Of course, bitcoin went straight down after I got in and I have now closed that trade. There was no real basis to that trade. I just went in because Oscar Carboni was getting bullish on bitcoin again. But I have also decided to stop my attempts at systematic trading. I thought I could come up with something which my personality could handle. But it's not the case. I just can't get detached when there is an order out there that may or may not trigger, needs attention to close etc. My anxiety and lack of sleep has been getting worse again this week, despite not actually trading and last night I decided to pull the plug. I still have a soybean calendar spread trade open, which maybe I was most anxious about. But it is actually making money now. I had increased the size of the trade. That was a bad idea. I have now gone back down to two contracts instead of three. These moves should reduce the overall cognitive load. If this still doesn't work, I'll have to close that trade too.
This seems to have happened every time I really get into trading, but each time I think it will be different. Moominmama was concerned when I said I was trading again, saying that I always end up stressed as a result. She was right.
P.S. 9 April
I still had difficulty sleeping, so I closed the soybean calendar spread too. At least that one made some money.
1 comment:
Most of us have natural biases that simply make trading a miserable experience (unless you're VERY lucky and have a 'winning streak'):
* we suffer more angst from a loss than the joy experienced from a similar quanta of gain
* we remember the losses more than we remember the gains
* if we do make a gain, we then worry if the gain would have been even bigger if we hadn't closed out
* if we close out a loss, we then regret it when it turns out we would have made a gain if we'd simply held on a bit longer
* we worry more about losing 100% than we would increase in contentment if we made 100% gain
Unless you can build a fully automated trading program that you simply turn on and then read a monthly summary of what trades were done and how much it made/lost, I really don't think trading will suit you. And you would probably still worry about how its currently doing whenever the was lots of market volatility.
Personally I just trade a minute amount that I mentally have already 'written off'. The trading just gives me some amusement since most of my investments are passive and I just look at the monthly valuations.
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