Another Disciplined Day

I won 7 points today.

It would have been the full 10 had I not made a schoolboy error of judgement. I was so excited about trading I struggled to sleep, eventually succumbing to tiredness at 4am. I awoke with a shock at 7.55am and immediately jumped up and turned my computer on.

Before I was even half awake or had taken even my first slurp of coffee (I hadn't even put the kettle on) I jumped into a sell off on the opening bell in a lazy attempt to win a few easy points. There are no easy points, I can tell you that, you earn every damn one.

Before I could get out 6 points slipped through my fingers (at £12 a point) and I felt so dissapointed with myself.

Rather than dwell on it I took it as a lesson and also as a challenge, my day would have to be worth 16 points. It became obvious pretty soon that the day was obviously on a slide after a 100 point pre-market leap. Even though I could have set up a trade with a 20 point stop loss (to allow for retracements) and let it run all day and collected 50 points I decided to trade ultra defensively. That's my style and that's how I will trade in the future.

I was so cautious I missed a couple of obvious entry point screaming at me to make the trade. I resisted which in a way is no bad thing. I have an iron discipline and a daily target. At some stage in the future I will feel more comfortable and less reticent to wait but the order of the day (and the week) is patience and discipline. There will always be another opportunity, another day to jump in and collect. This week is ALL about proving to myself I have the iron discipline required to be succesful trading.

Ultimately I made four successful trades after my mishap yielding points in this order; 3,4,1 and 5.

I actually sat here until gone midday to earn a net 2 points and turned my computer off and went to work happy. At least my day will be a positive one, I reasoned. I returned home around 4pm giving myself a good half hour of checking the market. if there was an opportunity I would take it, if not I'd still be making a step in the positive direction.

Again I missed an obvious entrypoint and this one cost me 20 points yet I was still happy to win 5 more points and close trading today 7 to the good or in monetary terms around £80 better off.

I will continue to trade defensively and ultra catiously as I'm determined to achieve my goal this week. I read all about discipline being such an important attribute when trading, I actually think it's 90% of what you need. anyone can learn to read candles or draw trend lines (or any other technical analysis) but it's what you do with your tools that counts not the fact you have them in your toolbox.

Overall a succesful day. More of the same is hoped for and expected tomorrow. (Note to self, alarm set for 7.30).