Unless I am so fatigued from whatever ales me, I trade, but what I will do is I know stats well for all my signals which is 9 for ES and several for CL, so I will cut back time on CL as I have to wake up at 3:40am for Crude, surprising wake up few minutes before alarm often. I will cut back on signals. I find trading stresses counter balance stresses from health and other businesses. I am often concerned by not at least looking over charts each day that I might "lose it" as I did when younger. So even on vacations I will either trade a bit but always look at my signals each day, maybe even get new idea of getting in extra tick better and reduce risk.Weekend update - Today is the first day off I have had in about three weeks. What was a simple surgery for my business partner, turned into blot clots, allergic reactions to medicine and was suddenly pretty complicated... he is out of commission for a while.
I'm the kind of guy that has always worked harder, longer, smarter, or pushed my limits until I got something done. That is fine in the business world, when a crisis demands you step up... however, looking back over the last two weeks that is exactly what I tried to do in trading. And that won't work in trading... you can't push your limits... you can't try to "make it happen"... the market doesn't respect any of that.
Yet considering stopping trading for a week feels like a failure, like a setback... What am I supposed to do with my mornings, my routine? Still wake up like clockwork with no alarm at 5:23 am... then what?
Shouldn't I be pushing myself to follow my trading plan perfectly without any deviation, even in a tired, stressed out state? Or is it more of a triumph, more the right thing to do, to just pause... stop trading for a bit.... relax, no pressure.... and then pick it up again when life is a bit more normal?
What would a professional trader do.....
My morning musing as I catch up on my journal.
YK
Day #3 - ...
Reflecting on today, it seems like every day there is a struggle inside of me between the old way of doing things... and the new way. I find myself at times in the new way.... but then again, so easy to slip back into the old way. Sometimes it is just super easy to trust the plan and let it work... and other times it is crazy hard.
I got into a rut towards the end of my trading day, just way to focused on the price action... like if I concentrated really hard I would somehow see something happen. Silly, I know. I did catch myself... and I start asking myself this... why do I feel tense, focused, angst, heightened? My answer probably will be, I am not trading the plan...
I need to just sit there and wait for the A+ setups... and then trade them accordingly.
-477
...He has many extraneous (extraneous to trading) things on his plate at the moment
He.., based on the last 3 days of last week - is not making good trading decisions..., nor is he able to focus adequately on trading...
I can only say what has worked in my life, spend weekends to rest brain from stresses of trading but spend time figuring out what is going on with system, which I believe in my heart what is wrong. System might be the greatest under the sun, but I think subconscious doesn't have any faith in it. We can go on and on the strengths and weaknesses of sim trading, but he not trading real time which tells me he knows subconsciously something is wrong as he has demo'ed moments of good ability of mentally trading that plan.H123
Question Sir
You at one time told YK to quit ingraining bad behavior (great advice)
He has many extraneous (extraneous to trading) things on his plate at the moment
He.., based on the last 3 days of last week - is not making good trading decisions..., nor is he able to focus adequately on trading
Why prompt him to keep trading?
Why not have him step back..., clean off his plate..., regroup - then return to trading
Just curious
RN
he has so much drama going on continually in his life, would you think when with his life become normal when to me obviously never going to be normal, or find a way to deal with it and trade OPM?
think the most interesting and successful people had major problems to overcome, so what goes on in other areas of life are always opportunities.
what is going on with system, which I believe in my heart what is wrong.
I certainly have tossed reams of journals into fireplace of trying to make something work,

Me also - started over so many times I lost count
RN