Fading yourself

robster970

robster970

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I've had a 2 week run that has been quite tricky since the volatility kicked in on ES. Last week was well traded but this week (well Mon/Tue/Wed) and especially Tuesday was just schoolboy errors in execution, itchy trigger, etc

I've been reading some Dr Brett Steenbarger recently and there is a piece in one of them about fading yourself. So realising that I have been trading badly this week and tuning into this, this morning, I looked at my initial reaction and decided to trade the other side.

Well - today has been a vast improvement and it's really the first time I've taken an emotion and then traded the opposite side to it.

Anybody else do this or am I just barking?
 
how do you fade yourself? it cant be done. your mind will play tricks on you so your fading the wrong call so you are infact playing the original one that your mind believe, so your not fading anything. cant be done
 
Yeah but my mind was making the wrong calls all week so when I thought 'long' this morning I realised my long was wrong and was a reaction to poor trading all week, which in itself was a poor decision, so I decided to fade me.

or am I still barking!
 
Re: tell us about "a piece in one of them about fading yourself."

pssonice said:
!
Click to expand...

Chapter 3, "The Woolworth Man", The Psychology of Trading, Brett N. Steenbarger.

Seriously his last sentence in the conclusion is "Thank goodness, however, for the Internal Observer. He is able to make nice money for Dr Brett's account by fading Dr Brett."
 
but how do you know when you go back to being right if you are always fading it? do you start fading your fades? then fading the fade of your fade? and so on..
 
I don't think you end up in a circle of fade if that's what you mean.

What kind of worked today was:

1. Thought about the pullback on ES and whether it had established itself as a solid upward trend. Assumed it had after 3 days and then thought will look for a pullback to go long.

2. Then thought, well if I thought that, I bet every other bugger has thought that and that the money will be fading all the late arrivers.

3. Decided I would go short today and took a position shortly before the employment news.

4. Have been watching lower highs and lower lows forming all day.

Kind of like a reset in thinking.
 
I think you aren't going to get a conclusive answer to this unless you have a long period of trading this way. In which, as genics pointed out, you will start to get trained to using the other way, hence fading what would have been faded.

Starting in summer I'm going to start creating a detailed report of my trades including why I got in, but more importantly what could go wrong. If you see the wrong checklist filling up faster than your profit...then it'd definitely be time to rethink the trade.

I'm reading a book at the moment, and it commented on reminiscences of a stock operator (I think), anyhow, before he got into his trade, he would take the opposite position. If it felt wrong to be short when he wanted to go long, then obviously the trade had something to it. Vice versa (or at least that's how I interpreted it).

Not sure if any of this helps,

Phil.
 
I suspect you're right and I know what you mean that over time you start to take more contrarian positions as you get the hang of it.

In my tollbox of trading tools I've got a screwdriver and and hammer. So I'm trying to learn that not everything is a nail or screw if you know what I mean and realise I need to go up Travis Perkins every now and again.
 
robster970 said:
I've had a 2 week run that has been quite tricky since the volatility kicked in on ES. Last week was well traded but this week (well Mon/Tue/Wed) and especially Tuesday was just schoolboy errors in execution, itchy trigger, etc

I've been reading some Dr Brett Steenbarger recently and there is a piece in one of them about fading yourself. So realising that I have been trading badly this week and tuning into this, this morning, I looked at my initial reaction and decided to trade the other side.

Well - today has been a vast improvement and it's really the first time I've taken an emotion and then traded the opposite side to it.

Anybody else do this or am I just barking?
Click to expand...



I like reading Brett, what he has to say is quite refreshing at times especially when chat forums are the only other alternative.

But i have to admit, the notion of fading yourself is quite freaky. Idon't think that Brett thought this one through properly, imho.
 
I think what he's saying is quite simple.

If you take positions that are fuelled in some way by emotion on some subconcious level, and you can recognise that what's driving that decision is emotional and not objective, then the likelihood is that you're reacting like most market participants and to therefore fade them is likely to be the correct trade to take.

He didn't think through the premise to it's logical conclusion though as Rothschild pointed out and just how barking that would be.
 
All traders have losses and bad runs, but to start fading a normally long term profitable view is in my mind trading suicide.

If in general you are on the right side and on the make, do not start fading yourself after a bad run.
 
...

your cleary the amature here pal. why would you not take a week off when you will just sit there blowing your account while your head goes to pieces.

jesus why do i always attract the total ****in plebs wanting to challange me?
 
N Rothschild said:
...

your cleary the amature here pal. why would you not take a week off when you will just sit there blowing your account while your head goes to pieces.

jesus why do i always attract the total ****in plebs wanting to challange me?
Click to expand...



Take a week off then...:LOL: What's the matter, can't take your own medicine?:LOL:
 
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