Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Thrill seeking

I'm guilty of sin called thrill seeking. I think that majority of my trades have element of that. Even if I do get in a trade for good reasons usually I overstay if it's not going my way. In that overstaying I get thrill in waiting will it come back again. Today I entered trade that at it's best is coin flip. Had another one for some trendline bounce try, but all in all it's thrill seeking.
I'm little disappointed with all of that because I say to myself that I'm here because of business and money, but it's not entirely true. I fool myself I think because I don't approach this all seriously. I don't wait any more for real setups where I see something that is really going on. That all isn't flattering but it's true.
-12 pips

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

If it makes you feel any better, i lost a weeks worth of profits today due to my stubborn ass.

I miss an important downtrend and noticed the price started getting more volatile...

unfortunately I didn't scale the zone and so on...

At one point I was up my 2% but just didn't take it...

I was SOOOO pissed about today. it really sucks, but hey, I have to make sure to scale my zone or just don't trade that day eh? I also figured since there was no real news coming out today that things would be rather calm. I guess I missed something...

Oh well, tomorrow is another day!

Anonymous said...

haha!

FX said...

I use to have 20ema hi/low on 30min, nice looking stuff. You really think that I could leave 1min for 4h?

Jules said...

FX!!!!
I want to scream at you! Well I think I already am doing that :-)

"Thrill", "Hypnotized", "Boring", "Fun" etc,etc - VERY BAD WORDS!

You should fund an account big enough to hurt you when it's wiped out, FX! Not one that you can do without anytime and then simply go on to fund another.

I'm learning to keep a 3k FX account, and it's no easy feat. The tendency is to get really rash since the worst that could happen is to have just 3k wiped out. If I can grow this account 100% in 3 months trading with discipline, i'll see it as a real achievement.

With my serious trading account (the one I used to scalp options with, which I use to scalp futures now), it hurts like hell when I'm down just 2%!

FX, drop your 1min chart. It's crazy to use 1min chart for anything ESPECIALLY for FX trading.

If you must use lower timeframe, why not use at least a 15 min, or 1 hour?

I'm trading less than 10k units per time (either two 5k unit or four to five 2k unit), and I still use the daily, weekly and monthly timeframe to identify trend, and i use the hourly chart for entry. The challenge is to find an entry that will allow you to place a very tight stop - one that tells you clearly you're on the wrong side of the immediate trend once it's triggered. I find this to be effective in forcing me to take only trades with good setup (ie low risk, reasonable profits). When it becomes a habit, i know it will serve me well when I start funding a standard size account.

Sorry for nagging.

Can't help it!!

And swing trading is boring indeed. But it's profitable. The market rewards those who can sit still when there's no reason to run. Not for me yet though. I won't be able to sleep knowing that I have an open position....

Don't throw away hard-earned money, FX. There're many cheaper thrills out there. Some are free, and you know where to find them :-)

Anonymous said...

well said Jules.

FX said...

Well Jules I like your comment I reread it for few times, and will read it more. You put a lot's of stuff in it.

I wiped two accounts so far so I'm not in the mood to wipe this one so easily. So from that point of view it's important enough and 100 pips move now is like little less than week worth of my paycheck at regular job.

I've never been trading larger time frames because I find that I cut my profits way to soon on them. Like if I trade something that start to develop on 15min chart as nice beginning of a move I take profit because for 1min it's big one. I don't remember when I had 100 pips profit on a trade. So I'm staying with 1min because I can trade in <50 pips ranges. It's my flaw and I know it. Last flaw that I've been correcting was averaging and making crazy risks to get losing trade back to b/e. Now I'm in faze without averaging and I feel little lost. Like I need to relearn how to trade. I took out that bad element but now complex is not what it used to be.

About the thrill thing I agree and that's why I put the post about it. I'm simply said lost for few last months. I'm not able to develop some different trading style that I could use and current stuff is not working for me. I can't trade some styles that I'm uncomfortable with even if they are good and profitable. I'm not machine and I got to take my personality as a factor.

I'm fully aware that things aren't how they suppose to be. I also don't want to sound like "I know everything and just leave me alone". I like comments and ideas here, way more than lonesome thinking about it all.

Anonymous said...

I know you feel FX, i don't mean to sound like I know it all either, because I certainly don't. My biggest flaw is trading when I should not. Its rare that I experience it, but it hurts when I do ;)

I have lost 3 accounts in my time. it sucks.

StockHunter said...

I find 1M charts to be hard to trade on forex, and stocks. Keep in mind I'm a total newbie at forex, but so far the best timeframes for forex I've found are 5M (best), and 15M. Even with stocks I find it hard to trade 1M charts because it seems like I make 100 trades and only come out with a very small profit/loss.

FX said...

It all depends what stop you want to use if <20 pips than 5min is to big. Let's not all forget that now is really volatile time so it's hard with any stop and any t/f.

StockHunter said...

I was wanting to ask you about that. My dad and I are wondering if it's been harder to trade forex lately vs. in the past? I know thats the case with stocks.

FX said...

Ranges were smaller, movement slower, no nasty 20 pips spikes in 30 sec, all much smoother. Like if I look at charts from spring it's different market. I probably got used to that kind of trading environment.

StockHunter said...

I see, thanks! :D

Anonymous said...

YES ABSOLUTELY IT IS HARDER TO TRADE NOW. You have to realize its harder to trade ANYTHING, all across the board. These last few days have been terrible markets in the FX world...

Way to choppy so its best to stay out until participants know what they want to do.

Stay out of Forex until you are comfortable and confident.

This as every pro trader I have heard has said, this is a market we have not seen before.

FX said...

Yeah, it's moving and give sense of lot's of opportunities and so easy to get sucked in terrible trade.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, this is just not my market at all...

Jules said...

I know, FX. I haven't a fixed system either. And yes, the method with which you choose to trade has to be consistent with your personality or it will not stick. That said, someone once mentioned that trading calls for one to make decisions that come most UNNATURALLY to him/her. Somehow, it makes sense to me. Explains why I'm perpetually confused :-)

I understand what you said about the reason you are using a 1min chart. Well, if it works for you, stick with it then. There's no one way to trade. Key is really to do whatever it takes to preserve capital so you can continue to trade to get better at the game.

Totally agree with you on the machine part. Although my aim is really to be able to trade like a machine one day. :-D

And you're not lonely. Orion will see to it that you're not. :-)