I’ve been practicing this strategy for the past two weeks or so. I saw a setup that’s just like what I’ve been practicing, and for some reason, I was completely confused.
In all honesty, I probably shouldn’t have traded this strategy yet, but it was exactly like what I’ve been practicing.
The set up looked right, but I was still doubtful. I was so nervous that, even though the setup looked right, I had trouble finding a reason to trade it.
The setup looked right, but I kept wondering if it was a fakeout or not. The fear was almost paralyzing. It took a few minutes to decide what to do. I decided to come back to it after checking on my other pairs.
In the end, I thought about my objective of taking setups despite the outcome, and I took the trade.
I think I could use a little more practice–perhaps for another week. I want to understand the strategy a little bit better.
Before I start the practice again, I’d like to review a 1-month period for a few pairs and see how many trades there were. It would give me an idea of what I should’ve been doing, and what a month looks like when I’m trading correctly, and 100% on point.
I just reviewed my trades for February 2024, and I noticed I exited a few trades too early when I saw fakeout signs.
And I fell for it a few times. This tells me that I need to be patient, which is really scary. The nature of a fakeout is to resemble a sign, even though the conditions are incongruent. Paranoia kicks in and wants to take the sign. Only to find out after a couple days that price is still trending in your favor. Boo hoo.
It actually happened a few days ago. There was a fakeout, I suspected it was a fakeout, but I was too scared to wait, for fear of missing out. I’ve encountered this during my practice trades, but with the live market, it’s much scarier.
I have a particular set up that has me lost. It’s hitting resistance, but it didn’t look right. My spidey-sense told me it’s a fakeout. I followed my spidey sense and opened a long position.
Two candles later, my fear and confusion kicked in after seeing a bearish sign. Should I go bearish or stay bullish?
What are the odds of ME being right? I closed my long and went short. Now, I’m regretting it, wondering if I made the right move.
May is halfway done, and my account is lower. Such moments are discouraging.
But, one good thing is that I’m not chasing price like in the past. If I’m wrong, then my losses are limited. Before, I would reverse my position three or four times. It was chaotic.
I’ll keep practicing.
Actually, what I have to do is keep chipping away at my bad habits. I had the bad habit of closing trades prematurely. I mean, before price even started trending. I would enter, get nervous, and close it the next day.
I made a rule that I’m not allowed to close trades prematurely like that. That has helped a little bit so far. But now, I have the problem of making an observation of the chart, then contradicting myself. I’ll go against my first instinct.
What I should do, instead of just following my first instinct, I should assess the chart and its recent signs, then come to a conclusion. Then STICK with it!
I’ll have to write some rule down or something. I need a way to keep myself from this chaotic trading.
I got an idea that may help me understand the fakeouts better. And it’s a really simple idea as well.
I should incorporate more fakeouts into my practice charts.
Right now, I have about 30 practice charts and there are about four or five fakeout charts–not much. I got an idea to increase the amount of fakeout charts.
At first, so many fakeouts may not be a good idea because I need to learn how the strategy works.
Now that I have a better understanding of the strategy, I can increase the fakeout chart # to 50% of my practice charts.
I have to keep studying so that I’m not always one step behind the charts. Meaning, I want to understand what I should do in that moment–not AFTER I make a mistake and get stopped out.
I have a mini notepad where I write all my trading ideas and thoughts. I carry it with me when I go out. It’s frustrating to get an idea, only to forget it later just because I didn’t write it down in that moment.
Sometimes, when I go to bed, I try to think about trading, instead of thinking about other random things. And once in a while I get an idea. I usually remember in the morning, but I don’t wanna take the chance of forgetting. Why risk it?
I started a new routine.
When I go to bed, I put my notebook within reach. This way, I can jot down my idea.
I wrote down my idea for fakeout charts, and I’ll start that as soon as I finish just a few more practice charts of the current practice strategy. Perhaps by Friday.
I finished practicing my last strategy, and now I’m collecting fakeout samples.
I collected one chart so far, and it’s exactly like the trade I recently missed. So annoying. But I only have myself to blame because I saw the fakeout, traded it correctly, then got nervous and reversed my position. And I lost.
I think the anxiety partially comes from not understanding what’s going on. At first I understood that it was a fakeout, but I doubted myself. I saw a candle that allowed me to give in to my doubt, and I took it. Bad move.
Perhaps, after studying these fakeouts, I’ll have a better understanding of what candles to ignore. That’s my goal.
I have to take a step backward and revisit a strategy I had practiced already. I have to recalibrate my brain. The previous strategy and the current one clash a bit. But I’m mixing them, it seems, and I have to go back and practice the old one to remind myself how to trade it.
I have to remind myself the conditions for each one. Fortunately, I already have the practice charts for this.
I still have to collect more fakeout charts. Perhaps, I’ll divide my time between the two.
Hi,
If it is any consolation, I did exactly the same thing two days ago, so decided to wait a day or two before I continue. I have a series of “necessary evils” to cope with that are impacting the time I had allocated to my trading life - I ended up intending to trade for 3 hours and ended up trading for 7 hours, then going to bed 4 hours later than I had planned - etc, etc. You know how it goes. Having completely screwed up my 24 hour clock, now today an even bigger opportunity has come along weeks earlier than planned (a very good thing), but it has yet again knocked my trading plans backwards. I was just about managing two real time sniping trades (my plan says only one at once), and I took on a third sniper trade. Simultaneously, I missed a rug pull whilst I was laddering out of my first trade after it went 30% beyond break even, and then I realized on the third trade I had not run a rug check, saw it was in the danger zone of rug pull susceptibility, and took the immediate decision to exit 100% from the trade. Though my risk was about $20 the immediate exit cost only $0.25, so I thanked lady luck, accepted my losses on the second trade, and left the first trade overnight, and exited the next morning for a small profit. Seven hours for no profit. But I moved forward with reinforcing the rules. We need to keep it simple, and in this territory of needing to watch the trades in real time (like the strategy I am currently testing) we need to know when to walk away. I walked away.
I stayed out of a trade today. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or bad thing.
It’s a retracement set up, but I wasn’t sure if it was a fakeout or not. I haven’t studied fakeouts enough yet, so I decided to stay out.
I’d like to feel more confident in my strategy application; not just guessing.
Fakeout practice is coming, but first I’d like to continue with my review of my longer-term strategy. Strangely, I need to review my short-term strategy again.
But, I can’t keep recalibrating my mind. I need to be able to see both simultaneously. Next, I’m gonna practice the two strategies at the same time. Mix the charts and practice. Then, I have to prepare a batch of charts that are mostly fakeouts.
I recently moved my SL to BE with one trade, and it got stopped out right before trending. That trade is still running in my favor. I’m kicking myself for moving my SL.
Well, lesson learned.
This is a good example of ¨you’re the only thing stopping you from making money from the market¨.
Correct, but my strategy doesn’t include moving SL. Often, price will dance around my entry before trending. I have to leave my SL where it is, have patience, and be willing to take the loss.
