Hi guys I am back here once again. The year is ending and nothing to show for it. I’m not even sure if I’ve progressed mentally. I remember back in April when I got back to break even I stopped being disciplined once and that was the demise of my account. anyway, I am still emotional, losing money and asking myself why I did that trade if its not apart of the plan….. Depositing money and losing everything once again…. I still have student loans to pay for and credit card debt so maybe I should have actually sent my money there instead. so How’d I get here again?? Lack of discipline, control and greeed! To be honest I thought about giving trading another 2 years before I call it quits. I understand that for some trading can take 4-5 years to actually become profitable but that may not happen. I know its possible to make money in this industry and be free but I need to want it enough to follow the plan. Every time I open a large position I dont even question what it can do to my account. On the other hand I know I can be satisfied making 20$-35$ a day. that comes out to be 400-700 $ a month or 4-8K for the year and as I become a better trader that will only increase gradually. The next step for me right now is to save up for the remainder of the year and start fresh 2019. I will set some new daily/ week and monthly goals and continue from there with a new plan. Before I do that though I need to identify exactly what wrong this year for me.
My trading weaknesses/bad habits:
- Emotional -Revenge Trader
- fear, anger, too over confident, happy
- Over-trading=> too much chart time
- Poor Risk Management
- lots too big, risk not identified properly, poor SL placement
- No discipline to trade strategy consistently
- boredom causing stupid trades
- Not Patient
- early entry, cutting winners
So how the fuck do I combat this?
Well In the past what really really worked for me was having a risk manager. That was short lived though because I cant have someone watching over my account forever. While I did have a risk manager though I did work on limiting my trades and also lots opened in a day which made me only open up my “Best trade” and after 3 months I was able to earn about 2.2K so about 700+ a months and breaking even. after that though I took a huge tumble and been ever since.
I think limiting lots opened and applying daily risk limit will up my game but how would I enforce this limit!? Thats the biggest issue again which comes back to discipline and risk management. Like I can post my daily report just for accountability. but again who will help me maintain that?…. so again it comes down to me. how much I really want this.
End of day setting the lot limit and daily/weekly risk limit will definitely get rid of all of those weaknesses above. a set lot limit will effectively make me patient and wait for the best setup, increase my risk management, and also reduce over trading if I only have a set limit to trade. As for as emotional trading goes that will come down to discipline. will I be disciplined enough to not open that next trade after a win or a lose….
I think thats it. I’ll revise the risk management plan and prepare for next year by back testing. My next post will identify what I am trading once again!
thanks for reading all if anyone is lol.
(by the time I wrote this I was already 10% for the year 🙂 then back down to -40% and now coming back to this again 2 weeks later im 5% for the year after doing a huge YO-YO in my equity curve. below you’ll notice I had a good 2 days to start and then massive drawdown for the next 4 days. I hate when loses come, I feel loses are obviously inevitable in this business but one must always control the risk or you will blow the F up.
Trade Or The Grave 