Thursday, January 15, 2009

Trading your system is PARAMOUNT!!!

Today was an interesting day. I took a couple trades that went for par but the price action was all over. We had a HUGE V-Reversal mid-day and volume was through the roof. So much so that on one of my trades I had a tick of profit locked in and I was actually slipped a tick on 1 contract when price came back. Things were MOVING.

But today demonstrated the KEY to success in the market and I wanted to share it with you. My buddy Awais sat through it with me. I had taken a loss on a trade around 1 PM that left me down -187.50 in the hole. The thing is, it was a valid setup, I took the trade and it was a full loss. IT HAPPENS. Any loss sucks and it takes the wind out of your sails no matter what you do. I got up, walked around, knew I had done what was necessary, made the right decision and got refocused. Ten minutes later a second trade around the same area signaled and I pulled the trigger again. It looked like I was going to get nailed twice in a row, it reversed and shot up to where I could get to par. It stopped out for par - no big deal. I executed correctly and without flaw.


An hour passes. Its now approaching 2:20 in the afternoon and I have a potential setup occurring on one of my charts. I'm already at a point where i'm going to end the day with the largest loss i've yet to see live. Bad day right? At 2:24 I get a signal to get short (I take trade signals until 2:29 each day) and I pulled the trigger. Now during this time I was chatting with my buddy. It went a little something like:

Me: Sh*t, damn, I don't want to be in this f****'n thing but it signaled.
Me: I'm short. Damn this thing.
Awais: So you're short?
Me: Yup - damn thing gave a valid signal.

2 Minutes later...

Me: Stop to par +1 tick.

2 Minutes later...

Me: Stop to 39.50, targeting 34.50

1 Minute Later...

Me: I had to pay up 1 tick on the exit but i'm out and net +50.00 on the day!

The lesson to be learned? YOU TRADE YOUR SYSTEM WITHOUT FAULT, FEAR, EMOTION AND YOU'LL BE FINE.


Today I turned the worst potential loss of my career into a winning day by simply following my own rules. The day isn't over UNTIL ITS ACTUALLY OVER. Don't quit, stick with it. Probability and outcomes in the markets are INDEPENDENT OF ONE ANOTHER. The market doesn't care if you're up or down from trade to trade, so take your trades and let the results be what they are.

Trade Results:

+50.00

2 comments:

E-Mini Player said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
E-Mini Player said...

Great P&L reversal on the day! Sticking to the plan pays...now I need to somehow drill that into my brain :) Good thing at least one of us is good at this...there's hope for One-Lot Trading LLC after all ;)