Site Meter The Lawyer Trader: Not a Good Week of Trading..at least for me.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Not a Good Week of Trading..at least for me.

I was on a roll for about 3 weeks. We've all been there..the times when you don't have to take many losses because almost everything you touch goes your way. Well that finally ended for me and it ended this week. I traded 3 out of 4 days (was stuck in court all day Wednesday) and lost money on all three of those days. Fortunately I'm not down a whole lot, but it's still rough to have that kind of a losing week.

Times like this are when a trader has the opportunity to become a good trader or at least a better trader. Continuing to follow a plan, take trades, and stay confident that profits are on the way are the types of behaviors that set apart good traders from regular (loser) traders. As I was reviewing today's and this week's trades, I pulled up an hourly chart of the S&P Emini futures for the week. Upon looking at this chart I thought, "no wonder I got chopped up this week, the market has done nothing but chop around." I knew it had been choppy but it really sunk in when I looked at this chart. So what now? I continue to trade but note that I've been out of tune with the market lately and adjust my trading accordingly by booking profits sooner and trading smaller until profits pick back up. For the most part, my bread and butter trades are intra-day break outs. The best money makers are usually within the first 45 minutes of the trading day. On days or weeks when there is very little volume and follow though, break out trades either fail or they don't offer up as much profit. Although I recognized that it was a poor break out trading week, I failed to alter my trading to minimize my losses...I did cut back some but now that the weeks over I realize that I should have cut back much more. Recognizing these types of things through journaling, blogging, or record keeping is how we learn and grow.

Despite it not being a profitable week of trading, I feel like there was something to be learned and I'm taking advantage of that because that is all I can do. As traders we must strive to improve or else we have already lost.

Have a great Easter weekend!

TLT

1 comment:

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