Yes. Despite everything, when I look at the complete chart, it all makes sense. The problem is me.
It’s just hard to keep focused. I will tell myself to focus on a bear signal, but price will trend up, and I completely forget about the bearish signal, and then it turns bearish.
I get confused carrying different techniques in my head. I think I should try labeling my charts more, that way I just have to wait for a particular signal.
There are still some signs I have to learn to decipher. There’s too much going on in my coconut. I’m gonna do some analysis about retracement and reversal signals. I have a bunch of chart samples, so this time, I don’t have to collect any charts. I have them already. I just gotta open the file, open a spreadsheet, and start my data collection. I’m really frustrated. But I can’t allow that to hinder me.
this is always one of the Big Deals of trading, i think … be sure and let me know if you find a reliable way to distinguish between the two: i’ve only been looking for nearly 40 years - i think the best one can ever hope for on this front is more or less “something that works right now, safely enough, for what i’m doing at the moment” (and even that needs enough analysis and research!) and there’s never going to be a perfect answer to it
I just finished my trading. I wasn’t off to a great start. I woke up three hours late. No idea why.
Then my internet wasn’t working. For some reason, this time and last time, when my internet doesn’t work on my trading laptop, by bluetooth keyboard doesn’t work correctly either.
I got my internet to work, but my broker’s page wouldn’t load. BP loaded just fine. Youtube loaded fine. But not my broker’s. I went to my leisure laptop and my broker’s page loaded just fine.
What the–?!
Then a huge bat got in the house somehow. This is the second one. There was one last week, and again today. Last time, it was pretty small. But this one was almost double the size. Fortunately, I caught both bats and set them loose outside.
After all that, I was able to get to my trading on my other laptop. There’s not much going on at the moment. a few losses, but a few trades running. I didn’t open any positions. I was tempted to start trying to analyze the charts a little deeper, but I really need to study more. I started analyzing retracement signs yesterday, and I wanna continue with that.
I watched the movie Whiplash. It’s about a jazz drummer who crosses paths with an overdemanding/abusive music teacher. That teacher was insulting and even slapping students who played the wrong note.
Towards the end, the teacher explained that he was trying to push his students to new limits. ¨Don’t you think it’s possible to push people too far?¨, a student asked him. The teacher basically said he was looking for the person who wouldn’t be discouraged by his abusive attitude.
The teacher told a story about a saxophonist who got treated horribly. He went home and cried, but he didn’t quit. The next day he started practicing. He practiced with the determination that no one will ever laugh at his playing again.
Then one year later, he got on stage and played an amazing solo.
I wanna be like that. I wanna keep going, even though I feel discouraged.
My ¨don’t give up¨ pact partner decided to quit, and then I had those terrible trades. Imagine you place a trade. And instead of profiting $5,000 from a huge swing, you lost $100. It was just a practice chart, but the fact is still the same–I traded poorly. I traded another chart; same result. The day before, same thing. It was driving me mad.
The dark thoughts came back for an afternoon. Everything together was a little bit overwhelming.
But I decided to keep studying, and I found a vulnerability in my trading. I started to feel hopeful again. It gave me the motivation to keep studying.
On my trading laptop, it wouldn’t connect to certain websites. My leisure laptop did, so I figured the problem was not with my wifi–just the laptop.
I went online, and they started talking about code this, and all this deep stuff. Normally, I wouldn’t have a problem with that, but it didn’t seem like the right answer.
I tried to reset my laptop to a previous restoration point, but it turned out that I never created one. I was sure I did before, but there wasn’t any.
I was about to do a hard reset of my laptop. It got about halfway and I hit cancel. I decided to try updating my Windows. It took way longer than I thought.
It took over two hours, I think.
Well, installing the updates fixed my connection problem! My laptop seems to be back to normal and working fine.
The first thing I did was set a restoration point.
I think it’s important to be honest with oneself while trying to grow into profitability as a trader.
I have to be willing to challenge myself about what I’m doing and what I’m thinking. In my mind, I’m waiting for a variety of signals. Perhaps I’m being TOO flexible.
It’s possible I need more structure and should be more selective about what I’m waiting for–the set up, as well as the conditions. Initially, it feels like I’ll be missing out on too many opportunities, but I’m taking too many losses.
SOMETHING has to change. I have to do something differently if I want my outcome to change. And changing my strategy won’t help because the problem is me. If I change strategies, the outcome would be the same because I haven’t learned to wait for the appropriate set up and execute it properly.
I’m checking out AUD/NZD, and if I were trading that properly, one setup lasts one month, a second trade lasts two months, and a recent retrace trade lasts one week.
That means that generally, my strategy calls for very infrequent trades. But I have to pay attention everyday.
I’m really struggling with the patience part. I’m actually scared of NOT trading. When candles are popping off all over the place, I just think about how I should have traded that and how much money I could have made.
This is something I’ve written about several times. It’s difficult because my brain is still stuck in bad habits. My emotions are more in control than my strategy.
When you’re waiting for a support bounce, and you’re not being patient, your desperation can turn EVERYTHING into a support bounce. So, you’ll trade, trade, trade until you lose 30% of your account, wondering what happened. That’s Terminator style,
not Jason Bourne sniper style.
A large part of me is scared. I’ve been trading and studying everyday for the past few years. Imagine not taking any trades for three weeks! Theoretically, the end of one trade is the start of another, so I should always have a trade running.
And that’s what’s hurting me. I don’t have to do anything. I’m only gonna take a trade if I see a signal. That’s it. And I’m gonna have to get used to waiting.
there speaks someone who has perhaps read too much Mark Douglas and not enough Michael Harris (my comment is tongue-in-cheek and jokey, but i mean it seriously as well)
perhaps
it’s “not proven”, in my opinion
i’m not arguing with that
not arguing with that, either - it’s canonical, but i’m far less clear about everything you said after that, and i don’t think the validity of the observation above lends any evidential value to the rest (sorry if i sound very outspoken! you have read enough of my posts here to understand that my intention in posting in your thread is supportive and not a criticism!! )
“not proven” (i’m being polite)
i think there’s a big, important point you’re missing, there: it’s trivially easy to learn to wait for the appropriate set-up and execute it properly when you have a strategy that you KNOW has a proven edge that you have independently verified, yourself
in my opinion, that will be more helpful to reflect on more, rather than the pseudo-psychological mumbo-jumbo with which you’re currently distracting yourself!
pleased to hear about your computer, though - and always wishing you well!
I think part of my problem is trying to have a strategy for all the different conditions. For my S/R strategy, there are tons of conditions, but finite signs.
I wanna try keeping my strategy flexible for the conditions, and a little more rigid for the signs.
Instead of trying to remember or anticipate so many different scenarios, I’m gonna try to just wait and see what the market throws at me. As candles unfold, I’ll watch for the right conditions.
This may sound very obvious, but for some reason, in my mind is seems different. I’m trying to teach my brain to relax and not be so jumpy.
Instead of worrying about what each individual candle means, I can draw my S/R and just wait for price to hit that zone. If it does, great. If not, whatever.
My desperation has been in the driver seat for too long. Time to put that dude to sleep in the backseat.
On the face of it, trading is very simple: there are only two choices, price either goes up or it goes down (standing still is irrelevant and only ever temporary anyway).
But that is not actually the whole truth, there is a third option and that is what often what causes the problems: price goes both up and down…
So it is inevitable that if we study price too closely with a magnifying glass then we will see both and feel confusion, distraction and uncertainty.
Basically, all we need is a strategy to define the most probable overall direction and then apply risk/money management criteria to ensure losses are less than the gains.
However, to apply MM rules one needs a strategy component that also assesses the likely targets and reversals which the selected direction may reach.
Knowing where to get out, both in profit and in loss, is perhaps far more critical to overall performance than the original choice of entry.
I finished my trading for the day. I reflected on patience and decided to close a few positions that I shouldn’t have taken. They were either near the breakeven mark, or halfway to the stop loss.
I really gotta be more willing to wait. Closing those trades was a smart move. Yes, they could turn profitable, but they’re not favorable setups.
I just finished my trading for the day. I didn’t take any new positions. It was difficult, but I managed to not open any at all.
Of course, I wanted to. There were several setups that looked like something was gonna happen. But the truth is that each of them were guesses. Pure guesses. I marked them with an arrow, just out of curiosity, but nothing more.
Trading the random walk is dangerous, and I’m trying to get away from it. Today was the first time I walked away from so many setups. There were about three of them, I think.
Earlier this week, I moved a few SLs to BE instead of closing prematurely.
This feels a bit weird because I want to take those trades. Something is gonna happen, and I wanna profit from it.
One of the setups in particular looked pretty good. It’s one of those trades that could or couldn’t be a signal. Perhaps, I should take it, but I’m holding out for very clear no-thinking signals. I’m sitting on the conservative side for now, just because I wanna get more comfortable not trading.
I practiced a few charts today, and they were all horrible. Except for the last one.
I got a fair entry, then then I added to my position when I saw the opportunity. This chart was a bit easier than the others I suppose.
It’s hard to narrow down my mistakes. But two times I made the mistake of not continuing to trade. Price was pushing support, and I got scared after hitting my SL. I should have kept going long, but I didn’t, and I missed out on the big trade.
The second time I did that was when price was pushing resistance. I got my signal, price pushed and hit my stop. I thought I was wrong and price was gonna keep going bullish, but it reversed and I missed it.
That’s something for me to keep in mind.
Another trade I got wrong was entering at support, and closing too soon. Price went all the way up to hit resistance. but I got faked out by the random walk .
The random walk fakes me out very often. I’m torn between taking each signal as price dances around during the random walk (during which the re-entries can be tricky and stressful), or just hold my position and withstand the random walk.
Trading the random walk is tricky because you never know when getting out and jumping back in is the right move, for my strategy. I get it confused often.
I’m studying some charts, and I’m noticing that the random walk between S/R is tricky because there are two choices for me.
During the random walk there is some volatility. Volatility is what creates opportunity for profit (and loss).
If I want less work (and less stress?) I can just open a trade at support, and leave it alone until it hits resistance or gives a strong sign that it won’t make it to resistance.
One problem with that is that price could possibly pull back so far that it hits my SL. When it does, I’ll wonder why I didn’t just close my position before the pullback. I could have have a nice profit, but instead I get nothing. That sucks.
Or, I could trade each bounce during the random walk. Yes, this is potentially more profitable. Way more profitable. I’m talking 3x or 4x more profitable. But the risk for loss is also 3x or 4x. Once the chart is complete, all the entries and exits seem crystal clear.
But being open to such signs teaches the brain to watch every single candle. During S/R entries, or swing trading, such trading is disastrous. During swing trading, every candle does not carry significance.
It’s difficult but not impossible. There’s a huge difference between the two.
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