Trading on "Instynct" (NQ)
- Thread starter Instynct
- Start date
I am so close to becoming the trader I want to be and ultimately trading larger size to finally make some decent money that I can taste it. Whats holding me back? Something psychological that is preventing me from doing what I need to do, which is trading what I see instead of what I want. It's really pissing me off, after all these years I still haven't gotten over this part of trading yet.
Have a great weekend everyone, 3 days... what am I gonna do till then lol j/k.
Have a great weekend everyone, 3 days... what am I gonna do till then lol j/k.
Your conscious and subconsious are not aligned, in my completely uneducated opinion.
Do you do any visualization exercises ? Do you replay in your mind trades that you missed or mucked up and in replay you did everything right ?
When i trade , been weeks now, i try to spend a few minutes every morning visualizing success or correct , relaxed trading. It's not a quick fix but part of the steps to success, IMO.
Perhaps you could elaborate on this?
In my humble opinion, psychology is vastly overrated as a driving factor in day-to-day results. The reason is that confidence and 'good' psychology are a consequence of favorable trading results, which come from following a bulletproof trading plan with every base covered and without any leaks. Poor trading results will hit your confidence and psych, but the results themselves are a consequence of deficiencies in one's trading plan. In both cases the strength or weakness of the plan (and secondarily things like screentime and experience) is the driving factor, not trader psychology.
Psychology matters when you're deciding where you want to be on the risk/effort vs. reward continuum (how much drawdown can you tolerate, what timeframe or holding period suits you best, etc.) but IMO is almost never the culprit when it comes to unexpected drawdowns or underperformance.
In your case it seems pretty clear-cut, your trading plan simply does not have an adequate set of rules to deal with this low-volatility, HFT-driven bull grind. ES and NQ are always hyper-efficient with miniscule available edges, on days like today the available edge is basically zero - but as always, there's still the opportunity to lose significant amounts of money. When humans return to the market and the PA displays pace, rhythm and all that good stuff, as on Wednesday, you consistently do fine.
Once you realize what the problem is, you can develop a solution without bothering with visualizations, meditation, inducing Zen states or any of that silliness.
Instynct
Before one can soar â as a trader â one needs to learn how to fall... and fail
Let goâ¦. and do what you must
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At firstâ¦, as you are now â youâll fight itâ¦
After all it goes against everything inside you⦠everything you want to achieveâ¦.
It is absolutely counter to everything a human is brought up to believe⦠and that Sir - is exactly what you are fightingâ¦
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In society â success begets success⦠failing is just not an optionâ¦.
Losers, in the worst possible descriptor of society â are flat F'n failures (and something to be avoided at all costs)
OTOH
In trading â failing (losing small.. and losing as often as necessary) is exactly what begets successâ¦
And the better one can fail (take small losers without being phased⦠yet continue trading what they see)⦠the more successful they become
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Some say trading is not psychological⦠well I'm here to tell ya - some also donât know shit from apple butter
Food for thought Sir
RN
Sure, I mean you can:
- Trade other markets which might be moving more actively
- Use a larger timeframe, lengthen targets, holding period and (perhaps) stops, to try and capture a greater overall portion of the smaller, but more predictable and higher-odds price movement (i.e. up)
- Find markers to identify days or situations which on average offer lower opportunity, and be willing to sit on the sidelines at the cost of missing some trades here or there - Friday for instance, we're at the top of the range after a rally day with very little action in the first hour, probably not gonna be much on offer there
All of which involve drawbacks and compromises, but nobody said trying to double your money on popular and efficient instruments was supposed to be easy.
Today. Ok, made some adjustments. Let's see how long I can stick with it.