reminiscence of(yet) a (novice)trader

week ended 27/9/13

trades points average
win 33 94 2.84
draw 5
loss 13 -108 -8.31
total -14


made one or two stupid mistakes which i should know not to by now,mainly to cut losses early( -25,-23 biggest this week,but a nice change from the 100s) and secondly not to get in for just a possible few points.
also working on an anti system to my system which works just as well as my system (makes me wonder whether if i have a system at all!).the premise of this system is to go against the original system but to keep(or try to keep) tighter stops.
the key to both systems i realise is to act on the stops which is slowly now sinking in.
 

what happened to this post? was about to reply.
the house has the edge,of this there is no doubt.
even with a 1 point spread,a 10 point move in your favour gives you 8 points and against you gives you a loss of -12.this is only one of the handicaps we know of,who knows what other tricks they employ.
do we know how lagging the data we see is? tried taking a trade and it had moved in my favour by a few points and was rejected.took another and the price had moved against me and ofcourse it was accepted.
ofcourse brokers will give you BS of if they didnt do that then they would be requoting all the time.Where is this liquidity these god damn algos are supposed to be providing
alas we fight on.you only lose when you quit.only in this game you lose less the sooner you quit when youve realised your wrong.USE STOPS!
 
what happened to this post? was about to reply.
the house has the edge,of this there is no doubt.
even with a 1 point spread,a 10 point move in your favour gives you 8 points and against you gives you a loss of -12.this is only one of the handicaps we know of,who knows what other tricks they employ.
do we know how lagging the data we see is? tried taking a trade and it had moved in my favour by a few points and was rejected.took another and the price had moved against me and ofcourse it was accepted.
ofcourse brokers will give you BS of if they didnt do that then they would be requoting all the time.Where is this liquidity these god damn algos are supposed to be providing
alas we fight on.you only lose when you quit.only in this game you lose less the sooner you quit when youve realised your wrong.USE STOPS!

I realised I was being too critical when it's not really any of my business, and so I deleted it. :)
 
Sounds like you're over trading. Not sure what market you're in but I'd say, in no particular order:

1 market only

1 trade per day maximum, win or lose

2 timeframe charts maximum (OK, maybe 3 later on but the 3rd is only to make sure you're not trading into something and to give you some idea where your trade might go if you're right).

Place your stop based on the larger of your 2 charts: if your stop is based on the smaller chart you are asking for trouble, especially with Forex

Draw 1 line on the larger chart and observe on the smaller chart: you will learn where to draw your line

If you're day trading, longer term TA and trend etc is debatable. Believe what you want to believe

Try to capture as much of the daily range as you can. The market can and does move hundreds of pips every day, a small retail trader is generally doomed to failure trying to scalp a couple of pips here and there.

Your entry and reason for entry has absolutely no bearing on the outcome of a trade. Your exit is what makes or loses you money.

Just take it as read that you are always wrong, the market is always right: gets you started on the right foot.

If you have no patience and need action, I'd look seriously as to whether trading is for you as it's about the most boring endeavour imaginable....until you are losing money, then it gets very VERY exciting.

If you're day trading get very used to the phenomenon of the move of the week occuring 2 hours before you've woken/when you've gone to the loo/while you're making lunch/after you've finished for the day, on the day you didn't trade after three losing days etc etc etc....and for these reasons all the backtesting/expectancy stuff can't help you

It's great this trading lark isn't it :LOL:
 
week ending 4/10/13

trades points avg
win 37 142 3.83
draw 11
loss 29 -172 5.93
-30

terrible start to the week,first 6 trades were losses which was demoralising and disheartening.the funny thing is i knew why - not the best of entries, then not cutting losses and then blinded by rage and revenge trading(same old mistakes,not quite ironed out yet).
after calming and settling down,things improved.i began to cut losses,still hating it but becoming more accepting of it.
perhaps still over trading but now will address that too.
 
I realised I was being too critical when it's not really any of my business, and so I deleted it. :)

im not one to mind criticism.helpful points i try to take onboard and discard the others.
this game isnt just about trading,its also about the thinking of the minds of others and thinking about that can be beneficial to trading.
 
Sounds like you're over trading. Not sure what market you're in but I'd say, in no particular order:

1 market only

1 trade per day maximum, win or lose

2 timeframe charts maximum (OK, maybe 3 later on but the 3rd is only to make sure you're not trading into something and to give you some idea where your trade might go if you're right).

Place your stop based on the larger of your 2 charts: if your stop is based on the smaller chart you are asking for trouble, especially with Forex

Draw 1 line on the larger chart and observe on the smaller chart: you will learn where to draw your line

If you're day trading, longer term TA and trend etc is debatable. Believe what you want to believe

Try to capture as much of the daily range as you can. The market can and does move hundreds of pips every day, a small retail trader is generally doomed to failure trying to scalp a couple of pips here and there.

Your entry and reason for entry has absolutely no bearing on the outcome of a trade. Your exit is what makes or loses you money.

Just take it as read that you are always wrong, the market is always right: gets you started on the right foot.

If you have no patience and need action, I'd look seriously as to whether trading is for you as it's about the most boring endeavour imaginable....until you are losing money, then it gets very VERY exciting.

If you're day trading get very used to the phenomenon of the move of the week occuring 2 hours before you've woken/when you've gone to the loo/while you're making lunch/after you've finished for the day, on the day you didn't trade after three losing days etc etc etc....and for these reasons all the backtesting/expectancy stuff can't help you

It's great this trading lark isn't it :LOL:

some interesting points.
my market is mainly the euro/dollar and occasionally ftse/dax.
i definetly need to take fewer trades.
the multiple time frames seem to add to the confusion so i base my entries/exits on just the 3min.
i have to disagree with you on the exits just making/losing the money.why enter a bad trade just to cut it with a loss?
 
some interesting points.
my market is mainly the euro/dollar and occasionally ftse/dax.
i definetly need to take fewer trades.
the multiple time frames seem to add to the confusion so i base my entries/exits on just the 3min.
i have to disagree with you on the exits just making/losing the money.why enter a bad trade just to cut it with a loss?

First 'bad' needs to be defined. The only bad trades are those where you have broken your own rules. Aside from that there are only winning and losing trades.

Any reason for entering has no bearing on the outcome. Exits make or lose money, nothing else.
 
week ending 11/10/13

trades points avg
wins 39 102 2.61
draw 4
loss 13 -53 -4.08
+49

a little better.beginning to cut and accept losses.almost a eureka moment,now actually thinking of where i should get out of a trade if it goes tits up before i get in.
 
First 'bad' needs to be defined. The only bad trades are those where you have broken your own rules. Aside from that there are only winning and losing trades.

Any reason for entering has no bearing on the outcome. Exits make or lose money, nothing else.

i find that either beyond my comprehension or absurd.
an entry has to be a part of the plan.just as you might have a reason to exit with a win or loss you must have a reason to enter.if you have reason to enter then surely it must have some importance.unless you decide on entering with a flip of a coin then start up your trading platform,fire up your charts and then see where you are and decide whether you should exit or not with either a win or loss.
 
:LOL:

At the moment after you hit the enter button are you in profit or loss? Answer: loss: your entry loses you money INSTANTLY.

The market will then do whatever it does, no matter what your reason for entry. You cannot predict the future and your entry has no bearing on the market whatsoever.

The only thing you control is your position, your risk and your exit and it's your exit that will win or lose you money. Until you believe otherwise you will bleed money.
 
:LOL:

At the moment after you hit the enter button are you in profit or loss? Answer: loss: your entry loses you money INSTANTLY.

The market will then do whatever it does, no matter what your reason for entry. You cannot predict the future and your entry has no bearing on the market whatsoever.

The only thing you control is your position, your risk and your exit and it's your exit that will win or lose you money. Until you believe otherwise you will bleed money.

opposing views is what makes a market.
what if there is zero spread so after youve hit enter your not in profit or loss.
the market will do whatever it does,you can not predict the future but isnt this exactly what you are trying to do.
ok by controlling the exit will prove whether you were right or wrong so you might attach a greater importance to exit but without an entry the exit wouldnt exist....
so to me they are equally important.
 
opposing views is what makes a market.
what if there is zero spread so after youve hit enter your not in profit or loss.
the market will do whatever it does,you can not predict the future but isnt this exactly what you are trying to do.
ok by controlling the exit will prove whether you were right or wrong so you might attach a greater importance to exit but without an entry the exit wouldnt exist....
so to me they are equally important.


No, you aren't trying to predict the future. You can't. Tell me otherwise :LOL:
 
week ending 24/10/13

trades points avg
win 37 120 3.24
draw 12
loss 17 -144 8.47
total -24


tired of taking small wins the past couple of weeks i let patience and discipline slip,wanting to hit home runs.
practically every trade i took i could have entered and exited by 5-10+ points better.i really need to address this inefficiency and then there was some losing trades of -32,-20,-17 which should have been cut sooner.
i used to think paper trading was a waste of time but that was when i didnt know that you were supposed to paper trade to a plan.it could just be what i need to try.will see how the next couple of weeks turn out.
choose between the pain of patience or the pain of defeat!
 
still in the game,havent blown my account yet.
had a few slow boring weeks where i grinded out 20-30 points and then i did it again,two disasterous weeks of -250 and -150.due to the 2 same mistakes i keep repeating and cant seem to help myself from making.1)entering when i know i shouldnt but telling myself i'll cut it if it goes against me and then 2)not cutting.sometimes 3)doubling/tripling up.
grinded out +50,+60 last 2 weeks by trying to remember not to make those same mistakes.
its a slow painful process but each time im knocked back i like to think im rebuilding myself to come back stronger.
 
You certainly have earned A+ for effort.

My advice having read some of your pages is to take the emotion out of it and trade like a robot following The Rules.

I was thinking of buying a punch bag and writing markets all over it.

:)
 
You certainly have earned A+ for effort.

My advice having read some of your pages is to take the emotion out of it and trade like a robot following The Rules.

I was thinking of buying a punch bag and writing markets all over it.

:)

and a U for discipline but im getting there.i am less emotional but still hate cutting those losses early.i try to keep reminding myself that winning back a loss of 10-20 points is easier than trying to win back a loss of 50-100 points but it hasnt quite reached the subconcious competent level yet.
last week i was short dax from the previous wednesday.i watched the positions go against me to -200 points.extremely annoyed with myself for not cutting it sooner,i calmed myself down and started scalping telling myself id cut if the new positions went against me more than 20 points.i kept that focus and scalped back 120.the dax finally came back and i got out with a net loss of 25 points.then it went down another 250 points(SOB) but i was relieved to have got out with a minor loss.theres nothing like the pain of losing to help focus the mind.
i must have markets written all over me,i seem to be that punch bag in my mma classes!
 
Top