Yukoner's 2015 Psychological Journal

wrbtrader said:
Yukoner,

What do you mean by I am allowed three trades ???

Reality is that you have nothing in place to enforce or ensure that you will NOT break that rule or any other rule. Currently, you're amongst a large number of traders that are not able to follow their own trading plan (rules) due to lack of discipline regardless to the reasons.

You have proven again and again you'll eventually break your rules without any type of in person supervision.

Therefore, as I've already stated a few times earlier in your journals...you need in person help where someone sits side by side with you while you're trading...someone right there in person with you. This person doesn't need to know your trade strategy. In contrast, this person needs to know the details of your trading plan that manages your trade strategy. For example, as soon as you complete trade number three...this person will demand (politely) that you must close your broker platform.

The reason why you need in person help is because your words, goals, desires, sticky notes on the monitors, psych coach (telephone or online) isn't enough motivation to instill consistent discipline. Think about this very carefully. You've had years of behaviors and beliefs instilled in you from in person interactions/beliefs since childhood...they are embedded in all of your senses until the day you die.

You need help from similar type of in person interaction while you're trading that will instill new behaviors that will encourage discipline trading...resulting in consistent profits. This in my opinion is the only solution remaining if you want to break the consistent ugly cycle you're stuck within because your words, goals, sticky notes on the monitors, talks on the telephone or online with your psych coach is just not good enough...so far...these are just self promises New Years like resolutions that just doesn't work unless someone else is interacting with you in person to help you apply your trading plan.

In professional sports, when a losing team or individual is in a rut...heads start to roll. They bring in new help, new faces to interact with the team or player to enforce discipline and to enforce a plan that has been outline for success. The same is true with any corporate business...they hire people to specifically ensure the job is done properly. Those that don't are often at great risk of losing out to their competitors that do.

Its time for you to start behaving like a professional and properly fix your problem...find someone to sit with you while you're trading...someone you've educated about your trading plan and given them the right (signed agreement may be necessary in your situation) to enforce your trading plan rules (e.g. I am allowed only three trades per day, stop trading if loss exceeds $500 in a day and so on).

Without the in person help, you will not have done the best you can do because you have failed at using the most obvious solution that any professional trader would have applied at this point in their career. Please take my advice because you're fooling yourself if you think you can trade OPM or trade your own account professionally without any oversight from others...you can not successfully trade via words and wishes alone.

Friday, your job is to search and find someone in your neighborhood, city or nearby community to come to your home every day and sit with you in person while you trade...someone that has an interest in trading. Don't take another trade until you find that in person help to enforce and instill new behaviours involving your discipline so that you can succeed in trading if you're serious about being a professional trader.

Now go tell someone your trading plan and let them enforce it...in person.

P.S. Ignore the above advice if trading is just a hobby, academic pursuit or just a game of psycho analysis for you to determine whom you are as a person. Simply, deep down in that subconscious of yours...there really is no professional goal.
More...

Ok, after I calmed down from wanting to reach through the monitor and grab you by the throat... and 48 hours have past, and I read your post a few more times... first, let me say thank you. I am grateful for your advice.

What you are talking about is accountability. I get that. It is an intriguing idea. I live in one of the retirement destinations of Canada, so for sure there would be a bored old timer around who would love to learn how to daytrade oil. My concern is what happens in the future when that old timer isn't there? Is the new behavior instilled going to work in times of high stress when there isn't any oversight from others? Will I have instilled the discipline that will protect the trading plan?

Believe me, I am fucking serious about what I am trying to accomplish. For months I have been getting up at around 5:00 am following a routine, honestly journaling what I am doing, and trying to learn and improve.... then I go run a business and work a full day, and raise two teenagers single handedly... but each night before I go to bed I do my market homework and plan out the next day's trading. This isn't a video game for me.

For now, I am back to the basics. I am not a trader. I am a rookie. I don't deserve to trade OPM. I am not qualified right now to even trade my own money.
Trading 101, and I am taking baby steps. Each day, I just want to focus on this new routine in my trading behavior.... "Perfect execution of the process of that single trade", and then put a check mark in my trading journal.

Good Trades (and thanks),
Yukoner
 
monoid said:
Yukoner:

If this is the kind of thought process you have during trading (which an example of "Discursive Thought"), you do not practice mindfulness. You are just fooling yourself into thinking that you (a) understand mindfulness; and, (b) practice mindfulness.

Sorry if I came out harsh -- but it is the truth. If you even understand what mindfulness is (forget about practicing it regularly), you would know to:

(a) just "watch" the thought "I am never good enough";
(b) know to stop that thought from "chaining" further -- none of "I should do better .....";
(c) let that thought mentioned in (a) go!; and,
(d) get back to the task at hand (in this case, trading).
​
That is mindfulness. The question of why that thought arises in the first place does not matter -- no need to dissect it. The practice of all this is of course difficult but doable. We are humans, and we all have thoughts. To have no thoughts would be "non-human". What we do with our thoughts is all that matters. Do you want to create more thoughts by dissecting it, or do you want to realize that a thought is "not useful" to the task at hand and reject it? The answer to this question will dictate the approach (psychoanalytic vs. mindfulness) you take in addressing issues of the mind.

Now, tell me Yukoner: do you really practice mindfulness as you have claimed in your post? or, Are you confusing "awareness" with "mindfulness". Awareness of your thoughts is the basic requirement to start the practice of mindfulness.

All the best.

Regards,
Monoid.
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@monoid thanks for the input. Not harsh at all... just a realization that what I thought was mindfulness, is as per your definition, only awareness. I have read your post a few times now, and I can I see a part of what you are referring to. Will need to read that book you recommended.
 
Day #20 (Baby Step #1) - Slept well, even though it was a short day, I still went though my regular pre-market routine. My focus was strictly on perfect execution of the process of trading. I do everything else normal, but I put that one extra routine into the trade, and write it down in my journal and a check mark if I executed perfectly.

I did expect more movement than we got today, and my first two trades ended up with small losses (-3 and -2), however my third trade got up over 10 ticks and at one point I was tempted to just cover it with 7 or 8 ticks so I would have a winning day... BUT I reminded myself that wasn't part of the plan. I had entered that trade with a different profit target, and to violate that simply because I wanted a winning day wasn't a valid exit.

Trade #1 - Check!
Trade #2 - Check!
Trade #3 - Check!

Heard a great quote today... "The two strongest warriors are time and patience".

All I want now, is to train my brain to execute perfect process when in a trade. I don't care if the trade wins or losses. I just want to have done the correct procedure.

-61
 
Yukoner said:
Heard a great quote today... "The two strongest warriors are time and patience".


All I want now, is to train my brain to execute perfect process when in a trade.

I don't care if the trade wins or losses.

I just want to have done the correct procedure.
More...


I love it when tough love works - makes being a dickhead worthwhile

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

btw Yukoner - Trading 101 is only how I trade

Any time I try progressing to trading 102..., or beyond - mkt shows me for an idiot

Sticking to the basics is always best - least for me


Good Stuff Today Sir

RN
 
Yukoner said:
[...] at one point I was tempted to just cover it [...] so I would have a winning day [...] BUT I reminded myself that wasn't part of the plan.
[....]
All I want now, is to train my brain to execute perfect process when in a trade. I don't care if the trade wins or losses.
More...

Profound.

Rooting for you. All the best.

Regards,
Monoid.
 
Sitting in one of my favorite restaurants, reading a book I lost months ago and found just before I left for lunch today, "the Talent Code" page 94...

And I quote:
"However well this finding may support our thesis, it's real use is to paint a vivid picture of what deep practice feels like. It's the feeling, in short, of being a staggering baby, of intently, clumsily lurching towards a goal and topping over. It's a wobbly, discomfiting sensation that any sensible person would instinctively seek to avoid. Yet the longer the babies remain in that state -- the more willing they were to endure it, and to permit themselves to fail -- the more myelin they built and the more skill they earned. The staggering babies embody the deepest truth about deep practice: to get good, it's helpful to be willing, or even enthusiastic, about being bad. Baby steps are the royal road to skill."
 
Alrighty..., 2 down (last Fri / today) -> rest of your career to go

Every day...., Every trade = Do your job

Screw the results


Trade well tomorrow Yukoner

RN
 
Day #21 (Baby Step #2) - Slept well, and woke up ready for the day. It was interesting pre-market as I had felt pumped about trading... but then a part of me felt bored about trading. So I feed that part that was bored. I wanted to be good and bored about trading.

Standard routine prior to trading. Then went through the day, check mark, check mark, check mark. I fat fingered a trade and that almost was enough to disqualify me from trading, but I reacted well and that was the correct thing to do. Check mark!

I caught myself during the day with a serious bias to the downside... and once I was aware of that, I kept asking myself what was the market trying to show me and what was the correct trading process to do... and that slowed me down enough to reconsider. Once I had done that, I was able to see much more clearly.

Now the next thing I had to fight with, was the desire to trade when I couldn't be at least 85% present. And that sucked, because I could see what was starting to happen and I didn't want to take a small loss for the day (which makes no sense, but that is an old habit), so I repeated like a mantra to myself - Don't trade unless you can be completely focused. I then felt that emotion start to leave, and I closed down my trading platform and called it a day before I endangered my routine any further.

-$110
 
"It appears" to me

Your thoughts / emotions are all over the place

Why?

And what are you doing to quiet them..., to get / keep yourself in a centered / unbiased frame of mind


Any bias we develop - always originates from hindsight (it impossible to have a bias about something we don't know / can't know)

Whenever you find yourself reverting to the past - acknowledge it..., then draw yourself back into the present - and direct your focus on the present - to assist with remaining in present

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


I kept asking myself what was the market trying to show me

what was the correct trading process to do

closed down my trading platform and called it a day
More...

These 3 were good decisions (modifying the loop little by little / small steps)

Keep em as part of the "modified" loop


RN
 
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