Monday, September 7, 2009

Changing decisions

Slow day with US holiday. I went long gbp/usd when it start to get strong all over. It was too late in the move to take a scalp but I decided to wait it out. With waiting came out dreaming where it could go. My idea was that if it take out high at 440 it will go all the way to 500. I got action in my direction but not the new high. I could take 1.5R but it was to small in my mind in comparison with idea that I sold to myself.
When things turned I was just waiting when will it start going back up. It didn't it was slowly drifting and I started to lower my stop. Then at some point I add new position with intent that I will lose small amount and stop out both of them or it will reverse. After so nice bounce (where I got b/e price) I couldn't let it go. Then I lowered both stops. In the end I lost 46 pips and not 10 that was original R.
Then it looked to me that it's oversold and I bought 4 positions of the 10sec chart and ride it. Clearly emotional as much as I can be. I got out when loss of a day was recovered. I hoped for more but it wasn't cooperating.
So I finished the day with +3 original size pips.

I don't know. I tell myself that it's o.k. to wait for bigger profit when things are working my way. But if they start to go in opposite direction and I invested much time and expectation I don't follow rules. Then I start swing trading, or whatever it can be called. Maybe playing for 1R or 1.5R should be enough. Making things simpler then they are now with emotional engagement.

2 comments:

ORION MACHINE said...

Now... We are friends. and as much love as I have for your endurance in this game... I wish I were there to whack you with a switch across the fingers every damn time you add to a loser...

As LONG as you have been doing this, you should not be changing anything major to your plan by now. successful trading is so simple, and I think the problem is you cannot stick to one thing... There has to come a point in your career (As I in mine) when you wake up and realize "How the hell am I supposed to see RESULTS when I cant commit to doing just ONE THING?!?!"

If you look at previous price action on the 15 minute chart and analyze the volatility, and realize how the market is acting, you should get the idea that there is no trend. And with the range of each bar like it is, you've got little chance of holding on to any profits that come your way. what does all that mean?

It means recognizing the true state of the market and trading accordingly. Bank holiday = choppy illiquid markets that have no real desire to move. It means moving stops up quickly to lock in profits that have a great chance of disappearing altogether. If you learn to simply observe (I say simply NOW, but it used to be something I never bothered with...) What the market is telling you, you stand a chance if you can stick to a system CONSISTENTLY. If not, you stand absolutely NO chance. Your own observation of the market will help you determine the highest chances of your type of system working, or when NOT to trade AT ALL.

Master one thing first, which should be determining real-time market sentiment. Don't even bother scalping or swing trading until you've become competent with the most important part of the market first.

As much time and support and emotional effort as I have put in to helping you, I feel like you are this person that keeps hurting himself with out seeing some type of pattern here... Its no wonder people don't comment here anymore, what more does anyone have to tell you other than STOP FOOLING AROUND?

This is hard for me to say, and probably hard for you to read, but God Damn it man, do you want to do this or not? I WANTED IT, I MADE THE CHANGES NECESSARY. With love bro...

FX said...

Thanks Orion on your comment and it's not hard for me to read it. It's because I understand all what you are saying and know it all for myself also. We wouldn't have to say word emotion or psychology regarding trading when we could follow our trading plan as we have it when we are not trading. Reality is unfortunately different.