Bad Assed Trader: I've had company for my trading this week with a couple of rogue traders called Diego and Zippy...
This hasn't made it easier to get on with analysing January's trades to work out whether it was my strategy, me or the market that had caused a dent in my account. Especially when the little rascals fell asleep in my lap. At that point I allowed myself the pleasure of living in the now moment as advocated by my coach Emmanuel and Eckhart Tolle (author of "The Power of Now") and just enjoyed a rare moment of kittens being mega cute, warm, fluffy, soft and gorgeous.
They're not mine and they're going home this evening so a week of kitten sitting draws to a close.
But I am pleased to report that I have today done all my analysis despite having this major distraction, so a large glass of wine is definitely in order shortly.
And what was the result? How much of my difficulty was down to the random action of the market? I worked out that the market and my strategy together are probably responsible for about 25% of the overall outcome, whereas I am personally responsible for 75% of it.
So I have to accept that I went rather off piste in January. If I had strictly followed my rules I would have been up about 3.6%. Instead I was down about 7%. Poo.
But the good news is that whilst I can't do anything about the market and I really don't want to change my strategy after it was so long in the gestation and delivery, I can at least do something about myself. After all, I am the master of my thoughts and actions. Or at least I should be.
So this is the task now, to get that grip and just do it.
A good - and rather beautiful - trading buddy of mine has been experiencing similar difficulties recently. We've been exchanging supportive emails and one of mine gave her a link to what I felt was an excellent video on youtube of Will Smith giving words of wisdom and inspiration and she said the part which inspired her the most was when he was talking about how driven and determined he is. He likened it to a situation where if he was competing with us on the treadmill then "either you're getting off the treadmill first or I'm going to die".
This really worked for her and I think she's right, we have to look at sticking to our trading rules with the same dogged and absolute determination. He also said "I'm gonna lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid and you do that every single day. And soon you will have a wall." which is the inspirational quote for me and sounds just like my coach Emmanuel. I need to make sure every trade is executed as perfectly as possible. End of story.
So am I being hard on myself over this whole situation? Well I was for a few days when I ended January with this dent after expecting success. It was tougher than all my previous months when I'd lost. But then I reminded myself that I only gave birth to my strategy in November/December and am still clarifying the rules for myself. Quite a few of my losses in January were down to me not really believing in one of my rules about the MACD indicator needing to speak for my trade.
Having done my analysis I know this rule is non negotiable. I'm not going to beat myself over the head for having a bad month, it wasn't as though I went crazy and blew my account in any way. I'm still getting to grips with this strategy and when I look back at January it was a month of some turmoil with false signals that I got lured into believing.
Instead I'm going to find the drive and determination I share with Will Smith and do just as he and Emmanuel advise, create each trade as perfectly as that trade can be created. And let's see what happens.
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| Rogue Traders at Work |
They're not mine and they're going home this evening so a week of kitten sitting draws to a close.
But I am pleased to report that I have today done all my analysis despite having this major distraction, so a large glass of wine is definitely in order shortly.
And what was the result? How much of my difficulty was down to the random action of the market? I worked out that the market and my strategy together are probably responsible for about 25% of the overall outcome, whereas I am personally responsible for 75% of it.
So I have to accept that I went rather off piste in January. If I had strictly followed my rules I would have been up about 3.6%. Instead I was down about 7%. Poo.
But the good news is that whilst I can't do anything about the market and I really don't want to change my strategy after it was so long in the gestation and delivery, I can at least do something about myself. After all, I am the master of my thoughts and actions. Or at least I should be.
So this is the task now, to get that grip and just do it.
A good - and rather beautiful - trading buddy of mine has been experiencing similar difficulties recently. We've been exchanging supportive emails and one of mine gave her a link to what I felt was an excellent video on youtube of Will Smith giving words of wisdom and inspiration and she said the part which inspired her the most was when he was talking about how driven and determined he is. He likened it to a situation where if he was competing with us on the treadmill then "either you're getting off the treadmill first or I'm going to die".
This really worked for her and I think she's right, we have to look at sticking to our trading rules with the same dogged and absolute determination. He also said "I'm gonna lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid and you do that every single day. And soon you will have a wall." which is the inspirational quote for me and sounds just like my coach Emmanuel. I need to make sure every trade is executed as perfectly as possible. End of story.
So am I being hard on myself over this whole situation? Well I was for a few days when I ended January with this dent after expecting success. It was tougher than all my previous months when I'd lost. But then I reminded myself that I only gave birth to my strategy in November/December and am still clarifying the rules for myself. Quite a few of my losses in January were down to me not really believing in one of my rules about the MACD indicator needing to speak for my trade.
Having done my analysis I know this rule is non negotiable. I'm not going to beat myself over the head for having a bad month, it wasn't as though I went crazy and blew my account in any way. I'm still getting to grips with this strategy and when I look back at January it was a month of some turmoil with false signals that I got lured into believing.
Instead I'm going to find the drive and determination I share with Will Smith and do just as he and Emmanuel advise, create each trade as perfectly as that trade can be created. And let's see what happens.
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