Thursday, February 5, 2009

Do you have the Resolve?

Today started off with 5 pars and then a tasty loss. I was sitting down -87.50 going into the 2PM hour. I had been faked into a loss, and passed by on numerous winners that blew away from me throughout the day - BUT I had traded 110% correctly.

It's at this point where i'm starting to feel a little down in the dumps because my equity curve is starting to take a hit and I don't seem to be getting any of my successful trades I saw so plentiful in the past weeks that I hadn't taken because they weren't in my trade plan yet. Then when they are, they don't appear. Isn't that always how we feel? If only we had done this two weeks ago we would be up X amount, and on and on. Its how our mind works. But the key to getting through those periods is making the rationalization that if we simply wait and keep our setups consistent (rather than try and retool everything week to week) the same batch of new trades will appear and reward us.

Then a gorgeous setup appeared. Well let me rephrase that, it was a setup that was very valid but VERY big. Frankly it scared the shit out of me because I knew that if I lost I would be down -200 on the day. But it was valid and I don't get paid to be a pussy, I get paid to execute so I did. The thing went to par and I fully expected it to reverse in my face. I mean, I was asking this thing to move huge distances in favor without retracing to my stop? Yea right says me. All right says the S&P. The damn thing worked and I held it for my target. There were numerous times that looked like the death nell of this thing but the point is this gentleman...


IF YOU CAN'T TRADE YOUR METHOD CORRECTLY YOU HAVE NO CALL BEING IN THIS PROFESSION.

Because this trade is that trade that rebounds the equity curve. Cutting out and bailing for 2 points to get me to par on the day wasn't my trade even though its exactly what my emotions wanted me to do about 100X's throughout this thing playing out. Its the setups like this that work and work big that are so key to your backtesting results coming true in your live results.

So as i've reiterated 90x's before on here and am doing so again... STICK TO YOUR DAMN RULES. Because that and that alone can truly be the holy grail we've all been looking for.

So the question is: Do you have the resolve?

Trade Results:

+187.50


3 comments:

Michael said...

It's funny how different we all are, using totally different methods, rules, our charts setup differently, the only common thing is we trade the ES mini, and yet when it comes to the challenges we're going through we seem to be in the same boat, with the same frustrations. Speaking for myself, discipline and patients are the two hardest challenges to over come.

The cool thing is that those of you who are keeping good records early into your trading careers are going to be years ahead of me and others who didn't even start documenting anything until 5 or more years after we started trading.

Like starting a successful business, it just takes time.

E-Mini Player said...

So the question is: Do you have the resolve?

No :P

Kudos on holding on to that short...takes a lot discipline!

Michael said...

So we did take the same trade, I didn't recognize it due to the time zone differences, cool!