Yukoner's 2015 Psychological Journal

[Handle123]

Thinking if you going to go for bigger profits, do so early and not later, the better moves are early and seldom later. You work hard to have couple hundred and blow it later in the day, doesn't make sense to me, you run out of time to recover, sounds like you are sabotaging yourself cause it is getting to be repeating habits, so you training your brain to keep doing this. Making small profits for the day is fine when most of your days are making large profits, but this isn't occurring. I am still believing not to change from smaller profits to larger, I do the opposite of making my Goal first with heaviest volume, when Goal is made, cut back size 80-85% and trade rest of morning till time I quit. Nothing changes except size, my brain doesn't have to change from shopping for apples to huge trees.

Hope your vacation was fun and relaxing, once you get away from trading, sometimes tougher to come back, people don't realize how stressful this can be and addictive playing the game.

 

[Redneck]

I just calmed myself with breathing and reminded myself that I was in control and everything was fine.

I caught myself a couple of times hesitating on entering trades, and had to work through that a bit, but the next trade I took it worked just fine.

So I was up now about $240, and I felt that temptation to just throw on a trade and walk away but I told myself that wasn't what a great trader would do.

I could hear Redneck yelling at me to "Build the right muscles" and "Trade well and to hell with the results".

That was enough... I stuck with my plan.

The positive thing, I stuck to the plan.

Built up the day slowly, then opened up and tried to trade for larger moves.

A lot of the fear and shakiness that I experienced last year is starting to fade away.

Feeling like I have much more self control.

Feeling my confidence build.

Good stuff Yukoner - really good stuff

============================

btw - great trader - no..., a competent / consistent trader - yup

Leave great for those needing their ego stroked


We simply do our job - correctly

And to hell with the results

RN

 

[Yukoner]

Thinking if you going to go for bigger profits, do so early and not later, the better moves are early and seldom later. You work hard to have couple hundred and blow it later in the day, doesn't make sense to me, you run out of time to recover, sounds like you are sabotaging yourself cause it is getting to be repeating habits, so you training your brain to keep doing this. Making small profits for the day is fine when most of your days are making large profits, but this isn't occurring. I am still believing not to change from smaller profits to larger, I do the opposite of making my Goal first with heaviest volume, when Goal is made, cut back size 80-85% and trade rest of morning till time I quit. Nothing changes except size, my brain doesn't have to change from shopping for apples to huge trees.

Hope your vacation was fun and relaxing, once you get away from trading, sometimes tougher to come back, people don't realize how stressful this can be and addictive playing the game.

@Handle123 Good points, appreciate the feedback. I'll start to monitor if I am self sabotaging myself later in the day. I do find in trading oil, many of the same opportunities exist in the open as they do going into the close... but I am not always able to trade the full session, or the pit close, due to my business.

My overall strategy is the opposite of what you are suggesting. Starting my day off I prefer to build up a cushion using small risk and going for small wins. Once I have that, then I can open up and risk a bit more and trade for larger moves. By the end of that day's trading ,session I am flat. The past challenge I have had is holding those winners to target, as I was consistently letting my emotions overtake me and dilute my edge.

This strategy might be something in the future I need to change, and go with a strategy similar to what you are suggesting, but for now I don't have enough data to change it. I know the trading methodology works, I was just screwing it up.
One idea I have had, is to perhaps implement a rule that once I am over a certain dollar amount of the day (say $300 or higher), then I stop trading if I give back over 50% of the profit.

Good Trades,
Yukoner

 

[Yukoner]

Day #13 - Slept well, and woke up ready for the day (GR). I had one cup of coffee, prior and during trading, as I am restricting my coffee to only one cup while trading. (At an early age us Canadians are weaned to beer and coffee)

I was mindful prior to turning on the computer, and the only thing that I discovered was that I was a bit cold, so I grabbed a toque and put it on. I started off with my plan of trading small, and just focusing on getting some wins up and a bit of profit on the board. I did a lot of trades, but I would cut my losers really quickly and I would try not to get too greedy with winners. I realized I was taking a lot of trades, but I was fine with that as I was consistently building up the account.

Now this is interesting, my boys wake up and I can hear one of them playing some music upstairs, and I catch myself listening to it because the song is on the music playlist I put on in the morning before I trade. And I found it pleasurable... so I turned on my playlist, and put that song on and let the whole playlist play while I traded. It just relaxed me, and I could feel confidence. It became I was more concerned about missing the trade entry, then I was about taking the trade.
I then hit this zone where I felt calm and neutral... and could see the market real well... and the whole time my trading playlist is playing.
NOTE: Might incorporate this into my trading plan - talk to psych coach about it.

My phone rang or texts came in a few times, and I just tried to ignore it. I saw one of them was from my X, but I didn't bother to read it. About 20 mins later there is a knock at the door, I answer, and *#%* if it isn't my X standing there looking like a million bucks! I didn't know what to do... no idea why she was there (and right now, I still don't)... then she asked to come in, and I said "You can come in, but I am trading". With that, I went back to my desk, sat down, ignored her, got focused and continued to trade.
Note: I considered stopping trading all together for the day because of the past history when my trading day gets X'd, but I reminded myself that she didn't have any control over me and I didn't need to let this bother me. Just continue to do what I needed to do.

About 20 minutes later, suddenly she announces to me that she forgot something and has to leave, and heads out. So I am now up a bit over $500 for the day, and I can feel my body is a tense and tired. I tried some breathing exercises and some jumping jacks, but it only helped a little bit. So I decided, I needed to take a break.... and even though I was expecting a very good setup to happen... I would get away from the computer and just take a break. So that is what I did... for probably 15 or 20 minutes, I did not look at the market and I ate some more food and just tried to relax. All of a sudden I could feel myself get back to normal.

I came back to my desk, and saw what I expected to happen had happen, but when I felt like I had missed out, instead I congratulated myself on seeing the market well and just moved forward with looking for more opportunities. Now I can start to feel myself open up, and I realize I could easily get up over $1000 for the day.

So many times I was in a trade, and tempted to add to a losing position, but I kept reminding myself that wasn't part of the plan. BUT then late in the day is when all the trading caught up to me (Mental Capital Depletion)... I am up about $1400... I put on a trade with the plan of scaling in my 2nd position. It goes against me, and I add... then I add again.... and again.... and before I know it, I am averaged in 5 contracts, my max size! WTH, this isn't part of the plan... and I don't have a stop in! My mind is screwed at this point, and I can't look objectively at the market... it was like the DOM looked like a mystery box, and I could barely read the chart. I forced myself to do my panic breathing exercises and told myself to stay disciplined and trade out of it... so that is what I did. Ended up taking about a $500 loss on that one.

I got up, I took a break... I thought about stopping for the day. I asked myself if I could still trade objectively. I realized I had made a mistake, but that I should also shrug it off, and keep doing what I knew to do. So I continued to trade, and there was no fear, and suddenly I could see the market well again. BUT I was cautious, very cautious as I knew that my mental state might change.

Trading always requires such elite performance. Looking back now, that one mistake had the potential to wipe out all of today's profit and put me in the red. Let down your guard for one minute, or break your rules, and suddenly everything can change.

+1225

 

[Redneck]

Hellofa roller coaster ride today

Trading always requires such elite performance.

This is precisely.., and only - what we get paid on - our performance

Let down your guard for one minute, or break your rules, and suddenly everything can change

Till the day you..., me ..., who ever - retires from trading - it will only ever take..., just one

Provides a whole new meaning to livin on the edge

====================

I do so love this job (but never..., in love with the damn thing mind you)

Good job.., and insight

RN

 

[Handle123]

LOL, you need to have a sign outside your door that reads, "Door is frozen in time and won't open before ****time" Obviously your ex can't read time and every time she appears it costs you greatly. I once gave a girlfriend a Matchbox car that was cut in half day she bitched to me about our garbage can was in middle of the street, told her pounding on my office door is what I lost cause took my mind off of what I was doing.

Seldom have I done well on mistakes, I took a "idiot" trade today, saw what I thought was a signal and didn't realize ES had dropped so much and of course missed the trade I should have taken, so I lost 2 points from the trade and lost the 2pts I should have taken, so that adds up to 4 points turnaround. Mistakes are always costly in some way.

I often have something in background playing, most of the time am concentrating so hard I don't hear it, what also is pleasant is I drink hot tea when I trade, before Christmas time, I buy six cases of a flavored tea called Christmas Cookie so it reminds me of when I was young and Mom baking cookies, a happy time. Trading is high levels of stress, frustration when you get flustered, so keeping balance is what I strive.

How much you make in one day is so less important than how you traded, I find thinking of it playing a game instead of the money, did I play game better than I did yesterday, and how could I played better? Just little tricks to reduce stress, and stress causes mistakes, it shuts down memory.

Nice job by the way most of the day.

 

[Yukoner]

Day #14 - Woke up over an hour early, and tried to get back to sleep, but just couldn't. I think part of it might have been I was feeling pretty confident about today, and somewhat charged up to trade. (OR maybe watching American Sniper last night) So being aware of that, I purposely took it slow prior to trading, and reminded myself that yesterday's results have no bearing on today's results. Don't get over confident.

Today I also had an appointment early in the morning, and so I couldn't dedicate as much time as I normally would to trading. Reminded myself of this. I also reminded myself of the the trading error I made yesterday (5 lots) and to monitor myself and make sure I don't do the same thing again.

Went through my regular pre-market routine, and only drank one cup of coffee. I started off trading, and seemed to just not be getting filled which was frustrating to see the market move away without me. I then got into the swing of it, but it was tough market action and seemed like I got chopped up... all though all my analysis said we were moving higher.

So I am still doing the same style of trading, but just can't seem to connect on the wins, and there I am down a over $800 for the day, and I am a bit frustrated, but remind myself not not be worried about previous trades and just focus on the next trade. So I started to see a setup happen, and it was right before I needed to leave for my appointment, so I went long... and it worked, and I added again... and then again. I am now definitely late for my appointment, but so what, this is trading and I am going to stick with it. I managed it well, and exited a bit early, but now I am only down about $300. (Left for my appointment 20 minutes late... C'est la vie)
Note: At one point about this time, I remember being cold... and that happened yesterday too... so I need to adjust the heat, so that this Canadian is warmed up comfortable while sitting still for the next few hours.

I had a decent break, and came back relaxed and ready to trade, but not that much time to be focused on the pit session. However, the very first trade I put on went right to profit target in seconds. Huge volatility today which fits very well with my trading style, but I only had a limited amount of time to trade. But I did conservatively build the account up out of the red, and then once I was back over breakeven I was tempted to stop trading for the day... but reminded myself it was only my thinking that was stopping me. So I traded a bit more, and got the account up over $500. I then tried a couple of more longer hold trades, trying to catch more of the move up, but I just wasn't on the right side. Gave back some profit, and decided it was best to quit while I was ahead. And like @Handle123 said... I don't want to self sabotage.

Learned something today, or at least reminded myself of something I all ready knew. It is ALL in my head. It is my thinking that will make or break my trading results. I also have learned that I should celebrate good trading behavior, and celebrate that I am willing to walk into that arena of uncertainty. And also, that if I just keep doing the right behavior over enough trade data my edge will come through.

+208

 

[Redneck]

It is ALL in my head.

It is my thinking that will make or break my trading results.

True for all of us

I should celebrate good trading behavior, and celebrate that I am willing to walk into that arena of uncertainty.

Absolutely

if I just keep doing the right behavior over enough trade data my edge will come through.

Not only will your edge come through...., consistently repeating right behavior - is an edge onto itself

Doubling one's ROI - what trader in their right mind wouldn't jump on that in a new york second

Good stuff

RN

 

[Yukoner]

True for all of us




Absolutely




Not only will your edge come through...., consistently repeating right behavior - is an edge onto itself

Doubling one's ROI - what trader in their right mind wouldn't jump on that in a new york second

Good stuff

RN

WOW!!! I never considered it that way... "Consistently repeating right behavior - is an edge onto itself"
Thanks! (Writing this down in the leather journal)

So @Redneck , anything I should be maybe looking out for as I move forward the rest of this week/month?

 

[Redneck]

anything I should be maybe looking out for as I move forward the rest of this week/month?

Life - as it amazing the curve balls it will throw at us

=============

Truly;

Each morning find your trading mindset (centered..., calm..., patient..., objective..., detached)

Keep your head down (receptive..., humble..., willing accept a loss..., or win)

Do your job (prepare the charts..., create the context..., wait / find signals within the context..., create a plan for each trade...., allow each trade to come to fruition...., find another signal and repeat..., update context as price requires)

Constantly monitor yourself to ensure you are 100% - when not take a break

=============

We find solace in following our routine - never from results..., nor the mkt


We are traders; this is what we do - every day..., every trade..., rest of the week...., rest of the month...., rest of our trading career

==============

Easy as pie it is Sir

Oh..., and check the thermostat (freezing one's data bits off is never good )


==============

One note on stopping after hitting a certain profit / loss / or even after getting back to B/E

This is simply a governor / safety check valve of sorts (aka - a checkpoint)

- to throttle us
- to ensure we're 100%
- to simply ensure our mind right..., and our next actions prudent

Because..., at times it real easy to become un-centered..., un-objective..., un-detached..., tired..., mentally drained..., euphoric (after a quick windfall)..., un-focused..., distracted..., in a mode where we overly-protect today's profit (aka we're trading our PnL)..., jumpy..., antsy..., or a million other states of mind - which serve no other purpose than to cause us to act an idiot

If however.., after reaching a particular profit..., loss..., back to B/E..., or even a time during the session - we determine we're still 100% - then..., absolutely no reason not to keep on truckin (assuming the mkt conditions (volume / liquidity / movement) are conducive to do so)


RN