I used to have a brutal slice, but with practice, it became a controlled draw. However, every now and then I would still slice the odd shot and it would ruin me for a few holes, I'd have a little melt down, until I got it back together and got back in control of my emotions and my thoughts. The same happens in trading when I trade badly, and on top of that, I combine it with a loss. I had a mini melt down on Tuesday and ended up chasing my losses (45 points), not only that but I also tried to trade after hours on an instrument I never use. The NASDAQ. The problem with this is due to the huge volumes traded on the NASDAQ, my strategy of having a tight stop is nothing short of account suicide as it can move 15+ points in mere seconds. I managed to make back 27 of those 45 points and almost, almost called it quits but...greed and desperation got the better of me and I ended up taking a losing trade of 10 points which sealed the deal.
With the loss of points and discipline of the the prior day still fresh in my mind, I sat and meditated, like I always do, before I traded and I reminded myself of my most important trading belief -
'Super human patience is what makes money in trading.'
This is taken from a story in Tom Hougaards book 'Best Loser Wins' in which her makes reference to a trader whom he worked with many years ago, who was so disciplined that he once watched the market for the entire day, and didn't place a single trade because the set up, or conditions of entry he used, were not met. This is what I say to myself before I place any trades. The problem is, I don't always follow this belief. But, for the rest of this week that is what I did. I realised in doing so just how often I was actually forcing trades. For example, I will trade what I cal BOC and SOC set ups. These stand for Buy on Close and Sell on Close. So if a candle breaks out/ down once it had closed and the new candle is ready to form (5 minute chart), I will take a trade in the opposite direction with a tight stop just below the low, or above the high of the breakout/ down candle. This is because in a number of observations in the DAX, when there is a breakout/ down the odds are that it will retrace on the very next candle. The problem with this is that I was not applying this only to breakouts/ downs, I was trying it on almost every larger candle. I would also take a 'prediction' trade. This means I would assume the market was heading in a certain direction, and place a trade at what was essentially an arbitrary level, with an arbitrary stop (almost always 10 points) in anticipation of momentum taking it that way. This is not waiting for a signal. This is forcing trades. It is these trades which would get me in trouble, I would be stopped out and then full of regret because I knew that what I was doing was bad trading, but FOMO kept me doing it. FOMO is a hell of a thing if you allow it to be. The ideal trading mindset is one of nowness, of Zen. This state doesn't allow FOMO (emotion) to cloud your judgement. This is why I like to meditate before every session, so I can feel truly as relaxed as I can be. But, like anything, in order to get good at it, you need to practice, and meditation is no different to say, golf.
The important thing is that when something like this happens, try your best to treat yourself with compassion, because you know it is not the norm. You know what you are capable of and this was just an errant tee shot, or a duffed chip. It is not how you play every shot, and if you keep practising, these shots (trades/ days) will eventually be so seldom that they won't make any real difference to your round (p&l), not only that, but through practice, when they do happen, you will be able to recover from it as you'll have the skills and the mindset to execute the next shot (trade) correctly.
Comentários