I started the week with a non-trading related expense of around £400 and while my trading started off on strong footing, things deteriorated from Wednesday onward and I ended the week with an after-expenses loss of just over £500 (-4.1%).
I’m giving myself a road-map scoring of just 4 out of 10 because I ended up chasing a loss and this sent my trading behaviour in to a negative spiral, which hasn’t happened in a while. I’m just fortunate I didn’t lose more and I’m glad the loss wasn’t due to a fundamental flaw in my trading approach, because this gives me reason to keep pressing forward. You can see from my equity line that I’ve been struggling to break well north of the 12,000 level for a while now. My break-even target remains some way away at £18,000.
Here’s how it feels:
4 responses so far ↓
Gav // 24 March, 2007 at 1:32 am |
I really hope you can achieve your target and continue blogging your process. Your blog is inspirational to me.
Keep up the good trading and blogging.
Gav
Phileo // 24 March, 2007 at 6:59 am |
Hi Caravaggio,
Note that the natural, round number of $10K was not an obstacle at all for you. It would seem to me then, that this is an obstacle created by your mind. Unfortunately, I’m not sure what the solution would be. What a cruel game we play !!
Caravaggio // 26 March, 2007 at 11:00 am |
Trader Gav – many thanks for the compliments, and congratulations on making it on to the ‘Best Blogs’ list!. Keep up the good work friend.
Caravaggio // 26 March, 2007 at 11:19 am |
Phileo – You’ve nailed it. I am probably attaching too much significance to this level and this is resulting in me pushing a little too hard, at the margin. The £10K level didn’t seem important because at this stage I was still light years away from break even, requiring a gain of a further 80%.
I think a good parallel to where I stand is a game of tennis, where the score is 4-3 in games, with both players winning their service games. However, the receiver now has a chance to break serve and this would take the score to 5-3, creating a massive shift in the balance of power. Likewise, at £12K, break-even is on the horizon but it’s just a tiny dot, requiring a gain of a further 50%. If I make it to £14K however, I’ll require an increase of just 28.5% to get to break-even, bringing the goal of getting back to balance within the realms of possibility. To me, this would be the equivalent of breaking the opponent’s serve at a critical juncture in the game. I think the solution is just to carry on as is, and not to treat the game any differently. Patience and fortitude is required.