As many of you know trading can be a very frustrating occupation. The market gives itself many opportunities to try our patience with our ideas. I know from experience that the most frustrating thing is ending your day knowing you had good ideas but you didn’t make what you were supposed too. Solving this problem is one of the most important aspects of becoming a consistently profitable trader. The first thing to look at is are you executing your ideas? I have known problem executing my ideas so the thing I have been working on is the management of these ideas.
As I went over my trades and ideas and talked to some veteran traders about what I was finding and came across a big flaw in my trading. The flaw was that I was confusing my time frames and not letting some of the longer term ideas sufficient time to play out. What I mean by confusing my time frames is that I was taking some trades based on the daily and hourly charts, but I was managing them on the lower time frames. Basically I was asking the stock to move in my direction in the first 15 minutes I was in the trade. This is the definition of forcing my will on the market.
Now trading on the lower time frames is not a bad thing. Many traders make a very good living by scalping and taking .15-.30 out of the market at will. But this kind of trading is not what I am good at. My best trades are trades that I have researched on the daily and hourly time frames. The most important thing about these trades is that they make sense to me and this is where my conviction can come from.
The problem I have been having with my trades is that I was exiting too soon. The idea was still valid but I was exiting because of a quick move against me. I realized that I need to have more patience with these higher time frame trades and also take more time in evaluating them during the day and the subsequent days to see if the idea remains valid. Best of luck next week and happy trading.
Kyle
Tagged: day trader, day trading swing trading prop firms, equity prop firm, intraday trading 
