Back to blogging

I've had a hard go of it over the last 2 years. I changed my trading style from stock screening and longer term swing trading, to day trading futures. I went from working with my wife in a high paying job, to trading for an income for the entire family. My trading account went from a tidy and comfortable amount of money to about the amount that I started trading 7 years ago. My ego deflated. My trading sucked.

I've recently started pulling things together. I went back to work, and my wife recently joined me. I no longer need to trade for the mortgage payment each month (which I found to be incredibly stressful). I can take my time and take only the best trades.

I'm still making foolish mistakes. I think they're residual emotional problems from the pressure I felt to make money. I'm making fewer of them, but they're still there.

It's funny. I read dozens of trading books that harped on psychological issues in trading. I thought they were all silly. I never made emotional mistakes when I was trading for fun.

But when I needed the money, holy cow, I made every mistake I had read about (and some that I can add to my own book some day). I began to hate blogging because every day seemed like more of a failure than the last. I wasn't motivated to let folks know how stupid I was being. No one wants to read about a trader who loses money. I certainly didn't want to write about one.

I think I'm more ready for that now. I think I might be able to keep some traders from making the same mistakes that I have. I hope that my struggles with my emotions in the trading world will maybe help a few of you out there make better decisions than I did.