Yukoner's 2015 Psychological Journal

[Yukoner]

Pday #8 - Slept well, woke up ready for the day. Went through my standard routine, and went into the day well prepared.

Nailed it. Stuck to the plan. Checkmark.

1 tick away from profit target... then retraced. Checkmark
2 ticks away from profit target then retraced. Checkmark.
Still in a trade short, get a signal to go long... but stuck with plan. Checkmark.

Really, really pleased that I stuck with the plan. A crazy day, and only just now able to post... but feel like a million bucks.

Hello sweet weekend... and Beer Fest!

-132

 

[jsmacksem]

Pday #8 - Slept well, woke up ready for the day. Went through my standard routine, and went into the day well prepared.

Nailed it. Stuck to the plan. Checkmark.

1 tick away from profit target... then retraced. Checkmark
2 ticks away from profit target then retraced. Checkmark.
Still in a trade short, get a signal to go long... but stuck with plan. Checkmark.

Really, really pleased that I stuck with the plan. A crazy day, and only just now able to post... but feel like a million bucks.

Hello sweet weekend... and Beer Fest!

-132

Enjoying some Bells Two Hearted Ale myself.

Enjoy the weekend!

 

[Handle123]

Pday #8 - Slept well, woke up ready for the day. Went through my standard routine, and went into the day well prepared.

Nailed it. Stuck to the plan. Checkmark.

1 tick away from profit target... then retraced. Checkmark
2 ticks away from profit target then retraced. Checkmark.
Still in a trade short, get a signal to go long... but stuck with plan. Checkmark.

Really, really pleased that I stuck with the plan. A crazy day, and only just now able to post... but feel like a million bucks.

Hello sweet weekend... and Beer Fest!

-132

Hope you do work your rear end off on system as you have gotten mental aspects down well.
Have a beer for me.

 

[NoDoji]

...right up against my personal daily loss limit. ...about 15 minutes later a picture perfect low risk setup appeared. I so wanted to take the trade, but the parameters if stopped out would have put me beyond my daily loss limit. It wasn't easy, a bit of an internal struggle... but I stuck to my rules, and didn't take the trade. However, I did sim trade it... and yea, exited with a 74 tick gain.

I am getting close to being finished with these static stops and take profits, but going to finish up the week before I make any decisions. So far, I have proven to myself that I can now stick with a plan.

Since this is a psychological journal, I'll share some observations. Firstly, by "stick with a plan" have you proven you can stick with your trading plan, or have you proven you can stick with a rule that says "fixed stop or target"? If it's the second one, why would you be doing this in a combine where you're trying to qualify to be a funded a trader, instead of doing this in the sim account you refer to? If it's the first one, why aren't you proving you can stick with your trading plan?

Earlier in your journal, before your fixed stop/target experiment, it seemed you were cutting profits short or getting stopped out of great trades around break even because you weren't allowing price enough time to reach your larger targets. Most of these trades not only went to your target, but exceeded your target. You analyzed these outcomes and saw that you'd have excellent profits overall. Now that you're actually doing this fixed stop/target experiment, it seems that hardly any trades are hitting your target. What changed?

Secondly, regarding your daily loss limit: Did your extensive statistical analyses that led to your trading plan demonstrate that it was somewhat common to have losing days greater than $400? If so, why are using that as a loss limit in your combine? If not, are you putting on trades at entry prices that are slightly different from your plan? I've found that an entry price just slightly different from my 2-tick slippage cushion allowance is often the difference between a profit and a loss. Are you taking slippage on entries into account when placing profit targets? That could account for all these trades coming within a tick or two of your target.

Things aren't making sense to me here. It's as if you're engaging in outcome bias, or attempting to fulfill a part of an idea but not the entire package, which in trading will generally result in disaster for your account. That's fine to do in sim, but why waste money on a combine experimenting this way?

 

[Yukoner]

UPGRADE - So this weekend I went back over and reviewed my methodology, spoke with my psych coach, and we both decided that it was time for an upgrade to what I have been practicing. So I am now going to do the following for this week coming up:

1) Only trade one contract... no adding to winners.
2) Stick with my $400 daily loss limit
3) As per my methodology I will adjust trades based on market condition. I will still employ stops and take profits, however they will be adjusted like I was taught... to exit when market conditions show the trade is invalidated.
4) Still do the checkmarks after each trade
5) Let my focus remain entirely on correct trade execution and not on P&L.
6) Try to stay in a neutral state while trading.... just be an observer.

I feel like I am at a pivotal point to better trading. It is hard to explain, but I mentally feel stronger. It is like I can endure more. I have sat there for two weeks and watched trades almost go to my profit target, only to stop me out. Nobody died.... everyone is okay.
Before my emotion would sometimes jump all over the place, and now it is much much calmer... as I focus on what is the market condition telling me to do now.

Another huge help, has been what @monoid recommended to me, and that is to let my brain have time to relax. Setting certain times in the day to do homework and catch up on my journal, and just to allow myself to think trading... that has really helped to recharge my brain for the next day. So yea, sometimes I have to just push trading out of my mind.... and go somewhere else.

Thanks everyone for all your help and support!

PS. The beer fest was freaking awesome! Blew off some much needed steam, and had a super good time with my buddies.

 

[Redneck]

YK

Good to see you finishing last part of the week strong (disciplined)

Good Job Sir

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

UPGRADE

3) As per my methodology I will adjust trades based on market condition.

I will still employ stops and take profits, however they will be adjusted like I was taught...

to exit when market conditions show the trade is invalidated.

Now..., call me crazy - or stumped - but what in the hell does this mean

I could decipher this sentence (parts bolded and underlined) several different - and likely wrong - ways

Just want to understand so I can monitor your adherence

==========

Tomorrow another new day

We otoh - must maintain diligence



RN

 

[Stocks4life]

When do you intend to employ a trailing stop? I never like to give back good gains. A smart trail is an edge in itself.

 

[Handle123]

When do you intend to employ a trailing stop? I never like to give back good gains. A smart trail is an edge in itself.

For me Trailing stops tested out as means to not let profits run, but I suppose it you find them good for whatever you tested it is valid to use. But when you scalping I really don't see the point, too often in my youth I allowed to let price give more away than just get out, sort of deer in headlights, plus it took my concentration away as very often market has said it has mad S/R, I prefer to get to breakeven plus tick and leave it there.

 

[Handle123]

I thought for sure that ES trading be better than concentrating on Crude, I was so wrong, LOL This is what happens when you are a mechanical trader and stick in invalid thought, thought price might rip early up through trend lines. So I traded early morning chop in Crude which I love.

Time to book to Starbucks all, done for the day Yabba Dabba Do.

 

[Yukoner]

UDay #1 - Slept well, and went into the day with my normal trading routine under my belt. I took a few extra minutes before turning on my computer to just monitor myself, and make sure I was ready. Felt my heart beating a bit faster, and I realized that I was a bit concerned about the day. Best I could say was "jitters". So I waited... I relaxed... and I reminded myself of my weekend homework, and of following the plan.

Day started off fine, but that chop early on caught me on my first couple of trades... which was fine. Then I made a mistake and took a breakout signal, but had missed we were right at a high volume node based on previous structure... that would have invalidated that trade setup. So suddenly I am down now 15 ticks. I pause, I wait... I relax... and just chilled until I felt like I was seeing the market well again.

Then it started to come together and I took four winning trades in a row. Doing what I was supposed to do based on market condition. Those all felt good. I reacted accordingly to what the market was telling me. Then missed a couple of great entries, mainly because the market was moving so quickly... but that was fine as I didn't chase it.

Then I made one other mistake. I was in a winning trade, and up about 10 ticks. As per market conditions I reduced my risk to below market structure, so I now had about 6 ticks at risk. Then this was the mistake...trade came back a bit, and I thought... "why take a 6 tick loss, just reduce to only two ticks"... and barely thinking, I did that. I was stopped out, and suddenly realized I had made an error... I had adjusted based on emotion, not on market structure/condition. Once I realized what I had done, I got back into the trade on the same entry point, and left my stop 6 ticks away and continued to manage it correctly. Checkmark for doing it right the second time.

My final trade of the day I was up 10 ticks or so, and I did want to cover, but again it was only based on wanting to have those ticks and not let the trade work out. So I left it alone, and I let it work out only to take a loss. Checkmark.

There was a lot more going through my mind today with making trade adjustments. I was super focused on whether or not I was doing the correct thing. I almost think that might have been a detriment, as I just needed to stay relaxed and let things work. I am going to remember that feeling of just being relaxed, and try to get into that mode tomorrow before I put on any trades.

-349