I have had a great four weeks, and so this is what I've been up to lately.
After I have made some profit for the week (aiming for 5% or more), I pay myself to STOP trading for the rest of the week. I will start off the week taking various small TP's, but my last trade of the week so far has always been after I caught a good part of a trending move, the point that I decide to exit out of that.
MightyOne suggested to me a long time ago to match my profits with outside money until I can no longer afford to do so. (Something like that, there was a bit more context to the statement, I'm sure.) Anyways, I have actually been adding DOUBLE the profits I make in a week.
So yeah, I have been paying myself to STOP trading after I have made a profit; I have been paying myself to not be overly greedy & trade-hungry, is another way that I look at it as well.
This has helped me in several ways:
-I can take the rest of the week off to study past screenshots, or even continue to follow the current PA without feeling bad about not catching more pips out of a move, since I have already paid myself a BUNCH of extra pips.
-I am forced to calm down and not think that I am on some kind of 'hot streak' and therefore need to get in on every valid setup for the rest of the week.
-This outside money is money that I ACTUALLY REALLY want to get back out, so I am not as reckless when I start off trading the next week, after having a profitable previous week. (The outside money is not for taking the risk of finding a trade, it is for once I have room to add into a move and still remain protected during a PB. --I am also using the profit from other trades to cushion the use of this 'outside money'.)
As is standard, following STRICTLY not to lose more than 5% in a week. *Also* what helps me in this is that when I am calculating my entry leverages for the week, my calculations are done off of 75% of my account value. (I don't remember if my 5% weekly loss is calculated off of my real account value, or my 75% account value.)
This is because I am not TOTALLY confident in my entry skills, and for just in case I get stubborn with my analysis and start taking too many entries, I don't hurt my account nearly as much as I could have. When I feel confident in my entry abilities and that I will not OVERTRADE at a particular entry area if I am not getting it right, I will GLADLY make my entries based on my real account value.
Also, when I have OPM I am more willing to enter a trade closer to the REAL Entry leverage value.
However, the fact that I have been making pretty decent returns starting the week with 75% account values is VERY interesting to me. ESPECIALLY SINCE for the last four weeks, I have reached % goals by Wednesday night!! (Actually, last week, I reached % goals by Tuesday night, but decided to push a trade further rather than close it out. It worked out great since a 7% weekly gain turned into a 15% weekly gain overnight.)
Speaking of which, having the outside money is great b/c of the accelerated gains to my 'actual trading money'.
For example, if my trading money is $1000 and I make 5% in a week, my trading money account has gone up 5% (duh!).
If, however, I added $1000 of outside money to my trading money, my account is now $2000. If I earn the same 5% in a week, and then
give back the $1000 of outside money, my trading money account has actually gone up 10% instead!
That being said, my 'trading money' has gone up 171.44% since March 22.
(Weekly gain profits are always calculated based on the full account value --'trading money' + 'outside money'--.)
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