It would appear that activity in the Attic has dwindled to a standstill!
No blog posts since 10th May and no trades since the 5th May!
There are two reasons for this lull in activity.
1) After a period of relative success, I find I subconsciously protect my account by reducing my trading activity – I call this Subconscious Profit Protection
2) I’ve been refining my strategy
Let me go into more detail.
Reason #1 – Subconscious Profit Protection 
This is not the first time that I have ceased to trade after a period of relative success. It seems to be a defense mechanism that is built into my subconscious. I need to work on this, because I do not want to stop trading after successes, what I want to do is protect profits whilst continuing to work the account. At least I’ve identified this personality trait. How I deal with it is the next step.
Answers on postcard….
Reason #2 – Strategy Refinement
I’ve acknowledged elsewhere on this blog, that my method of stock selection needs improvement. I’ve never had a trading strategy that allows me to auto scan 100’s of stocks in order to find a pattern that then provides me with a short-list of stocks to analyse further. I’ve been addressing this – and recently purchased a license for a product called AmiBroker. So far, I’ve been mightily impressed with its functionality. I’ve been working on developing code to auto-scan a list of FTSE companies in order to provide a short-list of stocks that I can investigate further. I’m progressing well, but I have to say, that my coding skills are somewhat rusty and it is taking a little more time than I’d planned. I hope to start trading with the system in the next week or so.
I have a similar personality trait, in both trading and poker. What’s worse, is that I also have an overwhelming desire to win (in trading and poker) after a series of losses. This is a lot more detremental to the bankroll and way more difficult for me to control. It’s sucks being a faulty human sometimes.
Hi Rickey – Thx for the comment. It’s important that we recognize these ‘faulty traits’ – as understanding ’self’ is key to fixing it.
How do you personally deal with this issue?
AtticMan, for trading I attempt to not make any discretionary trades, only system generated trades. Easier said then done, but it keeps me from making the emotional trade. For poker, I put a short time limit on the length of my sessions.
Keeping to the plan is (as you quite rightly point out) much much harder than it sounds. If you do feel the need to make discretionary trades, maybe you should allow for this – perhaps using smaller size?