[TinGull]

Hey bf,

what Im about to say helped me a ton, though it may be obvious to some. Take what I say with a grain of salt, cause Im still a newbie trader (at least I feel so).

With that disclaimer out of the way...there were a couple of people who have helped me tremendously with some issues such as youre describing. My girlfriend and my coach.

When I have a trade that Im in and it's going my way, and then I see some weakness creep in I'll get out ASAP. Weakness to me shows up as price stalling under a pivot, seeing a quick rejection of a significant area... And then when I get out, many times it continues going my way. Frustrating. When I get all in a tizzy about it, my girl will say: Did you do the best you could do with the information you had at that moment? Sure...I did. I saw weakness and got out. "well what are you crying for?!" she says.

My coach told me...you can't see to the right of the chart, so why bother thinking about it. Think about what is happening right now. Lately this has become something that's gotten easier for me to do...not think. I had been letting some trades overmature and taking profit after the max peak had already occurred. Equally as frustrating for me. So now, I tell myself...I'll hold on until I see weakness. When that weakness comes in, there's a chance it'll continue up. How much do I want to risk to find out if it will?

My coach recommended applying a Fib rule to my profits. Say I see weakness...how confident am I in the trend that is happening? Do I want to risk 62% of my current profits to find out if it'll continue? Maybe I feel somewhat confident and I want to risk only 50% of my profits to find out, or...maybe price has already made it's average range and the likelihood of it continuing aren't high, so I might risk only 38% of my profits to find out if it can continue.

I figure, price is always advertising for buyers and sellers. If I'm in a move long and Im up say 30 points on the YM, and some small weakness comes into the market (advertising for sellers), is it likely that sellers will come out in force? If I dont think it's too likely, then I'll move my stop to BE+10. If I get taken out, then thats fine with me. I didn't lose any money on it, and my risk was defined.

Then, if it takes me out to the tick and rises up another 80 points, I grab a BB gun and shoot a squi....errrr....jk. If that happens I just say...freakin Market! What could I have seen to anticipate this happening. Every experience, good or bad, is a learning experience. That, to me, makes every experience a good experience as I love learning. When something doesn't go the way I wanted it to (get out too soon or too late) then I go to the garden and tend to my veggies. I know I followed exactly what I set out to do and that's all I can ask for.


I dont know if that helps you at all...but that sort of stuff is what helped me.