I made an unforced error on the Open today. I did something I never do. I broke a trading rule that I never break. And I pride myself on my discipline.
I’m not concerned that I will ever repeat this error. I doubt that I will. I’m the most disciplined trader that I know. I just don’t make many mistakes. I don’t say this boastfully, this is just objectively my great strength.
And I don’t have much to take away from my trading day today. There wasn’t anything that the market taught me. I know I can’t do what I did. I know why I did it. I had known all of this before the open. I can’t say that I learned a valuable lesson from the market today. I just payed a heavy tariff.
I don’t feel ashamed. I am not embarrassed. I don’t particularly care about the monetary loss. I would sum the whole thing up as just unnecessary.
But maybe I can write a blog post to help some traders. This post is for the traders who do so much more than just trade. Those of you who have other jobs, have family issues to deal with, run other businesses, etc. You know, those of you who have other stuff on your mind outside of trading.
There needs to be a way for you, everyday, no matter how important your other responsibilities, to clear you mind and just focus on trading. I know some have family obligations which I respect. I know that sometimes life brings challenges that make it difficult to focus. But if you cannot focus than skip that trading day. Todd Harrison back in the day used to write, “The markets are not going anywhere.” This is great advice for a day when you’re not focused.
Phil Mickelson will play the US Open this week with his wife ready to battle cancer. For those who follow my blog you know that Phil is my favorite athlete. I am not sure he is going to be able to completely focus on playing this week. I will be rooting for him, but I just don’t know. Many of us struggle with outside thoughts during our trading. This is just human nature. But what we can do as traders is recognize that we are distracted. We can observe our mindset before the open. We can choose to skip a trading day.
I am writing and looking at my P&L. I have purposely refused to take it down. I want to be reminded of my mistake. I deserve to relive the rip which my P&L blares at me. For me this is positive punishment.
When you sit down at your trading station it must be just you and the market. If your mind is wandering please get up and walk away. You cannot compete in the marketplace without total focus.
I am a veteran trader. My consistency as a trader is undeniable. And I was not focused today. My result was inevitable. Don’t make this mistake. Walk away. That negative number staring at me on the top of my trading platform says nothing about my ability as a trader. It does tell me exactly how much the market can extract if I am not focused. The whole thing was just unnecessary.
14 Comments on “Unnecessary”
This was really superb. Love reading stuff that comes from the gut.
This was really superb. Love reading stuff that comes from the gut.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I really have learned a lot from the psych oriented posts here. One of my favorite posts was that “she just might say yes” one! Being able to reflect like this and say to the world that you ‘can have and will do better’ is a cathartic thing, one of the best ways to use the internet imo. I told the world today that I need to focus on tightening up stops, because while I am consistently profitable, I tend to leave a lot on the table by becoming overly focused on longer term profit targets. Today an above avg # of day traders I chat with got beaten up, most of the confusion was around that 900 ES test. Everyone and their mom has been meditating on that 900 number and it was easy to loose focus at that climactic point, especially since the general lack of extreme intraday volatility has had a hypnotizing effect on many. I’ve been on a roll with my trading lately, but today’s volatility was a clear reminder to me that I need to always tighten up stops “when the getting’s good”. I was long NQ from Tuesday at 1446 and held all the way in to the last hour today, got out with a healthy gain but left about 50% of what I could have on the table, due to overconfidence I suppose, my main err was to not tighten stops at that make or break it area of 1465/70. Tomorrow is just another day for me to hone my craft and I look forward to it. Also look forward to more great musings from the SMB crew!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I really have learned a lot from the psych oriented posts here. One of my favorite posts was that “she just might say yes” one! Being able to reflect like this and say to the world that you ‘can have and will do better’ is a cathartic thing, one of the best ways to use the internet imo. I told the world today that I need to focus on tightening up stops, because while I am consistently profitable, I tend to leave a lot on the table by becoming overly focused on longer term profit targets. Today an above avg # of day traders I chat with got beaten up, most of the confusion was around that 900 ES test. Everyone and their mom has been meditating on that 900 number and it was easy to loose focus at that climactic point, especially since the general lack of extreme intraday volatility has had a hypnotizing effect on many. I’ve been on a roll with my trading lately, but today’s volatility was a clear reminder to me that I need to always tighten up stops “when the getting’s good”. I was long NQ from Tuesday at 1446 and held all the way in to the last hour today, got out with a healthy gain but left about 50% of what I could have on the table, due to overconfidence I suppose, my main err was to not tighten stops at that make or break it area of 1465/70. Tomorrow is just another day for me to hone my craft and I look forward to it. Also look forward to more great musings from the SMB crew!
Just a few words to tell you I hope your lack of focus was not due to a big “outside trading” life issue such as the one you express in your post.
Good luck anyway !
Just a few words to tell you I hope your lack of focus was not due to a big “outside trading” life issue such as the one you express in your post.
Good luck anyway !
Bella:
Your blogs are sacrosanct and a must read for me each night before I conclude my day!!
Wish some day I do get to know you and can learn the SMB way of trading.
Please keep blogging.
Thanks,
MC
Bella:
Your blogs are sacrosanct and a must read for me each night before I conclude my day!!
Wish some day I do get to know you and can learn the SMB way of trading.
Please keep blogging.
Thanks,
MC
Hi Bella,
this is a very interesting post. You are so right. If we can’t really focus on trading, we shouldn’t trade. I think that sometimes the smallest detail decide if you a win or lose. You can see this in basketball, football, tennis, snooker etc. There are many good traders, but not everyone can master the markets by reason that they have too many unecessary trades.
When we have a run of good trades we unconsciously lower our guards, namely to lose our focus, to get careless, greedy…
In fact, we need sometimes this sort of trades to get a feedback of our mental and emotional state. But when it happened frequently, than we won’t be successful as a trader.
Best Regards
Hi Bella,
this is a very interesting post. You are so right. If we can’t really focus on trading, we shouldn’t trade. I think that sometimes the smallest detail decide if you a win or lose. You can see this in basketball, football, tennis, snooker etc. There are many good traders, but not everyone can master the markets by reason that they have too many unecessary trades.
When we have a run of good trades we unconsciously lower our guards, namely to lose our focus, to get careless, greedy…
In fact, we need sometimes this sort of trades to get a feedback of our mental and emotional state. But when it happened frequently, than we won’t be successful as a trader.
Best Regards
Moneyfriend,
Thxs for the kind words. They are appreciated. We will keep sharing.
Going to make things simple for the next few days: trade my best setups, trade with less size, make sure I am focused and put up a few positive days in a row. This has always been my recipe after a rip.
Best of luck today.
Thxs for reading.
Bella
Moneyfriend,
Thxs for the kind words. They are appreciated. We will keep sharing.
Going to make things simple for the next few days: trade my best setups, trade with less size, make sure I am focused and put up a few positive days in a row. This has always been my recipe after a rip.
Best of luck today.
Thxs for reading.
Bella
As a trader from india I regularly visit this forum for inspiration and learnt a very good way of internalizing intraday trading of equities.The cleansing effect of acknowledging trading mistakes often unforced errors and rookie mistakes on hindsight irritates many pro traders. Yesterday has been a rip for me trading the NSE NIFTY as it lost 5% in a single session. I tried for bounce at the close ignoring the trend day characteristics. I think sometimes I have to be careful not to slip into the realm of Gambling from Speculation. As a disciple of Dr Brett , I have to practice the wealth of actionable ideas presented in this forum and TRADERFEED.
As a trader from india I regularly visit this forum for inspiration and learnt a very good way of internalizing intraday trading of equities.The cleansing effect of acknowledging trading mistakes often unforced errors and rookie mistakes on hindsight irritates many pro traders. Yesterday has been a rip for me trading the NSE NIFTY as it lost 5% in a single session. I tried for bounce at the close ignoring the trend day characteristics. I think sometimes I have to be careful not to slip into the realm of Gambling from Speculation. As a disciple of Dr Brett , I have to practice the wealth of actionable ideas presented in this forum and TRADERFEED.