Over the last 8 months that I have been trading I have gone through several clear stages of development. Most of you know what they are, so theres no purpose in laying them out here again. But I have noticed one thing that I do over and over, and I finally came to realize that it's been hurting me all along - to an extent.
I have been reading
Mark Douglas Trading in the Zone and I most of what he says is spot on, at least with me. I have realized the single biggest problem I have is my attitude, and this extends beyond trading. At work if I don't have a clear state of mind and an attitude to be confident and successful then I will have a bad day. The same is with the markets, if I start the morning confident, and I feel successful and I am able to take FULL responsibility of my trades then I have a wonderful day. My problem is these days are few and far between, most of the time my head feels cloudy and the second I start trading with real capital fear takes over and I don't properly perceive the information the market presents. At the end of the day when I do my daily analysis obviously everything is fine and as most of you know I do a good job analyzing the markets.
In the past when this happened I assumed it was because I didn't know enough about the markets so I went on a search for the holy grail. Not necessarily one indicator, but I felt I needed to learn how to analyze the markets better. Well it finally hit me, I can analyze the market just fine. Am I the best? Absolutely not, but I am better than most and I am good enough to make a fair amount of money on a consistent basis. I don't need advice on how to take the plunge into trading full time, or even how to create a system.
I now realize that I don't need to know what the market will do next. I know I can be a good trader and I know my trades won't work every single time. My problem is simply accepting that without emotion.
I have a few questions for every one who has gone through this.
1 - What did you do that helped you create a consistent attitude of confidence, success, and ultimately being able to accept full responsibility of your trading. In essence, how were you able to accept the risk without any emotion?
2 - How silly did you feel after you figured it out
I have a journal to take notes and I can identify when emotion is taking over. The only problem is I don't know how to eliminate that emotion aside from just walking away for the rest of the day. Avoiding a trade is a good way to avoid a loss, but I can't make any money that way. I feel as if I'm so close, yet so far away.
Thanks for the help.