Thursday, October 26, 2006
10/26/06 A new day
I have been on sort of a trading sabatical if you will. Not because I wanted to be but more because of other responsibilities in my life that have taken over. Some of these responsibilities are never going to go away and in fact they will get larger, others are only temporary like building a new house... although it may take a year to finish.
During this time I've had a good chance to reflect on my trading over the last 2 years... and I've come to several conclusions.
1. I love trading and miss it when I can't do it.
2. I can be successful at this. I will be successful at this.
3. The reasons for my futures trading failures is all internal. It's all dealing with mental issues. 90% of trading is mental.
4. I am a successful trader because I do make money overall and sometimes I forget that. I am successful in trading options and not in trading futures. I make more trading options than I lose trading futures.... therefore, overall, I am a profitable trader! Sometimes I forget that.
I have had cause to spend a lot of time driving. I've also been listening reading several trading seminars that deal almost exclusively with trader psychology. I've learned a lot about how to change my thought patterns so as to not let my emotions or other issues get in the way of successful trading. I am making progress and I am more motivated now than I have ever been in my life to get this right. One of the things I will be working on again ( a constant struggle for me) is keeping up with my Blog/jounal. I will be using this for support and to record progress like I used to do... also to deal with more emotional issues.
Like today for example. I have call options that are going against me for the second straight month! Not good. Of course all I want to do is short the market and every short loses money because the market is setting new highs almost daily. Of course the 2 long trades I've made have been enough to keep me break even for the last month but the point is that if I have a losing option position I always want to fight the market and end up losing in hopes that I catch a turn in the market and then my options and trades both become profitable! That rarely happens. The whole reason for wanting to tade futures was to help hedge my option losses on the occassion that it happens! Which isn't often but it does happen.
Market is ready to open so I had better go
Trader X
During this time I've had a good chance to reflect on my trading over the last 2 years... and I've come to several conclusions.
1. I love trading and miss it when I can't do it.
2. I can be successful at this. I will be successful at this.
3. The reasons for my futures trading failures is all internal. It's all dealing with mental issues. 90% of trading is mental.
4. I am a successful trader because I do make money overall and sometimes I forget that. I am successful in trading options and not in trading futures. I make more trading options than I lose trading futures.... therefore, overall, I am a profitable trader! Sometimes I forget that.
I have had cause to spend a lot of time driving. I've also been listening reading several trading seminars that deal almost exclusively with trader psychology. I've learned a lot about how to change my thought patterns so as to not let my emotions or other issues get in the way of successful trading. I am making progress and I am more motivated now than I have ever been in my life to get this right. One of the things I will be working on again ( a constant struggle for me) is keeping up with my Blog/jounal. I will be using this for support and to record progress like I used to do... also to deal with more emotional issues.
Like today for example. I have call options that are going against me for the second straight month! Not good. Of course all I want to do is short the market and every short loses money because the market is setting new highs almost daily. Of course the 2 long trades I've made have been enough to keep me break even for the last month but the point is that if I have a losing option position I always want to fight the market and end up losing in hopes that I catch a turn in the market and then my options and trades both become profitable! That rarely happens. The whole reason for wanting to tade futures was to help hedge my option losses on the occassion that it happens! Which isn't often but it does happen.
Market is ready to open so I had better go
Trader X
