Trading: Exhausting!!

[Trading Education Buyer]

Successful trading should be boring.
You know before you start what you are looking for and what to do: long signal is go long, short signal is go short.
You know already with high probability what the market will do and you know already your maximum loss (more or less) as you have a stop.
All you have to do is take the signal and wait, wait, wait wait... How can waiting be exhausting? Because that's what you should do most of the time.
Exhaustion comes from having no clue what to do and breaking your head all the time.

Sample: I think it is long... I am not sure... Yes it is long... what happens? Go short?... Maybe wait... it is not clear anymore... should I stay in or not...even my system does not know anymore what to do...
Yes in this case trading will be very exhausting.

Very good post

. Capital comes in two varieties: Mental and that which is in your pocket or account. Of the two types of capital, the mental is the more important and expensive of the two. Holding to losing positions costs measurable sums of actual capital, but it costs immeasurable sums of mental capital.

 

[Herbert]

Forex trading is not supposed to be exhausting at all. It should not be, otherwise, you can not keep on doing it in a long run. The simple reason why some find it exhausting is because they trade with the money that they cannot afford to lose. It means you will be in trouble if you lose it. It could also be that you do not set a proper and reasonable stop loss for your trades. All of these can make trading exhausting. Correct them, and then you'll enjoy trading.

 

[murray t turtle]

I use alerts too, and then try to walk away and do other stuff. I don't want to get consumed by trading, which I can, if I sit there all day.

%%
I do 2;
something like that+ use buy or sell pre=planned orders= walk away, sometimes . Sitting in a front of screen 12 hours a day/6 days a weekis bad for anyone health.Even though i allow alerts, i seldom use them ; except the rather infrequent alert ''buying a 200 day moving average.........................'' So about 88-95%% of alerts, i find useless LOL And any eye doctor will tell you to look away, sometimes also

 

[Andrea Wylan]

Hi kmiklas,

maybe less is more ? I was in a similar situation, but I learned that I dont have to trade all day long to make good money. I dont know your style, but 80% of my good trades happen during the opening of the equity markets (1st hour).
So what I do now is to really focus on the european equities opening (9:00am Frankfurt time). I really focus for about 1 hour, then I do whatever I want. If I feel like it, I do more trading, if not, I do something else. Later in the afternoon I come back for the US opening (15:30 NY time) and trade for about 30 more minutes. After that, my trading day is usually done.

So on average I really focus on trading for 1-2 hours per day. My results are better than in the past when I tried to make good trades all day long. And I have much more fun with my trading now.

Many possible ways to make money in the markets. If you want to stay with this long term, I think you should find a way that you enjoy what you do. Otherwise you probably wont be able to stick to it or you will maybe not be able to perform as good as you would with something you really enjoy.

Greetings,
CALLumbus

I agree! Less is more. Target carefully what you are doing, plan it, and limit it. Sometimes I think more hours trading means LESS money and giving gains away. Also, trading can be emotionally draining with all the stress. Meditation, yoga, exercise, a strict trading plan are all good!!

 

[CALLumbus]

I agree! Less is more. Target carefully what you are doing, plan it, and limit it. Sometimes I think more hours trading means LESS money and giving gains away. Also, trading can be emotionally draining with all the stress. Meditation, yoga, exercise, a strict trading plan are all good!!

Balance is the key ! Not necessarily if you just want to push some short to medium term performance of whatever kind... You can press the pedal to the metal for a certain amount of time, in high performance sports, career, business... You can do this for 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, even 20 years, and hope to make it to the top that way. But is it healthy ? Is it fulfilling ?

I realized soon enough that just pushing for more and more dollars (or Euros ) and more and more trades was not the path I want to walk for very long. Life has so much more to offer.
But his is just me. Others might think completly different, and enjoy to really focus their energy on just one very narrow field, and blast away all obstacles like concentrated laser fire.
For me, life has so many beautiful facets to offer, and I try to act in such a way that my trading helps me to enjoy those things even more.

I guess not all, but most people are like this, and want to enjoy time with friends, family. Spend time in nature, eat good food, watch movies, play games and so on. To all those people my advice: be balanced ! Once you know what you are doing in your trading, back off a bit, take it a bit easier. Dont get me wrong ! As long as you are in front of your trading desk you should be concentraded, focussed and work very hard. But limit that time that you spend that way. Most of us here can make all the money they need in the first 1-2 hours of trading. On most days thats where the volume and action is.
After you have done your work, turn off the screen and reward yourself. With whatever feels good to you. But I recommend some kind of physical activity to anybody. Like Andrea Wylan mentioned, Yoga and other disciplines that include some kind of stretching and relaxation are excellent to get rid of tension in your mind and in your body.

Try to be balanced, and complete. You cannot just push it all the time, just like you cannot just tense a muscle nonstop, or breathe out all the time. Fast and slow, tensed and relaxed, hard and soft... all this should be a part of your life.

 

[murray t turtle]

I agree! Less is more. Target carefully what you are doing, plan it, and limit it. Sometimes I think more hours trading means LESS money and giving gains away. Also, trading can be emotionally draining with all the stress. Meditation, yoga, exercise, a strict trading plan are all good!!

%%
More trading= more slippage, even with liquid stuff.ES, plenty liquid, but pays no dividends.
I like to meditate on charts,, + paper, newspaper.
Speaking of stress, I aim to limit news time. NPR + FOX radio come in good; but NPR says stuff like markets finished flat+ almost NEVER does that happen, tends to be up a bit, or more or down a bit...….…………………………………………………………………. NPR last week HYpED THE DOWNSIDE [ON NEWS] : They are so negative they make up lots of negative stuff.Then the hype ,like best DOW close yet ,LOL; not @ all on a % basis.