In the mean time

[sulong]

In the mean time.

One of the hardest things for me to do is to keep my clicker finger to my self while a trade is in the process of ether confirming the success or the failure of a given trade.
So I attempt to pry myself away from the computer for at least 5 minute intervals, and when I can work on a project unrelated to the computer while I just glance at the monitor from time to time, it seems that my trades work out fantastically well.
I’ve often thought that what I do “in the mean time” could be a result of not adequately defining my setup and after entry trade management.
After much work and investigation I’m now thinking that when I’m sitting in front of the computer, I focus on individual price bars at a time when I need to be focusing on a series of price bars. (In between S/R)
Regardless of the underlying reason for this behavior, (clicking when I ought not to) my reason for starting this thread is to direct my focus on this part of my trading so when the time comes maybe I’ll stop and think before clicking.
Sometimes I find it helpful to write this stuff down in a public way, as it is easier to review from time to time. When I do this in private, my notes tend to get shuffled down to the bottom of the stack, never to be looked at again.
Hopefully I can hide this in the P/V forum so I don’t have to deal with the inmates at the insane asylum, er, psychology forum.

 

[DTK]

I’ve often thought that what I do “in the mean time” could be a result of not adequately defining my setup and after entry trade management.

Is it? Once you put on the position and the corresponding initial stop, does it clearly state in your plan what would make you take profits, add to the position, move your stop in the direction you want the trade to go, or what conditions you would have to see that would make you take the trade off? The second and latter two are unnecessary if your setup only has an initial stop and a target neither of which change regardless of what happens in between. By “clearly” I mean to the extent that you could give someone else the plan and have him/her manage the position for you. If this isn’t the case, you may want to revisit that part of your plan. The same clarity should apply for your setup before you first put on the trade too.

(clicking when I ought not to)

I don’t know about the majority, but this gets the best of me too. Recently it’s been affecting me more from the perspective of taking off the trade. I have all the conditions that I mentioned at the beginning of the last paragraph written out so that a kid in high school could follow them (where’s that kid when you need him/her?), but unplanned “clicking” gets the best of me now and then. It’s probably due to any number of reasons including liking to take profits, not liking to watch profits disappear, being impatient, looking to hard for reasons not to be in the trade (that aren’t outlined in my plan) and acting on it. Something that has helped me is setting my initial stop loss and an initial profit target. Then I don’t look at that chart for at least 10 minutes because it takes at least 2 five min bars to invalidate my trade if hasn’t been stopped out. Then I take another look to see if I need to move the stop (in my favor of course), remove the limit order to take profits (because my plan calls for it), and see if the first bar of the series that would invalidate my trade has materialized). If it hasn’t, I hide the chart for another 10 minutes. T2W.com, backtesting new setups, CNN.com, Fark.com, any joke forum, Comedy Central and magazines are just some ways that I like passing the time.

 

[sulong]

Yes I'm pretty specific with each portion of my trade, at least as specific as I've ever been up to this point.
I think the problem comes up with how much consecutive time I watch price bars being formed.
The longer I sit and watch, the more narrow my focus becomes,and then I'll try to reduce my price risk with out regard to price being in a "danger zone" of my reason for being in the trade.
What this means is that at times I'll cheat my stop into a trading range in order to protect my cost of entry.
When what I should be doing is forget about the cost of entry and focus on the failure of the trade.

"If it hasn’t, I hide the chart for another 10 minutes."

This is similar to what I'm trying, to redirect my attention from the tree of my desire to the health of the forest.

 

[dbphoenix]

Perhaps you need to focus on what you're using as a contingency or pre-emptive stop. Or do you have an all-or-nothing failure criterion?

 

[sulong]

Actually my only preemptive exit is when I find my self entering in a long range,overlapping bar situation, I've got no stomach for that kind of action.
I'm pretty comfortable with my failure criteria at this point, as at each level of S/R as price reach'es it, I have a spcific success/failure action that I follow.
I think part of the problem comes from my desire for price to act in accordance with my time restrictions, opposed to letting price progress at it's own speed.

 

[dbphoenix]

Maybe you don't understand what I mean by contingency/pre-emptive. A pre-empt isn't based on fear. It's planned in advance. This precludes the influence of desire.