A journey in discipline and STICKING WITH YOUR PLAN:
Guys, I recommend anyone serious about making it in the long-term in this business read this journal (or at least the first 20-30 pages and then skip towards the end): http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showth...6&pagenumber=1
I ran across it while doing some reading on win rates, RR, and what not, but it has proved to be far, far more valuable. This is a trader that has stuck with his SAME method through about 500 trades over a 7 month span. In this time period he has had 267 losses! Can you imagine that! 267 losses. How many of us could stick with what we do incurring that many losses? He has had 213 wins, and because he kept with his plan, his RR was around 1.9 which has made him very profitable. And to top it off I believe he risked less than 1% of his account on each trade. I didn't post this journal so that we could analyze his "system" or entry/exit techniques, but just to illustrate what is never really talked about as much in terms of what it takes to make it in this business. Sticking with your system after 500 trades (I know some of us haven't made 500 yet, and others have made MUCH more), and having more losses than winner and trusting in the system and ending in profits. Thats what its all about folks (not necessarily the win % and RR, but the DISCIPLINE). There were some days he was up over $1000, and some days he was down $1000. Still he never changed a thing, despite the losing days.
Basically he used a very simple method where he was buying retracements in a trend on 5min time frames, used a $200 risk and $400 take profit. With a 44% win rate and low risk, $200/$70000 = ~.2%, sometimes he would take 3 positions a day so still under 1% risk total on a 70K account he made around $30K after 500 trades. And that was WITHOUT compounding because as his equity grew he stayed with the same $200 risk. Imagine the results with compounding. Now, I'm not posting this to suggest following his method of trading, but to simply illustrate that his results and P/L were a result of sticking to his methods with a tremendous amount of discipline. Its probably the one factor of trading that we could all improve on.
I was inspired by that journal for the will power and discipline to stick it out, and I thought some may find it helpful. Combine the above, with our knowledge of PA to take high probability entries, and just enjoy the success.
Guys, I recommend anyone serious about making it in the long-term in this business read this journal (or at least the first 20-30 pages and then skip towards the end): http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showth...6&pagenumber=1
I ran across it while doing some reading on win rates, RR, and what not, but it has proved to be far, far more valuable. This is a trader that has stuck with his SAME method through about 500 trades over a 7 month span. In this time period he has had 267 losses! Can you imagine that! 267 losses. How many of us could stick with what we do incurring that many losses? He has had 213 wins, and because he kept with his plan, his RR was around 1.9 which has made him very profitable. And to top it off I believe he risked less than 1% of his account on each trade. I didn't post this journal so that we could analyze his "system" or entry/exit techniques, but just to illustrate what is never really talked about as much in terms of what it takes to make it in this business. Sticking with your system after 500 trades (I know some of us haven't made 500 yet, and others have made MUCH more), and having more losses than winner and trusting in the system and ending in profits. Thats what its all about folks (not necessarily the win % and RR, but the DISCIPLINE). There were some days he was up over $1000, and some days he was down $1000. Still he never changed a thing, despite the losing days.
Basically he used a very simple method where he was buying retracements in a trend on 5min time frames, used a $200 risk and $400 take profit. With a 44% win rate and low risk, $200/$70000 = ~.2%, sometimes he would take 3 positions a day so still under 1% risk total on a 70K account he made around $30K after 500 trades. And that was WITHOUT compounding because as his equity grew he stayed with the same $200 risk. Imagine the results with compounding. Now, I'm not posting this to suggest following his method of trading, but to simply illustrate that his results and P/L were a result of sticking to his methods with a tremendous amount of discipline. Its probably the one factor of trading that we could all improve on.
I was inspired by that journal for the will power and discipline to stick it out, and I thought some may find it helpful. Combine the above, with our knowledge of PA to take high probability entries, and just enjoy the success.
16!!
