The Comback Mindset

[swansjr 10]

I few days ago I stumbled upon Don Millar's trading blog. It's a fantastic blog about day trading. You won't find trading indicators, techniques or setups but the site is full of trading inspiration and wisdom. I would like to highlight one idea that I ran across on his site that really resonated with me.

 

In summary, Don proposed a little psychological challenge to himself. Knowing that he performs well while recovering from drawdowns he trades based upon an "imaginary" equity curve that's experiencing a sever drawdown. His real equity curve may be humming along just fine. However, to motivate himself he will imagine he is experiencing a vigorous drawdown and thus, will trade with the focus and determination to do well in order to recover.

 

Don calls this, "Get myself in the "comeback" mindset in every moment of every trade of every day."

 

I thought this was a fantastic idea. You can read about it here.

Edited May 12, 2009 by Soultrader

[brownsfan019 17]

I enjoy reading Don's blog as he tells it like it is and is selling nothing.

 

I like his poker analogies and fighting out of a hole is something that you face in poker as well. I often find that when I lose a pot, I tighten up and play my A game - which usually results in winning a few nice pots. Same can be said in poker - when I am down, while it's hard, I seem to tighten up my focus and get the job done. When you are up, it's too easy to 'play' sloppy - either take trades you normally wouldn't, or call big raises with 5-6 suited hoping to hit a straight flush...

[AgeKay 10]

Agree, I have been reading his blog for some time and it's excellent. Be aware though, he posts every day and on the weekend you'll get a video where he sums up his week so it takes a little time to keep up.

 

This is the only trader in the internet I know that is successful and does not try to sell you shit. He prefers to trade like a market maker - providing liquidity - but does the occasional "speculative trades" (what he calls it) which are basically just directional trades. He trades a lot of contracts though and is member of CME, so his pays lower commission (saved him half a million last year).