Trader W Strikes Again!

April 7, 3:23 PM

Dear Denise,

I feel like I have stepped into a new area of understanding. Tracking my emotions by writing down what I am feeling during trading, is making a huge difference for me! I mean, it is FANTASTIC! I am amazed at how many emotional adjustments I do (or desire to do) to my trading. Things I never even realized, except that now I am making a conscious effort to write it down. Like realizing this morning, after I was short YM from 7807… that I had went to “deactivate” the trade as the market jumped back up, but it filled me before I could do that… literally as I was moving the mouse. At the time, I completely forgot the “impulsive” because I was so elated to be short from that area, as it immediately started going my direction… However, had I acted on that impulse, I wouldn’t have been in a beautiful trade as it tumbled 50 plus points.

But now, I realize what was happening to me. My emotions were dictating my trading in ways I never even knew. Especially in high frequency trading. Reading your work, applying it, monitoring myself, writing down my feelings, is really paying off. I am trading less, and making more money. This week and last week have been incredible.

I feel like the light just went on, the eureka moment has happened, and that I am learning to listen to my emotions, instead of trying to be the “Iron Man Trader” with cold, disciplined psyche. Am I emotional, as I write this? You better believe it! I am pumped at what I am learning.

Thanks, thanks, THANKS!

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This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. Josie

    We girls have never been in doubt about the importance of emotions as data. What do you think all that “girl-talk” is about? Of course, it has to be balanced with some of the rational thought you guys are so good at.

    Men have always had a disadvantage in trading because they’ve been told to “suck it up” when it comes to their emotions – mostly by men traders (not to mention by fathers, coaches, etc. in other fields of endeavor). One of the reasons that Denise is so good at what she does is that despite all her years in a ‘man’s’ field, she has resisted the brain washing about feelings.

    We all spend a lot of time on market analysis. But when we sit in front of the charts, hour after hour, we are also learning at an unconscious level. It’s called implicit learning and part of it is the result of the mind’s amazing ability to recognize patterns. We ‘know’ something before the conscious mind can identify it. In Denise’s recent email she said that while in a trade, “Something doesn’t feel right”. She had seen that pattern before and her unconscious knew what it meant. She was able to use her feelings as bridge to the needed information: the trade wasn’t moving the way it should. That’s the way our implicit learning makes itself known… we have feelings.

    Many, many years ago when I was a cop, I was driving by a strip mall early in the morning and saw a man making a phone call from a pay phone. Something about the situation didn’t ‘feel’ right. I decided to drive around the block and come back to check on him. A minute later, the dispatcher radioed there was a robbery in progress at the check-cashing store in the mall. I realized that the man I had seen was the lookout. My unconscious mind had been talking to me through my feelings.

    Feelings are some of the very best data out there.

    Oh, yes, we got the bad guy.

    1. DKS

      I realized after I hit the send button that I screwed up – the “I” in that post was Duxx 91 – a coaching client. He deserves the credit for those trades not me….

  2. Josie

    We girls have never been in doubt about the importance of emotions as data. What do you think all that “girl-talk” is about? Of course, it has to be balanced with some of the rational thought you guys are so good at.

    Men have always had a disadvantage in trading because they’ve been told to “suck it up” when it comes to their emotions – mostly by men traders (not to mention by fathers, coaches, etc. in other fields of endeavor). One of the reasons that Denise is so good at what she does is that despite all her years in a ‘man’s’ field, she has resisted the brain washing about feelings.

    We all spend a lot of time on market analysis. But when we sit in front of the charts, hour after hour, we are also learning at an unconscious level. It’s called implicit learning and part of it is the result of the mind’s amazing ability to recognize patterns. We ‘know’ something before the conscious mind can identify it. In Denise’s recent email she said that while in a trade, “Something doesn’t feel right”. She had seen that pattern before and her unconscious knew what it meant. She was able to use her feelings as bridge to the needed information: the trade wasn’t moving the way it should. That’s the way our implicit learning makes itself known… we have feelings.

    Many, many years ago when I was a cop, I was driving by a strip mall early in the morning and saw a man making a phone call from a pay phone. Something about the situation didn’t ‘feel’ right. I decided to drive around the block and come back to check on him. A minute later, the dispatcher radioed there was a robbery in progress at the check-cashing store in the mall. I realized that the man I had seen was the lookout. My unconscious mind had been talking to me through my feelings.

    Feelings are some of the very best data out there.

    Oh, yes, we got the bad guy.

    1. DKS

      I realized after I hit the send button that I screwed up – the “I” in that post was Duxx 91 – a coaching client. He deserves the credit for those trades not me….

  3. Jeff Wagner

    Nothing worse than having technical issues. For some strange reason, my IB platform orders were saying they wouldn’t get submitted till the 13th. Of course, I get filled anyhow. This puts be now in a counter trend trade. Then my trailing SL gets hit, but no fill… at which point I am trying hard to sort out if I am really out or not. I then place a SL order, locking in profit, again it gets hit, but no fill. STRESS! I finally manually close the trade.

    However, I kept writing down what I was feeling the whole time. It helped a lot, and allowed me to let out the frustration I was feeling. AND it really helped me to manage my trade and what I was feeling… I can’t stress how much a difference writing down my emotions on simple lined paper has positively effected my trading.

  4. Jeff Wagner

    Nothing worse than having technical issues. For some strange reason, my IB platform orders were saying they wouldn’t get submitted till the 13th. Of course, I get filled anyhow. This puts be now in a counter trend trade. Then my trailing SL gets hit, but no fill… at which point I am trying hard to sort out if I am really out or not. I then place a SL order, locking in profit, again it gets hit, but no fill. STRESS! I finally manually close the trade.

    However, I kept writing down what I was feeling the whole time. It helped a lot, and allowed me to let out the frustration I was feeling. AND it really helped me to manage my trade and what I was feeling… I can’t stress how much a difference writing down my emotions on simple lined paper has positively effected my trading.

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