What am I good at // What am I bad at

I under performed greatly in the last 2 weeks of trading. Even though the market offered tremendous opportunities to the down side, I had failed to capture a big piece of the pie when I knew I should have. Even though I didn't lose money, as a short term trade these are the times to shine. The turbulent move had somehow caught me off guard. It is time to refocus on what I do well and what needs to be fixed. 

The key to maximizing profits is to making trades that I am good at and reducing trades that don't fit my personality/style, doing this while keeping losses consistently small and contained.

Things I'm good at:

• Identifying key inflection points from price structure for subsequent big price moves 
• Reacting after the inflection point is triggered
• Trend following. Also knowing when a trend changes
• Setting stop losses and following through with them when I am wrong
• Position sizing while keeping potential losses constant
• Sensing market psychology
• Able to recognize my psychological state at every moment

What am I bad at (needs to be removed / re-calibrated):

• Trading on the micro / tick level (stop doing this for now)
• Scaling in while anticipating a potential turning point (most losses / over-trading have resulted from this case) (stop doing this for now)
• Trading on tilt when I am dissatisfied with my executions / performance on the day (resulting in losses / giving back winnings) (grind this in your head: mother market will punish you for being stupid; the market doesn't care if you gained or lost money)
• Sometimes unable to let go of negative psychological state and therefore trading to regulate my psychological state rather than focusing on the PROCESS of making a "one good trade". (Listen to the price structure, not your fears, not your preconceived notions, not other's opinions. It pays better.)
• Not letting the biggest portion of a winning position run its course. Cutting the position size too rapidly while in a winning position. (ask myself: are you running this trade from emotions or from objective price structure? Does the market care about what you think/afraid of? NO.)
• Sometimes caring too much about what other traders are performing, adding pressure to my own performance (resulting in putting on trades just to regulate this psychological state). They made this trade, which resulted in a bigger winner which I missed completely. The urge to catch up would emerge. Too much noise in my head. (again, mother market doesn't care for your stupid thoughts. Trade the stock first, everything else is noise to be ignored).
• Focusing too much energy/anxiety on monetary goals, afraid to lose profits, focusing too much on the P&L than focusing on making a "one good trade". (mother market gives you opportunities to make or lose money. If you have an edge or positive expectancy of your strategy and awesome risk control, then what's the problem?? take the plunge and see what happens! Anything else means you know for certain what will happen next, WHICH YOU DON'T. If you miss something, say "next", if you are afraid to get in there say "i'm making one good trade")
• Being fixated on the market being overextended; on other people's assessment of the market being overextended, therefore not having the conviction to follow through with execution. 
• Being bombarded with too many trading opportunities. The mind would start wonder around too much rather than focusing on 1 or 2 stocks, I started focusing on too many and beating myself up for missing every opportunity. The end result being having a demoralized mentality rather than an open mentality to focus on the NEXT trade. (It doesn't matter if the market / stock rallies or craps 400 points, your job as a short term intra-day trader is to trade anything that's liquid, high beta and range. As an eagle circling a pray and strike at the right moment, your job as a trader is to WAIT, WAIT AND WAIT for the inflection point and then STRIKE with predetermined risk management and profit potential. You are to make decisions base on price structure alone. You need to FOCUS on the PROCESS of making one good trade, and one good trade, and one good trade. MONEY gained or lost and MISSED OPPORTUNITIES have NOTHING to do with this process.)

Notice how most items in what I am bad at are psychological (what I am thinking), while most items on what I am good are are from sound reactions from being objective.

For the coming week. I will eliminate scalping on the micro level and anticipating moves before they materialize. I will pay close attention when I experience any of the negative emotional cues and use visualization exercises on a daily basis to make myself comfortable when facing these emotions.

Let's face it, the market will move anywhere it wants to either you put on a small or big sized position. It will keep going either you missed a move or being too early. The key is always to focus on what I KNOW to be objective turning points and let the market take me on or off trades.