Relaxing In The Sunshine Strategy

Trading Discussion Trade Journals
21

As traders visiting this forum what do we want to know?

Some will say thats a stupid question, they will say that they want to learn how to trade well and become consistently profitable… but isn’t that a stupid answer?

We can find lots of answers on various aspects of trading but if we don’t know what the question or questions are what is the point? It’s all just information to us.

To make actual progress we need to figure out what the question is. Where you are now in your trading, what do you think is missing?
How the hell am i supposed to answer that?.. if i knew what was missing bla bla bla!

But think about it, when the market does (a) and i do (b) …© happens and i get (D’d) bigtime.

If i knew when (a) was going to happen… can you know when (a) is going to happen? Can you get around not knowing when (a) is going to happen? How would you do that? … you see where this is going?

The answers to questions that will help our trading are in these forums. [B]Our job is to figure out what our individual questions are.[/B] Without the questions; what are answers worth?

22

Scenario: For the first time in just over 10 years Paul went back to the “hood” he grew up in… reason unknown.

Setting: Saturday night, outside a bar having said goodbye to old friends after a night filled with drinking and heated discussions, Paul and Dave; a guy who works for the same Research Lab as Paul and had tagged along for the trip, are slowly making their way back to the hotel.

Dave: Don’t worry man they didn’t see it.
Paul: See what, what do you mean?
Dave: You wanted to pick up that Tequila bottle and smash it over Chris didnt you, was it Chris?
Paul: You saw that?
Dave: Don’t worry i just saw a flash, no one else would have picked up on it.
Paul: It’s crazy you know. The stuff Chris was saying…10 years ago i would have felt forced to knock him the fcuk out.
Dave: Guess thats what Chris was going for.
Paul: Yep. I thought we were just a bunch of old friends meeting up but it seems like Chris had that BS planned for a while.
Dave: You handled it well man.
Paul: Yeah, but i feel like a fcuking idiot for letting him get away with that BS and not smashing that bottle over his loser head!

Dave starts laughing: Thats just your ego messing with you man. Chris is just pissed off that you are doing well and his life is still the same way it was back then. That performance he did for the guys…pathetic.

Paul: I know man but when you grow up in a place like that…sometimes those feelings come back in certain situations. Must be great to grow up amongst normal people lol

Dave: Don’t kid yourself, we have ego’s too lol Personally, if i was you i wouldnt have come back here. Not because i’m a snob but this kind of thing is very likely to happen for obvious reasons. Look Paul, at the end of the day it’s like this… Chris and people like Chris will walk around acting the big guy in front of people they know while taking it up the as in shty jobs day after day for crap pay. They have a permanent address in loserville. You can’t lose to people like Chris because people like Chris cant win! Doesn’t matter what it looks like, the result is the same…

Days later Paul was thinking about his conversation with “guru” Dave and thought ironically “looks like my transformation is nearly complete” and laughed.

Moral to the story if you have got this far without falling asleep: If your focus is on winning long term, your reactions to incidents and avoiding incidents will need to be based on winning not on Ego. Winning reactions; at times will make you feel like a fool or make you feel like others must think you are a fool… but you will win. No busted accounts.

Do the Ego thing and just like Chris & co… in bars in neighbourhoods, in every town & in every city on every continent… loser status is assured.

23

Good morning future Masters of the Universe,

Here’s a Thursday workout for you.

You are daytrading.
You have a set max loss per day of £100.
You are currently down £95 for the day and have a trade open which looks like it is about to bust out.
It’s 4pm GMT, you spot a nice set up on the GBP/USD.

Do you take the trade?

If your anwer is yes, elaborate on your thought process and considerations.
If your answer is no, elaborate on your thought prcoes and considerations.

Have a pip heavy day.

24

Ok lets do some CSI on this question. ([I]Your answer may differ to mine, i’m just showing the thought process i use in the way i trade)
[/I]
If i am a daytrader in the uk and its 4pm GMT, if i haven’t already shut down for the day that’s what should be on my mind, not opening trades.

If i am close to my maximum loss limit for the day, then that would mean that apart from the trade that is still open and about to bust out, i have already had multiple losing trades today.

If i am looking at setups and thinking of taking a trade at 4pm on a losing day it means i’m juiced up or pre juiced, steaming or pre steamaing…in poker terminology on Tilt or about to Tilt.

Having a preset max loss limit per day, in this example £100, means that once upon a time; i came up with a solution to a problem and put that limit there [B]for my protection[/B].

Logic, Logic, Logic…If, If, If

If i take the trade i’m going to check it 3, 4, or 5 times before i go to sleep ([I]not a relaxing way to spend the evening[/I]). If it hasn’t reached its target i will let it ride while i sleep, this may or may not be on my mind when trying to fall asleep.

If the trade busts out before i go to bed…i have an even bigger losing day! Add that to the juice and i might go nuts and try to trade my way out of it like a fool (double up double up!).

If i wake up in the morning and the trade busted out overnight…i begin my day with a loss on top of the losing day i had the day before…Great!

If i wake up and its a winner those 30 or 40 pips wont do much for my mood ([I]i know this from experience[/I])

If i wake up and the trade is still open…what was all that fuss for last night?

----------------The Juice, The steam, On Tilt :o --------------

Ok, there are stacks of arguments for why i shouldn’t take the trade and under normal circumstances that should be enough BUT [B]when i am juiced up that won’t stop me from taking the trade![/B]

So effectively the question becomes how do i enforce the £100 max loss per day?

For me i don’t, what i mean is i don’t look at it as a “rule”.

If i am down to my max loss for the day i know something is wrong. [B]I don’t care what it is or why[/B], i can go through all that another day. I look at it as if something is off in my brain like a broken sensor, or a shorted wire and [B]the readings i’m getting are not reliable and can’t be trusted[/B].

I can’t be sure that what i am seeing is what is actually there.

Some days i can look for a pull back entry and put in an order and the pair hits that order to the exact pip. It then reaches its target again to the exact pip before pulling back again. To me on those days my brain and its “sensors” and wires are all calibrated perfectly and i am seeing everything exactly as it is . [B]On a day like that i would trade a setup i saw at 4pm[/B].

You can’t expect the same performance from a faulty machine as you do from one that is working correctly.

If you weigh yourself on a scale in the morning and it says 80kg and then you weigh yourself in the evening and it says 90kg… are you 80kg or 90kg? You wouldn’t ask yourself that, you would just say there is something wrong with the scales.

The max loss tells me i’m faulty so i shut it down for the day and look at the problem the day after.

Of course i get in max relaxation in the meantime.

25

Let’s finish off the week on a high!

An athlete who was a World record holder, Olympic champion, World champion, European champion etc etc in her particular event was asked by a journalist if she was enjoying her retirement (she had just retired).

The athlete replied that as an athlete her whole life was geared towards a few minutes which only happened once every 4 years. If she wasn’t at her peak during those minutes or didn’t perform correctly it would be another 4 years until she got another shot.

Every training session, every meal, every early night, every lifestyle choice, every athletics meet, every championship meet were all done with that goal in mind, peaking and putting in her best performance at the olympics and winning Gold. She said that even when you won and achieved your goal… preparing for the next 4 years and the next olympics was still a huge challenge. In that context retiring at the top took on a different meaning.

Did you have a good week trading?

If you won a few hundred pounds you might say yes, if you lost a few hundred pounds you might say no… but what is your aim with trading what are you geared towards? What is the peak you are trying to reach?

How has putting on a bunch of winning and losing trades this week got you any closer to that goal?

On the other hand, if you have practiced skills and tried to make improvements, if you have been put in situations and instead of jumping off the cliff you have made better choices… if you have taken a hard look at yourself and the markets and gained some insight and gone away and worked on the things that need to be better… then you are getting closer to your goal, it was a good week.

Next week there will be more opportunities to practice and improve those skills live, more opportunities to refine technical systems and psychological mindsets, more opportunities to relax; and if the dude who deals with the weather does his job, more opportunities to catch some sunshine!

If we have been in the game a month, a year, 5 or 10 years… to reach our goal we have to gear ourselves towards that goal, not a bunch of trades. Progression until we hit that peak.

Next week…bring it on mfa!

26

It’s Sunday again so its prep day again.

I have just been on a 10 mile run and am doing 1 handed pushups as i type this while “eye of the tiger” from Rocky 3 is playing at full blast in the background! …Well… not really, but i could be lol

Lets keep this " non literal "pump going guys now we are in “beast mode”.

What are you going to work on this week? What are your learning goals for the week? How will you improve your skills and what metrics will you use to see that you are on the right track and making those improvements however gradual they are?

Do you need to make adjustments in your trading plan, style and system to reflect your [B]current[/B] understanding of your psychology and the markets?

Simple yes… but clean, i said make it cleeeeeaaaaannn too!

Some peoples systems are dirty as hell!

Don’t just simplfy it, clean it! Get the ‘S’ version! Porsche and Lambo dudes know this… Same engine, reduced weight= More speed! Carbon fibre everything, cleeeeaaaaan, and not that carbon fibre 3M wrap nonsense that Bmw owners slap over everything for esthetics. Don’t look the part, BE THE PART!

Pay more for less. Some high end manufactures don’t even give you a radio in the car to cut down weight, and they will charge you £5k extra for the privelige of not getting one!

You think you mesed up a few times? Lets look at how our institutional cousins do it in the link below.
Relax bro, more sunshine!

List of trading losses - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

27

List of trading losses - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some of the guys on this list went to some of the best Schools and Universities in the world and landed jobs at the most prestigious Banks and Financial Institutuions in the world. They then received the best training in the world and rose through the ranks of their organisations to positions where they could inflict the biggest losses possible. Losing wasn’t enough, they wanted to lose big!

Some of these guys also ended up in prision; and at least one person on the list that i know of is still in prison.

You see; if a person is really determined to lose there isn’t much you can do to stop him/her. The Institutions change their procedures and rules after an “incident”, sometimes even the laws of the country change… but a person who is really determined to lose, always finds a way around it all. There is always another incident.

Alcohol, drugs, “creative” accountancy, embezzlement… law breaking, prison…whatever, if it gives them an edge in losing…they will take it.

What does this show us?

It shows us that if we are focused on winning:

  1. We have to understand loss and how to lose well. To do that we have to figure out what losing well is.
  2. We have to undertand not only how to win; but equally as important, we have to understand how to [B]maintain[/B] a winning profile.

Do you really want to win or are you a loser in disguise?

28

People say “keep your work life and your private life seperate”. Thats called being professional. If i go into a department store, i don’t care that the salesperson’s wife is sleeping with his sister, i just want him to do his job well. I want to come out of there with whatever it is i went in there for in a plastic bag and a receipt in my wallet.

On any given day, the Lawyer, Salesman, Teacher, Athlete, Burger flipper, Student is going to be going through some personal sh*t. Most people develop routines which allow them to get through the bad days whilst retaining some standards and not turning the whole world upside down. This is called professionalism.

As a trader professionalism is essential. You can’t sit there pis*ed off because some guy stole your bike when you were 6 years old even though you still haven’t gotten over it. Taking it out on the Eur/Usd will not help you!

We don’t want personal stuff from the past or the present dirtying that clean system we have built or complicating the simplicity we created. Don’t fcuk up the clarity. Let trading be trading!

How do we actually do that then?
You are not an idiot! Take some time and figure it out! Check post 1 rule 2.

To summarise: keep your work life and your private life seperate… no no no … we will take it a step further. [B]Keep Trading and Real Life seperate[/B].

Told you going to sleep 1 hour earlier wouldn’t be easy :wink:

29

In every Western movie “Cowboy Slick” teaches “Wannabe Cowboy” to shoot by lining up bottles or tin cans on a wall or log and using them for target practice. You assume from the movie that “Cowboy Slick” is teaching “Wannabe” the same way he himself was taught by “Old slickster”.

“Cowboy Slick” is not alive because he shot more bottles or tin cans than his opponents, nor is he still alive because he spent more hours shooting at these inanimate objects. [B]“Cowboy Slick” is alive because in his last gun fight he shot his opponenet dead before his opponent shot him dead![/B]

In trading you can backtest 12 hours per day and forward test the other 12. You can sideways test at the weekends if thats your preference, but the fact remains that as a trader this is not what you get paid for. You get paid for trade execution, in other words [B]you get paid for making good decisions[/B]. When, where and how to enter, how you manage the trade and where you exit. All of this is a [B]practical skill[/B] and it is done live, under unique conditions.

Practical, practical,practical.

Don’t lie there dead complaining that you shot 403 bottles in training while your opponent who is now at the bar acting like Wild Bill only shot 265 bottles! He won…get it? R.I.P

If it’s there… get that sunshine, relaxation = essential!

Forex is easy!

30

Thursday Success Booster Package.

[B]Your job is not to make what doesn’t work work. Your job is to make what works work![/B]

31

It’s very important not to back yourself into corners or champion causes in trading… If you are “Mr fibbonacci” have you invested so much in the cause of fibbonacci, personally and publicly, that you are stuck with it?

Critical thinking = The objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement.
So… even having made progress we still need to remain critical in our thinking.

Is it easier for a student to admit being wrong or for a teacher to admit to being wrong?
This is why we have to continue to be students even if we teach. Teaching can form part of our studies if used correctly.

[B]End of month reward reaper[/B]: Open up whatever voice recording app you have on your phone… record yourself talking about what you did well this month, what you did badly, what the market did, what was on your mind, what you learned, what you didn’t learn, what you think the way forward is etc.

Just talk ([I]no time limits[/I]), brainstorm, don’t edit yourself or pause to think. We often find that we know more than we think we do, but we also find that we are not necesssarily using what we know. Bring it all to the front of your mind.

Next month there will be alot of relaxing to do, might have to pull some strings to get that sunshine in depending where you live but if it makes forex easier… :wink:

32

Quite interesting man…

33

Hey Forex Dog,

How is your trading going? You are right, Forex and how we approach it is interesting as hell. Have a good month man!

34

In forex we talk about winning and losing months. In those 20-22 trading days,[I] lets call it 2X trading days[/I], if we have an edge and we execute it correctly we should come out ahead and book the month as a winner.

If you look at your daily spreadsheet for winning months you will see similarities ([I]make a note of them[/I]). For the way you personally trade this is what a winning month looks like. Trade a different strategy or time-frame and this is likely to change.

A month may or may not be a suitable point of focus for you. Eg: If you find that you regularly suffer losses on the last week of the month… maybe the month is too long for you, maybe you should switch your focus to 3 weeks instead. If on the other hand you always seem to start the month badly, why not focus on 6 week periods and have those extra 2 weeks as a winning continuation, if the months feel short.

Keep in mind however how the beginning and end of the month affects other traders and look for ways to exploit that.

[B]Being the beginning of the month you should be feeling relaxed, recharged and confident that September will be a winner[/B]. If on the other hand you feel that you couldn’t win a trade or a month to save your life and that Draghi himself is targetting you in particular… then you shouldn’t be trading at all. Take some time off and get in some relaxation and sunshine. It is much better to lose expected profits than to lose actual capital… we all know this!

It’s just another 2X :wink:

35

In the words of the legendary Don Draper, “When a man walks into a room; he brings his whole life with him.”

In the words of the legendary Relaxing In The Sunshine Strategy, " Leave that sh*t at the door before you enter the room."

September 2nd is Legends day!

When a man walks into a room… From Mad Men - YouTube

36

Simplifying, cleeeaaaning, clarity, relaxation and sunshine gets rid of the rubbish.

You don’t clear a space just to fill it again with generalisations or more rubbish. This is where you get [B]specific[/B].

This is where you [B]specify[/B] your technicals. From this clear space write down what you see and how you will keep it this way so it remains clear over time ([I]technical and psychological[/I]). Specific psychological skills and routines managining a specific technical strategy or strategies ([I]if using more than 1 strategy these have to be individual and recorded as such and not allowed to become a mixed up mess[/I])

It all has to be sustainable over time to remain clear over time, so it can’t be cumbersome.

Simple, clean, clear, clarity, specific technical managed by specific psychological, sustainable over time, relaxation and sunshine built in, habitual in effort and execution= [B]consistent[/B].

For our results to be consistent don’t we need to be consistent too?
For results to be consistently good…
For results to be consistently bad…

37

The video below is a perfect example of how sometimes traders make things more difficult than they need to be. Please study this!

These 2 “traders” are hilarious. The “clever” one is an even bigger fool than the “blonde” one because he signed up to be blondie’s trading partner.

Have a pip heavy day!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rApl9HxdSow

38

Especially for you eur/usd gbp/usd surfers … in honour of yesterday, lets talk about [B]WINNING[/B] !([I]well done, well done[/I])

Ok, so you “surf n scoop” a large bag full of pips, the sun is out and you can see your face in the wax shine on the Audi. The girl at the petrol station flashes you @that@ smile and you hand her your iphone…[I]numbers numbers[/I], [I]dates dates[/I].

Your song is playing everywhere and if you threw that coin in your hand at that ant, the one you cant even see because it’s over 200m away; you would hit it dead centre in the forehead! [I]Slowmotion, slowmotion[/I]

Everything tastes like rum flavoured ice cream!

What???

You open up the trading platform and go in at market on the eur/jpy and lose a quick 25 pips.

Lets stop it right here before the carnage starts! When you get that Superman feeling…

If what you are doing is working and making you money why throw everything out of the window and start gambling vegas style??? [I]Double u, double up[/I]… nooooo

[B]Some of us are really good at sticking with losing formulas…but when it comes to a winning formula we can’t wait to get rid of it [/B]and start doing our Gordon Gekko thing! ([I]easy on the brylcreem[/I])

Realxation and sunshine works when you are winning too! Reset, reset, reset.

Don’t give it back that easily, you earned it.

39

Scenario: A guy writes in a book that the reason we hold on to losing trades is because we have the need to be right. It’s an ego thing. Sounds intelligent, spreads around the trading world eventually arriving at your door step and you file it away somewhere dusty in your brain with the rest of the trading knowledge.

Is it correct though? In some cases yes, in other cases no [B]BUT[/B] it is popular. What is popular often becomes the standard answer. Other explanations get ignored.

Example: Have you ever been in an argument with someone about something they did and instead of discussing or giving an explanation about what they did they say “Well what about when you… bla bla bla”. They talk about something totally unrelated that has no relevance to what the current problem is.

Narcissists do this a lot. It is pointless getting into an argument with a narcissist beacause they feed off of confrontation.

[B]Ignoring a Narcissist however[/B] is like hitting the average person in the head with a sledge hammer… so do you argue… or ignore and remove them from your circle?

Now lets get to the point :eek: How would a Narcissist trade?

When faced with a bad trade would they accept it was bad or would they think about something totally unrelated from some point in the past? Would they get out of the trade or would they go to war? Would they get some kind of kick out of the confrontation?
[B]
To a Narcissist the result is not the not important factor[/B].

Of course there are tons of Narcissistic traders out there and maybe we all have a touch of Narcissism in us BUT… remember Narcissists have an effect on the people they come into contact with.

You could be a saint in everyday life and come into contact with a Narcissist and find yourself facing 600 life sentances in prison for taking out a whole village out of frustration :confused:

In trading terms, price over-extends and you go in on a reversal before confirmation but price keeps going up. There is no reason for price to keep going up so you dig in and maybe add a trade. Why?

Why didn’t you just ignore that situation. [B]Why did you feed the confrontation?[/B] Price gave you no indication or confirmation at all that it was taking your point of view into consideration; let alone that it was about to act on it. [I]Sound Narcissistic[/I]?

So to summarise:

1)Don’t take the popular ideas for granted as being the whole truth or valid in all situations.
2)Don’t feed the Narcissists in everyday life or in trading…in fact keep the hell away!

40

Slow down to speed up!

On friday i made a small mistake, the kind of mistake you skip over because it’s not worth worrying about. The reason i didn’t skip over it is not because of the mistake itself ([I]which actually made me a few pips[/I]), but because of what it could lead to under different circumstances.

On the particular day, the relaxing in the sunshine strategy was in full effect so i was rested feeling good, focused, aware, observant and all that other good stuff. Now…had it been a bad day and i had done the same thing… the potential for chaos is upon us. Note the word [B]potential[/B]. Even if it was only a 0.0075% risk of chaos, the [B]potential[/B] is still there.

No, no, no … don’t even crack open the door to potential chaos.

In the words of that wise old man who never actually existed, lets call him Tom…“If the wheel falls off your car while you are driving, is it a problem because you are about to crash into that wall [B]or[/B] was it already a problem way before that?”.