Last week, we had 4 students from Canada visit our Atlanta day trading office. They wanted to trade with us for the entire week.
Our day trading consists of research for 1 hour from 9:00am to 10:00am EST. During that time, we research all markets and find the best momentum Ichimoku trade for currencies, stocks, and futures. From 10:00am to 11:30am EST, we take the trades from our research hour.
As a teacher, my responsibility is to make sure the student’s trade the institutional way. On Wednesday of last week, the goal was to test the students to see what they would do under a high pressure situation. At 9:00 am EST, I announced to everyone in the office, they had to find a profitable trade by 11:30am EST. If they didn’t and I took a profitable trade by 11:30am, they would be fined the amount of profit I took on my trade.
There was no real opportunity in the market. As a result, I moved into a “scalping” mode on the GBPCHF to claim 40 pips by 11:30am EST. By 10:13am EST, I had taken 40 pips of profit on the GBPCHF off scalping. I openly announced I had taken profit and i was done trading for the day.
Now, everyone HAD to find a profitable trade. No scalping was allowed so they had to find a trade off the 10 minute time frame or higher.
6 students found trades but they really weren’t trades! Instead of “standing their ground” and stating there are no opportunities, they tried to force low probability trades. Trades that could have worked out but they would be getting rewarded for a mistake which is definitely not good.
Under a high pressure situation, you have to become a computer and not react. You have to follow your trading plan and not force anything at all. You can not chase the markets. You have to wait for the markets to come to you!
