Mindset

[Tommy 55]

Be aware of your mindset. 

Yesterday was a beautiful trading day, lots of stock with clean patterns and I believe a lot of members had a good day. I had my worst day ever. -1500dollar plus commissions.. this is big for me. This after some green days with ok trading where I got 200 a day average which I  had set as a daily goal.

so why did I get such big loss. my mindset was not good , why is.. well..  a couple of days ago I broke up with this woman I had been seeing.  before market opened I noticed she had send me some messages which threw me off guard.. at that moment I knew my mindset wasn’t good but I ignored it. I did after all had a winning streak...

Market opens and I start trading with bigger shares then usual, 1000 shares each time no matter the stock. Get bad entry’s and getting stopped out on pullbacks. I use mental stops but in stead of looking at the chart and accepting it for what it looks like I just checked my p&l... The more I traded the less feeling I got and didn’t recognize any patterns anymore.

i mentioned in the chat room about the loss and got private contacted by John, just a small talk helped me to realize what I was doing and I didn’t trade anymore. Thanx a lot for contacting me! You probably saved me from an even bigger loss.

anywayz, what did I lean from this. Awareness is a key ingredient for good trading. That and a good entry. When I make a few loosers  I must immediately take a step back, do a recap on the loosing trades to find out if it was my own fault or just the probability of a good setup going wrong. Needless to say, about 80% was my own fault, 

What I will change right now is going back to smaller size, I may try out hiding my p&l as this has messed with me before aswell also on winning trades, all you really need is the charts.  Be more mindful during trading, how? I’ll add meditation to my premarket ritual, I did before and it felt good when I did.and  If I don’t get the entry I wanted, I must accept it and don’t jump in, another acceptable entry point often appears again and I will wait for it. Less profit is always better then a loss.

In a way I feel grateful for this loss too. It made me realize a few things which I thought I knew but...

And thanx again John, being contacted by another trader got me out of my hulk mode.

i love the chatroom! Best trading investment to date.

grtz

tommy