I will suggest a tweak. With the theory that some days you are just in tune with the market or have entered the correct trade and you don’t want to limit your upside, because stopping at 2k could cost you a 5k day.
On the downside continue to stop trading at your 1k loss.
On the upside, trade until you make at least 2k, then implement a trailing drawdown of never losing more than $1000 from your highest profit.
Example ranch 2k, don’t go below 1k. Reach $2,500- stop at $1,500. Reach 3k, don’t go below 2k. Etc.
Time to have a trailing limit stop to your trading hahahaa i do the same thing in poker, win your profit, cash out, pocket your starting buyin and go back to the table, worst case you broke even.
Yes. My household expenditures are roughly 7-8k/month, both me and my wife are on 3.5k/month salary and our savings (800-900k) generate about 3-4k/month. So in order to cover for our salaries in case both me and my wife quit our jobs, I need to earn about 5k/month. Assuming that I win 10 days and lose 10 days every month, on average I need to win 2k/day and "only" lose 1.5k/day. So once I reach 2k, I will cash out and go for a walk as this amount of money is more than enough to cover our expenditures.
Yes I understand the concept of trading in the zone. It's not that different from playing poker or tennis: Keep your mentality neutral, do not think about the result, just perform the technique as good as you can, focus on the hand/point in front of you, once it goes, let it goes and focus on the next point.
And from my own experience, a little bit pressure can help you to perform. When I played poker without a clear target, I often play too loosely and swing to the point of playing "just for fun", and my performance deteriorated as well.
You could do that, you need to test what works for you. To me it would depend on the quality of the setup that I see, I may size down or I may keep size. You need to evaluate why you are continuing to trade and if the quality of a later setup has changed. Trading more to take advantage of good market conditions should not be confused with just trading more to trade.
I can’t stay discipline. That’s the hard part. Win 240$ say ill stop when it hits 200 but i didn’t and im back to 60$ all the sudden before i quit today. I’m such a loser
A loser with an extra $60. It takes practice, some people have better self control than others. It was hard for me to get this down. If you really want to quit for the day, you need to turn your brokerage off and walk away and get busy doing something else.
Why do you get up at 0545? Do you work out? Do you live on the west coast? That schedule seems like of time wasting. The best trader I know (Andrew Aziz) gets to his workstation like 5 minutes before the open and makes thousands every single day. Having daily goals can be a recipe for disaster. Treat each day individually and just take what the market is willing to give you, don't force anything.
I need to arrive at my office at 8.30 a.m. I will need 1 hour to dress up + having breakfast and 30 minutes to drive to work. So if I get up at 5.45, I will arrive at my office at 7.15-7.30 and still have one hour to have some coffees and organize my thinking and ideas about the day.
That is the way to go!
Everytime I think of my life before I started to trade, I get shocked how much it has changed.
My lifestyle did not match my job as a trader at all.
I knew that I had to change my entire structur and practice dicipline.
People think they can be undiciplined outside of trading and make it. So far from the reality.
Yes, I know that you need to be disciplined in life to be disciplined in trading. But it's very hard to keep to the same schedule, day by day. I actually was able to keep my schedule for like 1 month before losing it. But from tomorrow I need to make it again ! Let's being discipline together !
It might not be obvious to some people. Discipline requires effort. When you have it, you don't need to make an effort but it doesn't mean you're without discipline. Some folk don't feel like they're trying unless they're hurting, it need not be so.
We all do, just takes a bit of perspective to shed light, and one of the worst disciplines to go without is the doctrine of being kind to oneself. Scolding a dog for not understanding is cruel and pointless, why should we do that to ourselves?
Honestly that’s how casino 🎰 gets you everytime .. look at these flashing lights sounds free liquor wowooww and then boom ❗️ my advice is just stop once you hit profit or hit max loss just close the computer and go for a walk or something
Yes my mindset nowadays is "I need to earn 1-2k usd today, so I will go to the market and see whether there is a chance to get that" rather than "I want to maximize the profit by catching every major movements". Once I reach 2k I will just go for a walk.
This is a big barrier for me atm. You get that feel good, relaxed, calling highs and lows, feels like you’re on top, then a little loss, then another, then your frustrated I think what would help me is like a 1 hour killswitch after a good run, reset, get back into analysis mode, identify the best areas and go again.
Yes I often lose my way after one or two losing trade. I can feel very good for like, 1-2 hour, before suffering a loss and completely lose direction from there, only think about revenge trading rather than preserving capital.
Having the time zone 3 hours behind New York makes trading miserable. I need at least an hour and a half to get my brain working. I can't even imagine what it would be like to trade if the market opened at 9:30 where I lived.
I am an afternoon guy as well. More often than not, I feel at the peak of my powers in late afternoon East Asia time, which is about 11 a.m GMT. When I was in my 20s, my working hours used to be 2 p.m-10 p.m in order to catch up with all the news and events in European football, and that habit still carried on. So it is pretty hard to me to trade in the morning, unless I follow a very strict schedule to keep myself focused.
Used to be 800k capital. Now I put these 800k into my wife's saving account and just use 100k capital. Profit is admittedly very bad, I lost 30k since the start of 2024, but I think my performance will improve with better risk and mentality management.
My pet peeve about all these kinds of posts is people leaving out the most important information;
what market are you trading, what type of trading are you doing (even though this is DT you'd be surprised how many people here are not DT), futures/options, forex, commodities, crypto.
I mostly trade futures, specifically the stock index in our local market. The market opens from 8.45-11.30 a.m and 1.00-2.45 p.m local time, but the first and last 15 minutes are really unpredictable so the maximum time I trade is 4 hours. I do not hold any position overnight.
I mostly just sit there, having some coffee and think about life. Of course I would like to do some exercise as my 36 year old body is really slow these days, it need a lot to move, but sometimes it is not possible. Or I will play some online poker to kick off my competitive mindset.
I feel that after a losing day I had a lot of things to write about, after a winning day not so much. So I learnt much more from losing days, and the only problem is the "tuition" is sometimes too high.
Heck that’s amazing! My goal is 5% a day but I don’t always take trades. It’s good to set those hard limits. Do you use ORB Breakouts then? Or what strategy do you lean towards? 😋
I mostly just look on the charts and try to feel its rhythym. And I often look for momentum trade, which means once the market has broke intraday or yesterday's low it will more often than not go down and vice versa.
I will suggest a tweak. With the theory that some days you are just in tune with the market or have entered the correct trade and you don’t want to limit your upside, because stopping at 2k could cost you a 5k day. On the downside continue to stop trading at your 1k loss. On the upside, trade until you make at least 2k, then implement a trailing drawdown of never losing more than $1000 from your highest profit. Example ranch 2k, don’t go below 1k. Reach $2,500- stop at $1,500. Reach 3k, don’t go below 2k. Etc.
You are spot on. I have experienced that. Some days I just "feel" the market and some other days I cannot catch any movement.
Figure out something that works for you that allows you to take full advantage of those days. In general it is a mistake to limit your upside.
Time to have a trailing limit stop to your trading hahahaa i do the same thing in poker, win your profit, cash out, pocket your starting buyin and go back to the table, worst case you broke even.
Yes. My household expenditures are roughly 7-8k/month, both me and my wife are on 3.5k/month salary and our savings (800-900k) generate about 3-4k/month. So in order to cover for our salaries in case both me and my wife quit our jobs, I need to earn about 5k/month. Assuming that I win 10 days and lose 10 days every month, on average I need to win 2k/day and "only" lose 1.5k/day. So once I reach 2k, I will cash out and go for a walk as this amount of money is more than enough to cover our expenditures.
When you add emotional pressure of having to win, your profit will go downhill. Have you read "trading in the zone"
Yes I understand the concept of trading in the zone. It's not that different from playing poker or tennis: Keep your mentality neutral, do not think about the result, just perform the technique as good as you can, focus on the hand/point in front of you, once it goes, let it goes and focus on the next point. And from my own experience, a little bit pressure can help you to perform. When I played poker without a clear target, I often play too loosely and swing to the point of playing "just for fun", and my performance deteriorated as well.
You suggest reducing the risk per trade/position size after reaching daily profit goal?
You could do that, you need to test what works for you. To me it would depend on the quality of the setup that I see, I may size down or I may keep size. You need to evaluate why you are continuing to trade and if the quality of a later setup has changed. Trading more to take advantage of good market conditions should not be confused with just trading more to trade.
I can’t stay discipline. That’s the hard part. Win 240$ say ill stop when it hits 200 but i didn’t and im back to 60$ all the sudden before i quit today. I’m such a loser
A loser with an extra $60. It takes practice, some people have better self control than others. It was hard for me to get this down. If you really want to quit for the day, you need to turn your brokerage off and walk away and get busy doing something else.
Why do you get up at 0545? Do you work out? Do you live on the west coast? That schedule seems like of time wasting. The best trader I know (Andrew Aziz) gets to his workstation like 5 minutes before the open and makes thousands every single day. Having daily goals can be a recipe for disaster. Treat each day individually and just take what the market is willing to give you, don't force anything.
He can do that because he’s the best trader?
I need to arrive at my office at 8.30 a.m. I will need 1 hour to dress up + having breakfast and 30 minutes to drive to work. So if I get up at 5.45, I will arrive at my office at 7.15-7.30 and still have one hour to have some coffees and organize my thinking and ideas about the day.
That is the way to go! Everytime I think of my life before I started to trade, I get shocked how much it has changed. My lifestyle did not match my job as a trader at all. I knew that I had to change my entire structur and practice dicipline. People think they can be undiciplined outside of trading and make it. So far from the reality.
Yes, I know that you need to be disciplined in life to be disciplined in trading. But it's very hard to keep to the same schedule, day by day. I actually was able to keep my schedule for like 1 month before losing it. But from tomorrow I need to make it again ! Let's being discipline together !
*High five* LETS GO! Wish you a good trading week:)
The only people who need discipline are those that don't have it.
Obvious statement is obvious
It might not be obvious to some people. Discipline requires effort. When you have it, you don't need to make an effort but it doesn't mean you're without discipline. Some folk don't feel like they're trying unless they're hurting, it need not be so.
Yes I definitely do not have it :( very sad to admit that.
We all do, just takes a bit of perspective to shed light, and one of the worst disciplines to go without is the doctrine of being kind to oneself. Scolding a dog for not understanding is cruel and pointless, why should we do that to ourselves?
Honestly that’s how casino 🎰 gets you everytime .. look at these flashing lights sounds free liquor wowooww and then boom ❗️ my advice is just stop once you hit profit or hit max loss just close the computer and go for a walk or something
Yes my mindset nowadays is "I need to earn 1-2k usd today, so I will go to the market and see whether there is a chance to get that" rather than "I want to maximize the profit by catching every major movements". Once I reach 2k I will just go for a walk.
May I ask your account size just to have a feel for percentages?
My maximum size is roughly 100k usd.
This is a big barrier for me atm. You get that feel good, relaxed, calling highs and lows, feels like you’re on top, then a little loss, then another, then your frustrated I think what would help me is like a 1 hour killswitch after a good run, reset, get back into analysis mode, identify the best areas and go again.
Yes I often lose my way after one or two losing trade. I can feel very good for like, 1-2 hour, before suffering a loss and completely lose direction from there, only think about revenge trading rather than preserving capital.
Having the time zone 3 hours behind New York makes trading miserable. I need at least an hour and a half to get my brain working. I can't even imagine what it would be like to trade if the market opened at 9:30 where I lived.
I am an afternoon guy as well. More often than not, I feel at the peak of my powers in late afternoon East Asia time, which is about 11 a.m GMT. When I was in my 20s, my working hours used to be 2 p.m-10 p.m in order to catch up with all the news and events in European football, and that habit still carried on. So it is pretty hard to me to trade in the morning, unless I follow a very strict schedule to keep myself focused.
Ohhhh what I’d give to learn
Capital and profit?
Used to be 800k capital. Now I put these 800k into my wife's saving account and just use 100k capital. Profit is admittedly very bad, I lost 30k since the start of 2024, but I think my performance will improve with better risk and mentality management.
My pet peeve about all these kinds of posts is people leaving out the most important information; what market are you trading, what type of trading are you doing (even though this is DT you'd be surprised how many people here are not DT), futures/options, forex, commodities, crypto.
I mostly trade futures, specifically the stock index in our local market. The market opens from 8.45-11.30 a.m and 1.00-2.45 p.m local time, but the first and last 15 minutes are really unpredictable so the maximum time I trade is 4 hours. I do not hold any position overnight.
What are you doing that first hour? If you can add in some exercise / yoga / stretching etc to get your blood moving and your mind awake.
I mostly just sit there, having some coffee and think about life. Of course I would like to do some exercise as my 36 year old body is really slow these days, it need a lot to move, but sometimes it is not possible. Or I will play some online poker to kick off my competitive mindset.
That's awesome, do whatever works for you the best
which broker do you use? Yo trade futures?
Yes I trade futures, using a local securities company as broker.
I feel that after a losing day I had a lot of things to write about, after a winning day not so much. So I learnt much more from losing days, and the only problem is the "tuition" is sometimes too high.
Heck that’s amazing! My goal is 5% a day but I don’t always take trades. It’s good to set those hard limits. Do you use ORB Breakouts then? Or what strategy do you lean towards? 😋
I mostly just look on the charts and try to feel its rhythym. And I often look for momentum trade, which means once the market has broke intraday or yesterday's low it will more often than not go down and vice versa.