Thread by @OpenOutcrier, 2020 Trading review: How did I do meeting my goals, what did [...]

2020 Trading review: How did I do meeting my goals, what did I do well, where did I fail. Lesson's learned and where to go next.

a thread

I had the best year I've ever had, I've never been more confident in my trading ability and all of this kind of terrifies me.

Full disclosure I'm not going to talk specific numbers, because these are relative to each person's current stage.

A $5,000 loss could wipe out one person's account, while it might be a drop in the bucket for others. The money and the pain and joy are all relative.

While hearing a certain number can be inspirational in some ways by showing what is possible, it more often is a distraction and takes away from the message. New traders start by wanting to get rich and forget to learn how to trade and manage risk along the way.

Initially all I ever wanted to do was trade, and I fought like hell just to keep doing it and put food on the table. My second year trading, as a market maker I made the firm almost half a mil, and got a $5k bonus. They closed up shop and fired me a year later.

I was terrified I'd have to get "a real job" but I found another trading gig, and all I tried to do then was keep that job at all costs. I was a risk averse trader for years. Scalping and grinding my way until I could figure out what the hell I was doing.

Now I feel like I found an edge, have a system, and a market that I couldn't be more suited for, and that's what terrifies me.

I'm terrified the market will change (not going up or down, but slow down, limiting opportunities).

I'm also terrified of myself and my confidence.

I want to use this fear to keep me hungry and to keep me humble, cause if I don't do it myself the market will.

OK, sorry for the sidetrack on to 2020.

Just an insane year across the board on almost every level.

I got off to a fairly slow start, with moderate green months in Jan and Feb. Made a bundle on the way down in March and gave almost all of it back on the way up.

The timing of the March market sell off and the shutdowns was an added bit of chaos.

Bam, you work from home now (if you can ), and your kids are gonna be there too.

I spent most days, trading from a laptop frustrated that I was missing something.

Immediately I bought a trading set-up for at home, and then spent the next two weeks calling the company every day asking if it was ready yet and losing money anger trading on the laptop.

Gotta have your mind right to do this job well.

I got my computer, internet, and a new work from home routine finally all up and running. As well as some boundaries for the kids.

I needed to remove any and all the excuses I could make for screwing up a trade, so that nothing was left to blame but myself.

That's when things finally took off for me.

I found I was oddly suited to work from home. I'm already an introvert and a home-body. I was able to turn the commute time into more time with family or focused on the market.

I actually get up earlier now that I'm working from home than before. I try to get all my work done by 7:45 so I can spend 30 minutes with my family after they wake up and before the market opens. I love the extra time its created.

I put together 12 green months this year (March was close).

I hit my year's goal in September, then almost doubled it by the end of the year.

In December I thought I'd coast, making sure to not give anything back and it was the best month I've ever had.

I did not have a new best day, or a new worst day this year. This is what I'm most proud of. It shows consistency.

For the longest time I'd been obsessed with win rate. I wanted every trade to be green. Now this seems very naïve to me. You need to be comfortable with risk as a trader. You don't need to take big or unnecessary risks but you need to accept it, and live with it.

I think its probably more important for younger traders to focus on win rate, mostly as a defense mechanism to protect their confidence. However learning to live with risk and losses has opened me up to having the confidence to take bigger trades and ride winners longer.

I'm also much faster to take a loss on trades that don't pan out. So what if the trade is a loser. If its not there, its not there. Don't try and force a winner out of nothing. Save both your real and mental capital. And if it comes back just get back in.

The two ways I know when I'm trading my best is when I'm cutting losers immediately and not chasing (doing less).

Its patience and decisiveness.

Here is the one number I will give. I paid small six figures in commissions this year.

I'm a real active day-trader and I need a real broker to support me. I need confidence in my executions or this just feels like another broken link in the chain.

Sorry this was so long-winded, thanks for indulging me.

Typing things out feels like therapy sometimes.

I'll do trading resolutions sometime this week.

(End)

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