** Reviewing what happened from Jan 11-13 **
I was having an awesome 3weeks of trading since I had the epiphany about being able to see trends on a multi-timeframe but I was having a rough week at work that sun-wed and went through an emotional rollercoaster. With my new schedule, i'd only realistically have thur/fri now to trade without being sleep-deprived. Wednesday morning after a rough shift and been awake 10 hrs alrdy, i got prepared for the market day knowing to be careful since I was so sleepy and would not be at peak performance.
Jan 11 - Wednesday
ETRM, I knew was a very high risk position that I held overnight. Half-position size but I knew well that I might lose more than I'd like if I had to bail out Pre-Market. By the time pre-market opened, I knew that it was damage control time.. Blew past my stop loss but was able to fill on a bounce. Lost more than i'd like but was able to control the damage.
BIOC, Small position pre-market, opened good, added to my position then locked half my shares in for 284$ profit.. Doubled up on a pullback and watched it fly to the heavens-- I was up $1,200 at one point but failed to lock in any of my shares while it was at the top due to m'fckin GREED wanting it to hit 1.5k-2k. It whipsawed ALOT and lost a majority of the gains within a few minutes--Locked in another half for 178.96$. Overall, I became stubborn for 6-10mins and didn't close out my last 1000 when it dropped to 1.6ish losing 219.8$ with another 80$ lost to commissions. Horrible trade but made a few hundred. I exceeded my day trades though and got my account frozen for 90 days.. FML...
I also, tried to trade a position on E-trade when it was spiking which i got stopped out on because i was too slow in getting my orders in the web platform, I was unable to lock in profits and got stopped out for a small 50$ loss+20$ commissions.
At this point, I walked away like I normally do and I was breakeven I think on the day even with the big ETRM loss. But I was just so mad about what was going on with work and trading was where I felt at home so I opened up my etrade accnt and tried to trade--which of course was a big nono since I was so heated up from work and that GREED got to me. As a result of Revenge trading, I ended up the day red 300$ and got that account frozen for 90 days as well. FML right ?? Both accounts frozen... This is the best day of the year...
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Jan 13 - Fri
TBIO. I was able to request and unlock my accounts and get 2$ commissions lower in my TD accnt due to being military. I don't remember what I was doing but I just knew I didn't have any go-to-setups in the AM.. There were reversals that I had been studying but My rule was to paper trade unproven setups.. Fast-forwarding--> 3 Trades later --> TBIO Worst day...
Mistake #1: I traded against the trend
Mistake #2: Should've paper traded this reversal play since this was not a go-to-setup yet.
Mistake #3: Preserve your capital... I lost 600$ just to try out reversal trading... FML...
My first red week -$1000.. I told myself I'll be taking a break from trading to cool off and really take the time to assess and work out why I did what I did.
I ended up getting into the Warrior Trading Pro Course that Sunday during a webinar that they had due to a nice rebate program for their course. I was split on finally being a Sykes Challenge student or the WTPro Course and I think I can learn more from Ross than Sykes currently but looking back now, I think I can learn a ton from the discussions that the millionaire students have with each other inside the challenge. I might go into the challenge again at a later point but not anywhere in the immediate timeframe.
Never trade an unproven strategy.... TBIO......
Zombie Experiment traded the shit out of it.... sigh.. FML...
2 weeks of steady discipline wiped out in 2 days. I thought the revenge trade on that wednesday was bad, but after how friday ended--my zombie trading still reigns supreme as the cause of my largest losses with revenge trading my 2nd largest.
MY MISTAKES AREN'T MISTAKES UNLESS I FAIL TO LEARN FROM THEM !!!
My losses from actual failed breakouts or getting stopped out have been minuscule compared to losses resulting from failure to stay disciplined or control my emotions...
Week to week and day to day, I'm no longer going to think about $$ goals and instead have goals that's focused on mitigating risk and controlling my emotions. The small change of reducing stupid trades from the end of december caused me to have consistent profits. Even with these nasty losses, I had a 1.9:1 Avg Win/Avg Loss ratio--If I can raise my accuracy closer to 50%, the profits will just flow.
Shifting my attitude/mindset from making money and towards:
1) Risk Management
- Know risk prior to trade
- Know stop loss prior to trade
- Size position accordingly to the stop loss and the quality of the setup
2) Managing Emotions
- No more zombie trading (Trading low-quality setups)
- No more revenge trading
Mandatory Weekly Goals....
A) Zero (0) Zombie trades
B) Zero (0) Revenge trades
C) Trade only quality/Go-To-Setups.. (Think retired trader)
New Rule: If I have either 1 zombie trade or 1 revenge trade during February, I will sit out from trading for a mandatory 1 week cooling off. This will be a negative incentive that will turn me off from making those type of trades since almost all my motivation and raison d'être currently is daytrading.
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So here I am now, 2 weeks later. I'm pretty scared of going back into the market, albeit with a much, much bigger account that I'll be opening with Speed Trader. I did paper trade GLBS last friday with a good solid result to boost my confidence a little bit.
"Don't be afraid of losses. A loss can be a good thing. Don't shy away from them, don't be embarrassed by them." - T. Sykes.
Overall, I've pulled myself out of the red from december and have been profitable since. I just really need to focus on being disciplined.
PULM
I didn't trade Thursday AM since I was so sleepy but I did take a peek into thur PM for an o/n play. It had a nice F3/ABCD pattern-ish except for two things that I didn't like:
1) It had consistent lower lows in the afternoon.
2) Although it kept most of it's AM gainst, it was 40cents off it's highs.
I thought about buying it, but I went against it since I still wasn't in the mood to trade.
Been awake since I woke up at noon, and stayed up studying all night catching up on Sykes Vid lessons as well as being severely behind my WT Pro lessons--I didn't feel like trading since I'd roughly be awake for 20hrs when the market opens. I opted to go to sleep instead..
My buddy Greg called out AUPH, CRK, and PULM in our FB Chat while I was out snoring away. Now, I'm still catching up on lessons at this cafe in St. Louis and I finally took a peek on how the market did today. Great fckin' CALLS since all 3 ended up with nice spikes. So smexy... PULM was my main stock on my Watchlist too..
Normally, I'd be soo pissed about missing out on it... But by taking that 2 weeks off, I missed a handful of nice setups but in return, I gained some patience knowing that these setups will repeat themselves. There is alot less FEELING OF MISSING OUT.. Which reinforces that I have to be prepared to nail that entry and NOT CHASE when I miss my entry since these setups repeat themselves.
"Think of yourself as a retired trader" - T. Sykes
Think of it this way, as traders, Our job is to be patient. Most of our time should be spent watching and waiting.” -LX21
"SUCCESS is when PREPARATION meets OPPORTUNITY" - MSgt Favela
I'm going to leave a link to Tim Grittani's Blog here:
http://tradetheticker.blogspot.com/
This guy's blogs/videos/DVD has helped me HUGE as far as getting me to keep track of my trades/profits/losses on an excel-format document (I use Google Spreadsheets atm).
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