Posts Tagged ‘trading coach’

Become Your Own Trading Coach, maintain control

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Today is Tuesday February 16th and we saw what I wrote about on Sunday nights posts a nice rally +169 Dow and +19 S&P 500 cash.

Well, Tuesday was the on time day. I put a chart at the bottom of yesterdays post and showed the target area. The minimum target area was 2 points shy at +21 points. We got 19 of them all today and suspect that we will get the rest tomorrow. That was the minimum move I see, but there could be more. I also wrote about it last week and called out the numbers a couple of times.

I was not able to trade today, first time since the holidays. I was just to caught up doing other things. Last Friday, I almost missed the trading session but came in after 12 noon West Coast and still picked up my goal. I have been working on updating my website and it is coming along as well as putting together a newer version of my trading method. It’s all still the same, but with some new things added. I am doing it in Power Point which is easier to move things around. Any current members will get the new material for free once I am done with it. Also working on updating my back office with new content, video’s and training. It is all a lot of work and I am just recovering from being sick and a hard drive crash, one after the other. WOW. That was a lot to handle.

Next week I will schedule time with students to go over their performance and stay in touch.  So feel free to call and schedule a time. This venture is more than about me. Helping others is the best way I know how to help myself. So far so good.

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One Key to success, staying in control while trading: There is nothing worst than losing control. You feel helpless and hopeless when you find yourself there. What can we do to maintain control while trading? This is similar to what I have been talking about lately.

When you lose control, of your trading plans and take non method trades, you only hurt yourself in the long run, even if the trade works out. We always want to establish exactly why we do what it is we do and when to do it, so that the pattern of maintaining control can be repeated. In order to do that, we need to have power in our will and over our emotions. As mentioned in earlier posts, there are many good traders out there that know how to trade, but their inability to maintain control when a trigger point sends everything spinning out of control, seems to happen all to often.

If these traders were able to replace the 3 or 4 really bad days out of the month that keeps their equity at zero or less, they would replace doubt and fear, with hope and victory. So how is it that we are able to reverse those very bad days with gains and come out with positive equity for the month. The battle is won and fought in your mind. Exercising self-control over your action is key, but it first starts in your mind. The thoughts you think are so important to you as a trader. Don’t underestimate it but embrace it, by going on the offensive. Battles are not won in retreat, but on the offensive. So, don’t hold back and take charge.

Everyone does not have the luxury of having a trading coach and many times we need to be our own coach, but make no mistake about it, we all need a coach. So, if you are your own trading coach, what would you tell yourself to do right now. The first thing any coach would do, is find out where you currently stand. How are your trading funds. Are you capitalized well enough to continue the journey. Once that is established and checks out, you should find out what is holding you back from going forward. Identifying the reason why you took those 3 or 4 large losing days is imperative to your future success.

If you are in battle and you are shot, the first thing a medic will do is access the damage and stop the bleeding. He knows if you lose too much blood, you die. Then, he will get you to base where he can perform possibly surgery. That process is going to be painful, but it is painful lying on the field with little hope. So the point is don’t expect fixing your trading problems as a pleasant thing. You may go kicking and screaming, but you know if you don’t, you stand to lose much more.

We need to be ”Men” and cowboy up. No one likes change, but do you want to meet your trading goals and be financially independent or would you rather let that dream pass you by as only a distant memory. I think most people would choose the first one. So what are you going to do about it. If you don’t have outside help, you will have to perform the surgery yourself. In other words it is going to be hard to force yourself to do what you have to, in order to  meet your trading goals.

These are only a few of the reasons why most traders don’t make it. Traders never thing that it is them, its always the other guy. I know this may seem a bit brutal, but, this is exactly what I am talking about. Face your trading problems with an action plan. Get motivated to do the things that are going to produce change. If you identify something that is holding you back, but you find yourself saying to the solution, ”I don’t want to do that”, then you know exactly what it is that you MUST DO to slay that dragon.

Let me end it this way; Behavior is patterned, how we think, feel and act have a pattern to them and that patterning is what make us who we are. The sum total of our patterns is our personality.

The same is true as a trader. Our trading has patterns, some good and some not so good. What we think, feel and act while trading makes up our trading personality and some of us need a make-over. Find solutions to the things that hold you back and force yourself to change. I will have more specific solutions in the posts to come, until then,

GOOD TRADING !

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How to Handle Trading Adversity

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

Today is Tuesday, May 12th and the markets bounced off key support and held.

Today was an interesting day and I wish I had a little more time this morning to scope out what was happening. I started a little too late and had some computer issues at the open, which set me behind from scanning the pre-market layout. After the fact, I saw that the Index’s had popped, to catch up with the futures. Similar to a gap opening, only to fail from what looked like a perfect symmetrical triangle break.

I was looking at my mid range chart and failed to spot the pattern before it broke down. After the break, there was almost no safe entry short, so I let it go. It kept dropping with no up tick to it at all, no buyers. I did have a chance to get in after a slight consolidation, but I played that break for only a very small gain. It was a little frustrating to say the least. After all that, I ended up taking less than desirable entries for a couple of losses in a row and knew then that I needed to take a break. I can tell you, that these days happen and it is not the market’s fault at all.

The damage was not too bad, down 675, but with only a minus $1,000 daily limit, I was getting close. After the break, I dropped my size down to 2 or 3 contracts from 5 and started to just concentrate on short moves between 2-4 ticks. This scalp trade is my bread and butter and I don’t have to be too concerned with over all direction. When the conditions are right for a small move, I just position myself in front of the momentum and catch the swing, in and out, fast. Those little trades add up quickly if you keep peeling them off, one by one.

That is what I did and came quickly back to even, then just kept it going to first $500, then $1,000 and then onward to $2,000 and finished somewhere around $2,300.  What happened along the way was, I spotted moves that to me were good for a lot more points and took them. That quickly pushed my equity up faster to finish the day for a better than 4 times my daily goal. It is a little too bad that I was not ready this morning to catch those nice moves when I had the chance. I can only blame myself for a weak start. These were the problems that I had that I can clearly identify.

* Not getting to bed on time   * Not getting up on time   * Still adjusting to working the early morning open – new for me  * Need to start out with smaller contract size on the open to help get warmed up and lighten up pressure   * Need to do a pre-market analysis before the open     * Most important, NEED MY COFFEE before I start.

It should not be too hard to correct these issues. I look forward to a smoother start tomorrow.  When you look at the numbers today, I was only down about 2 trades. It may look like I am being hard on myself for such a small draw down, but if I am not, then who will?  I am my own trading coach and need to maintain control at all times. I have resolved that the worst that can happen to me is that I get stopped out for the day. That is really fine if that happens and I can’t get too emotional over it, but if I can stop it from happening in the first place, I am doing good.

The moral of the whole story is: If you are having an off day, for whatever the reason, you need to first STOP, then assess what is the problem. If you are doing everything right, then there really is no issue. But if your losses are human error and ones that could have been avoided, then you have to change things up early on.

That does not mean that you change your trading method, but that you change to a different model. In this case, bread and butter. When I am in trouble, I go back to my bread and butter. If I slow it down and trade smaller, there is the first change, then trade for very high percentage trades to get your rhythm and confidence going.  Usually I move my stop to only three ticks and still do well. Keep doing that, until you see a screaming all out entry that begs you to ride it for a while and move up your stop to lock in your profit. Then go back to bread and butter and do it again, until the next real mover comes along.

Its hard to be able to figure out every measured move of the market and it can take up a lot of energy. But when you have good timing on your entries and small targets, 2,3, or 4 ticks per trade, the bigger trends are not as important. You are focusing your energy on the small momentum plays happening in both directions. Caution is always in order for every trade no matter how small your target.  But this has always helped me get out of trouble. That is why I mentioned so many times that you need to be able to go back to something that can get your trading rhythm back and push you in the right direction towards a full recovery and ultimately your daily goal plus.

http://www.screencast.com/t/bMe2ejgO Today’s equity chart

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Trading Discipline, Part 5

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

Today is Friday April 18th and another lesson on trading discipline is below.

First, the markets put in another session of higher prices from their reactionary low of a few weeks ago. Very nice. The daily momentum is still up, so be careful on fighting the overall trend, for those who swing trade the S&P’s. I am not too concerned with the larger direction, because I trade a much smaller time frame and take trades in both directions, but look to identify the stronger side of the market so as not to fight it, somewhat relative.

In today’s trading I only traded for 12 minutes, start to finish. It was later in the day and was  just trying to get back on my feet. I came into the trading market during the last 30 minutes of the day. It worked out fine. I took 4 trade entries, the first was a loss and the next three were gains, which included a few small runners of a couple of points each. I separated my exits today and took some off early and let the other half run a little. I picked up an even $ 1,000 dollars and shut it down. No struggles today, just picked it up and moved right along. The signals were very clear and the market had volume to push it around in my direction.

Today’s Trading lesson will continue in the area of “Trading Discipline”. This is an area that very few people tend to focus on, but is one of the most important. I could not say which one is more important. If you don’t know how to trade, trading discipline is not going to do you a lot of good, but once you have a solid approach and you know what you are doing, which is really not that easy for most people, you need to spend a lot of time in this area.

If you cut back in this area of training and spend more time in perfecting your method or trading style, it is not really going to make a difference, because you are going to add yourself to the ranks of people who thought they could, but couldn’t. I am just stating the facts on this one and trying to get your attention as well, because you need to spend as much time, or even more, in this area as you are spending right now in getting your actual trading execution in order.

Believe me on this one. All of your hard work can be lost if you cannot handle all of the outside factors that will be presented to you, regardless of trading know how, so that is why I feel so strongly about this. It was always my intention to start my blog and website with trading know how, then switch over to trading psychology and it’s related issues. There is a wealth of information that I will be discussing in the weeks ahead regarding this area. So stay tuned.

Yesterday, I discussed practical ways to slow down the sometimes impossible situations that we as traders find ourselves in – multiple losses in a row.  I say it this way because slowing down the destructive mind set of self sabotage is sometimes the best we can do.

Others will truly see how dangerous this situation can really be and take very strong measures to stop it. It is the cause for most trading failures, in my opinion. Many people will have a fairly good idea on how to capture trading profits, but it is that one or two days a month that they give it all back and then some. This is really a fixable situation for the person who is willing to do what it takes to become successful on a monthly basis.

If you find that this is you, there is hope. If you still struggle in putting winning days together, then you have more work to do. But for the trader who finds himself in the above situation, you need to look for the answers in trading psychology and trading discipline. There are reasons for everything and nothing happens by its own merit. This is where you need to look within yourself and either self-analyze your trading problems or find a trading coach or mentor to help you through the unseen issues you face. If you see yourself as a winner and have always found the solution to whatever it was that was holding you back, then you have a great chance to make it.

Having the right mind set is one of the first things you can do to put yourself over the hump to profitable consistent day trading.

* How do you see yourself ?

* How and when do you see your future becoming a reality?

* What are the things in your control that are holding you back ?

* Are you willing to pay the price to overcome your stumbling block ?

If you are not sure what it is that causes you to lose control and have large losing days, then I would recommend you take some time off from trading altogether and explore deep into the root cause. You may not be able to do this on your own. If you do attempt this on your own, you need to be brutally honest with yourself. It is not going to do you any good if you don’t pull down all the barriers you may have put up. This is the only way to attack the problem and that is exactly what you need to do.

If you take a passive approach and say, “It will just eventually work itself out”, you are only kidding yourself. Very rarely do these things fix themselves, even if you seem to be doing better for a while, you can have a relapse and find yourself no better off than before. The key is, are you willing to change and pay the price?  I will tell you right now, most people are not. That is the reason so few people are profitable on a consistent monthly basis, to the point where trading is their main source of income. This does not have to eventually be where you spend the majority of your time, but it produces the majority of your income.

If you see it, live it, work hard for it, you can have it. DO YOU BELIEVE ?

http://www.screencast.com/t/3avuzSBLQW Today’s equity chart

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