Tilt

I'm still enjoying my vacation but have some spare time today to catch up on reading blogs because it's windy day.

So I read on some poker blog about problem with tilting. In poker people are considering being on tilt as a normal occurrence that is happening from time to time. They even can notice that they are on borderline to go on tilt and quit before they do some damage.
Wikipedia defines term as: "Tilt is a poker term for a state of mental confusion or frustration in which a player adopts a less than optimal strategy, usually resulting in the player becoming over-aggressive."
It's something common and can be expected. To deal with it first comes prevention. Simply avoiding situations where you are putting yourself in a position where it can easily happen. When on tilt the most important thing is to recognize it and acknowledge it. Then you have a chance to walk away.
Watching poker shows with professionals playing we can see that they are not totally immune to tilt and that it's common for them also. So simply there is no escaping to being on tilt this way or another. Only solution is to adapt to it and minimize negative effects.

This bring us to trading. I always thought that I have unacceptable characteristic for successful trading with my averaging habit. That I'll simply need to find a way to cast out that habit completely if I want to progress. But now I think different. It's probable if I continue to trade for rest of my life that averaging bug will be with me in one form or another whole time. I can adjust, minimize it but shouldn't worry to much about it like I was. It's just me being on tilt. Everyone have their own way for tilt. Black put in tens of trades in a span of one hour and 20 pips range. RCM holds big losing trades over few days as do FXpropTrader.
I just average down position after position until I use up all margin and hold several hundred pips loss because I didn't want to close -15 pips loss. Just recently DNTRader had -1000 pips day that way.
So what I'm saying tilt is fact of life in poker and obviously in trading too. It is necessary to minimize the damage with prevention of situation that can lead us to it. Also, easier said then done, we can acknowledge that we are on tilt when we recognize ourselves in that situation and pull out the plug to stop the bleeding. It is not necessary to self-pity and think that it's only me who have that awful problem that is going to ruin me. Tilt is here and it's here to stay. We can accept it as a fact and deal accordingly or bang our head on the wall.

Vacation is around the corner

Today I found out while I was in this short trade that I'm tired and don't have desire to trade. Too bad because later market started to move nicely up. I feel good when I'm able to pass on trading if I'm not 100% for it.
My vacation time is nearing, some time next week. I have less time for trading in following days. When vacation starts my trading and blogging will probably be sporadic if any. I always have long summer vacation and I'm looking forward to it, best time of the year for me.

+2 pips

June 2010. results

-97 pips ( -48 pips of size that I started month but only traded three days)
- 8 %

I started trading this month with bigger size, soon it all went down mainly because of that. If I count my trades in previous size which I traded the rest of this month my roller coaster ride was roughly this:
up 90
down 400
up 190
down 150
up 170


My recent trading is a mixed bag of very bad trading and good one. On some stuff I'm really proud and can see progress. Trading skill which looks to me satisfactory and promising for good results. On the other side there is my bad trading, or emotional trading. There things are as they were always. This is my current reality and I don't have any ideas but to carry forward. As I was brought to this moment by my trading experience I will continue to see what is next.

Missing on a good trade, making profit on a bad trade and good scalping

Just look at my first trade, perfect entry for further short side after retracement. It took long time and I closed seconds before the move. Sometimes I don't want to risk 5 pips and make so poor decisions.
After I guess I was angry at myself for blowing up on that opportunity and then I switched sides. Pretty much bad decision, mostly emotional trade going long in downtrend.
To rescue my bad trade came reaction to ECB tender. I quickly closed my gbp/usd in profit when it miraculously showed and shift to eur/usd which was moving. I didn't know what it was all about at that time but just entered scalping mode in fast market in which I was good. Plus I entered at correct time for new up leg and gained some more profits.

+66 pips

Oanda spread

I was a bit late on that drop through 2200.

+19 pips




I always find amazing order that can be found on small time frames. Check this bounce on 10sec chart, how it look so precise.




Oanda is amazing also. Market is in totally sensitive situation where big movements can occur and they drop spread to 0.6 pips on eur/usd.

Monday

It would be more beneficial for me to trade all leveraged up to the max then to get stuck in averaging position which I don't want to close. When I average I hope, when I can't average I can't hope so I deal with reality. Anyway bad trading today. Bad market in which it isn't easy to trade. Slightly relieved because I trimmed my -100 pips loss, but it was just luck.

-25 pips