I’ve recently had a prolonged losing streak. I accept this. If they did not occur, we would not need MM. A few other members here that I respect, have suggested a thorough diagnostic, to try and identify “what went wrong”. I have also read that most successful traders keep a log, and review their performance regularly, and claim that this improves their outcomes.
I do not keep a journal. I print out my setup charts, and notate when and if I take the trade. Later, I print out an “after” chart, labeled as winner, loser or BE. I put these charts in a folder for a given month, showing my total trades for the month visually.
When I try to identify failures, I come to the standard conclusions:
-got in too early/late
-got out too early/late
-moved stops to BE too soon/late
-overtrading/overconfidence
These conclusions do not in any way guide me to make better future trades (with the exception of the last one).
Because the market is uncertain, and dynamic, we have no guarantees that this trade will work or that one will fail. If I use the above list, I cannot apply a different choice of entry/exit/SL on the next trade to improve my results. The next trade is completely independent of the previous one. It is unique.
I find that trade review tells me what succeeded and failed, but not why, and is therefore useless.
I would greatly appreciate any thoughts or examples of how other traders employ trade-review to their benefit, as I believe there is something I am completely missing.
I do not keep a journal. I print out my setup charts, and notate when and if I take the trade. Later, I print out an “after” chart, labeled as winner, loser or BE. I put these charts in a folder for a given month, showing my total trades for the month visually.
When I try to identify failures, I come to the standard conclusions:
-got in too early/late
-got out too early/late
-moved stops to BE too soon/late
-overtrading/overconfidence
These conclusions do not in any way guide me to make better future trades (with the exception of the last one).
Because the market is uncertain, and dynamic, we have no guarantees that this trade will work or that one will fail. If I use the above list, I cannot apply a different choice of entry/exit/SL on the next trade to improve my results. The next trade is completely independent of the previous one. It is unique.
I find that trade review tells me what succeeded and failed, but not why, and is therefore useless.
I would greatly appreciate any thoughts or examples of how other traders employ trade-review to their benefit, as I believe there is something I am completely missing.