relation to the stocks you are watching. Even in the case where there is the action of the stock to consider, it may still be worth to try to automate everything else in your system that is not discretionary into a model [e.g., the model might return, 1, 0, -1 with obvious meanings to each] and then you apply your discretion on each stock.

Since my "system" is perhaps as "complicated," I am also always looking for simplifications as you are. Since I used to be a programmer in a previous life, it is not too hard for me to roll up my sleaves and write some code and some visuals...

nitro
 
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