Thursday, March 1, 2012

February 2012. results

-45 pips
-17%

Negative result purely because of bad attitude. It seams that I know how to trade but don't know how to handle myself. Many days leaving profit and running it into a loss. If for example I stayed with my big winning day of +27 pips at 23. and didn't trade any more my month would be positive. All those R profits switched to losses. I'm waging war with myself.

Eleven trading days:
1. +17 
14. -11 (at first positive for more then 5 pips)
15. -5 (positive at first 5 or more, R at least)
16. -7 (first wave +10, be, +15, loss)
17. -3 (profit of 10 left to go into loss)
20. -24 (first trade in positive around R left it to stop)
21. -4
22. +5
23. -19 ( first nice big win of around 15, loss -11, win more then 20, then from +27 to -19 madness)
24. -5
27. +11

9 comments:

Unknown said...

From my experience you need to study, practice and then take a call be patient is all I can say

FX said...

Thank you

BuyDSellS said...

Nice honest blog look forward to seeing your progress. just started one myself for lack of finding one like yours that of course i just chance upon the day after i start mine. Pop by and say hello some time. Maybe we can exchange war stories. Kind regards G

FX said...

Thanks MM RTC, nice to see you in blogosphere. I added your blog in my google reader, I follow many more blogs then I listed on site. Like to peak into other traders trading lives.
I'm currently in downswing with my attitude toward trading, things changed over last couple of years. I was generally negative all the time but now for me it's very hard to trade the style that I'm used to and that suits me.

Looking forward to your new posts.

BuyDSellS said...

Hi FX, great to hear back from you. Thank you for adding my blog to your long reading list. I hope in the coming months as i get more relaxed with publishing my thoughts online the blog will become more focused on my phsychological problems and less so on analysis. I was so happy to find your blog as you spoke so honestly about your experiences i felt like i was reliving some of mine, ha ha.

Like you I've been suffering a downswing with my attitude to trading too. The last couple of months have been particularly challenging. It started with my slowness in adapting to the changing markets, which lead to lower self esteem. A bit of a vicious circle which I'm trying to break by taking by making my trading more mechanical (following my trade guide to the letter). Even with this new plan I'm still finding my emotions rearing there ugly heads, but i guess just got to work through that comfortableness. Any advice or words of wisdom would be appreciated!

So how were you trading the markets, You said you've been generally negative. Was this on the markets or from a psychologically?

very best wishes, George

FX said...

I meant that I'm net negative trader, you can see that in posts labeled as results. Now my results are worst then ever. So I'm reinventing things but it's hard to set on new course because when you learn something it's hard to unlearn it.

In years of trading I did moved away from some negative behavior like averaging down, widening stops etc. So I'm proud of that, because I proved to myself that I can move forward. Now I over-trade in revenge style when things are not going my way. But now main issue is market itself, for my kind of scalping it's not cooperative. Or I should change the way of scalping or move to other time frames, or both.

BuyDSellS said...

Good God FX, you have been brutally honest.
Hat's off to you that would have taken balls, I don't know if I could do that. I plan on publishing my results at the end of the week (it wasn't a good one).

I know exactly what you mean, the reinventing yourself is so much harder than learning to trade in the first place. Like you I realised i had to do this and am still working on it. I found the problem to be 2 fold. The first being (as you say) the unlearning of bad behaviour. But for me it was also the realization of how much work needed to be put in. When I was learning for the first time I had no idea how much work i needed to put in, I just did it blindly. But the second time is a complete nightmare because I know how much work I have ahead of me.

Well done on your progress so far and as you say if you and I can change some of our behaviour, then why shouldn't we be able to change the rest of it in due course? I too suffer from revenge trading. I'm trying to combat it by eliminating my discretionary trades through use of a checklist. If the trade passes the checklist i trade it, if not I leave it. How are you combating yours?

Wishing you every success, George.

FX said...

Right now I do some revenge trades and then find it useless and stop. I'm not able to not have any of them at all, yet.
My results are what they are. So what's the point in not showing them. There are thousands of traders out there with results far worse probably. In the end I'm living example how you can put so many time and not move much ahead in years and still continue to do it.
Lately (last two years) I'm trading with very small amount of money so it's next to paper trading so it's little bit worse then expected because I don't much care is it -15 or -30 pips day.

My evident problem is mixing styles as well. I want to swing my positions but have scalping stops. So I repetitively don't take small profits where I should for scalping that I'm doing. I try to change that, well I don't try, I think that I should change that somehow.

But that's the problem our subconscious has agenda of it's own that we aren't much aware of. Trick is to get conscious and subconscious want the same. For example maybe I think deep down that taking 3 pips profit is not what good trader should do, so I don't take it to continue with my image of good trader. But that's just some idea of mine what is good trader. Look at my blogroll at pip throwing party or forexbird, they are the best out there and they are taking the smallest profits. So my image is wrong and I didn't change it yet. That's the work and that's why psychology is the most important, psychology, emotions, that's the same. Problems arise when there is a clash of inner and outer self.

BuyDSellS said...

Apologies for slow reply, I've been rather busy.
Very interesting comment especially the last paragraph on subconscious. I'm certain that my biggest trading obstacle is psychology too. I go through times where I feel great, even if I'm losing because I know I'm working towards a concrete goal, like you say my subconscious and concious are aligned. I also go through other times when i feel deeply unhappy with my efforts and every trade only seems to take me deeper into confusion.

At the moment (last 2 weeks)I'm feeling quite positive about my trading. But the prior 3 months were hell, I had no direction in my trading. I have now simplified my plan and trading and feel much better about everything (Although I'm having a poor start to the week, ha ha)

I've read your results for last month and it seems you have already identified what your problem is your "evident problem is mixing your styles". I do this too and I end up in disaster or extreme frustration and disappointment often feeling like I'm 10 steps behind.

I wish you every success and hope you are able to get through this difficult period quickly. As you say i think the answer lies in Forexbird and Pip Throwing Party they are successful but they're keeping it simple. From looking at your trades you clearly know how to scalp. Why don't you simplify your routine and take some quick profits? There's nothing like a few wins to get your confidence back. You can worry about letting your profits run later.

Very best wishes RTC