There is a system I imagine that, once in place successfully, will dictate everything I do as a discretionary trader and lead me to consistent and aggressive profits.
As of 10/27/2023, I have made great progress in adopting this system, but there is still much work left to do in some areas. My approach to the mornings has been good, allowing a break mid-morning, avoiding impulsive/poor quality trade entries, and ultimately making decent progress on all accounts.
However, I still need to do better at trusting certain setups, and journaling more consistently with my plans before taking those trades, regardless of their quality.
The System
My goal is to build a complete system from start to finish, including every step taken for mental stability and maintaining a healthy routine outside of trading.
In this system the following must be addressed:
Sleep
Meditation
Planning (daily)
Re-assessment (hourly)
Journaling
Collecting more data
Reconciling/Review (daily)
Reconciling/Review (weekly)
A protocol for the following:
-Every trade setup we look for
-Observations made pre-market and post-market (earnings and news included)
–protocol for drawing support/resistance on post-market move initial point **
-6:45/7 News for adapting mid-morning for NQ
-7:30 news for oil
-5:30 news for NQ
–write down observations of every 530 news move since 2020
-Trendlines/S & R line drawing weekly, daily, and upon every major level breaking.
1m 34: Every situation do we take H or run?
Bear stacked 5 and 15
Bull stacked 5 and 15
Unstacked 5
Unstacked 15
First 34 touch after wave
Changing from I want to be a master to I am a master trader
Baby steps:
X-Dressed
X-Meditation
X-News check
-Journal observations
-Write down clear plan with one trade that I expect to take, and the way I would exit.
–What if 1m exit candle near the h/l break
–what if 1m exit candle right after h/l break
–what if 1m pushes through entry candle h/l first
–what price am I out 100% with a loss
–what price am I out 100% with a profit
shut down trading after this single trade. it should only be one big trade each day. no other trades.
Don’t worry about more until this is possible.
Checking Every Hour
Daily:
If the 5/15 have forecasted that they want a wave, is it possible that this is part of a larger move (like a pullup, wave, 34, etc. on 1-4 hr)?
Every time there is a spike on any chart, overnight swing, etc.:
Could this whole move be a fake? If so, where will it stop and reverse?
Is there a HnS pattern developing with a left shoulder?
Every 30 min:
What kind of market are we inside? Strong trend, pullback, choppy, ranging, slowed down?
Note: if the market is very slow and stuck, it will have a sharp move soon.
What is the larger move today (1-4 hr trend established pre-open)?
What is the immediate move that is underway if it is not finished (5-15m established at open)?
What is the next logical and also potential move? 34, wave, pullup, wave B, news reversal, fake 34 rejection?
Is this move against the HTF trend? If so, are we skipping it?
If we get our signal according to the next potential move, where will we get out for a loss, and where is the profit target?
If holding past the next H/L, what is the larger move underway that we are riding through? Where will we move our exit to?
After each trade:
Did we get the H/L as planned?
If not, take 5 minutes off. Meditate.
If Mountain/Valley just finished: Is overall trend opposite the latest move? Watch for a signal for the real move to continue.
If news just finished: Same
Every hour:
Channel check on 1, 5, 15, 60.
Long candle check for 50%ers
Logical next move? Select one: 34, Wave, Wave with 21, WaveB, Pullup, 34 fake rejection. Which time frame? 1, 2, 3, 5, or 15.
Mental Discipline (General)
Someone in a game is frustrating/talking shit:
Remember these people are completely unaware of cues that I pick up on and expect them to pick up on. They won’t read confidence, body language, tone, and so on. They will argue and be annoying due to immature pride. I am the adult here, and I know better. Therefore, simply refrain from engaging, put on music, etc. The cost of my mental energy and wasted time is too great, and “teaching” or getting some minor revenge against a shit talker, as satisfying as it is, has a very steep drop off in value after the first few interactions. Don’t let it go on for an entire game or resort to giving your real attention/response to it once it’s clearly established that they are ignorant or just childish.
In addition to the negative effects of the insane dopamine we get from games, getting attached enough to feel frustration and anger at ourselves is akin to swallowing poison. It’s just like when you hold grudges against someone long after the incident or behavior is gone, and sometimes the person as well. By constantly complaining or reminding ourselves of this thing that we hate, we hold ourselves down and limit our ability to enjoy things that are happening in the present, as well as spending time properly with the people who are with us today.
Disappointing trade
The lesson I need to keep in mind is that a missed trade is like a missed shot. It doesn’t have to keep happening but it will keep happening from time to time. If it’s a planned trade that doesn’t go well, use it as an indication that I still need further testing of my reading ability. This is always a good thing, making money right now is still not the primary concern. I am almost there. Keep using these indicators and perfecting my craft and I will be there shortly.
Disappointing trading day
Every trading day that goes badly is a sign that I am still not as far along on my journey as I need to be. But is that so bad? I need to constantly be tested, for that is how I will know how strong my foundation truly is.
Disappointing conversation w/ someone
1) I am worth more. If they waste my time, it’s simply always better to move on. How many times has someone better come along shortly after? Every single time. Do not get attached to expectations for someone that refuses to meet them.
Mom arguing/insulting/etc.
Remember how much work I got done when she was not here. I can use my mind and continue to be just as productive and in peace while she is here. There is no reason to engage in the arguments, when I know they are pointless and I know better.
Mood fucked/low motivation/feeling trapped. Lack of commitment to tasks
These things happen.
You are on a long-term process which will have highs and lows.
You can always take a short break and relax.
People who are letting you down are nothing new, they come and go and are forgotten. Forget about them.
Remember how it felt to not want to change rydah’s date and time to datetime in database and in code, even though it’s not a particularly difficult task, in the evening one night? In the morning, I immediately got to work and fixed it. Sometimes that’s all it takes, a little rest and mental recharge, and the work is completable in just a few minutes.
Imagine our brain as a sort of machine with all sorts of graphs and bearings, monitoring your levels of all your emotions and the concentration of certain thoughts and stimuli. All of these things, in varying proportions, come together to determine both your mood at the moment, and in the long term, your composition.
Some of these meters are very standard, and perhaps follow a consensus for human beings. When someone’s hungry meter is very high, they become more irritable, stressed, argumentative, and so on. The same goes for people who are very sleep-deprived. I am a person who is often extremely calm and I consider myself stoic. When I get stressed, more often than not, I can remain composed and try to figure things out without having a strong immediate reaction to the stressful stimulus. However, when woken up at the wrong time, even as an adult, there were times where I would respond like a madman, going from peacefully unconscious to extremely frustrated in the blink of an eye. How is this possible? Clearly, these meters measuring my irritability, composure, self-awareness, and more, were at a different level than when I am fully rested and conscious. Suddenly disturbing me while I’m reading a book in my leisure will not elicit the same reaction from me. It would take quite a lot to get me to feel that frustrated in most other situations.
I also know that I am extremely irritable when deprived of food and also under some fatigue or stress. During these times, I am more than willing to consider arguments, rash decisions, and even violence. I feel overwhelmed, and sometimes cannot even believe how much I feel that way in the moment. Someone causing me to wait an extra two minutes before I can satisfy my hunger might seem like an enemy for no other reason.
Of course, people have some variation in their genetic makeup, that often results in disorders or other complications. Maybe some people’s irritability meters start off at a higher baseline, and there isn’t much they can do to achieve the complete calm that others might find easy to maintain. Some people are extremely anxious and prone to stress due to early trauma or other circumstances. As a result, maybe the way they feel during their more irritable moments is significantly more frustrating than what I feel. These may seem self-evident.
All of our fundamental cravings and needs must follow a similar pattern. When we feel extremely sexually frustrated and deprived, many of us experience a change in our decision-making abilities, to say the least. Some of us begin to consider a lot of things differently than we normally would. We disregard what we’ve learned from our mistakes, we make fools of ourselves, we even forego basic precautions at times in pursuit of getting what we are after. For some of us, this is undoubtedly worse than it is for others. Then, when we find our needs met, we seem to return to our normal selves either immediately or after a short time.
This begs the question: What is this other version of ourselves? Or even more fundamentally, what are we really? Am I a single person encompassing all of these variations of myself, including those times when certain meters are at max, and others are at 0? Is someone who is starving to death and willing to murder for food, the same as a person who murders in a passionate moment of vengeance or rage? Are these people experiencing similar compositions in the way their meters would be read, if it were possible to read them at that moment?
Or are we the person we are most often, because there’s no such thing as a singular version of us? Maybe we experience these extremes about 2% of the time, and we are just the person we exist as, about 70% of the time. Other times we voluntarily shift into another version of ourselves, or are pushed into these other versions as a response to the various stimuli that affects our meters.
Take a person who is incredibly gifted, talented, and morally conscious. In most situations, they are calm, composed, intelligent, and patient. In some situations, however, they are prone to anger, bitterness, rash decisions, and perhaps even going as far as risking their own life or livelihood in the moment. In addition, they behave like this every time they find themselves in those situations. Does this not reflect a part of them that is truly them? Or is it just a matter of mixing up the wires in their brain a little, adding a little more dopamine or fatigue, throwing in some substances that aren’t necessarily dangerous but happen to influence their behavior just enough. Is this person still whatever he or she is when he is at his normal rational self? Do we not consider them responsible for whatever actions they take regardless of what version of themselves they are in, for us to maintain the type of civilized society that we are in today?
If a perfect citizen with no history of crime or violence, goes and kills his spouse when he’s enraged, and then tries to escape the consequences, what is he really?
Lock In Every Morning
This is my dream.
This job is literally my dream.
I get to wake up and comfortably get to my desk without having to deal with traffic, annoying people, or even the sun in my eyes.
I get to relax, get up, use the bathroom, do whatever I need to do, before I get to my desk. But then it’s time to lock in.
When I need to lock in for basketball, I have songs to listen to or videos to look at. I need to lock in to trade in the same way.
If I can get my mind right before I look at any charts, I can be like I am on the court, calm, patient, waiting for my opportunities to attack and score.
Always attentive. Never frustrated with a missed trade. Never chasing the play when it has not developed, reading the situation and waiting for something to tell me it’s time.
I need to trade this way. I need to play and trade the exact same way. The difference is, while I need to force the action in basketball sometimes, there is no chance to do so with the market.
I don’t need to force trades when the MACD has not lined up. There is absolutely no point. I don’t need to increase contract size even though I have the ability to. That is not the plan. The plan is to trade 1 contract solidly and consistently for an entire month or even TWO before I even think about increasing size. I had a great lesson in not increasing size on Sunday Nov 25, where the illiquidity and stupidity of a non-synced market cost me much more than it should have.
Revenge trading, increasing size, forcing the action. Doing this one at a time or all at once will result in the same or worse consequences. The Market is the greatest teacher and she will teach every trader the exact same way, if they make the exact same mistakes.
Upon making this mistake for the millionth time, I decided to write this for myself to read every morning. Every single morning, I will have this open on my screen, and I will read it, and perhaps reread it while locking in for that particular day. If needed, perhaps I will make adjustments or add more to it, just to cover everything that isn’t already covered.
And I will succeed. I will not let any external events affect the placement of the correct trades. I will take and make the same shots I made a thousand times in the past, regardless of who is guarding me, as long as the moment is right. I will make sure it is right. And this will trickle down to other aspects of my life in due time. But for now, I will lock in and I will emerge from this as a success.