Guts!

Excellent post, I am sure many ( including myself) can relate..  I have tried much faster charts, ( 3, 2, and 1 minute, along with tick charts 2000, 1500, 1000, ... )  and for the most part, the faster the chart, the worse my trading is. However,  there is one exception, and for whatever strange reason, for the ES, the 2 minute chart seems to be a sweet spot for me.  I would check it out, maybe trade with it   for a few weeks ? 

( I know that Al does not do this, but I would still keep a 5 minute chart floating around somewhere,  as I think there are 
few other time frames that give a better "overview"..  The ten minute is OK  as well for context, but that's way too long for me to trade from.    Good luck and let us know how it goes !! 

Kelly,  

Here's a small suggestion that helped me quite a bit with the same issue:  I changed the display so I couldn't see profit/loss in dollars on an open trade.  This forced me to focus on the chart and my premise for entering and exiting the trade rather than on gains or losses.  

Good luck!

Feed the birds,

As Kelly said, many will relate to this, myself included. The worse thing is doing ok in the simulator and really bad in a real account.

With all the respect, I think your problem is behavioral. You know what to do, but you don't do it. I think you should research in psicology of trading. From my experience, you may be operating by fear of being wrong, losing money or you have negative subconscious beliefs about making money, or trading the markets. You even could have doubts about your capabilities of being in this business.

I am not saying that's the case, but it's more common that you can imagine.

I recommend "Secret's of the millionaire mind", by T. Harv Eker, "Trading in the zone", by Mark Douglas, "Market Wizards" By Jack Schwager and "Trade your financial way to freedom" by Van K. Tharp. Choose one and it will be a good start.

Hi Feed the birds,

Try this:

- upon entering a position go for a long walk - for about an hour or so. 

- trade minuscule position sizes that doesn't matter to you.

both advices are given by Al during the course.

 cheers.

May be you are not trading small enough still... You think you are trading small enough, but you are still caring, either:

about the money,

or about being right.

For 1st, may be cut your position in half again, so that winning that trade doesn't mean anything to you AT ALL. And hence losing also would not mean anything. 

For 2nd, you just need to internalize what Al says, for ANY trade the probability is between 60-40%. So no matter what you do, just accept the fact that at least for 40% of the time you ARE going to be wrong.

Now it is upto you whether you want to be wrong 40% of the time by not following what you have learnt. Or,

You want to be wrong 40% of the time following what you have learnt in the course.

The second option at least helps you develop correct habit. The first option develops the wrong habit, also it nullifies having done the course, because if you are not following what you have learnt in the course, then (at least for that trade) you are no better than someone who has not done the course.

Having said that, I also struggle with the same issue, and what I wrote above is what I keep telling myself 🙂

@kellyjames maybe al is ok with the 2min chart for scalping, because his 2 scalping videos he published about 2 months ago used the 2min chart. 😀

Posted by: @graexx

@kellyjames maybe al is ok with the 2min chart for scalping, because his 2 scalping videos he published about 2 months ago used the 2min chart. 😀

Standby for the next scalping video due next week where Al uses a 15-second chart!! 😎