3-31-09 Wrapping up the month

Back to solid trading today with a decent +20 pips added to the bucket. Although I wasn't taking many trades earlier this month, we ended up with a very modest +87 pips for the month. This is about 1/4 of what I'm shooting for based on my training goals. I'm not too worried about this, considering I hadn't been going full out until the last couple weeks. We'll see how much we can improve this in April.

LT

Trading Schedule

I keep thinking about how trading is like a "race" or a "sports competition". With that thought in mind, I came across Beat Your Personal Best looking for something to give me that edge.

Right now as I've mentioned a few times on the blog, I'm not too happy with my trading. Unlike what a few folks have mentioned though, changing my "setup", "hours", "market", etc. isn't likely to fix my problem. Just as changing your running shoes, the track, or the time of day you run won't help you beat your personal best.

Let's start with Personal Best. My personal best is $1,000 per contract per month (or about 10%). My goal is to beat that personal best and make $2,000 per contract per month (or about 20%). Oh yes, and all within a 2.5 hour period per day max (which is how I set my original personal best).

I started off this week thinking I was going to make $500 per contract. Reviewing todays trades which I got into too heavy, too early, I need to revise this and work my way up to this figure with a training routine.

My training routine is as follows:

Week 1
Mon - Trade 2.5 hours
- Simulator at 1X speed for 1 hour
Tues - Trade 2.5 hours
Wed - Trade 2.5 hours
- Review mechanics 1 hour
Thur - Trade 2.5 hours
Fri - Trade 2.5 hours
- Simulator 5X speed for 1 hour
Weekly target: $300

Week 2
Mon - Trade 2.5 hours
Tues - Trade 2.5 hours
- Simulator at 5X speed for 2 hour
Wed - Trade 2.5 hours
Thur - Trade 2.5 hours
- Review identifying market "emotions" 2 hours
Fri - Trade 2.5 hours
- Simulator 10X speed for 1 hour
Weekly target: $350

Week 3
Mon - Trade 2.5 hours
- Simulator at 3X speed for 1 hour
Tues - Trade 2.5 hours
Wed - Trade 2.5 hours
- Review tactics 1 hour
Thur - Trade 2.5 hours
Fri - Trade 2.5 hours
- Simulator 5X speed for 1 hour
Weekly target: $375

Week 4
Mon - Trade 2.5 hours
Tues - Trade 2.5 hours
- Simulator at 5X speed for 1 hour
Wed - Trade 2.5 hours
Thur - Trade 2.5 hours
- Review mental focus and "centering" exercises
Fri - Trade 2.5 hours
Weekly target: $425

From Week 5 onward the "race" is on!

LT

3-30-09 Too early to the game

That pretty much sums it up this morning for me. Too early to the game with too heavy a position.

-8 pips.

LT

The guy on the other side of the net

I came across a great article recently called 10 Characteristics of a Great Competitor and thought this would be great weekend reading material.

Here is my favorite point of the article:

Analyze their Opponent

Great competitors understand that the challenge in competition is all about outplaying the opponent on the other side of the net. It is a challenge that requires planning and preparation in advance of the match. They rely on past experience from matches against that opponent to determine what the opponent likes to do and what they don’t like to do. They consider how the opponent has been playing lately and the strategy other players used against this opponent that might might have been successful. All this information is factored in before they ever step foot on the court. Especially against unfamiliar opponents, they pay close attention during the warm-ups, to gather as much pertinent information as they can. By the time the match starts, the great competitor knows what to expect and can effectively anticipate patterns of play, what the opponent’s tendencies will be under pressure and it helps them shape a winning game plan.. Through the course of a match, great players stay tuned in to the opponent’s emotional state and will do whatever they can to diminish the opponent’s level of confidence. They look to capitalize on every opportunity to attack True competitors don’t beat themselves up, they beat you up and are masters at getting you to self destruct.

Average competitors tend to be far more self-absorbed in competition, often times almost oblivious about who they are playing. These players feel whether they win or lose it is all about how they played and the opponent hardly factors into the equation. Very little energy is focused on analyzing the opponent. Players, who are too self-absorbed in their match play, often beat themselves before the opponent has a chance to lose. Great competitors realize “it is more about who I’m playing than it is about me”, which takes some of the pressure off their skills and keeps them more tuned in to the battle at hand.

Keep this in mind when you put your next trade on. Are you the amateur who is playing this game without thought of the other guy, or are you analyzing the competition to take your opponent by surprise?

The best trades are an ambush for the "dumb" money. And if you can't spot the "dumb" money in the room - then it's probably you. Wait until the opportune moment when you can capitalize on the "dumb" money's weakness and you will be well on your way to sustaining a trading edge.

LT

Some Advice for a Beginning Trader

Everyonce in awhile I get asked for advice on how to become a trader. Here are some thoughts I put together on a beginner's approach to trading.

My strong suggestion for a beginning trader would be to try to just learn about the markets. You don't want to be reliant on someone else's experience, trading calls, trading robots, etc.

My second suggestion is spend some time finding out whether you LIKE trading or not. This takes time. Look at different markets, different timeframes, trading styles, indicators, etc. See what appeals to (or sometimes just as useful, what doesn't).

Third, all the people I know who trade successfully LOVE what they do. It takes passion, dedication, and thousands of hours to be successful. That's no lie. But when you first start out how do you know whether you are going to be that passionate about anything? You don't. So don't focus on making money. Focus on having fun. Seriously. Enjoy learning - enjoy watching crazy stuff happen in the market every day. And if you do that long enough you will KNOW if you are going to make this your life's passion - or not. So don't get hung up on making money until you've figured that out.

Best of luck.

LT

3-27-09 Waking up to opportunity

I think I mentioned how several times last week I woke up just to find I'd missed a (or the) great trading opportunity of the morning. Not today. Soon as I pulled up my charts I knew it was time to buy. Ah extreme emotions (as long as they aren't mine) :)

Hit 2 50k lots for a total of +22 pips.

Total for the week: +24, -3.4, +7.6, NA, +22 for a grand total of +50.2 pips or about 3R on 50k lots.

Goal for next week +75 pips on the same lot size.

LT

P.S. Am thinking about going back to live in a few weeks. We'll see how things go

3-26-09 Missed opportunities

Didn't trade at all this morning as I wasn't feeling well and was totally exhausted. I really respect Don and Jules for being able to stick out sick days and trade through, but I just wasn't able to hang this morning. To bad...lots of great opportunities.

LT

3-25-09

Not much to say about this morning except it was pretty quiet other than one brief emotional outburst. Stayed out of trouble +7 pips

3-24-09 Had the Market on the Ropes

Today I struggled getting out the gate to find the "emotion" of the morning. However, I soon got into the swing of things and took a couple o.k. scalps.

However, at 6:18 I had a golden opportunity and I let my own thoughts get in the way. We bounced hard off of support at a well established level on the 60 min charts and even though I was a little early getting in and very early getting out I scalped a few pips.

The problem is that this was the most over emotional moment of the day so far. And it was obvious that sellers wanted to continue the rampage set by yesterday's trending day. And it was so obviously not going to happen twice. I made 2 key mistakes on this trade. The first was I got out with a pittance of a sum. And the second was that I got out about where I should have added to my position.

When you have the markets on the ropes, you gotta go for the jugular. You don't get that many very high probability trades, and you can't let your own fears get added to the fears of the sheeple.

-2 pips on the day doesn't tell the whole story at all. This easily should have been a +25 to +30 day. No excuses.

LT

3-23-09 - You ain't a trading robot!

First, I'd like to say a big thank you to Don Miller. Somewhere in his vast collection of videos he reflects on a truly sage piece of trading advice, and that is that he trades based on emotions. Not his emotions, but the market's. This isn't some news flash to me; however, I never really trusted those signals. I traded in my robotic, mechanical fashion like a retarded monkey. With this piece of advice, and my wife's admonition, "you never trust yourself to trade right" (ouch!) I decided to change how I prioritize my trading.

I have always had a very strong interest in trade tactics and mechanics, but I realized that my strategy of "capturing short-term momentum moves" was about as vague and useless as one could get. So, I'd like to change that to "capturing short-term momentum moves based on extreme emotion in the market."

With that change, we've had some good results today. Interestingly enough, I called each emotional swing (if you will) correctly. But I'm still working out the bugs in execution. You'll also notice I'm trading half size at this point, and that is for two reasons: 1) my trading was poor last week, and 2) I'm scaling into and out of trades.

Overall result for the morning: +14 - what it easily could and should have been +24. Still, if anything, I am more excited to trade than ever. It felt right trading this morning. I knew things. I traded based on what I knew. The mechanics supported me, but didn't stifle me. I felt like an artist.

LT

P.S. Just made another 10 pips on yet another emotional golden opportunity this morning. Too funny. So make that +24 out of a possible +34 for the day.

3-20-09

This morning was all about not getting chopped up. Not a lot going on the 60 min time frame. This was a good clue early on that only the locals would be playing. Tried not to get too fancy and to keep my expectations grounded. +5 on the day.

This week was not so hot: +0.4

Admittedly I think I traded pretty well during a non momentum style market. I'm really only disappointed in Thursday's results.

LT

3-19-09 Want to buy a mechanic

When I first started trading, all I thought about where setups. Find the perfect entry and you would be a gazillionare.

Look at all the beautiful entries I took this morning. I took every single one of them - perfectly entered. Unfortunately, less than half were exited at the correct time. Out of those 6 trades I held 5 of them too long.

Um helloooooo! You are not Dennis Richard. You are a freaking scalper. You need to be a ninja. Undetected and unsuspected.




So here's the damage -4.5 pips out of a total possible of +25. Seriously? Yeah seriously. WTF!

Here is my mantra for tomorrow: You are a Ninja; if you are up +6 pips you will take the freaking trade off the table if it ever retraces to +3. Always, I don't care about excuses! Also if you don't see volume expanding in your direction just get out immediately.

LT

When Trading Discipline Fails

Discipline is the ability to ensure consistency of thought and action. When we think in a disciplined manner our mind does not stray from the action at hand. Thoughts become actions. Actions become results. Results provide feedback to our thoughts.

Mark Douglas and many others have written books and articles describing the need for discipline in trading. Discipline is widely proscribed for struggling traders as a panaecea for our ills. Despite these educational materials, most traders never ever reach trading success consistently. Why is that?

Steve Pavlina articulately states that self-discipline is only attainable through acceptance of reality. If we wish to be discliplined then we must assess how disciplined we currently are. Thus we might consider the following:

• do you have a trading methodology that is clearly defined (i.e. written down)?
• do you trade the same methods every day/week/month?
• do you have a predetermined stop loss?
• do you honor it?
• do you have a predetermined contract size?
• do you honor it?
• do you ever take a position just because (e.g. you wanted to get back at the market)?
• do you trade differently because you are up/down $X?
• do you trade differently because you aren't feeling well?
• do you trade differently because of overly negative/positive thinking?
• what do you wear while you are trading?
• how comfortable are you with your trading desk/computer setup?
• how comfortable are you with your trading software?
• do you have a backup in case your trade station goes down?
• do you have a drop dead point for the day/week/month/year?
• do you honor it?
• how does it feel to hit that drop dead point? do you act any differently in subsequent trading?

Take a real awareness test of these items. How disciplined are you as a trader? Based on the statistics, there are very few of us who can positively affirm all of the above results all the time.

Why is that, and what is it that happens to our rational selves when Trading Discipline fails?

Imagine for a moment that the market has been very choppy in a tight range all morning. You have diligently taken all of your method's signals and been stopped out several times in a row. You are near your drop dead point for the day. Suddenly, the market surges up towards the edge of the range. Is your finger already hitting the buy button without a trading signal?

What just happened is that your emotions have bamboozled you. You have been pawned. Not by the market, but by yourself. Your vision of what reality should be, a positive account statement, is in direct conflict with truth, a negative one. Your emotions have kicked your brain out of the drivers seat and you are gonna "smash the market's face in".

Moments after placing that order, your rational brain come back online. Oh - $hit you say! What was I thinking? Now what do I do? And while your rational brain is trying to resolve this issue the market is ticking lower, and lower. Now your mind is scrambling. You know that you broke discipline and are going to have that on your account statement if you don't "fix" the problem. Well, you rationalize, we are still in a range, I can hold onto this position and get out at a better price once it bounces. As the day progresses the market never reaches your initial entry point. It comes close, but never gets you back to being "whole".

Later that afternoon, the market starts to turn down. It starts giving you valid signals to sell a breakout. Normally, if you weren't so emotionally handcuffed to this trade, there is good chance you would take this sell opportunity here. But you don't. You are bleeding pretty bad already, your account is at -$500 per contract already and you just can't take that hit. Suddenly, there are no buyers and only sellers. The market explodes south of the range, and is pushing with heavy institutional selling. Everything in your body and mind wishes you had not only closed your buy position, but had sold as well. Damn, damn, damn, is all you can think.

Eventually, you exit your long position. Either your rational mind wakes you up and realizes that you could lose your account, or you get a margin call from your broker. You might have even averaged on the way down to try to minimize the damage. But it doesn't matter. You've had a "blow out" experience. Your account is red, your confidence is shattered, your emotions torn.

Where was all that discipline? How many times have you been there before? Can anyone relate to these experiences?

LT

P.S. In the next article I will discuss my thoughts on self-discipline and trading, specifically on techniques I use to monitor and curb the emotional thought processes that can lead to blow out trading.

3-18-09 Ugly trading

This morning's trading action felt a bit like being led on. After watching a very strong New York open, the volatility for the day just fizzled.

Two lessons to take from today's trading. One, letting my stop get hit by Oanda's execution is a mistake (duh). Took 2 pips worth of totally unnecessary slippage on that first trade. Second, was that being close to my drop dead point, I choked and didn't take trade number 3. It is very hard to take 2 losers in a row and then come in with the exact same trade idea and make number 3 a go. Unfortunately, this is exactly what ends up being profitable 9 times out of 10.

Overall -7.5. Not exactly on my A game this morning, and the market wasn't exactly giving away freebies. Feeling pissed at myself for getting sucked into taking any trades at all with this weaktastic volatility, but not sure I could have seen things any other way.

LT

Working Hard for my money 3-17-09

There are some days when trading is the easiest thing in the world. This wasn't one of those days. And the shame of it was that I missed an easy +10 pip trade right at the beginning of the day (technically a few minutes before my trading day). If I had a pip for every time that happened to me I'd be a very rich man indeed.

At the end I held on to my patience pretty well. I could have exited the 2nd to last trade just a bit faster. But I admit, digging ditches was starting to break my back. Overall, I can't complain: +9.4 pips for the day. But it sure wasn't fun.

LT

3-16-09

Pretty tight little range this morning after some big European moves. -2 pips on the day. Could have grabbed a couple more trades and perhaps a few more opportunities, but overall, not too bad on such a tightly ranging morning.

Trading Video for 3-13-09

I've posted another trading video to describe how I took my trades on Friday.

LT

3-13-09 Weekly Recap

Only took a couple of trades this morning for +6.5 pips. Do you ever have days where you just don't feel like trading? I know - weird. A fair amount of this I attribute to the fact that it's Friday, the 13th no less, and I have been fighting off being sick for the past couple of days. I don't really feel terrible at the moment, just apathetic. Meh, too much psychoanalysis isn't going to help my trading results.

Bottom line +31.4 pips this week. Overall, my weekly goal is to make 3%, and my monthly goal is to make 12%. I did accomplish my weekly goal, making 4.5%.

There were a lot more available opportunities on certain days (um today for example); however, I feel I really traded my best on Monday (yes I know it was a small losing day). Why? Because that day was very difficult and I managed not to blow myself up. Tuesday's 15 pips were a gimmie. My cat could have made money on that day (well except for the opposable thumbs requirements).

I think a few more weeks of paper trading are still in order before I go back to live. I really had some negative thoughts that got me off to a rough start on Thursday in particular. Toward the end I was trying not to get frustrated with the behavior of the market (it was very volatile but with little follow through). Instead I need to be focused on trading not only when my signal patterns line up, but also when the market movement is consistent with my style of trading.

LT

3-12-09 Erratic thoughts

After the first three trades of the day I thought we would be getting into some market normalcy as we've seen earlier this week. The fourth trade was a roller coaster. Despite the positive results, market volatility made this and the last trade kinda hectic. Happy to end the day with +10 pips to the good after a rough start.

3-11-09 Not feeling too well

Yep, I took the first trade of the day for +4.5 pips and decided I just couldn't keep myself awake any longer. Not feeling too good this morning. Looks like I missed out on a few pips (probably another +10 or so net).

Don't know how Jules trades sick all the time. Just can't concentrate with that.

LT

Reinventing Trading Success

I remember reading Paul Tudor Jones talk about the emphemeral nature of trading success in Market Wizards and how he was more scared of losing than ever before. Brett Steinbarger has mentioned the need for us as traders to occasionally reinvent ourselves and that the difference between a competant trader an expert trader was this ability to go to the edge as a trader and come back from a debilitating losing streak or fundamental change in the marketplace we trade.

Thinking back to when I was 16, I ran into this very dilemma. Not with trading, but with golf. I had started playing golf when I was 9. I wasn't Tiger Woods, but for my age I was pretty good. Moreover, I was passionate about playing golf. I analyzed my golf game even when I wasn't on the course. I was constantly looking for new ways to improve myself. And then I hit a growth spurt around 15 or so. And my game went from being good to pretty crummy almost overnight. I spent extra time on the practice range, went to several golf instructors, and overall became obsessed with "fixing" my golf swing. I was emotionally distraught over this process, going from the lows of not even being able to make contact with the ball, to the highs of occasionally seeing my old golf swing "coming back". Eventually, I discovered that I had been placing undue expectations on myself, not because I really felt compelled to play golf for myself, but rather because I thought that it would please my father. Upon this discovery, and the fact that this compulsion was nearly entirely fictious, I quit playing golf (well o.k. I still occassionally hack around).

Perhaps I surprised you there. Did you think I would go on to be the next Tiger Woods?

Trading on the other hand is something I've never done for someone else. The good news about trading is that it is so highly ostracized by normal social circles that there really is no reason to be doing this for anyone other than yourself. The bad news is that you can't rely on these normal social circles to fuel your low emotional energies when the rest of life (or even your trading) is beating you up. Fortunately, the market itself is a social circle that provides direct feedback. Listening and learning to the market's conversations is one of the elements that compels me to trade. Also, there are social networks such as this blog (and others) available on the internet. These are the elements that provided me with a successful motivation for trading in the first place.

Having gotten out of the "zone" from these elements in recent trading months has been due to me questioning my ability to understand other people's emotions (specifically certain important other people). When I am able to understand and integrate these emotional elements into the way that I read people (and the markets), I believe I will be well on my way to reinventing success.

My trading modus operandi will then be, "deriving understanding of myself, through the observation and interaction of other people and the markets, which are synonymous."

LT

3-10-09

Wrapping it up a little early here, as the market is consolidating and I don't see anything setting up in the next 10 minutes.

The good news is this is my first winning day since starting back. The bad news is that I gave away free pips on such an easy day. The first trade really should have been +3 but I held it to +0, wanting to give an obvious go-getter trade maximum leeway. Hint - good trades don't need leeway. Second, and this is where I really screwed up, is entering the 3rd trade prematurely. Apparently, I am so good that I don't need a real trading signal! Yeah that was an expensive 7 pips down the rat hole.

Overall +15 but should have had +25. Disappointing result on such an easy day.

3-9-09

First trade should never have been taken. You don't enter a trade that has setup with a candle that goes immediately against the position you are wanting to take and then hop in because it later shows momentum. Dumb.

The last trade I got in a little late, not real bad but missed a couple pips there.

Other than that, I think I need to do a video to remind myself what my ABC setups look like. I missed both of the ABC setups today. Silly.

Actual results -4.7 pips out of a total of +13 possible for the morning. I don't feel too bad about this, since this wasn't the easiest day to trade, but really, some very stupid mistakes in there.

Scalping Forex Setup - LL LH

We'll I promised that I would get some video up here, so I've put together a video describing one of my bread and butter setups the LL LH (or for longs HH HL). I know that the sound leads the video just by a few seconds so if things look a little off that is why. Still learning the video thing. Let me know what you think.

3-6-09 Calling it a day

So a couple of things. First, I did really well with taking most all of my signals. Second, I missed the best winning signal of the day (would have been good for +15). Lastly, I didn't keep my cool on the second to last trade and sat through a 22 pip drawdown. Yep, that's $%&! trading right there in a nut shell. I didn't get burned today but that doesn't mean squat. I coulda got out at -6 pips.

Losers average losers.

Overall -1.3 pips. Yeah no biggie, except I surrendered +23 pips to the market by failing to take 2 trades. Stupid, huh?

On the plus side, I am starting to get over my fear of trading. Yep, I'm convinced, I'm a afraid to trade at the moment. Gotta chip away at that. I'm a good person, I deserve to trade. Must keep telling myself that...

3-6-09

So I missed the first trade of the morning. What was I thinking? Trying to see too much into my patterns. If the pattern is there, trade it. It's that simple.

Second trade was actually the dicier of the 2 setups, and I pulled it off very nicely, riding the momentum until we hit nearby support. Need to focus on this type of trading. In and out, like a ninja.

3-5-09 Daily review

I definately had a better idea of my conscious thoughts for the day. I didn't get lost in negative mental feedback loops as much as yesterday. I think my biggest criticism for the day is that I had difficulty resolving conflicting signals, and this is most likely due to an incomplete definition for a few of those signals.

During my trading period there were 7 possible setups. 4 of these setups were invalidated for various reasons, leaving 3 valid setups, of which I took 1. The reason for that is that the other 2 valid setups were in possible conflict with other potential setups. If I had taken these other two setups my results for the day would have been +22 instead of -8 pips.

The first legitimate setup that I missed (I saw it I just didn't know what to do) occured directly after a potential ABC setup. Unfortunately that ABC setup was invalid because the signal candle formed a new resistance below the previous wave of resistance. This confused me into doing nothing on the next trade which was a valid 3LL short. The second legitimate setup that I missed was a valid ABC setup, but now I was confused on the exact entry for my ABC (due to the previous error). This caused me to miss the entry timing (again I saw the setup but didn't know when exactly to get in). And before anyone comments on it, yes I have extensively tested these signals, but this is the first time I am trading them all together (previously I only traded the LL/HH setups).

Some lessons/thoughts for the day:

1) For the ABC setup, the entry candle should preferably break above the previous S/R. If it forms a new S/R below/above the previous, then exit the trade at market.
2) Do not take a second ABC trade the same trend as the first (almost made this mistake)
3) Skipping disproportionate LL trades is good (I knew this already).
4) Skipping trades that are up against a strong well established S/R floor is a good idea (again I knew this)
5) Keeping my head screwed on straight - priceless (yes I am learning this still)

LT

P.S. most of these technical terms probably don't mean much without further explanation. What is an "ABC" setup? I will be covering my setups in a later post.

3-5-09 continued

This was a decent setup of a failed double bottom right at support. Too bad I was too slow to get in on time. Wasn't gonna chase it. I didn't trade the following LL simply because we were losing volume at a major support line.

3-5-09 First Trade

Off to a slow start this morning. When the market is trying to tell you it's slow, it's slow. Must...pull...the...bananas...out...of...my...ears. Mkay all better now. Really.

Working on thoughts and expectations

I'm giving a lot of consideration right now to what I am thinking while I'm trading. Perhaps I even need to add this to my daily blotter. For most of the morning I stayed out of the market (even missing a really good trade opportunity) because I was worried about posting a losing trade. Eventually I realized the erroneousness of this thought process and got into the flow (mostly). Unfortunately, these expectations of being "right" or "making money" got in the way on my second trade causing me to close somewhat early. What's truly funny is that there is no real money on the line. It's just paper. But my thoughts are tuned to treat this as real trading, and as such my real trading problems are coming through.

Specifically, regarding the trade I didn't hold. There are 3 rules that came into play:

1) If I am up 1R or more and the trade falters 30% - bail out.
2) If I see volume coming on to reinforce my trade I will continue to hold the trade over 1.5 R until volume falters.
3) Typical profit target is 1.5R

These are all very fine rules and have been tested extensively. However, I had a doubt. After the trade began to falter say 20-30% ish, I thought, "I don't want a loser to start the day". And hit the exit. I actually strictly followed my rules. But it is like the Matrix - you have to know when to bend the rules, or even break them. Why? Because the reason price faltered was it was setting up to break out. Selling volume didn't come in, but buying volume temporarily stopped - only to be replaced by a dirth of buying orders moments later. A big part of my edge as a discretionary trader is "reading" the market. If I trade like a retarded robot I can expect to see results indicitive of that level of trading. Much like playing a musical instrument, I need to trust myself to improvise well when needed.

3-4-09 wrap up

Overall this was a fairly average morning for the Euro. I missed a couple of good setups by not being a little more on the ball. No biggie. One gripe is that I should have had 15 pips on the first trade I took. The volume was there, the money was staring me in the face (o.k. virtual money). Why am I so damn disciplined about taking losses but have trouble sticking out a win?

3-4-09

If we can break above 1.2560 this should be a good area for a long.

Time for some changes

We'll I think it's time for some changes. I would like to thank Jules and Lonely Trader for bugging me not to stop blogging.

Here's the deal. I lost my mind over the past few months. With several things really. Like I can't teach anyone how to trade (especially my independent wife - who by the way would rather knit than trade). Or that I need to say anything constructive/instructive in my blog (thank you Jules for pointing this out). Like do I really hate short-term trading, or am I driving myself crazy with expectations (or really the fear of other people's expectations)? Some days you just don't want to deal with that after having a multiple R losing day. Or be accountable in any way whatsoever.

The problem is that I lost sight of what this blog is good for. Namely it is my reality check. That if I have a really bad trade/day/week/etc. I can't hide under my pillow or stuff the brokerage sheet in the shedder (as bad as I want to sometimes). On the flip side, hopefully some of you will check my ego at the door if I beat the snot out of the market for a day or two (before reality comes back).

So with that said (and for the few readers who are left), I need to make some changes to this blog:

1) Needs to be less ugly. Help! Maybe time to go wordpress? Not sure.
2) I want to find a reasonably easy way to get some video up on the site. This will help keep me accountable knowing that people will be watching my trades.
3) Things are gonna get a lot more visceral around here. If I have a shit/good day you are gonna hear about it (thanks Jules).
4) You will be seeing a daily blotter. Right now I'm back to paper trading. Before you ask, no I haven't blown my account. But my confidence is blown (not by the market - by myself). I've had this lack of confidence with my trading occur before but didn't listen to my doubts. This time I will. I need to have that accountability to get back on track.

O.k. I guess that's all. Hehe.

LT