[MadMarketScientist]

There are simply some tremendous posts here that all traders should read regardless of skill level. I can't bring much more to the table than what has already been said so convincingly.

A few little tidbits that came to my mind:
*When you do have "that" day where you break all your rules and end up digging yourself a huge hole - wiping out days/weeks of profits you need to penalize yourself. You need to come up with something such as you won't allow yourself to trade for the next 5 days. Or something you hate doing - like go run 6 miles, eat your vegetables whatever - something you find painful. What I find is just the fear of the penalty many times will correct the impulse to break the rule.
*Have circuit breakers. Have a drop dead time of day you can trade, a drop dead position size, number of trades, etc... Make it as simple as possible and never veer from that -- no matter how hard -- force yourself to walk away - literally unplug the system if you have to -- beat the impulse - in a few minutes you'll feel fine.

MMS

[steve46]

Sir or Madam

Because retail traders usually operate solo, there isn't an office culture (a model of successful behavior or support) that you can turn to...If you can't find a good solution, it may help you to find a skilled person to monitor your actions...and offer a comment on a regular basis. Not easy to do but it is preferable to "bleeding" your account.

The other possibility is that you may not have sufficient experience to know when to quit (on an intraday basis)...For the ES market for example, I know what to expect in terms of length of line and average true range...once I capture that range, I ask myself whether the odds favor an expansion of volatility sufficient to warrant additional exposure to risk...

It may be that you need to find a solution in both areas..

You can always PM me if you need additional comments.

Best Regards

Edit

Dont know if this helps but it is a simple example of how one can make a conscious decision to step aside...in the attached chart you see price open and retrace down to a predetermined blue bar (my entry signal)....from experience I can forecast that institutional participants are going to mark this market up 10 points...I "know" this because of several factors (day of the week, economic reports, bond market reaction, and other data items)...once I get my ten points, I am not going to putz around and take the chance of giving it back...so at around 9:20 or so this AM I was done for the day...period...

[Tradewinds]

Originally Posted by steve46 »

...in the attached chart you see price open and retrace down to a predetermined blue bar (my entry signal)....

Steve, thank you for posting the chart. I find it very interesting. The blue bars seem to correspond to the tails of the candles of the swing highs and lows. Although in other posts you call them something like, supply/demand nodes. The range that the blue bar indicates, seems to be a better guide than a simple, thin price level line. From looking at your charts, there seems to be a range that price operates within, at those transition points rather than a specific price. Thank you again, for pointing this out.

[Tradewinds]

Originally Posted by Rande Howell »

Confidence without humbleness becomes arrogance which begets self deception.

What I find interesting is the chain reaction, and multiple levels. The typical trader talk is about fear and greed, and that's fine, but there are other branches on the tree. And there are roots beneath the ground that are unseen.

So gaining confidence is not the "end game". It's really just "level one" in a multi-level game. Once the confidence is acquired, at some point, the temptation is to branch off into arrogance. That story has probably been told a million times.

Arrogance blinds the self, and then branches off down yet another path, to self deception. There are many forks in the road.

[starborg9]

Patient: Doctor, it hurts when I do this.
Doctor: Then don't do it.

[ajhunter]

Great stuff everyone. ScottB's post resonates strongly:

Originally Posted by ScottB »

I have done what you describe in the past but as another trader said, I don't any more. However, if you are doing what I did, you might be surprised and not very happy to learn the real reason.

Consider the possibility you are trading much the same during both periods. You were trading the same way the entire time, if one of the "special circumstance" trades you won had gone just a litte bit further against you, it had the potential to be one of the big losers.

Your system, style, whatever you choose to call it may be a large part of the probelm in that, you don't really have one, just the illusion of having one.

You can get away with weak discipline some of the time -- when you have a feel for the market -- but when market conditions change and you don't have robust discipline than you don't have a system and the facade is up.

Thanks

[TheNegotiator]

Originally Posted by Tradewinds »

What I find interesting is the chain reaction, and multiple levels. The typical trader talk is about fear and greed, and that's fine, but there are other branches on the tree. And there are roots beneath the ground that are unseen.

So gaining confidence is not the "end game". It's really just "level one" in a multi-level game. Once the confidence is acquired, at some point, the temptation is to branch off into arrogance. That story has probably been told a million times.

Arrogance blinds the self, and then branches off down yet another path, to self deception. There are many forks in the road.

I would say that confidence is not the precise goal. It helps. But only if it is confidence through understanding and knowledge of yourself. For example, if you are confident because you just had a good run of trades, I'd say that unless you have a good deal of experience, you'll give it all back then some.

[DHOYT]

Have you read the book "Your Money and Your Brain" by Jason Zweig? I just started reading it. It's pretty interesting. Don't know if it will help yet though.......