Day 7. No trades.

Woke at 4:30 again. Looks like it's turning into a regular thing. Anyway, not the most exciting day in the world. Lots of movement but none that met my criteria. Came close several times but then no way jose, so I had to cancel the pending order each time.

A few things to note about myself though...

Sticking to the rules I laid out feels automatic now. There was no hesitation in canceling those pendings and there was no urge to jump in the market, even with the obvious downtrend. If my rules aren't met, I don't trade. Simple. I didn't even think of the good boy/bad boy jars. For the most part I forgot they were there until I noticed them after my session. I'm a bit surprised about this really, considering how I was trading just a few weeks ago all wild-eyed and retarded. I look at one of my first blog posts, the one that shows a ton of trades and think, "What the fuck?" hah.

Oh yeah, when I was about to take trades, like before I noticed myself getting worked up. So I took a few deep breaths and tried noticing how I was feeling. That helped to calm me quite a bit.

I've been thinking about the setup I trade. I only use 1 and it's super strict. I do have others that I feel are valid but originally I just wanted to focus on 1 to make it easier to build discipline. I've been wondering if, at this point, that is hindering my growth. Meaning, since it's keeping me out of the market so often am I being tested enough? How will I react if I take several losses in a row? Will I really stop for the day at 10pips down like my rules state? How will I react if I get a huge winner? When I played poker in the past and had a great winning day,  I would then get too reckless and lose more than I should have back to the table. It was like some weird la-la land feeling where I thought, "Ahhhh, I'm up a bunch today. I can just splash some money around now, no biggie". But it is a biggie because in the long run that adds up. A lot! So what about now, will I start to take stupid risks after big winning trades, or will I stick to my rules? With my current setup it could take forever to find out.

Or is all the above a bunch of bullshit? Are my old ways of wanting to take a million trades planting thoughts in my mind to take over once again?

I will ponder.