Let?s get it straight forward. I earned some money today. But, the problem is, according to plan, I should have earned more. Instead of closing the day with 3.5-R profit, I should have closed it with 5-R or maybe a little bit more.

Dow mini trade was the mistake of the day. I again closed the trade prematurely due to my psychological weakness. In fact, I did plan the trade before that, however, I decided to chicken out again, forgetting the darn rules.

Well, on the hindsight, I did see the improvement after when I start to work the plan, follow the rules and let the profit run. E-mini Nasdaq trade went pretty well with 3-R gain. My main problem now is EXIT. I have no problem with my stop loss execution. However, when it comes to exit a profitable trade, I do not have a concrete plan yet.

I had some discussion with Vincent on the topic of profit taking. We review some strategies used by bloggers like Mike and Maoxian. Maoxian was right by saying that

?in the end, everyone is different. i might be comfortable walking away from the screens and do OK and someone else finds they do best by never missing a tick … you have to know yourself, figure out what makes you tick.?

No single strategy is perfect, it comes down to trader?s personality and his/her ?Needs? of profit. Here are some links I have found related to this topic.

Taylor tree?s Scale Fish Not trade Part I
Taylor tree’s Scale Fish Not trade Part II

Trader Mike?s Note to self: Look to sell half

The worst mistake a trader can make is the mistake that producing profitable results. Yesterday?s trading was the worst session since I?ve started day trading. It was the worst performance, though no financial damage. I did not have huge loss, instead I ended the day in black.

Few mistakes were made yesterday. E-mini S&P trade, I was merely impatient to jump into the trade. I had an unknown agenda to trade.

The second mistake I made was assuming I knew what the market was going to do. I chickened out because of my assumption. Was I affected by the Monday market? I guess so. And I thought the coming CPI reports would limit the upside of stock indices. Instead of facing the fact which were presented in front of me, I made trading decision based on my ?understanding? of market behavior, and my ?anticipation? of coming event.

The fact was simple and obvious. There was no change of intraday trend, both Nasdaq and Dow were just taking a breath before continued moving up. Yes, I might be right, upside might be limited, but the best approach for me should be following my planned trailing strategy and let the market stop me out, instead of closing the position prematurely based on gut feeling. Follow the rules, let the winners run, stupid.

It is important but tough to just stick to the rules each and every time, stop anticipating or worse, ?expecting? the upcoming event.

John Carter mentioned in his new book ?Mastering the trade?:

Once I was able to follow my setups consistently, exactly the same way each and every time, I was able to make the transition to trading full time. A large part of my transition was mental and developing what I call a ?professional state of mind?

Maybe I should consider Ugly?s method by tatooing my trading rules on my fingers.