Keep Calm and Don't Move Your Stops.....

A little risk management saves a lot of fan cleaning!

The Purpose of Life is Joy!!

Friday, February 1, 2019

Back to Trading

It took me a bit longer to get back to trading for real. I just didn’t feel like hitting it hard in January. A bunch of stuff happened late December at work that really got me into a negative mind set and trading in that frame of mind only leads to losses. I did trade a few days in January but my heart wasn’t in it and I felt like I needed a longer break so I just let it be until today.

I also made some slight adjustments to targets and stops. Stops are wider now and targets are based on time frame. I trade two charts, the 5M and the 1M depending on how the chart looks in relation to the other. Smaller targets on the 1M and larger targets on the 5M.

My aim is to make money and stop. I don’t care about win rate, I don’t care about huge winners,I don’t care about looking smart or clever, I don’t care about nailing the bottom or the top, I don’t care about if I am technically correct or if my levels are the best or not. All I care about is being in line with market movement and taking some home for me every day.

To that end, my only consideration is this; am I in line with the market momentum and if so, where can  I get in to minimize my risk and give myself the best opportunity to capture some sort of reasonable profit before the next level of support or resistance stops the movement in my direction.

That’s it. I have no other criteria beyond looking for specific bar formations to help me acknowledge I am on the right side of the market momentum.

Platitudes, cliches and the well worn trading euphimisms all have their place but I'm pretty tired of them. As it turns out the only thing that matters is risk and not being greedy. Control both and you have a pretty decent shot at being profitable.

One of the days that I did trade in January, I let a huge winner turn into a loser because I was greedy and wanted it to go even further but it turned back on me and took out my stop. That was the day I quit trading and really looked inside at what my motivations were, and once identified, what I needed to do to in order to satisfy those motivations.

Turns out my motivation was all wrong. I said I just wanted to make money but what I really wanted was to be a rock star trader. Once I figured out that what I said and what I meant were two differen things, thats when I got serious about what I really wanted. And that prompted me to where I am today in my emotions and thinking.

Today, I dont give a crap about all that other stuff, I just want to make some money every day or at least most days and just let the rest go. I can do that by just being patient and letting the market handle it.

Today, I was in and out, made my money for the day and now I am done. I think I will post a bit more often but not every day. I like writing and I like writing about trading so might as well.