-Whenever have taken a huge hit, dig deep into the root of the problem!
-ready to move to Long Island on the day and told myself to do one last quick trade before starting to pack up and ended up digging myself into a huge and deep hole and blew up my ST account.
-Trading is not sprint, it's a marathon! Whenever I was not in a environmentally and emotionally right state to trade, I ended up taking losses and this one of course is a fatal one..
-There was no reason whatsoever to trade on the day b/c everyone around me was packing up their belongings and walking around in the office. The environment and atmosphere is detrimental to trading but again I was digging my heels and determined to fight which is part of my personality-I've been fighting my entire life: felt intimidated but still made public speech and networked, knew that I was not capable of drinking much and my limit was already reached and passed but still pretending that I could handle it, was fearful and shy in some occasions but still pretended to act naturally,etc. This is who I am and this is my life. I don't disdain my personalities and traits, instead I embrace them! But sometimes if not carefully managed you would just get yourself caught up on it.
-Was reading Brett's book on trading psychology yesterday and I remember the part he was emphasizing "serenity" is crucial to trading success. This is perhaps the piece that I overlooked in my entire last two years. I was in a environment that has been the opposite of serenity which caused me to remain alertful to surroundings while paying attention to the market. In reality It's extremely hard/near impossible to remain consistently profitable under such conditions so loss is highly likely the result. Just no way to maximize one's potential under such conditions.
-Most importantly, even after nearly 2 years of trading experience, still made the most basic and primitive to survival type of mistakes
-trading without a plan and not thinking about the stop loss level. It was the same mistake that I made on AQXP, and recently ENPH and RWLK. In fact I was entering trades without consciousness and no plan whatsoever so got caught up in "short and add, add, add" kind of scenario. Even after recently painful experience on ENPH and RWLK I still haven't learned my lesson. It reminded me of Tim Grittani on LAKE, PBMD, and CANF and these 6-figure mistake just got repeated more than once. So how do I avoid such apocalyptic type of losses??!!!! Here is what I am going to do: 1)Meditation each morning-review all the big losses in the past and retrospection. 2)stop loss NO MATTE what!!!! Stop loss order is not valid until you can envision yourself get stopped out and have taken X amount of loss. What makes you follow the rules are when you have mental preparation that it happens and your reactions to it!
My weakness is when something dramatically painful and unexpected happens, I freak out and don't know what the hell to do. the ONLY way to get over it is mental preparation and envisioning. So when the stop loss level is reached it becomes natural to take the position off without experiencing further emotional turbulence upon it. Not only that, having a plan B allows me to possibly flip my bias and go long so I can net my trades positive for the day.
-I talked about "Ritualize Trading" before: get up early in the morning, read news/events/catalysts, make plan for the day, look back history into losses, meditate, with mental preparation you are good to go!
-Always go back to the basics and simplicity.
-Never be complacent and confident. The moment you feel great about yourself and the trade is the beginning of the downfall.
-Each trade is independent, every day is brand new day. forget about what happened yesterday!! Get up, stand up, wait for the opportunity, nail it and move the fuck on!!!
-The success of a trade is not judged by P&L but by whether you trade it properly or not. The same applies to a successful trader. Just because a trader made money on 1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year doesn't mean he is successful b/c he may lose it all in his 4th year. In my opinion, Greg who made 1 million in each of two years and realized $700,000 loss in his third year and at one point he was down more than 1 million dollars. And Nikko, a 20-year-old young gun trader who made more than half million in 5 months before took a massive hit -$400,000 on PBMD. So the question is are you good traders??? My answer is "NO". just as what Brat said, a great trader needs to be judged in a lifespan of 30 years. If you can survive in 30 years, you are successful.
-When the single successful and profitable trader lost big, you have to sit down and think about it. Admitting you are human and subject to all the defects and flaws human possesses. The root of the problem comes down to mentality. It's human nature that we don't want to cover near the top especially holding a big position that is already underwater. The deep hole started with being undisciplined and refused to take off the position at risk level. The same mistake unfortunately Tim Grittani made and lost more than half million. Please Please Please do NOT let that happen to you!!!
Successful Trading comes down to simplicity: Having a plan and and sticking to the plan!!! Cut the position off at risk level NO MATTER WHAT!!!!!
