TygerKrane's Pip-Pickpocketing

[TygerKrane]

So yes, this week was my fifth reach at $130 dollars and this time around, worked very well for me, so I hope that my profit line will be upward rising from now on, and any future deposits I make is because I want to and not because I have to .

I feel good because I was skillfully able to make it through $130 to $150 on my own, and then Europe crises catapulted me even further, so that was great. (not so great for Greece, I wish them the best and hope they can get their stuff sorted out.)

I couldn't tell you for certain what made $130 so damn important to me. One of the things that I DO know is that at $130, I became very sensitive at taking losses. As soon as I had a loss, I would get emotional & overtrade, or irrational & overleverage, anything to get me back above $130 ASAP. {So I've partially gained some control over the emotions of losing and my ego being bruised when the market proves me wrong.}

hmmm, so now it looks like my forex losses are totalling.... -$790 now. 33 weeks into my journey means I've been bleeding about $25 a week since I started. {Whatever, I didn't feel like paying for me and a date to go to the movies anyway all those weeks .)

Anyways, I am a little nervous about upping my lots, but I know it is just first-timer jitters, should be no sweat once I start doing it. Future upgrades will be easier still.

So apparently, this is my journey thus far:




[highlight=grey]:::EDIT, (October 20, 2010):::[/highlight]
Apparently, what FXSTAT lists as "Profit" on their analysis page is different than the amount of CASH/MONEY that has been actually deposited into your account. {The statement said that my Profit was -$790.xx
So back then, up until May 8, I had deposited $986.xx dollars. So with 33 weeks of trading, I had actually been losing $29.88/week.

[TygerKrane]

This post definitely applies to FXCM Micro users. Others might benefit as well, but definitely the FXCM Micro users.

FXStat.com

If you like my little equity curve [highlight=yellow](?? is that what it's called??)[/highlight] in the previous post, this is where I got it from. Just discovered this site within the last month. It keeps track of all your orders and makes all these fancy graphs and ratio calculations of what you are doing.

Sure, there are many other sites out there that do this like www.myfxbook.com or www.mt4stats.com .

The problem is that they don't process trading data from the FXTS. (at least when I checked 2 months ago.) I only use MT4 as a demo to run indis, so I don't have MT4 data to give them to analyze.

They don't do live data updates for FXTS, but if you like having this type of analysis done, something is better than nothing.

The way it works is you export a data file from your FXTS, whatever date range you choose. Then you upload the exported file to them and they sort it out and give you all your data. (tons of different breakdowns/ data analysis, I've never even heard of most of them.)

I couldn't recommend if it is super-good or super-bad, because I don't know much about this sort of thing (I just toy around with it from time to time); I don't know what more demanding traders might expect from such a program like this.

But it seems to be doing something good.

[highlight=black][marq=left]And It Is Free._____And It Is Free._____And It Is Free._____And It Is Free._____And It Is Free.[/marq][/highlight]

[TygerKrane]

I discovered a second type of overtrading this week (at least that is what I'm going to call it.) It made me think of the first type of overtrading I used to commit.

I remember trading, and getting my 2% like TRO would recommend. Whether I got it in 1, 2 or 4 hours didn't matter. I know that I wasn't very good as a trader, and I did have to fight hard for that 2%. And I was still accumulating losing days as I tried to get my measly 12 pips out of f#$ing 120pip range days . (It's still not super-easy yet, but I'm not as horrible a trader as I was back then.)
So when I did get my 2%, instead of closing down for the day, I would reason to myself, "Hey, I'm not a consistently good trader anyway. Is it really worthwhile to hold on to this 2% for 24 hours?? I'm not consistent, I am probably just going to lose it on my first trade tomorrow (like all my other loser days) anyway??"
So then I would continue trading, and lose, and be disappointed of another day passed with nothing to show for it.


Then I realized something different, but equally stupid, within the last two days. I would have good days. I'd be up 4-6%, with the last trade being a run for like 25-40pips. I would see another setup and go for it, I would lose, my day profit now would be like 3.9%. Something in my mind would switch and then it would be simply unacceptable for me to have my last trade of the day be a loser. My ego could not accept that after a day with a good run (or a day that I reached a high percentage gain), that I didn't end the day on a high note, my ego could not stand that I would let the last trade of my day be a loser. I HAD to end the day at that top percentage gain that I reached earlier.
And this would be the start of a second kind of overtrading. When I realized what I had been doing, I wondered how long I had been doing that too myself.
It's not the kind of thing I would immediately pick up on as a problem because I usually ended the day on a positive note. (Sometimes I got part of my losses back, sometimes I had to end the day on 0.7%). Sometimes I did end winner days in the negative though. But trading like that was giving me unnecessary stress and had me trading longer than I really needed to be, keeping me from doing other things that I needed to do.

[TygerKrane]

Talent is the Desire to Practice

YouTube: Malcolm Gladwell interview on CNN (Part 1)

11 minute interview broken up into a Part 1 and Part 2.

If you could only watch one part, make it Part 1. Makes interesting observation on elite soccer (football), and hockey players; and The Beatles.

Part 2 is okay as well though, the most interesting thing I found in that part was that if Asians are good at math, it is because of their culture, not something extra special about their brain makeup. Success in math is not so much related to natural ability and 'aptitude'; Success in math is related directly to how much hard work you put in. [starting from Part 2 @ 4:00]

He has several videos/interviews where he talks more about the topic, this is just one.

[TygerKrane]

Are you journaling your trades, so you can take your off days to reflect on what you're doing right and what you need to work on? Just a thought. Remember what MO says about the words we use after I and I'm, they ultimately determine our success or failure. MO also posted something about where to place the custom candle indi, I can't remember where, but I took away from it, where it makes the most sense to you. Cheers,

Lol, this is the closest that Krane gets to journaling his trades. My main method is BZ, I visually observe charts and look for high probability places I can set them up at. [I have NO idea how to backtest. ] When trading, it was a bit of trial and error as far as figuring out what stop loss I was comfortable with, and how to avoid getting whipsawed (i.e. making overtrading rules). I do have a habit of taking TONS of screenshots; and rarely are they screenshots of my trades, it mainly gives me a slideshow effect - where I can 'flip' through data, as opposed to 'scrolling' through data.

Still kind of weird for me to answer your question though: I make observations while I trade, and I do think about them later; (why didn't it work out the way I expected? How do I pace myself after I'm stopped out {so that I don't get caught up in whipsaws...while minimizing the risk of missing the actual move out of the area}??)

What I've unexpectedly learned from my journaling thus far is that, my main problems seems to be emotional/personal when it comes to trading, my reaction to what happens to me after I place a trade. (I expected this journal would help me find complaints with the methodology that I use, but surprisingly, not really.)

Maybe if I was more involved in Zline I would have more to journal about as far keeping a trading record of WHY I entered...

Buy Zone is really simple and a very powerful concept. I believe the reason I'm not Ruling the Freakin Markets with it already is because of me.
(but maybe journaling would help me figure out WHY I exited a BZ trade...that's a helpful idea...nyaahhhh that kind of journaling is such a drag though, ugh )


Thank You for the Question, you just gave me the opportunity to figure out some more stuff about myself and why I do some of the things I do in my trading routine.

Wishing you many, easy pips that you keep and don't give back on your FX journey,
Krane

ps- Didn't mean to give you an earful, Tman, at some point I just started talking out loud to myself...

[TygerKrane]

[highlight=darkgrey][font=Times New Roman]My Buy Zone Summary:[/font][/highlight]

1.Find a statistically proven place that price moves [marq=right]away__________away__________away__________away__________away__________away__________away__________away__________away__________away__________away [/marq]from.

2.Place your Buy Zone there

3.[schild=17 fontcolor=FFA500 shadowcolor=000000 shieldshadow=1]LEARN!![/schild]to trade it profitably

4.Now you can place a Buy Zone damn near anywhere on the f%$ing chart you please and make money.

Seriously, this is the conclusion I came to this week. (Maybe someone has said it before, oops)

I must have come up with like a dozen places to place a Buy Zone. They ALL CAN WORK MARVELOUSLY...but they all can get caught up in consolidation as well.

Maybe I will make a post of the dozen or more places I've Seen to place a Buy Zone, it would be hilarious.

Pretty much, all equally relevant and irrelevant at the same time.

Do you know how to dance with that line without getting your feet stepped on too much?

How do you pace yourself when you get stopped out?

Are you filtering to trade in only one direction?? (Less opportunity, less risk.) If you choose to get at it both ways, YES!, more opportunity; but ALSO, YES! more risk. But both ways are perfectly OK, it's more a matter of how controlled you are when you get stopped out!! [NOTE: You can still get whipsawed trading in one direction only!!]

This is my working conclusion and I am going with it

[highlight=black][font=Andalus]"I believe it is only my psychology that is holding me back."[/font][/highlight]

[TygerKrane]

I could handle everyday being like this. Got 3.4% on my account in an hour playing the EJ gap.

I know there was a lot more pips to get, but considering that I am NOT supposed to be trading right now -because my mind isn't fully settled processing my last week- I am happy and won't desire or try for more tonight. One hell of a gap tho.

I'm glad I wrote my post about overtrading this weekend, b/c I was definitely about to be guilty of overtrading#1. I just turned off my station and read what I wrote. (and I am thinking positively that I WON'T just give it back on my first trade of the day. and even if I do, I'll keep my cool, b/c of what I realized in my next post.)

Additionally, I am just getting used to my first official upgraded lot size change, so I'll take it slow until my mind can accept that there really is not much difference between the two and that upgraded lot sizes should be a non-issue.

I could get a demo account and deal with my overtrading#1 issues on that, but I gotta work on my to-do list, so I need to skip the paper trading. But writing in my journal has helped me quite a bit thus far, so instead of paper trading, the self-analysis does me 10 times more good. Practicing trading technique IS a good thing, but I feel that understanding my causes of trading stress and learning how to erase them, will definitely make my anticipated long career in trading a more pleasurable one.

[TygerKrane]

[highlight=violet]Why do I feel stress and anxiety on entering trades, even after I am already in profit?[/highlight]

I get nervous trading b/c I am too cheap and stingy, I consider ALL the money in my account as MY money; I never think of the profits as "house" money (I think that's what they call it in the casinos.) I thought that was the attitude I was supposed to have, but now I'm not so sure...

Basically, no matter how much money I earn, I am always nervous to place the next trade b/c I think of the total account balance as if it all were my own, hard-earned j.o.b. money that I am putting at risk.

So even if I started at $100 and made 30% so I'm at $130, I didn't think of the +$30 as house money. In essence, the anxiety I felt at my first trade, when it was purely my own money at risk, was the same amount of anxiety I felt when my account was padded with someone else's money.

I don't think that type of mentality is good for a career trader. I really caused myself extra stress with that cheap, stingy mentality.

--I think MO had a post about how he increases his stop loss based on what house money he had earned for the week. If I find it, I'll link it up here--

Now let me sleep on this new self-realization as well, and in a few nights hopefully, my subconscious will build me into an even more mentally stronger trader.

I TOLD you guys I had a lot of processing and analyzing to do...[highlight=orange] [/highlight]

[highlight=orange]Non-Expert Trader[/highlight],
Krane


::EDIT::
YES!!! I FOUND IT, I FOUND IT!!

.....The secret to surviving is to reinvest your gains into your stop.
Let price retrace and then trade in the same direction with the
larger stop.
Keep reinvesting your profits into your stop and do not exit
without new profits or move your stop closer. ....

I bookmarked this post back on Feb 6, 2010...I think finally, the time is NOW that I reread it and unleash... its [highlight=blue][font=times new roman] TRUE POWER!!![/font][/highlight]

[jarnapal]

[highlight=violet]Why do I feel stress and anxiety on entering trades, even after I am already in profit?[/highlight]

You eat too much wheat and processed food - that's why.

[TygerKrane]

Yes, I think I am actually going to do it. And I know it is such a wonderful time to be in the market with all this Europe crisis and the positioning of the EURJPY. But I feel it will help me out in the long run if I just chillax a bit and wait until my mind is perfectly settled, you guys have NO idea how much thinking and processing I did this weekend; you get a small idea if you counted the number of serious, relevant posts I made this weekend.

I'm going to chill back, long soaks in the hot tub, eat some comfort food (Lasagna, with a Smirnoff Ice & honey bun for dessert), exercise, and sleep lots (maybe a glass of Bailey's Irish Cream before bedtime.)
(I wish I could find a sensory deprivation chamber somewhere around here though , THAT would be relaxing)

Also, I am calling him out: es/pip makes it VERY HARD to pull away from trading now. I want to hurry and grow up to be just like him, draining the banks [schild=9 fontcolor=FF0000 shadowcolor=FF0000 shieldshadow=1]mercilessly[/schild] while saying hilarious things about the drainage!

Also, I think I have to reinstall MT4, my lovely profile setup is now skipping around and being unresponsive to my mouse movements. It is driving me nucking futs!!

I guess I'll also work on my stupid things-to-do list.