It has been a strange couple of years for me, my head has been in a serious fog for a while and the last couple of years have been bleak. Lost a fairly decent job a couple of years ago, and this year I lost two very good friends who passed away. To make own matters worse, I isolated myself from my remaining friends. Though I did make some seriously bad mistakes and still do, both in life and in my trading, I have learned a few things about both and about myself.
Sometimes I make the same mistakes over again, because well, a painful lesson is often my best teacher, learning it twice or three times creates a deeper impression.
I have learned the strength of a diverse trading style, with contracts spread among several currency pair trades, rather than placing everything in one idea. This used to put immense pressure on me as my progress would be either halted when one idea failed, or stalled while that idea languished in limbo, or reversed as the idea turned against me and cost me more than I should have allowed.
The lesson is that no one idea should or can realistically make a person that trades wealthy; it can happen under the right circumstances, but it it not likely and therefore not highly probable.
Someone that studies and takes positions in the market with an aim to be an "expert" or at the very least professional about it should have more ideas to employ than they know what to do with as they progress, then it is a matter of choosing the right ones, in other words, best risk/reward for your efforts - life on the other hand is not so simple.
When I realized sometime over the last year I had issues with the way I operated, I tried to take steps to improve myself, and what I did was I took the margin I had left over (from carrying some -ve positions) and choosing a bit more carefully where I put my money, and by taking several months to use smaller positions and also to scale into said positions, by buying or selling in blocks, at different levels, rather than the whole position at once, and also waiting for price reversals at extreme levels and then having the patience to wait for that tiny position to be worth something substantial (weeks, and months as opposed to hours and days), which means essentially swing trading with small amounts to reduce the amount of stress I carry day to day. It has not worked out perfectly but I am still a human being with some degree of psychological issues - so bad I went to see help.
Over the last week or two, I have tried to take day trades or larger positions (with recently freed margin), and made a few mistakes and a few good decisions. I am not sure if I will be as fast as I used to be, as this takes good health, an even emotional state (something I have not had in a long time), and plenty of rest. Trading when your life is in a survival mode is difficult, and I realized that I have been in that way of thinking for the last year and a half.
Baby steps it seems, for now, in life and in my trading, and if I learn to run again, it will be nice, but I need to make more progress before that can happen, and continue trying to cut out the bad behaviors that mess me up. I am not trying to be perfect; I will settle for better though.
Trading financial markets should be something you approach with a happy and healthy attitude, but then I realize, so should life.
Sometimes I make the same mistakes over again, because well, a painful lesson is often my best teacher, learning it twice or three times creates a deeper impression.
I have learned the strength of a diverse trading style, with contracts spread among several currency pair trades, rather than placing everything in one idea. This used to put immense pressure on me as my progress would be either halted when one idea failed, or stalled while that idea languished in limbo, or reversed as the idea turned against me and cost me more than I should have allowed.
The lesson is that no one idea should or can realistically make a person that trades wealthy; it can happen under the right circumstances, but it it not likely and therefore not highly probable.
Someone that studies and takes positions in the market with an aim to be an "expert" or at the very least professional about it should have more ideas to employ than they know what to do with as they progress, then it is a matter of choosing the right ones, in other words, best risk/reward for your efforts - life on the other hand is not so simple.
When I realized sometime over the last year I had issues with the way I operated, I tried to take steps to improve myself, and what I did was I took the margin I had left over (from carrying some -ve positions) and choosing a bit more carefully where I put my money, and by taking several months to use smaller positions and also to scale into said positions, by buying or selling in blocks, at different levels, rather than the whole position at once, and also waiting for price reversals at extreme levels and then having the patience to wait for that tiny position to be worth something substantial (weeks, and months as opposed to hours and days), which means essentially swing trading with small amounts to reduce the amount of stress I carry day to day. It has not worked out perfectly but I am still a human being with some degree of psychological issues - so bad I went to see help.
Over the last week or two, I have tried to take day trades or larger positions (with recently freed margin), and made a few mistakes and a few good decisions. I am not sure if I will be as fast as I used to be, as this takes good health, an even emotional state (something I have not had in a long time), and plenty of rest. Trading when your life is in a survival mode is difficult, and I realized that I have been in that way of thinking for the last year and a half.
Baby steps it seems, for now, in life and in my trading, and if I learn to run again, it will be nice, but I need to make more progress before that can happen, and continue trying to cut out the bad behaviors that mess me up. I am not trying to be perfect; I will settle for better though.
Trading financial markets should be something you approach with a happy and healthy attitude, but then I realize, so should life.
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