Staying on Track and Pushing for More...

[brownsfan019]

For those that are trading full-time, how do you focus yourself to stay on track? And do you push yourself for even more?

I'm at a point where I'm low on ideas to keep pushing and not get too comfortable in my current setup. I want to push for bigger goals.

Since we do not have a boss over our shoulders or quotas to hit, it's easy to become complacent and I do not want to get stuck in a "I'm good at this level" rut.

Just wondering what some have done to keep pushing for bigger and better goals in your trading business. What did you do to motivate yourself to go for even bigger goals? Is it just a matter of trading bigger size over time? Is that the simple and correct answer here?

Maybe the better question is do you just keep to yourself - good or bad - or are you accountable to someone to help you stay on track?

We've discussed having a P&L thread like this one at ET here at TL. Maybe something like that would help some here. I've thought about a blog, but not sure I want to put forth the time into doing it.

At times, I wish I had that quota to hit or know that a boss would be calling. Back to my times as a broker, it was simple - if I did not hit my #'s by the close of the month, I KNEW I would be getting a few calls... that was motivation enough to get it done.

As a secluded trader w/o a boss or quotas, it can be easy to fall into a trap of status quo when it may be time to reach for more...

[BlowFish]

Trading bigger size is certainly the simple answer. Not neccasarily the 'correct' (or one correct) answer.

I would not scale up to aggressively but depending on your figures you should be able to double every few months. Most people have a general 'comfort' threshold. Pushing past that may require some effort.

I'd carefully look at risk of ruin figures (the single most important think you can calculate) and make sure you select a position size so that is negligible.

You must be doing great if it has become somewhat boring and mundane!

[Trvlwanderer]

Once consistent in a method, I try to find "additional" methods with similar r/r and sizing abilities. I currently have 4 setups as opposed to the 2 I am very comfortable with. It adds some additional trades to the day and gives me the motivation to further tweak the parameters.

My motivation is to find the consistent setups to allow me to reach daily goals by noon, thus allowing the elusive "quality of life time: for other endeavors.

Time savings is my motivator.

Of course I have filled soe of that time with the battlefield game, ha!!

[MrPaul]

Brownsfan great thread...

Have you considered diversifying across different asset classes and time frames? I have found that venturing into markets im not totally familiar with and devoting some of my time to developing an edge in that market keeps me on my toes.

Same with timeframes.

In essense my motivator is confirming the fact that I could go into any market on many diferent timeframes and make money consistantly. This to me is really important...

[walterw]

Nice issue Brown... on my case I keep working on a second paralel proyect, for me its forex, so far still on research phase, couldnt start live trading for personal reasons, but having a paralel proyect t my regular trading gives me that motivation, on this case I have a 150 Millon target proyect wich will take me arround 5 years once I get started... It really opens my mind and keeps me motivated on my regular trading as well... thats my two cents, cheers Walter.

[Soultrader]

Interesting... I was at the Tokyo Grain Exchange today for business when I found out John Carter was speaking (total coincidence). I decided to attend his presentation today. One of the things he was covering was spread trading with commodities. Perhaps another type of trading is something that might be challenging?

John classifies the type of trading most of us here do as directional trading in which we bet on 1 direction of the markets. However there are other types of futures trading.. spread trading being one of them. Perhaps this may be of interest?

[james_gsx]

I would definitely agree on looking outside your basic trading that you do everyday. Possibly look into longer term/swing trading in other commodities. There are so many markets, and with your skill why limit yourself to just two or three?

I like what Walter said, explore other opportunities and decide on some sort of project and work towards that. Plus, I think a lot of money is left on the table when you simply day trade the ES.

A few ideas:
- currencies
- crude oil
- gold
- corn, wheat, etc. you could even trade options around these
- or a completely different style of trading aside from directional like James said earlier.

I think you should explore other opportunities to let your money work for you. You could still do the "grunt work" trading the ES everyday, yet have some "longer" term positions work for you on the side. Then eventually you could start a fund, and hire me haha just kidding

Good luck.

[brownsfan019]

Some good ideas here guys.

I guess at this point I'm not really interested in getting involved in something brand new - be it forex, gold, spread trading, etc.

It's hard to explain... I enjoy trading the ES during the day, but there's not much to push forward to besides increasing size, which of course is nice.

I am a goal oriented person and w/o specific goals in front of me, it's hard to push towards something...

[DbPhoenix]

	Quote:	brownsfan019
	For those that are trading full-time, how do you focus yourself to stay on track? And do you push yourself for even more? I'm at a point where I'm low on ideas to keep pushing and not get too comfortable in my current setup. I want to push for bigger goals. Since we do not have a boss over our shoulders or quotas to hit, it's easy to become complacent and I do not want to get stuck in a "I'm good at this level" rut. Just wondering what some have done to keep pushing for bigger and better goals in your trading business. What did you do to motivate yourself to go for even bigger goals? Is it just a matter of trading bigger size over time? Is that the simple and correct answer here? Maybe the better question is do you just keep to yourself - good or bad - or are you accountable to someone to help you stay on track? We've discussed having a P&L thread like this one at ET here at TL. Maybe something like that would help some here. I've thought about a blog, but not sure I want to put forth the time into doing it. At times, I wish I had that quota to hit or know that a boss would be calling. Back to my times as a broker, it was simple - if I did not hit my #'s by the close of the month, I KNEW I would be getting a few calls... that was motivation enough to get it done. As a secluded trader w/o a boss or quotas, it can be easy to fall into a trap of status quo when it may be time to reach for more...

If you can find the right chat room, that might be just the thing. So far (in ten years), I haven't found the right one for me, but you may not be as picky as I am. Or locate traders who you think are on the same wavelength -- needn't be a mob -- and organize your own. Though if they tend to chat rather than focus on the market, you're better off alone.

[james_gsx]

I think increasing the size would be too easy for you, and wouldn't really accomplish anything for you. I say this because I understand what you mean, you want a challenge and simply adding size isn't much of a challenge.

Maybe instead you can try to find correlations with the ES. For example in the book Pit Bull, he found a correlations with the ES and traded that. He still stuck to his system but had that other correlation to look at as well during the day. I forget exactly what he used, but it was pretty cool and I doubt it works anymore since this is 20 years later, but the idea is still there. You're smart enough to find it, and it could be a challenge for you.

Once you find something like that, and you are still looking at the ES. You could make bigger financial goals to work for.

You may also want to find goals that aren't even related to money. Such as going through and finding inefficiencies in your trading and setting goals to improve that. Most people can only be motivated by money for so long, I know after a year of trading money doesn't motivate me anymore. But being consistent does motivate me, and the money just comes after that. You could try looking through some old Fortune magazines of companies that use various approaches to motivate their employees and see if any of that can be related to your trading. I know a lot of big banks and consulting firms do this since at the end of the day they all pay the same and it's the same work. But they have to find alternative ways to motivate their employees to do well and stay with their firm.

If that sounds too tedious, you could find something materialistic that you want. For example you could find a car that's completely pointless to everyday life but fun as hell to drive (or even a new home theater in your house). Then work at making extra profit on top of what you already make, to buy something cool.

These are all just thoughts, but at the end of the day I think you should find a challenge for yourself that still relates to your core business of day trading the ES.