It started with a FOMO trade on the 1 minute chart 0815 Thursday morning, and ended with an awful and costly early exit 0942 Friday morning. Thursday was a day that I thought I would never see again. It had happened once before on a day that seems a long time ago in my trading journey, and I thought I had the mental resilience and fortitude to ensure it never happened again. But I guess not. However, what happened, has happened. It cannot be undone so there is no point in ruing it. Instead it must be learnt from and then cast out of my mind only recalled when needed in an effort to remind myself how bad it feels and that I never want to feel like that again. Friday was equally disappointing but at least profitable, albeit nowhere near as much as it should've been. I was in on a trade which could've netted me 76 points and so I could've finished the week only 10 points down... shoulda, woulda, coulda are indeed the last words of a fool.
When I review my trades daily on the spreadsheet I have 'Actual' and 'Could've' trades. These are as the first would suggest the actual trades I took, their stops and their results. The could've's are what I could've had, had I followed my strategy and not traded on emotion. This week was as follows - Actual points minus 76. Could've points plus 142. The week before - Actual points plus 26. Could've points plus 148. What's the difference between actual and could've, apart from the 310 total....one word. Emotion. I thought I had it under control but as I write this I realise that is certainly not the case. Not even close. My strategy works. I have proof week after week so why can I not just f**king follow it?
Again. One word.
So now I know what needs to be worked on more that anything else. Let's see how that work goes and what next week holds shall we?
I would say 'fingers crossed' but that is simply a disguise for 'hope' and hope has no place in good trading. That's for the 90%'ers.
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