Interesting Start to the Week

Well, I did not post on Friday, but to sum up, I ended up having an ok day by taking quick losers and waiting patiently. It felt nice to start the weekend on a decent note.

My goal this morning was to come in, stay patient, and try to put together some good trading scenarios. I followed my goal very well for the first part of the morning. I was patient, I took quick losers, and I was finding reasons for everything I did. I was fading oil most of the move down because there were very little retracements worth selling. I did not lose money, but I did not make any either. I made most of my money in the euro, so that was nice.

Something around 10:15 happened and I snapped. I don't know what it was, and I need to figure it out. I was having a decent day, up more than most of my down days, and I made some trade, or some poor decision that led to a losing trade. From that losing trade, I lost everything I made and continued to lose. Not only that, but when I got to zero on the day, I put on a euro trade that was initially positive, but then went wildly against me, and I froze. I puked it right when I was $0.50 away from limit. That is the closest I could possibly get. I was livid. I knew I shouldn't be doing what I was. Ugh.

However, things turned much brighter after that. One of my fades in oil worked out nicely, and I was able to get back to even on the day. I took a break, cleared my head, and was very thankful that I wasn't down any money.

When I came back from lunch I was very careful with my trades, I took my profits quickly and waited for my setups. Before I knew it I was making new highs, and I walked out right when oil closed.

I am not pleased with today's performance. I made a few classic mistakes and I need to figure them out. Clearly, I cannot take big losers, and I took one big one that almost put me out for the day. But what was really bad was when I went from having a decent day to losing. I need to go back and review what it was. I think there is something that sets me off, and I have a few thoughts.

First, when I am up money I take a quick small loser on small size on something stupid. Today, I think it was when I heard a marginal headline, I clicked with small size, and lost. When I got out, it went the way I thought. I am very confident this was and is something that sets me off.

Second, when I do take a small loser, I am looking to make back what I lost. I think sometimes I lose small, make a quick trade to scalp back the money I lost. This is not part of my strategy. When I do this I don't trade for reasons, I trade for money. This is very bad because then it is snowball effect. I make it back a few times, and that gives me false confidence. I then do it one last time, and lose, and chase that loss, and lose, and chase that loss, and lose, and I force everything when there is no opportunity.

Finally, I think I make a few ok trades and get over confident and my rules disappear. I don't trade for reasons and I start buying highs and selling lows. I just start clicking and make a ton of trades. Most of the time they are bad trades.

I need to stop these three things. I need to stop them immediately. I will stop them. Tomorrow will be a better day and I will figure out what leads me to make these mistakes. I am starting to find the path in the dense forest. I can see the path, very faintly, but I think its there. Hopefully I will get on that path and it will lead to a more clear defined path that gets me back on track.