My Trading Plan

#1
Dear friends - This is the 3rd time I'm returning back to trading (though all earlier stints have been quite short). But, this time around, focus is not going to be on learning various trading strategies and tools available but instead focus would be more towards controlling myself and to bring in some discipline and try to make it more organized. So, to start with, I'm planning to pen down my detailed trading plan. Have picked up trading plan template from web and well keep on updating it section by section. To start with, I have captured below info in my trading plan and will keep on adding further details to it. Looking forward for your suggestions/inputs to better my trading plan.


1. I want to become a trader because o Reason # 1: I’m struggling with my current job pressure and keep thinking about any other option which can help me generate regular income. As and when job pressure keeps increasing, I keep on returning back to trading as a solace. It gives me a comfort feeling that yes, I can earn good even if I have to let go of this job
o Why Trading and no other profession like business etc. to run away from job: Because trading can be done in isolation and one need not interact with others. I have a feeling that I’m not a good social person or orator and am not good at handling/interacting with people and that’s why trading keeps giving me that comfort feeling
2. What separates me from the masses are: o Can’t think of anything positive here….sorry (there is one)….biggest positive for me till now has been GOD’s support. Parents would hv really done something good for which I’m reaping the benefits as GOD has always been able to pull me out unscathed from really difficult situations and have been able to pull me till now. But, yes, journey has been really traumatic.
3. My biggest weaknesses are o I can cover pages on this
 Unorganized : Never prepare and follow any plan which is the main cause of me always being under stress
 Non-disciplined: have got no discipline at all. Could not stick to any commitment/follow a plan
 Procrastinate: keep on delaying tasks..especially the ones which are difficult (but obviously more important). This keeps on adding pressure and I keep spending time in completing the easy ones which are relatively lesser important. This gives me some kind of false comfort that I’m occupied and busy doing something and hence could not find time to finish off the important and difficult tasks. Basically, very poor time management
 Can’t sit peacefully and happy – I have got the tendency to create a difficult situation out of nowhere. Would either create an issue or speak up where not required and this has led to many a times difficult scenarios for me. What I feel is that I can’t sit in a comfortable position
 Am not learning from any of my past mistakes and keep repeating them forever
4. I plan to leverage my strengths by: o Would love to have this area also filled up but right now have to keep it blank (being honest here). Wait for couple of more years to put in something here
5. I plan to address my weaknesses by:  Unorganized : This is going to be really going against me as far as Trading is concerned (for that matter in all the areas of life). But still, as of now, I think, best way to handle this would be to strictly maintain a) Trading Log to capture all trades b) organize all my reading material so that I can refer back to it at a later stage (as of now read it once but no mechanism to go back to it) c) some mechanism to capture all details like reason for entry, vol., stop loss etc. Best thing would be to keep writing everything.
 Non-disciplined: again this is going to hit badly in trading and can be a differentiator b/w me riding a scooter or driving an SUV. This really has to be addressed and main focus should be to instill discipline to log my trades, keep updating my trading journal, keep referring to my trading plan etc. Let us see how much I can overcome this.
 Procrastinate : Don’t think this is going to impact trading in a big way
 Can’t sit peacefully and happy – Have to divert my attention to other activities/hobbies like going to park with kids, visiting malls etc. This should be more and mare part of routine life as this will instill a feeling that life can be lived in a relaxed fashion as well
 Am not learning from any of my past mistakes and keep repeating them forever : Going to be most critical one in trading. Best I can think to address it would be by ensuring that learning’s from each and every trade are documented and then as a regular practice (probably every weekend or once a month, keep revisiting the mistakes and then paste the repeated ones on my trading desk and ensure not repeating those mistakes in future while entering/exiting any trade)
 

VJAY

Well-Known Member
#2
Dear Learn2trade,
Nice analyse of yourself ...which need for trading ....you joined TJ on 2007 :) so i think you allready gained a lot from here :)....or the mentioned abv problems still there? if so then its serious problems as for trading...so not jump into it...regularly study and backtst/forward test/paper trade to get dicipline in trades....:)
 
#3
Dear Learn2trade,
Nice analyse of yourself ...which need for trading ....you joined TJ on 2007 :) so i think you allready gained a lot from here :)....or the mentioned abv problems still there? if so then its serious problems as for trading...so not jump into it...regularly study and backtst/forward test/paper trade to get dicipline in trades....:)
Yes Vjay - all problems mentioned above are current probs. Though I joined TJ in 2007, but have been quite irregular. Spend couple of months on TJ and then off for another 6 months. Every time, used to quit trading after a big loss. And then come back to trading after getting extremely frustrated with job. This has been the cycle for arnd 3-4 times
 

Vertigo_1985

Well-Known Member
#4
so many similarities ..it could have been easily me there :). Hang in there mate and keep doing the hard work, the journey will be really worthwhile.
Wish you a lot of success, happiness and peace :).

Regards
 

comm4300

Well-Known Member
#5
Best wishes,

2 things:

No matter how much pressure there is in Job, earn and save.

accumulate enough buffer to run family for few months.

enough buffer to blow you trading account for a few attempts.

trust me, this "pressure" job will look sweet when you face a huge loss.

All said and done, there's nothing like trading.

all the best.
 
#6
so many similarities ..it could have been easily me there :). Hang in there mate and keep doing the hard work, the journey will be really worthwhile.
Wish you a lot of success, happiness and peace :).

Regards
Great to hear Vertigo that there are others with similar characteristics but still able to scale the wall and are able to see things on other (bright) side of the wall (assuming that you've crossed the wall since you're saying journey will be worthwhile).

And much thanks mate 4 ur wishes:)

Cheers:)
 
#7
Best wishes,

2 things:

No matter how much pressure there is in Job, earn and save.

accumulate enough buffer to run family for few months.

enough buffer to blow you trading account for a few attempts.

trust me, this "pressure" job will look sweet when you face a huge loss.

All said and done, there's nothing like trading.

all the best.
Fully agree com. and that's why sticking on to the job despite the pressures. And, somewhere inside, I've a feeling that with the kind of uncertainty that is associated with trading, for a person of my nature (very pessimistic and gets stressed v.quickly in adverse conditions), trading can never become a source of livelihood. And if I'm ever able to actually achieve that, should not be less than a miracle for me (i.e. to sustain via trading). But yes, what a day that would be when I'll be able to confidently announce that I'm doing trading for living. Really, this wud be an amazing feeling:). And really envy the ones who have crossed that line:)
 

TraderRavi

low risk profile
#8
No matter how much pressure there is in Job, earn and save.

accumulate enough buffer to run family for few months.

enough buffer to blow you trading account for a few attempts.
those who have family to support , must remember two things before leaving job for trading full time.
1) enough money to support family for 3 years.
2) extra money around 4 times trading account size to support drawdowns/blowups.
 
#9
HI Friend

why traders loose a lot and don,t gain a bit?

Ready to look in a different perspective?
There are two problems-
Trader problem and Trading system problem.
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Mostly it is trader problem.
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If trader has bad trading habits,is emotional,has never been mentored or trained,if he is a compulsive gambler type,then he needs help.
(Each bad trading habits may take 3 weeks of practice to reverse it. what bad habit? not assessing risk,not using stoploss properly,not trying for better entry,taking very first chance & later regretting hasty actions,using a new untested strategy in hurry)

he needs to stop trading and find a mentor.
You cant perform heart surgery without first getting trained by a expert-professor-surgeon.
most loosing traders had this mindset
they think trading education an getting mentored is a burden and they can avoid it safely.
By not getting education-mentoring,if he saved rs 20000, he sure bound to loose rs 10 laks in trading losses.
Loosing traders insist that education is an unnecessary expense.

I met a mentor with my friend as my friend wanted to get mentored.
My friend started asking discount concession reduction in fees and increase in the input from mentor in terms of mentor training man hours etc.
My friend is good at bargaining and he mostly gets good bargains.
But here I am sorry to say his bargaining skill screwed him up badly.
What happened was the mentor smiled & gave him a visiting card of another
new trainer-coach and told-"you can get all you want with this person."
we left.

It was after 60 days my buddy found out he joined a novice mentor for a cheap fees. Time lost-nothing gained.
Quality is never cheap.

Find a mentor,interact with him-decide if you want his help or not.
fees is not first thing.
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Trading system problem
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Most trading systems have no long term winning edge.
If you trade it over 100 trades it ends up with 40% loss.
The question comes
who asked you to adopt this system?
You saw super curved trend and started using it immediately? Or the acd curve straight king system impressed you so much?
A buddy of mine bought 99% succesful system called tdf something and it failed only to kick him on face.

Most systems on internet suffer from not really suiting your mindset or not set to work for the traded instrument.
there is some amount of work to be done before adopting it.

Why did you not take time to check its expectancy is positive or negative?
Does the system have inbuilt risk control mechanism?

you decided on your own.you did a random thing on your own impulse & and now blame the market,manipulation and xyz.


Never heard of money management basics?
Yes-that is cost of avoiding education & training to save some bucks.

A thumb rule is trading should be done on a sound basis of logic,supporting evidence-weight of evidence or voting.
Gambling needs no weight of evidence or no system.

One big question I ask of all traders who read this post.

Can you face a string of a row of 10 losses in a row?
This is not imagination-it is reality.

If the answer is A NO, BETTER STOP TRADING FIRST & FIGURE OUT THE ANSWER FIRST.
 
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