I made a small profit. Great. But that's not what is important. What's important is how I made it and how I felt whilst trading.
After my last post I have begun to exercise a lot more patience when I trade. I very rarely trade the FTSE now because quite simply, the volatility isn't sufficient to FTS on a losing trade and I was losing more than I was winning. Not only that, but I have let go of the need to make as many points as possible. Yes my goal is to make points, of course, but I don't need to make them. In fact, Monday, I didn't take any trades at all. I sat and watched and waited, and decided that I wasn't going to force anything. This felt weird but also good because it was a fantastic exercise in patience. To watch a market move and not take a position is an incredibly difficult thing to do. Don't believe me? Try it.
Not only have I added a lot more patience but I have also begun to apply scalping to my trading. It means I have left a lot of points in the market because when a trade goes into profit, rather than close it for say 7 or 8 points, if it is not too volatile I will simply move my stop to break even and give it a chance of taking off. But this is something I am working on being okay with. I still think that it is far better to give a trade a chance to take off than it is to cut it short. It can be painful when you miss a trade, but no where near as painful as when you were in it, but decided to close it without giving it a chance to breathe. But then that's not really scalping is it? I did say my scalping is a work in progress, so I can forgive myself for this.
So this week was good and bad, but most importantly I wasn't attached to the outcome. I simply sat and traded which was so nice, to the point that it was almost relaxing. As I said before, I have let go of the need to make points, although that is my job when I trade, now I simply trade. But that's how good trading should feel in my opinion. Not stressed, not forced, not full of need, but instead relaxed and patient.
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