"Take Risks: If you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise. Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Time For Kit Kat

I did badly since July. I think I need to take a break and do some self-study and re-focus. I did bad because of noob reasons. In my last post, my aussie trades failed me, or rather I have failed myself. The pair I longed, moved all the way down 80+ pips after barely touching my take-profit 10 pips away. I got stopped out.

Firstly, I forgot the fact that take-profit should be targeted at price R/S level, not where I want. I put my take-profit at 0.8800 typical double-zero level and stubbornly holding it even when price was about 0.8780 area. I should know better that it's not everyday Sunday kinda thing.

Secondly, I should only be trading at my usual time. New York session and when I'm most comfortable, not anywhere when I can log-in and do it. I need some serious cut down.

I may post some poker results if I do play but I will take things easy. Time for theory lessons (my ordered books are here :)) and I'm halfway through in Zen And The Art of Poker. 

Good luck guys!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pretty soon there will be nobody left blogging about trading, perhaps it is the time of year.

If I can make a comment, just on the right side of the line that separates rudeness from constructive bluntness...

Now is not the time for self-study or re-focus. You know what you are doing wrong so now is the time to do it right. Anything else can easily just be procrastination.

L&W

PS If I ever start giving advice on poker, ignore me :-)

ANON said...

Another comment that borders on (or maybe exceeds) blunt, and may require some filtering (as I am a mere amateur). You need to continuously modify your trades as they progress!!! 70 pips is not a bad trade. Going for 80pips, making 70 and then losing all 70 of those pips (plus more) is not acceptable!

You need to either bring your stop up or devise various scenarios that, if they occur, will force you to get out (I call them stop loss "scenarios"; different from stop loss "prices").

Then again, now that I look at your post, maybe you didn't achieve 70 pips and just had your stop set 80pips below your entry? That may be acceptable (I can't tell entirely) but most likely, it is not! You need to take profits when things start to appear as though they may go against you.

Sometimes you'll be wrong and lose out on some gain. But at least you limited your loss and avoided an 80pip loss AND came out with _SOME_ profit (which is better than none or negative).

Sorry. You're doing really well; I just hate to see you lose that many potential pips.

Sometimes, people have an image in their minds of what _should_ happen and because it is so strong they get stuck with that image (perhaps like what happened in your .8800 trade). You wanted that .8800 and because of that you gave up the pips you could have taken.

Oftentimes you have to take what the market will give you and stop the market from taking what it will take from you.

You do have the power.


Anyway, I am going to have to read this poker book that I've heard so many people talking about. Hope you post some poker results! I'm thinking about doing a few poker thought articles (like, you get such and such a hand, what are the pros and cons of playing it a certain way in different contexts). Of course, I only write these things because L&W and Solfest enjoy them :P Haha.

Take care, Black.

Black said...

"Pretty soon there will be nobody left blogging about trading, perhaps it is the time of year." - LOL, I know what you mean. :D

L&W, you are probably right. I don't mean the poker advice part but on the procrastination side. :P

I just have this thought that this over-trading has been messing me up, that is why I wanted to stop and take a good look at myself. Maybe I should just gear down myself and start to do what is right step by step.

Thank you for pointing this out, best theory/advices are probably listening to the experienced. :)

Black said...

Hello ANON, great, you made me realised that I have even forget to protect my profits. I had 80 pips in the pocket and then a hole appear and everything went out of the pants, including some of my own money! Thank you for the advice and encouragement.

Anyway, this book that I'm reading, Zen And the Art of Poker, is the same author as the book you recommended me earlier The Tao of Poker, in case you don't know (but I think you do). It's not something technical that teaches you scenario based poker strategies but rather knowing yourself, self-control etc.

Please post some poker thought articles I'm craving for one! You sure Solfest does?? :D

DaveS said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Black said...

Thanks DaveS. I understand. My micro bets (1cent/2cents) in poker gives me the adrenaline more than what I put in trading. My full-time trader friend once told me trading is supposed to be boring and mechanical, maybe that's the reason. :)

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