6-week Simulator Paranoia

[nostalgiaguru 1]

I've been using the DAS simulator for 6 weeks now, and am trying my best to overcome my paranoia.  The worst thing that could have happened to me was finishing over $500 ahead on my first day.  It made me cocky enough to think I could do the same thing ever day.

I'm doing okay establishing a target and stop, but then sticking to it mentally is another issue altogether.  Here's what I've found myself doing thus far:

1)  On days in which I was several hundred dollars ahead early, I would often become overconfident, and blow it later.

2)  On days in which I was several hundred dollars down early, I would want to make up for it so much, that I often made it worse.

3)  After I made myself overcome 1 & 2 (for the most part), I now find myself overreacting if price doesn't move quickly enough for me.  For instance, while I may go long, and have what I feel are good targets and stops, initial price behavior turns me paranoid.  For instance, one day I went long, price dropped a bit initially, made me paranoid, so when it bounced back slightly, I took my "profits"  at about $200.  Had I trusted my initial target and rode it out, two minutes later, I would have been up $2000!!

But, my heart is in the right place.  I can't wait to get to chat each market morning by 9am.  I come up with my own in-play stocks, then listen to you guys, hoping there is overlap - those overlap stocks are usually the ones I watch.

I can already tell I will need more than 3 simulator months - but, I'm having the time of my life, and can't thing of anything else that gives me the same rush these days.

Thanks for everyone's help.  See you in chat.

Edited July 26, 2018 by nostalgiaguru

[Ali 3]

I can definitely relate to points 1 and 2 lol

I found the best way to help was to have defined daily targets. So for example my daily target is 0.75% of my account size. Once I reach this target I stop. This is the same for my losses. Once I lose 1% or more I stop and just end it there for the day. Since I'm still in the sim I often continue to trade but don't necessarily record the results. Although I've only been in the sim for 7 weeks or so I don't think there has been a single day where I lost 1% and managed to make a comeback, it just gets worse like you said. This is the same for exceeding my daily targets. I just end up losing the money I made. 🙂

[Norm 46]

As Ali mentioned, I very much believe in daily profit targets and stopping. It's a tough thing to do if you've had a great day - for example 2 for 2 green trades and you hit it. You seem to think anything you take will work that day. It doesn't happen. Shut down DAS, take a walk, go play golf, something to get you away.

Additionally, for your problem of starting off losing and then losing more - set a daily max loss (this is not something that has to be reached) and shut it down if you hit it. Use DAS risk controls to automatically shut it down that day if reached. It's saved many of us.

Edited July 26, 2018 by Norm

[jermkk 0]

Thank you for sharing with us!  I can't wait to read about how you are doing in another 6 weeks!

 

 

[Robbie Williams 12]

Thanks for sharing Nostalgiaguru. I am on my third 3 month DAS simulator subscription now, so at the end of this last one, I would have been in sim for 9 months! I’m hoping to go live in the next couple of months but i will see how I go. I have no timeframe to go live other than when I’m “ready”. I’m happy to keep paying $150 for sim every month until I feel I can go live (which is a whole other fish).

i have a mental stop, but I find that drawing a horizontal line on the chart which is my stop (I make it slightly thicker and a different colour) works for me because I can visualise the stop if the price action gets to it (rather than simply sticking to it mentally).

I have also found that recently, I’ll put in an actual stop which also helps with my discipline, I’ll only do this on stocks after the first 20 minutes After market open where I won’t get faked/stopped out by chopping price action after the market has established what it’s doing. To do this, select STOP in the montage, select MARKET and to the right of that enter the stop price and then click buy or sell depending on whether it’s a long or short trade.