In fact, after achieving stable profits, it's not as wonderful as everyone thinks. The passion for trading is lost, and what remains is just a job. Let me briefly discuss my own state and feelings.
After achieving stable profits, the most frequent activity is waiting. If the process of establishing and testing the trading system in the early days can be described as "dull," then executing the trading system afterwards can be called "boring," especially after a long period of time.
The first year might still feel painful because you have to constantly fight against your own human nature. After the second and third years, it becomes much more indifferent, and it's mostly just waiting tediously, waiting for the appearance of trading signals, waiting for the market to push to the target position.
Some might say: with intraday trading, high frequency, do you still have to wait? No. Even intraday trading requires the market to reach the entry criteria of the intraday trading system before opening a position. If the market movement does not conform to the standards of the trading system and does not reach our ideal entry position, it might not open a position for the entire day.
My current daily state is to analyze the market in the morning, formulate today's trading plan according to the trading system, and then patiently wait for the market to reach the points in the trading plan before opening a position. After opening a position, it's another long wait.
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Waiting with a detached eye is the state of stable profit in trading. If you find your trading state to be busy and flustered, you can also look at your trading results, and most likely you are losing more than you are earning, because I also went through this in the early days.
The chart is a 1-hour candlestick chart of the euro against the US dollar, with the left and right sides being completely identical trends.
During the continuous downtrend, the market is suppressed by the downtrend line and keeps oscillating down, staying at a low level. There are two possibilities that need to be waited for in the current candlestick pattern in this chart:
The left-side market tests the pressure of the downtrend line upwards, and after forming a reversal, it enters to go short, which is the first possibility.The right-side market has made an upward breakthrough of this downtrend line, confirming the market's shift to bullish. After that, we wait for the market to pull back, and then take a long position after the support reverses. This is the second possibility.
At this moment, no trading operations are needed. Just draw the line and wait; everyone can observe the subsequent trend.
After waiting for two hours, the market broke above the downtrend line and turned bullish, realizing the second possibility shown in the above image. At this point, we still need to continue waiting, waiting for the market to fall back to the support below, which is the position of the blue circle in the image, and form a reversal candlestick pattern. After confirmation, we can enter a long position.
Next, we continue to wait and see the subsequent trend.
After the market broke through, it underwent a 20-hour pullback and consolidation, tested the support line, and formed a reversal candlestick pattern. At this time, we can enter a long position, with the stop loss set at the low point of the reversal candlestick, and a 3:1 risk-reward ratio.
Okay, we continue to wait and see the market, to see if it can come out.
After the order entered, it took another three hours of waiting, and the market moved, successfully taking profit.
The entire trading process, from drawing the downtrend line and waiting, to the order entry, to taking profit, took a total of 25 hours. During this period, the steps we need to operate are very few, and the time spent is also very little, probably only a few minutes. 99% of the time, we are just waiting silently, doing nothing.
This is the state of my usual trading, which also tests the trader's patience.
Let's talk about the psychological state after achieving stable profits.There is a saying that describes us traders: there is no grand enlightenment, just a series of mistakes and realizations at every step.
From being a novice trader at the beginning to eventually achieving stable profits, the so-called refined skills are nothing more than a collection of various failures, accumulated bit by bit; and the maturity of the mindset is also forged through various torments, gradually endured and realized.
This process will have many ups and downs, with moments of high profits and painful times of significant losses. When all this finally settles, time slowly sifts away much of the impetuosity, even the belligerence, from oneself, leaving only peace.
It is like an elderly person who, after experiencing the ups and downs of life, the torments of human nature, and even partings, sees the world in a peaceful light, with almost nothing left that can stir his emotions.
My current mindset is that gains and losses are as ordinary to me as eating a meal. My trading system is very stable, and I do not fear the potential for significant losses it might bring, nor do I expect it to bring me windfalls. I just coexist peacefully with it, making a bit of money is quite good, and my expectations are not high.
It's almost as plain as can be.
I have been trading for more than a decade now, and trading to me is like a job, repeating the same trading actions every day on trading days. Over time, a sense of boredom inevitably sets in, which is a very real psychological state.
So, in fact, before entering a field, everyone feels it is beautiful and full of anticipation, simply because they do not understand enough. There will come a day when you feel bored with any job you do.