Done For The Day!

[Paul71]

I'm now done for the day, met my target, that's it 4 hrs work, 3.5 actually, i finished half hour ago.

Here's the questions, though...

Should i put more hours in, am i lazy, am i missing out on more, golf or more screen time, does anyone else have this dilemma, what's the answer?

 

[wasp]

Depends whether you live to trade or trade to live?!

 

[0007]

I'm now done for the day, met my target, that's it 4 hrs work, 3.5 actually, i finished half hour ago.

That's what trading's all about for me. (If you want a greater sense of achiviement then set yourself a lower target )

Having thought about it just a little more (ie engaged brain) it is of course the freedom it allows you, so that you can persue other interests. Who'd want a 9-5 or 24/7 job (done both) when you can have this? - But I do know people who when having been forced to leave the "safe" environment of the 9-5 for the freedom of retirement have been completely flummoxed - they can't cope with running their own lives - and its not the reduction in finances either. Just comes down to what you are and your outlook on life.

 

[Crap Buddist]

Good question . subjective of course, but if you have met your objective then job done. Free time now, how does the individual want to spend it ? leisure time, family time, spot of gardening now the suns popping out, or maybe research more into trading. Some people are workaholics, ive met a few like that ,monsterous workers, cant sit still. need to keep on the hop.

Actually a 19 year old lad, farm worker in the village, came and chopped up a couple of trees (they did need the chainsaw on them ) on a couple of his days off, because he doesn't like sitting still. With nothing to do.. he puts in 14 hour days manual work and laps it up. It was P!ssing down with rain when he was logging in the garden...... I couldn't stop him.

Sometimes I cook , I'm getting into bread making at the mo, and yoghurt, and chutneys I like to cook,always looking to improve baking my French fancies. But now spring has sprung plenty of seeds to get planted too.... also at the mo got the grand daughter staying (18 months old) at the mo for a couple of weeks so they keep you running about.


How do people like to spend their life ?? Get on and do that I think.... hmmm anyone got a killer pizza dough recipe ?

Who was who sung , Baby lifes what you make it ? talking heads ?

 

[Lee Shepherd]

Trade longer hours, have more and longer holidays or/and retire earlier.

If trading well, why stop?

Your system could be out of date tommorow or you could change the way you trade.

Make hay while the sun shines.

No one trades forever!

 

[black bear]

Good topic

I'm now done for the day, met my target, that's it 4 hrs work, 3.5 actually, i finished half hour ago.

Here's the questions, though...

Should i put more hours in, am i lazy, am i missing out on more, golf or more screen time, does anyone else have this dilemma, what's the answer?

Hi Paul

Just finished myself suppose it depends on your own method and timeframes

I have given this one some thought and still

I sometimes trade all day and sometimes like today, have taken two trades, a bit behind target but

I am I guess in agreement a little with nine, well a lot actually. The opening 90 mins or so usually sets my day or not. I tend to trade a few time frames so not that interested regards.......well opportunity presents itself at any time and sometimes 6 times in an hour and sometimes none for a day or two, thats how I see it.

Take today, I am available to trade but do not think I will get much of a chance to enter before the Dow open(in chop at minute @ pwh & pdl) and need to be some place else then so = 2 trades today so far that fall into the scalp camp (no follow through) both winners so will just keep watching and waiting until I see an opportunity or not as the case may be

If your methods sound(intra day screen monkey type trader) I do not think it makes any difference, if it does = its all in your head imho

Lazy hell no, you can never be to lazy

Selective I would say = Quality not Quantity, both with your time and trade selection, experience perhaps at work in the background.

I find if I keep looking I will find a trade and its usually a poor one if I try to hard to find it. So less probably is more anyway in the long run. Think its an individual thing each trader needs to work out for themselves.

Good trading Paul :clover:

 

[nine]

Personally I think that you put in the hours that suit your strategy, your needs and yourself. I like to trade the markets' post opening period so I start a couple of hours after my markets open and the character of the day has made itself apparent.

Then I actively trade for just 3 hours. I do this because it is long enough to pick up 3 trades per market which is enough for me to hit my financial targets. 3 hours is also a short enough period that I have no difficulty maintaining alertness and finally it gives me plenty of time to pursue other activities.

 

[black bear]

Good Post

Personally I think that you put in the hours that suit your strategy, your needs and yourself. I like to trade the markets' post opening period so I start a couple of hours after my markets open and the character of the day has made itself apparent.

Then I actively trade for just 3 hours. I do this because it is long enough to pick up 3 trades per market which is enough for me to hit my financial targets. 3 hours is also a short enough period that I have no difficulty maintaining alertness and finally it gives me plenty of time to pursue other activities.

Hi nine

I agree with .........

"I like to trade the markets' post opening period so I start a couple of hours after my markets open and the character of the day has made itself apparent.

Then I actively trade for just 3 hours. I do this because it is long enough to pick up 3 trades per market which is enough for me to hit my financial targets."

The only market I trade usually as some catching up to do so I do trade the open but that is very good advice imho

 

[MrGecko]

Excuse me Gents, but haven't you got this the wrong way around? Surely it makes sense to stop early in the day only if you've hit a Loss limit?

If i draw an analogy from Taxi drivers or Ladies of the Night; They will stop working once they have made a fixed price target and go home; If business is particularly slow, they stay into the early hours perhaps to break even. Now doesn't it make sound economic sense to reverse the situation?

If business is particularly good, then why not continue trading? Lock in some profits, but it should be possible to make more profits throughout the day unless you get cocky, and if you're a FT trader you should have this under control (of course, your current P/L shouldn't really have anything to do with future P/L, but we know it doesn't always work like this, particularly on down days). In the least move over to the simulator, add more strings to you bow?

Granted the similarities in driving a cab, "professional" ladies and traders are weak; but all are essentially involved in screwing other people for money in one sense or another.

A perk of trading is that you can stop as and when you want. Under which circumstances would you attribute more value to a round of golf; Tee time of 13:00 because you had a sh!t had at work and can take a break when you like, and carry on trading live or sim on a day that you will already feel "good" about it because you are up? Or stay glued to your screens when everything is going wrong, and be out on the green while there is money to be made.

Aside from that; how on earth you manage to trade and play golf as well I don't know. I too am a "hobby chef", and I take comfort from beating the living Sh!t out of some bread dough if things in the market havent gone my way. This is why i am awful at golf.

 

[Paul71]

Afternoon guys!

Thanks for the replies. Ok, maybe the initial thread was a tad misleading, there are sometimes when i have to trade for longer periods, 5, 6, 7 hours or whatever, so it's rough with smooth. Mostly though i do my day in 4hrs or less, that's with the prep included.

Some may not agree with daily targets, i personally have to have them, it's like a clock in my head. When my daily target is hit my concentration goes off and so does the 'clock', this 'clock' also helps me to time trades without it i can't trade, not how i should do anyway.

I see my set ups on all TFs, why wait.

Any thoughts?

 

[gooseman]

depends on your mindset i guess. personally i used to sit around all day whether up or not just in case the opportunity presents itself to jump in and make a quick 10k or something. granted this happens very, very rarely but for me it made sense to sit at my screens til the close and trade that way. indeed some days i used to go without trading a bean after the open....

if you don't see a reason to trade don't trade but if you do.....well, you're not going to see it from the 14th. just think how you'll feel the next day when you walk into the office and everyone is grinning at their daily P&L....yes it's greed but that's what trading is about....the other 'green'.

 

[Mathemagician]

There is already an active thread about daily targets.

jj

 

[MrGecko]

I have to say I am at odds with fixed profit targets, but this doesn't necessarily mean i dont agree with short spells of trading.

IMO, you should trade (i mean being at the screens) all of the while there is the potential for opportunities. If the market suits your style for only 2 hours in the trading day, then fine; but you certainly should be available for the full 2hr session, even if you strike gold in the first 5 mins. If your trades work for most of the session, you should be there for most of the session. This is true for all traders.

Fixed price profit targets, on the other hand, are not. You must ask yourself what you want from the markets - say you want $XXXX per day, or you want to have finished work by lunchtime, either way you are taking ALOT for granted!It is well reported that trading because you are money-hungry is a recipe for disaster. Trading because you want more freedom is an improvement on this, as at least there is a work/life balance, but in my mind this is "6 of one and half dozen of the other".

*A caveat on this is your particular circumstances. Previous posters have mentioned that they were looking after grandchildren, which makes them much older than I (24). If you have other guarunteed income, say from a pension or semi-retirement work, then I dont have a problem with fixed targets as it is unlikely that one is looking to make their mortgage payment. I do not mean to say that traders in this bracket cannot be professional traders, just that they aren't career traders. Ironically, I put career trading on hold out of necessity for someone to care 24/7 for my Grandmother (Alzheimers).*


To anyone who is looking for a lengthy lifespan in the markets, I think fixed profit targets are enforcing a glass ceiling on oneself; infact it may come to the point that you can't trade beyond or without them. Given two, equally talented traders, the one with the bigger chance of success is the trader who is driven by the desire to succeed, not the trader who is driven by rewards. Trader #2, who is on the green or has met their target, is less likely to outlast trader #1 who is working on the sim, just because he wants to. In a quiet period, trader #2 is much more succeptable run out of patience and overtrade to meet some arbitrary figure he believe he should be making.

This isn't a case of "trading to live" or "living to trade". Trading doesnt owe you a living.

 

[damianoakley]

I'm now done for the day, met my target, that's it 4 hrs work, 3.5 actually, i finished half hour ago.

Here's the questions, though...

Should i put more hours in, am i lazy, am i missing out on more, golf or more screen time, does anyone else have this dilemma, what's the answer?

Hi Paul,

Only just read this thread......for me your trading is spot on and if you've met your target for the day, then you shouldn't feel any guilt or a need to "stick at it."

You've done 3 and a half hours work....why continue on needlessly just to fill some time? Isn't that the reason why you got into trading, so that you wouldn't need a full-time 9-5pm...?

Enjoy the personal freedom that your skills have afforded you...!


Thanks

Damian

 

[Crap Buddist]

Previous posters have mentioned that they were looking after grandchildren,

Was first a grandad @ 37