I managed to achieve my unofficial goal of a 50 point week. Now this may not look like much, but, it is all I am trying to achieve, so to me, it is everything. All I am trying to make is 10 points a day. Nothing more. You see, even if I make 1 point a day, eventually I will get to where I want to be. It will probably take the rest of my life, if I live that long, but eventually I would get there. It's like counting the grains of sand on a beach. It seems impossible in the beginning but, buy counting them one grain at a time, you will, given enough time, have one day counted them all, and this is the way I now approach my trading.
I'm in no rush.
Every day I try to trade as best as I can, and I try to make progress one trade at a time. Yes, this is easier said than done because this last week as a real mix of good and awful trading.
I fell foul to FOMO too many times. I had a couple of unlucky losing trades and then fearfully clawed back those points with scared little 3/4 point scalps, instead of just 'taking the trade and letting it do its thing.' I contemplated trading on my mobile just to try and get back to break even. But in all of this I also had moments where I traded beautifully. I didn't rush. I moved my stops to BE and let the trade breathe. I even traded on the toilet. Friday I had a position and the market was in a trading range but I felt if it hit my entry, then there was the possibility of some good momentum. The problem was, I really needed the toilet as I had just had my morning coffee. Some of you know what I am getting at without the need to be overly descriptive. So I took my mobile into the toilet and sure enough, the entry triggered. I could've taken an additional 12 points had I been at the laptop, but with my trousers around my ankles and my mobile in my hand, I had to close it where I was happy taking profit, so I did, albeit a little prematurely.
So now as I write this I am 52 points away from moving up in stake size to £1 per point. You see I have a plan.
When my account is at £200 I will trade at £1 per point and allow a maximum draw down of 50 points. Should my account drop down to £150 I will go back to my current stake size of £0.50 per point.
Once I am at £400 then I will again move up in stake size to £2 per point, and again with a maximum draw down of 50 points, or £100. If my account drops to £300 I will reduce my stake size back to £1 per point until it again reaches £400.
And so on.
This is the plan, and so far, we are on track but, there is a lot of work to do still, not so much on the planning and execution of trades, but in the active managing of an open trade, and allowing it time to breathe instead of being pathetically weak and fearful and closing it prematurely, especially when my stop loss is at breakeven! That's the worst feeling watching it take off without you when if it went against you, you effectively stood to lose nothing. I don't care if it moves without me because I missed the entry or it didn't generate a signal, but having previously been in the move and closing out of fear, that's weak. Very weak, and weakness like that has no place in my trading.
So with this in mind, I am focussed on controlling my FOMO and my fear, and I am looking forward to the coming week and seeing if I am going to be moving up in stake size, or if I have to count a few more grains of sand first...
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