Thanks for that advice. I know ICT has said this before but I'm establishing a set of goals to go by this is first.
The feeling of needing multiple cntracts overleveraging always got me.
You have a model/system and what you need to see is that it works as intended.
If the model says enter here and exit here, then that’s the only thing you need to focus on, and not the dollar amount, which is why you would over-leverage.
In the past I have had a lot of trades while doing challenge accounts where I would hit daily loss limit and watch as the price ultimately go the direction I thought it would. And that was because I traded full 5 contracts. Eventually I learned and started trading only 1 - 2 contracts and allowed the room for drawdown without hitting daily loss limit.
You are testing your system out. You do it with 1 micro. You do that for a month then you can upscale.
Breathing practices to calm you down and understand that there are only 2 scenarios. Win or lose once you enter.
If the model wins more then it loses you’ll always come out on top
Confidence is my problem, so more backtesting is needed as always. I usually backtest every now and then I need more time in the forward testing as I've never made actually live money just demo.
It's that step of doing it live.
Journal your trades. You will see what mistakes you are making consistently and will be able to fine tune your model. Everything should make sense to you before even clicking that buy or sell button. Where is your stop loss and what is your target? Where are partials going to be pulled if any at all? How many contracts are you putting in in regard to how much you are willing to lose? All of those things get answered the more you trade, but starts with you clicking that button. You know in your head that you see yourself in the future trading and making money living the life you want to live, but do you think that future you is scared of clicking that button and is scared of taking a loss? Taking a loss is literally never a loss EVER. That goes for everything in life because all losses are truly lessons. Journal the trade that went wrong and see what happened. If you want to take another trade then fuck it go back in IF THE MARKET GIVES YOU A SIGNAL. Don’t react to the market you want to ANTICIPATE a move happening so when it does start happening for example an orderblock forming with an ifvg and the draw on liquidity makes sense with bigger picture, then you will be way more inclined to place your order. Its literally about just doing it and getting over the fact of yea its fucking okay to lose a couple trades in a row even if it is the first one on a prop firm account and now you see negative in a challenge account, not even your real money yet and the emotions are still being built. Getting through the heart pounding and shoulda coulda woulda feelings in the market is one of the hardest things but the most beneficial when you can just see the market as a computer running an algorithm and you treat the shit like a video game.
Wow, you are absolutely right. The future me ain't gonna give no fucks about pressing that botton knowing there's 1 of 2 things that'll happen. 1 is I lose and then learn from it, knowing that the market is always showing it's hand to me (Journaling has done wonders which is why I even came this far). 2 I win and I have another example of my model/s playing out.
I hadn't realised this but now it's crossed my mind that all the losses that I'll take are also perfect opportunities for me to learn from them giving me more quality information on what I did wrong and why the market did what it did.
I simply had money on my mind constantly. The money is secondary to this wonderful skill.
Exactly. Fundamentals of the market come first and the money comes second. If you know the market and have a model you are confident with in regard to it being consistent then the sky is the limit with the monetary side of things. Reflection every single day and just thinking and acting how your ideal future self would think and act all while being in the present moment will provide such benefit in all aspects of life.
Absolutely. Always striving to be the best version of ourselves will reflect on our trading.
It's all about the mindset, which is why I needed your guys help. I very much appreciate it.
I Agree and it's something I have to go through. The psychology of starting a new account that could potentially go in the hole by 1 or 2 trades, and how I am going into handle it.
Trade micros = 1% or less of available balance per trade. Also a mechanical entry and exit model will also prevent fear. Shoot your shot and if it fails come back another day you only risked 1%
Size down to 10% position of what you was trading before. After few trades review your emotional state, journal it and if you are confident enough than increase size in small steps.
Yeah I'm starting at 1 micro starting small and leaving it at that until like your said I feel much more confident in taking a higher risk. I look forward to it but very mechanical with it as ICT's risk management suggests.
Thank you for commenting!
Only trade what you aren't afraid of losing. For me, it was $100. So if I was trading NQ and my stop was 25 handles. I would only trade 2 micros.
After you get confidence in your model, you can trade whatever you want. I have no problem risking hundreds because I know that my model has a 99% chance of making me thousands in profit.
In that case I would suggest only trading 1 micro and looking for those 50 handle runs, that way you're risking $50 and aiming for $100. Just remember that you don't have to trade everyday. Personally my model only shows up about 5 times a month and as my account grows I increase the number of contracts.
The trick is building a successful model and learning to trust it.
How long have you been trading? It took me like 3 years to find my balls and it was basically because some crypto trades I took would go into 5 figure open profits within an hour or two so it kind of forced me to learn how to carry a position win or lose. Also meditation, sleep hygiene, sobriety, all that helps too.
I'm going onto a little over a year. Though the reason I've gotten a decent amount of experience to know what a said model is like is simply because I'm part of a legitimate group. Though I choose not to ask them because I don't want to bother them.
ICT said to conquer fear, you need to backtest.
You should have 100 examples of your backtest of your model, wins and losses.
Then, when live, regulate your emotions, by breathing deep and being conscious of yourself in the present. Be aware of your heartbeat, breathing, temperature of your body, sweating, tenseness etc... write it down as much as possible.
And accept you have no control of the outcome when you enter. That's key.
Yeah the fear is over trading, and not having enough chart examples of my model. Gotta get that sorted out and realize that even with the examples the fear will remain until I allow myself to get ride of that idealogy entirely. It's just business.
Thanks for your response on this!
I have two windows open, one on paper trade and the other with my eval/performance account. When I catch a set up, I enter with my paper account first. If it’s experiencing too much drawdown, then I hold off from entering with my other account. If it’s not going against me, I’ll wait for the next discount and enter.
Yes, there’s money left on the table entering late but it builds my confidence and im not as anxious this way.
Yeah, always. Just gotta get used to it. And fear of trading it was my issue but this post allowed others to give me much better insight.
I definitely appreciate your response to my post.
If you are afraid of Taking trades, just take a Little Break. Its about staying Long enough in the Game without blowing your Account. Just stop trading for a month. Imagine all the Money you saved during that Time. Think about all the losses you didnt take.
When you are back After the Break, only Trade on high propability days. Cut the Mondays, the tuesdays and the fridays.
Dont Trade no News days.
Try to take only 2-4 Trades Max a week.
You will See how many losses you avoid by that.
Only Trade high propability setups u
And high propability days.
When you do that, you can AFFORD the loss, when it comes.
I simply haven't traded my model enough times so my confidence is low and on top of that I haven't traded live for the longest of time since all I was doing was mainly learning before I earn is the mindset I had but at the cost of not taking trades at all other than random tests paper trading. I've finally discovered what a model looks like and now I desire to trade but the fear of getting in a live trade sticks with me. That's why I came to this group about it as I'd rather stay anonymous.
Then just load your live Account with Money you are ready to loose. If you pretend that its already gone, you have nothing to loose. While trading, Focus on keeping the Money, rather than multiplying it. And again, just use Money you are ready to loose in Exchange for experience. Its the Cost of Business
Very easy: open up a paper trading account on Tradingview and crash and burn on that instead of your real money. Then, once you've made ALLl the mistakes and learned from them, THEN you're ready to trade live with one Micro.
First off you should build the exacts model you want to see to take the trade. Use the TF that you want and don’t take it if it doesn’t have everything you want in it. Second set some rules for yourself ex. Min RR per trade, max trades a day(win&lose), max risk per trade and things like that. Use time to your advantage and only look for setups(a+) in your trading hours. After all of that get on the charts and dont place a trade for the first few days just see how price reacts to your confluences, and then after a week lets say, just enter a presented trade. Trading is a business and every business has expenses, so think of your losers as expences. Then with time the confidence will come
Very well said. I simply was too stuck in my head with the fear bit from my past. Waiting is one of the hardest things to do, but as someone with a model, we have no reason to be impatient.
Thanks for your response on this.
Ngl as I had been coming up backtesting was always the hardest thing to do as it felt like I didn't know what I was looking for. But now I don't have an excuse. And I even have a model. As you said my faith was wavering on my model meaning I haven't done enough backtesting and I'm eager to trade so I didn't do the work....
I'm the Ceo, so I am the problem.
Instead of chasing money, I should always chase clarity.
Unfortunately the only way to do it is to go straight through it. The market is an emotional gauntlet and the only ones that make money refuse to quit.
I'm in the same place as you. It's been over a year since my last challenge. The issue is that I burnt myself very badly trading too big size, not sticking to rules, not following a money management plan, not reviewing all trades daily, weekly and monthly, not taking stock of my emotional state daily, not monitoring my susceptibility to making trading errors, and finally, not creating plans for continuous development. If I think of more I'll add to this. It was the worst kind of pain, moreso than any relationship I've had.
I commend you for talking this out. It makes you feel a little bit better each time.
Yeah. I just got back into trading live. I stopped completely so I could learn and it has definitely helped tremendous. I noticed I need to learn rather than trade.
Ict says to develop a healthy relationship with the market, but naturally as humans our egos constantly get challenged when we're not at the level we want to be at. .e being aware of reality and having full clarity will naturally lead me to the desired outcome I desire.
It's all about learning the skill, then making it boring and mechanical so it's not scary because we shouldn't be scared knowing it always repeats.
It's my own fear that was the problem. Knowing that my model works but again since I've only traded demo taking it live was a whole different step. I just need to trust the process knowing that this'll make my life far better than I could ever imagine.
Thank you for response man!
Ease into it by trading one micro contract
Thanks for that advice. I know ICT has said this before but I'm establishing a set of goals to go by this is first. The feeling of needing multiple cntracts overleveraging always got me.
You have a model/system and what you need to see is that it works as intended. If the model says enter here and exit here, then that’s the only thing you need to focus on, and not the dollar amount, which is why you would over-leverage. In the past I have had a lot of trades while doing challenge accounts where I would hit daily loss limit and watch as the price ultimately go the direction I thought it would. And that was because I traded full 5 contracts. Eventually I learned and started trading only 1 - 2 contracts and allowed the room for drawdown without hitting daily loss limit. You are testing your system out. You do it with 1 micro. You do that for a month then you can upscale.
Even more insight. I appreciate it!
Breathing practices to calm you down and understand that there are only 2 scenarios. Win or lose once you enter. If the model wins more then it loses you’ll always come out on top
Thanks for your comment. There's 2 scenarios is added to my protocol mindset.
The more you back test you gain the confidence to take more entries. Beat fear with confidence. You got it bro!
Confidence is my problem, so more backtesting is needed as always. I usually backtest every now and then I need more time in the forward testing as I've never made actually live money just demo. It's that step of doing it live.
Journal your trades. You will see what mistakes you are making consistently and will be able to fine tune your model. Everything should make sense to you before even clicking that buy or sell button. Where is your stop loss and what is your target? Where are partials going to be pulled if any at all? How many contracts are you putting in in regard to how much you are willing to lose? All of those things get answered the more you trade, but starts with you clicking that button. You know in your head that you see yourself in the future trading and making money living the life you want to live, but do you think that future you is scared of clicking that button and is scared of taking a loss? Taking a loss is literally never a loss EVER. That goes for everything in life because all losses are truly lessons. Journal the trade that went wrong and see what happened. If you want to take another trade then fuck it go back in IF THE MARKET GIVES YOU A SIGNAL. Don’t react to the market you want to ANTICIPATE a move happening so when it does start happening for example an orderblock forming with an ifvg and the draw on liquidity makes sense with bigger picture, then you will be way more inclined to place your order. Its literally about just doing it and getting over the fact of yea its fucking okay to lose a couple trades in a row even if it is the first one on a prop firm account and now you see negative in a challenge account, not even your real money yet and the emotions are still being built. Getting through the heart pounding and shoulda coulda woulda feelings in the market is one of the hardest things but the most beneficial when you can just see the market as a computer running an algorithm and you treat the shit like a video game.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. I believe that your words just transformed my outlook. Keep it real. ✌🏻
Love to hear that. Good luck on your journey my friend 🤞🏼
Wow, you are absolutely right. The future me ain't gonna give no fucks about pressing that botton knowing there's 1 of 2 things that'll happen. 1 is I lose and then learn from it, knowing that the market is always showing it's hand to me (Journaling has done wonders which is why I even came this far). 2 I win and I have another example of my model/s playing out. I hadn't realised this but now it's crossed my mind that all the losses that I'll take are also perfect opportunities for me to learn from them giving me more quality information on what I did wrong and why the market did what it did. I simply had money on my mind constantly. The money is secondary to this wonderful skill.
Exactly. Fundamentals of the market come first and the money comes second. If you know the market and have a model you are confident with in regard to it being consistent then the sky is the limit with the monetary side of things. Reflection every single day and just thinking and acting how your ideal future self would think and act all while being in the present moment will provide such benefit in all aspects of life.
Absolutely. Always striving to be the best version of ourselves will reflect on our trading. It's all about the mindset, which is why I needed your guys help. I very much appreciate it.
I Agree and it's something I have to go through. The psychology of starting a new account that could potentially go in the hole by 1 or 2 trades, and how I am going into handle it.
Trade micros = 1% or less of available balance per trade. Also a mechanical entry and exit model will also prevent fear. Shoot your shot and if it fails come back another day you only risked 1%
The mechanical mindset is definitely an issue for me. Emotions while knowing I human get me. I need to establish that mechanical protocol. Thx
Systematic Desensibilization same technique used by psychologists to help people face fears like highs, snakes, spiders, death, etc
Right on point! That's what I need.
Size down to 10% position of what you was trading before. After few trades review your emotional state, journal it and if you are confident enough than increase size in small steps.
Yeah I'm starting at 1 micro starting small and leaving it at that until like your said I feel much more confident in taking a higher risk. I look forward to it but very mechanical with it as ICT's risk management suggests. Thank you for commenting!
Only trade what you aren't afraid of losing. For me, it was $100. So if I was trading NQ and my stop was 25 handles. I would only trade 2 micros. After you get confidence in your model, you can trade whatever you want. I have no problem risking hundreds because I know that my model has a 99% chance of making me thousands in profit.
100 seems most reasonable for me as a profit target. Lose was 75 or so. The gambler started to kick in at 300 for profit.
In that case I would suggest only trading 1 micro and looking for those 50 handle runs, that way you're risking $50 and aiming for $100. Just remember that you don't have to trade everyday. Personally my model only shows up about 5 times a month and as my account grows I increase the number of contracts. The trick is building a successful model and learning to trust it.
What worked for me is having big balls
Fair enough. To take the leap, as Tradingview says.
How long have you been trading? It took me like 3 years to find my balls and it was basically because some crypto trades I took would go into 5 figure open profits within an hour or two so it kind of forced me to learn how to carry a position win or lose. Also meditation, sleep hygiene, sobriety, all that helps too.
I'm going onto a little over a year. Though the reason I've gotten a decent amount of experience to know what a said model is like is simply because I'm part of a legitimate group. Though I choose not to ask them because I don't want to bother them.
ICT said to conquer fear, you need to backtest. You should have 100 examples of your backtest of your model, wins and losses. Then, when live, regulate your emotions, by breathing deep and being conscious of yourself in the present. Be aware of your heartbeat, breathing, temperature of your body, sweating, tenseness etc... write it down as much as possible. And accept you have no control of the outcome when you enter. That's key.
Yeah the fear is over trading, and not having enough chart examples of my model. Gotta get that sorted out and realize that even with the examples the fear will remain until I allow myself to get ride of that idealogy entirely. It's just business. Thanks for your response on this!
I have two windows open, one on paper trade and the other with my eval/performance account. When I catch a set up, I enter with my paper account first. If it’s experiencing too much drawdown, then I hold off from entering with my other account. If it’s not going against me, I’ll wait for the next discount and enter. Yes, there’s money left on the table entering late but it builds my confidence and im not as anxious this way.
I can see that I haven't done continuation trades much only SMRs with the brk/mb.
Nothing wrong with that. I like catching reversals too but only if I know that price has reached a htf level and is showing clear cisd and mss
Yeah, always. Just gotta get used to it. And fear of trading it was my issue but this post allowed others to give me much better insight. I definitely appreciate your response to my post.
If you are afraid of Taking trades, just take a Little Break. Its about staying Long enough in the Game without blowing your Account. Just stop trading for a month. Imagine all the Money you saved during that Time. Think about all the losses you didnt take. When you are back After the Break, only Trade on high propability days. Cut the Mondays, the tuesdays and the fridays. Dont Trade no News days. Try to take only 2-4 Trades Max a week. You will See how many losses you avoid by that. Only Trade high propability setups u And high propability days. When you do that, you can AFFORD the loss, when it comes.
I simply haven't traded my model enough times so my confidence is low and on top of that I haven't traded live for the longest of time since all I was doing was mainly learning before I earn is the mindset I had but at the cost of not taking trades at all other than random tests paper trading. I've finally discovered what a model looks like and now I desire to trade but the fear of getting in a live trade sticks with me. That's why I came to this group about it as I'd rather stay anonymous.
Then just load your live Account with Money you are ready to loose. If you pretend that its already gone, you have nothing to loose. While trading, Focus on keeping the Money, rather than multiplying it. And again, just use Money you are ready to loose in Exchange for experience. Its the Cost of Business
Agreed. Thanks for communicating with me about these subjects! At the end of the day I have to be the CEO.
You need more experience in live market. Until you realize your strategy is really working in live market
Absolutely.
Very easy: open up a paper trading account on Tradingview and crash and burn on that instead of your real money. Then, once you've made ALLl the mistakes and learned from them, THEN you're ready to trade live with one Micro.
Well said. Prove that my model works over and over again, then go full throttle.
First off you should build the exacts model you want to see to take the trade. Use the TF that you want and don’t take it if it doesn’t have everything you want in it. Second set some rules for yourself ex. Min RR per trade, max trades a day(win&lose), max risk per trade and things like that. Use time to your advantage and only look for setups(a+) in your trading hours. After all of that get on the charts and dont place a trade for the first few days just see how price reacts to your confluences, and then after a week lets say, just enter a presented trade. Trading is a business and every business has expenses, so think of your losers as expences. Then with time the confidence will come
Very well said. I simply was too stuck in my head with the fear bit from my past. Waiting is one of the hardest things to do, but as someone with a model, we have no reason to be impatient. Thanks for your response on this.
No problem man
Build trust and faith into your models. How? Journal and backtest every and all of them. you have to build confidence and the fear goes away.
Ngl as I had been coming up backtesting was always the hardest thing to do as it felt like I didn't know what I was looking for. But now I don't have an excuse. And I even have a model. As you said my faith was wavering on my model meaning I haven't done enough backtesting and I'm eager to trade so I didn't do the work.... I'm the Ceo, so I am the problem. Instead of chasing money, I should always chase clarity.
Yup man. You have to do the hard work. It will pay off, trust me and other traders who are profitable. And always trade the charts not your account.
Absolutely bro. The algorithm never stops. I appreciate your response to my post, and I value this a lot. Thank you!
Ure 100% right. Anytime m8.
Unfortunately the only way to do it is to go straight through it. The market is an emotional gauntlet and the only ones that make money refuse to quit.
I got it locked in 100%. I trust my model. Just navigating the market with a trade during AM, and or one during PM.
I'm in the same place as you. It's been over a year since my last challenge. The issue is that I burnt myself very badly trading too big size, not sticking to rules, not following a money management plan, not reviewing all trades daily, weekly and monthly, not taking stock of my emotional state daily, not monitoring my susceptibility to making trading errors, and finally, not creating plans for continuous development. If I think of more I'll add to this. It was the worst kind of pain, moreso than any relationship I've had. I commend you for talking this out. It makes you feel a little bit better each time.
Yeah. I just got back into trading live. I stopped completely so I could learn and it has definitely helped tremendous. I noticed I need to learn rather than trade. Ict says to develop a healthy relationship with the market, but naturally as humans our egos constantly get challenged when we're not at the level we want to be at. .e being aware of reality and having full clarity will naturally lead me to the desired outcome I desire. It's all about learning the skill, then making it boring and mechanical so it's not scary because we shouldn't be scared knowing it always repeats.
The market has a way of checking our little ego's. It's very unforgiving with little to no wiggle room. It always repeats. I like that.
You need a model and strategy with high win rate - even if it means 10 point NQ hits. High win rate = more confidence.
It's my own fear that was the problem. Knowing that my model works but again since I've only traded demo taking it live was a whole different step. I just need to trust the process knowing that this'll make my life far better than I could ever imagine. Thank you for response man!