My first post here in blogger was in October 2006 and I have been posting my pnl faithfully every day I trade. I went though a slump in 2007 as I struggled to adapt to changes in NYSE stocks. Sometimes I wonder if posting my pnl affect my trading performance. I know I constantly try to keep my pnl positive everyday. Sometimes I am fearful to take trades I see because I do not want a negative day.
Recently I feel my trading has been plagued by constant dollar counting. I will be in a trade and I keep adding up the gains and losses in my head has the stock moves. Most of the time I get shaken out of good ideas. There was a time when I would get into a stock, place a stop and just relax and let my trade work. As the trade goes in my favor I would trail my stops down until I get stopped out. I had good winners and they felt good because I followed the plan. I got to find that experience again.
Just got news that DT plans to suspend the VO for awhile. I will take this as a cue for me to make some changes in this blog. I am going to do a little experiment. I am not going to post my pnl for awhile and see how it affects my trading. I am still thinking of what type of post I will do since almost all my posts are about my pnl and trading day.
9 comments:
Hi OBAT, been a faithful reader of your blog for a long time now. I'd be more than happy if you'd decide to join our small community of traders in Toni Hansen's chatroom. I'm sure we could use your calls and experience as you can benefit from Toni's market comments and setups during the day, as well as from the other players (like charlie, norancho, crack, mykonos, tanker, myself and others)
If you're interested, plz follow the link:
http://www.tradingfrommainstreet.com/roomsetup.html
(it is free of course)
Hope to see you there on Monday!
hi,obat
these days we're experiencing a tough market, but I'm sure we'll survive and become even stronger,cheer up,budy,the light is just around the corner.
Good luck!
I think it's a really good idea, not put your pnl for few weeks or even months. It’s definitely extra mental pressure thinking about blog readers on top of enormous trading pressure, but good thing is when you are cautious you don’t make that many big mistakes. Hope for the best.
I keep a private blog where I keep track of my thoughts on my trading and the markets. I do not post my P&L in it. I've found keeping track of my P&L on a monthly basis was a great way to break the dollar counting. After I broke myself, I went to weekly. I gather all the data daily, but the P&L isn't looked at until Sunday PM.
Just my $0.02
Obviously, you've got to do what you think is right. But, whether you do or don't, I just don't see the relevance.
If you concentrate 100% on executing your strategy, that should leave you indifferent to whatever your p&l shows.
The fact that you even remotely consider something as simple as posting your p&l on the blog as having a consequence on your trading results, make me think the problem is something deeper.
But I'm no psychiatrist, so just ignore this if you want.
Just a little addendum:
I didn't mean to imply there was a problem with your trading. Looks like you do pretty well to me!
Thanks for all your comments.
aon,
Thanks for the invitation. I will drop by in the chat room one of these days.
IIO,
I think you have a good point. I think I am trying to find excuses for my slump.
But deep down I think the main reason is my lack of effort. I am just not spending enough time in analyzing my trading and the markets right now.
If my results are still the same after a month or two of not posting pnl, then I will have to face the hard truth. Maybe then I will get serious.
You should just do more posts about your playboy lifestyle... the women, the drugs... the midgets.
I'll be looking forward to see how your blog adapts, since I'll be going through the same thing.
-DT
DT,
Telling stories of my drug filled orgies would ruin my blog's clean image. I will have to pass on that.
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