A long time has passed since I wrote anything, probably because I haven't been as active trading, or possibly because when I have traded it haven't gone so well. This is probably due to the fact that I haven't been able to focus, and put in time, so all the work has been done very sloppily and unpreparedly. 

 

As visible in my profit chart I have suffered some tough losses. With all the trading fees I am down to below 7K (starting at 10). This is a problem as it has made me careful and frightened, while it still has not made me manage to trade properly. 

I have been especially sloppy with the setups. The stops have been working more of the time than before, and I use my PDTs when I have to. The problem is probably over trading, fear of missing out and a whole lot of chasing. Because of the fear to lose more money I have been entering my moves far too late, when the thesis have been proven to work but probably isn't valid any more. I have also been jumping on too many ideas that have not mine, that has not been according to my original thoughts or strategies. For example I know I have been doing a lot of bounce plays, and I don't know how they work - generally they don't work for me at all.

 

Another problem has been that I stopped scanning. I had changed banks and didn't renew my card information with tc2000, so I haven't had the software. Even if I did, I wouldn't have had the time to scan. Not disciplined at all, but that has nott been the main issue. Even without scans I could have been better than I have been.

 

What is in store for me now is to really try to guard my capital, while not chickening out on good, planned, strategy fitting, wise moves. I will need to work on my disciplin and my setups, which includes starting to scan again. I will also have to start studying all the material I have, all the blogs I should read, all DVDs that are out there and all the trades I have been doing - those that were good as well as those that were bad. I also want to print all the rules that I should follow. I need to implant them in my head, like I have with some of them - I have learned the hard way to use my stop losses at all times, use my PDTs at all costs and so on.

 Now I need to work on strategy, setups, plans - and sticking to them. For instance, many times my original plans have a very close stop loss (low risk). But when my trade doesn't work I move my stop, instead of sticking to it, just to keep a PDT. This could be avoided if I was above 25K, but I have a long way to get there yet.

 

I have now been trading on and off for a year. The first two months off a different platform with no real money (a couple of hundred dollars), but since new year for real. the last few months have been painful, but also valuable as I learn to keep going no matter the adversities - and I learn that I must learn even more - I need to $STUDY!

Things could have been worse. Now is really the time to get professional. What I need to do is dedicate more time, more weekends, and hold my money hard, sit on my hands and wait, stalk. This time for real - disciplin is not an option.