Was going through my past posts again (something I've kept doing since Dec 08 - not coz I like my own writing, but really coz I need desperately to know what lessons I'm missing...), and couldn't help but notice AGAIN that I did do a lot better trading multiple contracts.
It's a fact I can't run away from. Trading multiple contracts is perfect for me coz it's perfect for my appetite. Trading single contract is a drag. And I can't emphasize this enough: I HATE SLOW!
FAST rouses my senses and makes my brain work doubly fast. I was better at bolting at the right time, and I was much, much more willling to quit trading after the morning momentum is over, and much, much more willing to wait til after lunch to resume trading.
I'm sure all these have something to do with my having set a target that has become so ingrained that even if I were to remove the P&L column from my trading platform, I'm mentally keeping scores in absolute dollar amount after having them mentally converted from ticks and points...
The reason that I started trading single contract was so that I could give the market a bit more room to move...but I've not been able to do that, and the only thing I'm giving up is good profits.
I'm a control freak, and I've resigned to the fact that I'll never change. I'm never going to be able to consistently put in a stop and a profit target and then just let my trade run. And if that's the case, why bother with trading 1 contract???
As a matter of fact, the only thing that was bad about trading multiple contracts - for me - was that it was stressful. But not having this stress is detrimental to my trading. I either got complacent (about cutting losses), or greedy (overstaying and seeing profit turn to loss) , or both...I have no idea what kind of freak I am, but I just do better when I'm really stretched. Depression is what hurts my trading. Not stress.
D's eyes are going to roll when he sees this....
It's a fact I can't run away from. Trading multiple contracts is perfect for me coz it's perfect for my appetite. Trading single contract is a drag. And I can't emphasize this enough: I HATE SLOW!
FAST rouses my senses and makes my brain work doubly fast. I was better at bolting at the right time, and I was much, much more willling to quit trading after the morning momentum is over, and much, much more willing to wait til after lunch to resume trading.
I'm sure all these have something to do with my having set a target that has become so ingrained that even if I were to remove the P&L column from my trading platform, I'm mentally keeping scores in absolute dollar amount after having them mentally converted from ticks and points...
The reason that I started trading single contract was so that I could give the market a bit more room to move...but I've not been able to do that, and the only thing I'm giving up is good profits.
I'm a control freak, and I've resigned to the fact that I'll never change. I'm never going to be able to consistently put in a stop and a profit target and then just let my trade run. And if that's the case, why bother with trading 1 contract???
As a matter of fact, the only thing that was bad about trading multiple contracts - for me - was that it was stressful. But not having this stress is detrimental to my trading. I either got complacent (about cutting losses), or greedy (overstaying and seeing profit turn to loss) , or both...I have no idea what kind of freak I am, but I just do better when I'm really stretched. Depression is what hurts my trading. Not stress.
D's eyes are going to roll when he sees this....
2 comments:
Nice post...I can really relate to the idea of increased risk heightening awareness and generally making better returns. I really believe that 1 contract trading is damaging to ones bottom line even if that's the level I'm currently at myself...
MM
Hi MM,
1 contract is not flexible enough for those who scale out of their winning positions or add on to winning ones, I thing. For me, it's just the "target" factor. More contracts gets me there faster :-)
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