There comes a point in the trading journey where you feel you aren't growing as a trader you do everything your strategy needs like back-testing, forward testing, risk management, discipline everything in your power but you still don't see results. Then a point comes where you feel like giving up and feel trading is not your thing What do you do to change the outcome of your trading results from where it was earlier and How do you manage to hold on and keep pushing ?
Keep asking yourself "Why?". Why are you not seeing results? What is it that is keeping you from achieving your goals? What is different between back-test and real results? What should you be doing different? You can only change things that you can control.
It usually traces back to bad habits: not taking small losses, buying gap ups and chasing stocks. Also, not researching which stocks you are buying each day and blindly buying with no pre determined strategy. I trade different stocks every day based on my pre market research. Alot of my decisions have to do with charts and i hate to say it, but trader intuition. I do believe that some things cannot be taught, its one of those “ either you have it or you dont” type deals. That all being said, all traders both good and bad have taken big losses and we all question our ability from time to time. However, never let a loss get too big and make an excuse such as : “ I was going to sell but the phone rang, my compter crashed, the doorbell rang, i just left my computer for a minute and it dropped without warning”… Good traders dont let that type of thing happen. If a stock gets halted 5 minutes after you buy, thats very rare but different and usually happens pre market or after hours. Also, NO AFTER HOURS TRADING!
I have a system, in backtest, it has a profit factor 6-8, and no daily loss in a few months. but in reality, I lost 3 out of 5 days last week. I need to check each trade with backtest to find out why.
My opinion, some traders are just totally going down the wrong road when it comes to the methods they use and you can't know what you don't know. An example, they are trying to build a car using lumber. It's been said hundreds of times, it takes years to become profitable. For those struggling, you need to keep writing notes to yourself and re-writing until slowly you know what works for you. Hard work, perseverance and luck plays a part. For many years I traded using indicators, in actual fact created/coded many of my own indicators. I wrote huge algos. One day I experimented with a very simple idea and it didn't work. Some weeks later I revisited the idea because of a niggling thought. Then I went cold turkey live and traded it because due to complications, it can't be backtested. I lost a shit load of money! 12 months later, convinced this idea had merit I continued to trade it, still losing money, but making ground. I'm still trading this method now, it is completely opposite to all my prior trading ideas, my trading was turned upside down but the results are very good finally, very comfortable trading, the results at times spectacular, but its a dangerous algo because if you don't know what you're doing will lose you a shit load of money. Ie, it has a bias toward penny stocks and this area is thin ice. Bottom line, keep trying new ideas.
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. Bruce Lee
Every couple years I stop having new ideas, might take several months before I discover something I not tried before, then quickly I am flooded with new ideas, more than I can backtest. Not all back test well, but some times something very good springs up.
Take a week off; no trading. Close all your positions, and reflect. Buy a blank notebook from the dollar store, sit down in your favorite coffee shop, and write about what you're doing.