Quote from GetReal:
Is it true that if you are having a bad day, you shouldn't trade?
You can only answer that yourself after maintaining a detailed journal that contains info about your psychological state prior to the first trade.
For example...if your stats show that you have a high probability chance of losing money that trading day if you had a heated argument with the spouse prior to the first trade...
May be a good idea to either stay on the sidelines the next time you get into a debate with the spouse or resolve these issues prior to the first trade.
Simply, one particular personal problem may have impact on one trader while the same type of problem may have no impact on another trader.
Thus, the answer is true and false depending upon the trader and particular problems that are either consistent or chronic.
* Marital Problems
* Debt Delinquency
* Stress from another job
* Roommate Problems
* College Academic Problems
* Health Problems
* Mental Illness (depression et cetera)
* Many other things
Therefore, a trade journal that only keeps track of stuff like win/loss ratios
et cetera and has no psychological information...
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=60132
Is a trader that may realize too late the real reason why they are in a drawdown or trading poorly.
Mark
(a.k.a.
NihabaAshi) Japanese Candlestick term