What's missing?

[masterm1ne]

You had a journal up with many losing days, and I bet that you still know that going forward, there will be days where everything goes wrong.

When I say insane, what I mean is there is not a day that goes by that I don't tell myself, "you could have made money if you were a better trader (or had held/had taken that trade)"

Stats aren't really important because I know what's killing me from studying my trades. I'm dying to classic trader issues - long bias, not holding and over trading. All my losing days are due to the things you mentioned; skipping trades, or not holding ones that I should.

If I could just fix the holding issue, I'd make a living trading 100%. I am taking too many trades on a small tick chart that don't result in any meaningful move. Watching a larger time scale will encourage holding longer because you don't have every other bar making you think you're wrong.

 

[Sprout]

When I say insane, what I mean is there is not a day that goes by that I don't tell myself, "you could have made money if you were a better trader (or had held/had taken that trade)"

That thought will keep giving you the manifestation of the emotions that you are feeling, the doubts that you have and the resulting un-timely action/non-action.

The fastest way to adjust your VPOA (in the un-edited classic "Think and Grow Rich") is to meditate and quiet your mind.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

...there is not a day that goes by that I don't tell myself, "you could have made money if...(or had held/had taken that trade)"

Every trader can and often does say that. But it can sometimes be a deceptive practice filled with selective perception.

 

[Gotcha]

When I say insane, what I mean is there is not a day that goes by that I don't tell myself, "you could have made money if you were a better trader (or had held/had taken that trade)"

Stats aren't really important because I know what's killing me from studying my trades. I'm dying to classic trader issues - long bias, not holding and over trading. All my losing days are due to the things you mentioned; skipping trades, or not holding ones that I should.

If I could just fix the holding issue, I'd make a living trading 100%. I am taking too many trades on a small tick chart that don't result in any meaningful move. Watching a larger time scale will encourage holding longer because you don't have every other bar making you think you're wrong.

It sounds to me like there are too many factors going on here, and you want to change them all at once, and you think that once you change them all, then problems will be fixed.

If you said your problem is not holding trades, then it would be fairly easy to just look back at your past 100 trades and see what would happen if you held for 1 more point, or 2 more points, and see how this affected the overall PnL. Some trades would hit the bigger target, but some might not hit the target now and go all the way back to your entry.

But as you're talking about holding longer, you also say you're over trading, so you're taking too many trades. Well, how do you know which ones you should be skipping?

Same thing with having a long bias. If you were to say you're only going to trade in one direction, that would be fine, one less variable, but you seem to be complaining about having an only long bias, which means you want to go long and short, and trust me, this really opens up lots of problems. So often you will take a long, and stop out, then take a short, and stop out.

Switching to a longer time frame is also a tough cookie to crack because now your stops will maybe have to change, and then the question is if you can stomach that bigger stop, while also holding for the bigger target.

You talking about having to change a few things is actually quite tough because then you don't really know what is working and what isn't. Best to isolate one variable at a time.

 

[masterm1ne]

That is over analysis and mostly mental masturbation - like most of this forum. Trading is not that complicated.

Over trading and holding longer can both be fixed by watching a larger time scale. You will see less trades and see the larger turning points. It's that simple.

 

[franT]

Not a bad list, except for No. 4.

My post was intended as a donation of FACTS to the OP, not as a discussion of OPINIONS with traders with inferior understanding. Since you brought me down to the mud, let's wrestle (with the only purpose of humiliating you):

Your opinion of 'no targets' is a particular case of my general point 4, i.e.: target 0 for a short and infinite for a long, is a particular case of my point 4. I hope I have dumbed down my English low enough for your understanding.

Since you posted that garbage, it also means that you are either a very rich trust fund baby, experimenting with trading, or a paper/sim trader with no expenses. As Rodney Dangerfield said: "I have enough money for the rest of my life, unless I buy something".

No need to reply, but you are welcome to make a bigger fool of yourself.

You've been erased.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

My post was intended as a donation of FACTS to the OP, not as a discussion of OPINIONS with traders with inferior understanding. Since you brought me down to the mud, let's wrestle (with the only purpose of humiliating you):

Your opinion of 'no targets' is a particular case of my general point 4, i.e.: target 0 for a short and infinite for a long, is a particular case of my point 4. I hope I have dumbed down my English low enough for your understanding.

Since you posted that garbage, it also means that you are either a very rich trust fund baby, experimenting with trading, or a paper/sim trader with no expenses. As Rodney Dangerfield said: "I have enough money for the rest of my life, unless I buy something".

No need to reply, but you are welcome to make a bigger fool of yourself.

You've been erased.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/overcompensation?s=ts

 

[masterm1ne]

mental masturbation

 

[iamdom]

As a manual trader I have had on in the last few days of trading about $4k worth of 1 lot positions on my primary market. However...

I am sure what holds me back are deep rooted fears from childhood - we were very thrifty, never spent much and I was always scared to spend money bc I didn't have any. I never felt I would have enough. It's a completely false reality because I have everything anyone would ever need. (Not only this from studying my past trades I have an insane long bias from which I have no idea why. Years ago it was I think very short biased) The only reason I have had down days in the last week was not considering both sides, mainly not taking shortsales. Of course we all grow up with this mentaility we have to work hard for money, and that's the other part of me - I had to work so hard to get to where I am and it took a long time. I was not conditioned to believe I could make 3k per day by doing something that is easy to my eyes.

I have a trading plan defined in every way that works and I watch the dollar signs roll by but I don't trust myself, I don't trust my plan and I'm too scared to lose. My technical skill is insane. But I don't trust myself. How do you get rid of the fear? I thought having precancerous polyps in my colon at 29 would help me realize that money doesn't matter in life and that I could die soon, then what ever does this shit matter? The only thing I can think is that maybe by the time I'm 35-50 on my deathbed I won't be scared. By then my dream won't matter to me anymore.

It may be the way some people are wired. It may be that you are wired to avoid pain. Some people want to win mainly because the pain of defeat is so bad. To lose hurts more than it feels satisfying to win. When you lose your ego is crushed so not losing is more important than winning. So your not trying to win your trying not to lose. And your very good at it, your strategy is excellent, don't trade. Winning is not your goal. Your ego is on the line with each trade. Some people have the opposite problem, they want to win so bad and losing does not bother them as much. These people trade too often looking for the high of the win while you fail to trade to avoid the pain of losing. How to change? Changing deep seated neuronal channels is incredibly simple. Change your behaviour. And this is incredibly difficult and painful like overcoming an addiction.

 

[smallStops]

... long bias, not holding and over trading. ....

You listed these reasons as your main weaknesses to work on.
Were these determined solely by looking at your losing days? or did you
use any other method/approach to come up with your list?
And, just to get a good view of your experience, are you into any types of meditation
or "spirituality" type of stuff?