Over Trading!!

[cd173]

Morning all

I have a bad habit of making money first thing in the markets, then giving it back during the course of the morning. With hindsight it would appear that I'm overtrading as the signals are pretty reliable. It's just me diving in and out to often!!! (Too keen to trade I think)

Would be grateful if anyone has any tips to help with sitting on hands or if anyone else suffers from this!

Thanks
Chris

 

[darrenf]

I have a bad habit of making money first thing in the markets, then giving it back during the course of the morning. With hindsight it would appear that I'm overtrading as the signals are pretty reliable. It's just me diving in and out to often!!! (Too keen to trade I think)

Would be grateful if anyone has any tips to help with sitting on hands or if anyone else suffers from this!

How about only trading first thing? Once you make a profit, pack in for the day and do something else. Sounds simple but if it means you make profits rather than losses...........?

may be worth considering?

It's a bit like the old joke:-

Man goes to doctor and says "My arm hurts when I bend it, what do you recommend?"

Dr says "Don't bend your arm"!

 

[rossored]

I used to (still do, occassionally to be honest) overtrade too.

Once I've had a trade - be it a winner or a loser - I'll go and make a cup of tea, or watch mindless daytime TV / PS2 for 5/10 minutes, and just let the market get on with what its doing. Then, I find that when I come back I seem to see the screens with different eyes as it were, and take a fresh look at things.

Or try something simple as sitting a bit further back from the monitor. In the afternoons when my eyes get tired, I find this helps me identify what I look for a bit more easily.

 

[cd173]

Hi guys

Thanks for the feedback. I have considered trading only the first 30mins or so of the DAX as it tends to trend nicely at this time almost every morning. Thing is I need the experience, so I tend to trade from 8-11am, then wait for 2.30pm. Is this sensible??

Rossored, you are spot on as walking away for a few mins and coming back tends to help see the wood from the trees so to speak. Over longer periods of trading, I'm probably losing the overall picture.

Thanks again
Chris

 

[bigtimetrader]

Would be grateful if anyone has any tips to help with sitting on hands or if anyone else suffers from this!

When I traded on Wall St., we used to actually leave the office during the middle of the day quite often. We'd jump the subway to Union Square and watch a movie or take a long lunch.

Best way to not trade a slow market is to not be sitting in front of your computer.

 

[growltiger]

Walking away: a good thing

I used to (still do, occassionally to be honest) overtrade too.

Once I've had a trade - be it a winner or a loser - I'll go and make a cup of tea, or watch mindless daytime TV / PS2 for 5/10 minutes, and just let the market get on with what its doing. .

Me too. I have recently found it helpful to adopt two pieces of behaviour that don't come naturally, but seem to combine helpfully. First, set a target by putting a limit price in the system. If it gets hit and the market is still racing away, forget about the lost opportunity (it is just opportunity cost, not cash cost). Second, when a target is hit, don't just re-enter the trade the way you would if you were a trading system. Go away as suggested by Rossored and have a cup of coffee.

The result of these two pieces of behaviour is that the next trade is enterered only when your next "setup" appears. (Same thing holds when the trade is a loss: one should definitely walk away from the screen at the point when the loss has been taken; reassess the market when you don't have a position).

Needless to say, I have broken these rules since inventing them. But not as much as previously. And they do help to control the result.