Trading Psychology - Becoming A Better Trader
-
@lee-woodman good advise here mate, thank you
-
@tom-david It is important to accurately record as it gives you the information to make decisions. It’s too easy to kid ourselves at times but data doesn’t lie! It can also provide context when necessary, I had a few losing back to back days last month and each day would previously have caused me to change something or get disheartened but to be able to look at the big picture allowed me to see that I was still doing well. I personally pushed through it when I perhaps would’ve altered something in the past
It’s a good idea to make notes of trades if you shouldn’t have done them. You can easily highlight them then check at month end and say ‘these trades cost me x points’, you have to be honest though and include ALL trades you should’nt have done, even if they won, otherwise you’re just kidding yourself. Another thing I found helped this, is that I increased my points staked per trade. You have to be careful but I found it easy to say ‘I’ll risk this it’s only a point’ but actually now I’m like ‘I’m staking 5 pts here - am I certain i want to do it’.
-
@tom-david said in Trading Psychology - Becoming A Better Trader:
Irish Premier Division adding another 2 points profit to the month last night, since I've started planning and more accurately documenting my trades I'm starting to get a much better feel for the leagues I like and the leagues I want to avoid.
It's been such a great way to give me better knowledge and full confidence in the trades I place and also tracking the profit makes me feel a lot more protective of it.
I think not tracking the profit makes a loss harder to handle to you jump in to try and chase it back, when if you can see the actual loss you can instantly recognise that you only need X amount of winners to make it back.
This month I have placed 28 trades with 5 losings trades and 23 wins - leaving 16 points profit
3 out of 5 losing trades I am ashamed to say were placed out of boredom, didn't really fit the criteria but looked alright.......had I not placed those 3 trades, just 3 trades! running total this month would be 25 points profit!
That's something I am going to constantly refer back to in order to keep myself focused
Good stuff mate. Discipline is the hardest part of all this.
-
Irish Premier Division adding another 2 points profit to the month last night, since I've started planning and more accurately documenting my trades I'm starting to get a much better feel for the leagues I like and the leagues I want to avoid.
It's been such a great way to give me better knowledge and full confidence in the trades I place and also tracking the profit makes me feel a lot more protective of it.
I think not tracking the profit makes a loss harder to handle to you jump in to try and chase it back, when if you can see the actual loss you can instantly recognise that you only need X amount of winners to make it back.
This month I have placed 28 trades with 5 losings trades and 23 wins - leaving 16 points profit
3 out of 5 losing trades I am ashamed to say were placed out of boredom, didn't really fit the criteria but looked alright.......had I not placed those 3 trades, just 3 trades! running total this month would be 25 points profit!
That's something I am going to constantly refer back to in order to keep myself focused
-
@lee-woodman thanks mate appreciate that!
11/06/2021. I love cricket.
14 points profit this month.
-
@tom-david Good work, looks like you’re paying attention to how you feel and dealing with it accordingly. I think I said the same as you about just having 1 trade, I find it easier having nothing than one trade. I don’t tend to suffer impulsive FOMO but I can imagine it’s then easy to look for something, anything else
Keep going with it, it’s interesting to read how you’re getting on with the psychological side, it’s massively underestimated and a lot of these issues will resonate with others
-
@eamonn-hogan thank you mate, feel a lot better about things after having a few days off. I’ve decided to not withdraw anything from my account now and concentrate on building the funds so focussing ok this should lead me into being more protective of the profits.
-
@tom-david said in Trading Psychology - Becoming A Better Trader:
Great day today, had a trade lined up for LU1.5 goals, easy money so risked the profit on a second trade laying correct score at 60 minutes.
Two trades added to the spreadsheet today, both winners and 3 solid days gap between last trade, that is the longest time I have gone without betting for a long time.
Back up to 10 points profit this month.
That’s great Tom. Keep it up
-
Great day today, had a trade lined up for LU1.5 goals, easy money so risked the profit on a second trade laying correct score at 60 minutes.
Two trades added to the spreadsheet today, both winners and 3 solid days gap between last trade, that is the longest time I have gone without betting for a long time.
Back up to 10 points profit this month.
-
@Martin it's weird, sometimes I find it impossible and sometimes I find it easy, I find with most things in life I am either one extreme or the other, then a mix of the two until it finally balances out so I am hoping that is the path I am on now.
I have one trade planned this morning so this is a test for me as sometimes I find just one trade is worse for my impulses than none as I am in the markets and not just ignoring them.
Wish me luck.....
-
Nothing of interest again today, managed to stay away from hunting trades two days in a row so pleased with that progress, happy to be protecting profit
-
Spent the whole day focusing on my business and didn’t even look at placing a trade today, proper pleased
-
Felt unwell yesterday so didn’t look at anything although I suspect nothing worth looking at anyway.
Feel better today but nothing of interest so going to do my best to switch off from it today, catch up with some stuff at work and try to get myself right for a hopefully better day tomorrow.
-
@tom-david said in Trading Psychology - Becoming A Better Trader:
Looking back on previous posts it might seem like I am just jumping back and forth from turning corners to jumping into stupid trades and that irritates me a bit but for me I don't think there is going to be a clear cut line, it's just a journey I am on and looking at the bigger picture things are much better now than they have been in the past so as long as I continue this way I know I'll get to where I want to be at some point.
I’ve been here something like 355 days now, and you and me aren’t too dissimilar! It is a journey for sure, and theres a lot to be learned! Keep up the great work
-
Looking back on previous posts it might seem like I am just jumping back and forth from turning corners to jumping into stupid trades and that irritates me a bit but for me I don't think there is going to be a clear cut line, it's just a journey I am on and looking at the bigger picture things are much better now than they have been in the past so as long as I continue this way I know I'll get to where I want to be at some point.
-
@Martin sometimes I wish I had someone to place the trades for me, I'd just get them to check I was sure before placing it, I'm confident this would stop a big portion of my bad choices.
For some reason I struggle to apply this filter to myself but for this month my only goal is to work on this.
One trade under 1.5 goals lay today has greened so even though I have another I'm looking at later on today I'm going to take the opportunity to ignore it and stay away for the day, perhaps forcing myself to not take a trade will help me realise that there's no need or rush to jump into any others.
I'm going to search out some podcasts instead and chill in the garden
-
Slight lapse yesterday, getting a little carried away with myself and traded what I thought was a good opportunity for laying correct score, I've traded this quite abit in the past but it's usually only if I miss entry on laying under 1.5 goals.
Yesterday I just did it as I found it, no idea why, perhaps a bit of boredom.
Really going to make a conscious effort this month to only trade the 1.5 goals market as find it a better space to be in and confident in my selections.
Any time I trade outside of this feels like a gamble and usually leaves me feeling tense, nervous, frustrated and a bit miserable so I'm going to keep asking myself before I place a trade, am I comfortable with this? if the answer is no I'm not I'm going to leave it alone.
