Posts Tagged ‘power of mind’

Solutions For Poor Day Trading Performance

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Special Edition for Traders !

Many traders have the hope and dream of day trading for a living. That is a very worthy goal and represents an opportunity for being your own boss as well as being free from a 9 to 5 type job. With the economy the way it is, living this dream is something that is sought after by many and for good reason.

Having the vision is always the start, executing the vision is another story. Everyone starting out, always has the highest of expectations and why not. No one would want to go into a new venture thinking that they are going to fail, it is normal to hope for the best.

What happens next is often the unseen struggles that traders face. Most all, traders have some knowledge of how to put on a buy or sell order, place a stop and a target, move there stop up to lock in profit, etc. But being a successful trader, long term has a lot more to it than what first meets the eye. As the struggles begin for many traders, they can start to feel angry, frustrated, anxious, confused and at times depressed. Many sense a loss of control over there trading and it is this loss of control that can leave the would be trader feeling powerless.

Lets see if we can help. Most day traders, set out with very high expectations about becoming rich. These thoughts can at times cloud the vision of what it is really going to take to bring it all together. To begin the process of turning things around, “Set smaller achievable goals” for yourself. If you were to go back and check your account to see where it was that you went wrong, many times it is going to be a few bad days that really set you back and put you under water. If you could remove those really bad days and at worst replace them with only minor losses, that right there could make all the difference.

If you notice that you are making repetitively the same mistakes, DON’T DO THAT. It sounds like a no brainier, but you would be surprised by how many people do just that, or maybe you won’t. I am not throwing stones. I have made all the mistakes there are to make while trading, so I can speak from experience. Not exactly the kind of experience we like to talk about, but that is apart of learning. Take the struggles and mistakes, especially the ones that are repeated several times and put a stop to it. Find a way to overcome it. It may mean you need to take a small break and pull things together before re-entering the arena.

Never increase your trading size to try and make up for previous losses. That is pretty important, but it is done all the time. If you are not trading well, what would make you think that trading larger size is going to make you trade better. If you are not trading well, you have two choices.

1)   STOP  & WAIT – give yourself a cooling off period.

2)  Trade smaller size until you get your rhythm back, then as you are connecting with the market, increase your size then and only then.

By increasing your size while taking losses, you are being influence by the money. You want to get back what you feel the market took from you. First of all, that is the wrong mindset and that is the reason, you are increasing your size. You are being controlled by your emotions and are making a bad judgment, which will likely hurt you even greater.

If you take additional losses, with increased size, you can soon see the snow ball effect, well, that is what I call it. Things will only escalate into bigger and greater problems. This is where you could start to feel that “Loss of Control”.

These are where those big loosing days come from. It is days like this, that can mean all the difference in the world to being profitable.

There are many good traders out there, that just need a little adjustment here and there, to turn the corner. Holding onto bad patterns produce consistent results when executed, but these are not the results we are looking for. Separate yourself from your problem and examine exactly what is missing.

It may be that you pull your stops because you don’t want to be proven wrong yet again. That loss is going to to much to bear so, you pull your stop at times.  You may move it by a full S&P point or any unit of measure depending on what you are trading. Other times you leave yourself with No Stop at all, which is always a big mistake. This again is something that you did not plan to do before you entered the trade, but something that you just did. Often, you look back and wonder why did I do that in the first place. Only after all the dust settles can you see that you were not acting rational.

There is a root cause to all of these and many other trading problems that are faced day in and day out across the globe by those pursuing there dream of day trading for a living and experiencing the freedom and the lifestyle that comes with the territory. But what is it and how can I get it. There is no easy quick definite answer that fits for everyone, but I can give you a clue. It all starts in what is between your ears. “THE MIND”. The power of the mind is often overlooked in resolving traders problems. They just think that if I do this or make that change, things will be all better. It goes a little deeper than that.

A successful trader needs to have “Mind Power”. That is not some fancy new age mantra, but the reality that stands in the way for so many. The power of concentration and the ability to focus and only do those things that will produce the results you are looking for is where the base of the solution lie’s.

Take a step in the right direction, TAKE CONTROL, live and fulfill your dreams, I am here to help. Visit www.sniperdaytrading.com and request your free copy of my branded Book on “The Power of Concentration” and see what you can accomplish with your new powers.

Day Trading and Power of the Mind – Free Book Offer -

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Hello, Today is Monday February 23rd and the market is still trading while I write this, currently up 3 S&P points.

So far with 30 minutes to go, the market is holding up. The volume has been so slow, just now at 1 million contracts and 30 minutes to go. I can not remember a regular session being that slow, even back during the holidays. With low volume and movement, you have less opportunities to profit. That is why I feel it is important to be able to scalp a few points out of small trading ranges. Often, that is all the market is going to give you. You can always elect to sit it out and wait for things to improve but if you don’t have patience enough to do that, you may be tempted to trade in an environment that you are not trained for. The best course of action is getting trained for it, so that if you find yourself in it, you will know what to do and how to do it.

Scalp trading is not for everyone, that is true. It can be better for some to wait for moves that are for several points, but as I said, you don’t always know when they are coming. If you blow your opportunity, you may have to wait now for hours. Do you have the patience to do that. The answer for many is “No”. That was and is my answer too. I don’t want to wait for two hours to take one trade and wait another 2 hours for the next trade. I don’t need to hit a 3 to 5 point trade to come out on top. Three one point trades counts just the same and with the trading leverage tied to the emini’s, you really don’t need much. To me, two to four points per session is plenty. If you can average just the two points per day, that is 40 points in a trading month. Some days you will have more points and that can make up for the days you get stopped out for the day. I have a 4 S&P point daily stop out point. This ensures that if I am having a bad day, that I don’t do any really bad damage to my account. Getting the upper end of my daily trading goal, is always nice at times. This also protects me from any day that I may come up short.

I was working with someone earlier this morning who was having a little trouble. After our session, he saw things much clearer and had a new sence of confidence, always a good thing. His confidence reconfirmed in the method he had learned and trained on, but needed a little guidance and one on one time. After our session he took three trades for 3 points in an hour. I felt happy for him, but better than one days profits, he has a clear picture of what he is looking for and how to go about getting it.

In todays trading, I took a few trades, nothing earth shattering and could have done better, but it was enough. Trades are as follows; flat, +4 ticks/+5 ticks, -1 tick, +2 ticks/+2 ticks, +2 ticks/+1 tick. The last trade was the only counter trend trade that I took and am trying to take less of them these days. The bigger move came from just above my last trade short and was what I was seeing, but decided to not trade any more and let it go. Tomorrow is another day.

Just a reminder, it may still be a little while before I get the “Free Book on Concentration” up on my website. If anyone wants it now, just email me. It is very good. It pertains so much to trading and what we do, that I am sure it will help every trader who reads it with an open mind and applies its principles. When you start reading the first chapter alone, I believe you will be impressed.

Day Trading has much more to it than getting the entries down and knowing where to exit. You will discover so much more about yourself than you ever thought you could. Some of it good and some of it, not so good. It will bring to the surface all of your weaknesses and expose them, to yourself.  Unless you know what to do with that and how to adjust, you will eventually be working against yourself. Why would we allow ourselves to do this. Well, many traders do not realize how the mental side of trading is always at work here.  The path of least resistance is to do the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Having the mental clarity, focus and mind power to do what you should do and when you need to do it, is imperative while trying to trade the markets. If you find yourself listening to competing voices in your head, second guessing yourself about every trade, not allowing the market to work for you instead of against you, as so many traders end up doing, you will struggle. 

 I too have to watch myself in this area and need to be in the right state of mind when I trade. So, as I have stated before, I am often times talking to myself while I am sharing with my readers. I know what it is that I need to do and want to be sure not to go outside of that. If I am in the red, I am very confident that I will come back, but should not be looking at or dwelling on my past loss at that time. Traders to often, trade with their P&L in mind. It is hard to have the right perspective when money is on the line. The best place to be in when trading, is not having to need the money. If you need the money and the trade, you will be trading from a position of weakness, not strength. That is a mindset and often an economic reality for many. Try and get yourself out of that position and trade from a position of strength.

Mental preparation can make all the difference in the world. I strongly encourage any trader who is serious about making consistent income from the markets, to get my free book. If the book is all you want, that is all I will give you, if you want some advise, I can give that to you as well. (Free)

You have a lot to gain, if you have not considered the real impact, the power of your mind can have on your trading results. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose from asking for it. I have sent it out to some who have requested it and will report back here on how they liked it and how it has made a difference in there trading.  

So, until then, Good Trading.