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Dear John,
The pulling the trigger problem is one that I have fought and continue to
fight. It might be due to being under-financed, as you suggest, but I
rather doubt it, at least for myself, as I have had numbers of >100K
accounts, able (at least several years ago before the margins went to the
moon) to trade 50 full-size S&Ps, and yet it still gets to me. I have no
problem getting out (and doing so at the right spots), once I'm in --- it's
the getting in that remains by bug-a-boo.
I'd like to suggest a remedy that was suggested to me by an old S&P floor
trader I met up with years ago. What I'm about to say relates to maybe 10
years ago, but I think the suggestion remains valid. Years ago, the
currency markets were different, as in tradeable; my impression is that they
are a lot less so now, but I haven't followed them for a long time. What he
suggested was picking some relatively non-volatile market, he suggested the
Canadian $, and having as one's goal getting in and out several times a day
--- not for the purpose of making any $ but simply to go through the steps
of entering, being in, and exiting, and maybe in the process trying to pick
up a couple of points, simply enough to pay for commissions. He suggested
doing this for a month, racking up 50-100 trades, trying to break even, but
having that be secondary to actually going through the process.
Now, I doubt that that would work with the currency markets currently, but
you might be able to find some markets with similar attributes now. For
want of a better market, I would tentatively suggest NQ. Yes, it can get
volatile on occasion, but there are a lot of times where the NQ market just
wallows around in a trading range of around 5 or so points, as it did for
much of the middle of today, and with an NQ point being worth $20, and with
E-mini commissions now being in the $5-15 range, I would hope that it would
be possible to trade the NQ market, at least when it isn't galloping around,
and keep one's risk down to say $50-100/trade.
Perhaps others on this list could suggest a more amenable market or some
other regimen that would address the pull-the-trigger-itis.
Sincerely,
Richard
John Bowles wrote:
> Hi.
>
> I am in the situation I suspect many traders may find themselves. If I
> remember correctly from the Jack Schwager books, even the great traders
> find it very difficult to trade when they are under financed as I am. I
> suspect it relates to the statement made by several in the book “When
> the trader thinks of the money they are dead”. When I read that I did
> not know exactly what it meant. Now I believe it means the trader will
> hesitate and miss good trades as well as sell too soon rather than hold
> until their targets based upon their record keeping. I have come to this
> conclusion because this is my situation (especially the hesitation). It
> is interesting because 4 times with fairly large sample sizes (80, 100,
> 150 and unknown) I tested myself doing strict paper trading and found my
> win/loss ratio hovered about 75% to 83%. Apply real money and it nose
> dives simply because I hesitate and miss many opportunities and refuse
> to chase. I have attempted applying a belief-based psychology I know
> called REBT as well as using the paper trading to build confidence and I
> still have difficulty. My current efforts are to specialize by
> restricting my market, time of trading, and patterns.
>
> I am wondering if someone else may have gone through this and managed to
> resolve the issue. Maybe a particular book may be worth reading or
> something I had not considered.
>
> I am also considering finding part time contract programming work
> hopefully related to trading. The idea being that the additional income
> would reduce the pressure and actually improve my trading which I would
> do during the morning trading session. With 19 years computer
> programming experience in 11 programming languages including VBA for MS
> access and some experience in TradeStation programming I am wondering if
> anyone might have suggestions on where I would find part time
> contracting programming work related to trading. With courses on stocks,
> options futures and a small bit of finance as well as my own trading
> experience I figure I can provide some value in this regard.
>
> Thanks for any suggestions,
>
> John.
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