Improvements to the lockout

Ever accumulate trading profits only to hand it ALL back and then some? Ever ponder how to prevail over this difficult Trader default? Well look no more! With a Lockin-Profit feature!

Idea is as follows: A must feature for TopStep Traders who are in profit and would like to lock in their profit, yet do not want a missed potential market opportunity slipping by from using the full Lockout feature. Example: Trader is up $2200 and decides they shall at the very least lock in $2000, they can decide that if they shall lose or drawdown $200 of that profit from that time, then the account would be liquidated and locked out; as well as giving the option of a Trailing Lockin-Profit; whereas they may keep trading while the Lockin-Profit is in place and will trail their profit to their fixed amount of choice until it is breached, then it shall Lock the account, in profit. This is the simple concise version of this idea, please feel free to read on below if you like reading as I dive deeper.

The remainder of this idea is as follows, reviews relevant psychological research and literature, introduces examples of this topic, and final section presents conclusions and provides recommendations for future research specifically for TopStep personnel.

Traders are humans, thus bad trading habits may form. Somewhere a Trader is revenge trading, because the Trader is trying to recuperate a loss of profit they had already captured that day. This grievous habit, permitted to, can spiral into losing ALL the arduous profits one has already made. Has this befriended you? I assure it is a trading bane of my existence. Once inimical habits are formed, they can be stubborn, even detrimental to our trading. Personally, I tell myself "stop doing that", and most of the time the self-critique fails in the moment, the behavior already played out and its consequences are being felt. My profits vaporizing before me is a feeling of thirst in a parched desert, a raisin drying up in the blistering desert sun, it just stinks, like rotten meat. Agony I say!

Surely I believe this Lockin-Profit feature will truly help Traders form better habits when they utilize the feature on TopStepX. I personally have had many many days of losing the market proceeds already attained, due to trying to hit the combine bench mark, or profit targets, even to go as far as being up +$2600 [trying to hit $3000, the 50% target for a 100k combine] to ending the day DLL at -$2200. It would have been avoided if a Lockin-Profit feature was already in place.

"Know thyself", and I do know myself, and understand Traders know they should not seek revenge, gamble, or overtrade, and yet we partake. I believe this Lockin-Profit feature on TopStepX will reinforce specific behaviors, shifting traders actions from diliberate to habitual in the retaining of hard to find market profit. Changing habits may never be easy. Mark Twain said, "Habit is a habit, and not to be flung out the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs one step at a time."

Now, It seams easy for some to say, "well you need to exercise more self-discipline and just stop trading". Easier said than done of course. Considering numerous studies have provided us with empirical evidence that habit forming and self-discipline are significantly psychologically different. [Pavlov's conditioned reflex vs learned a.k.a classical conditioning, Watson's Behaviorism, B.F. Skinner Operant conditioning, Loewenstien 1996, Finucane 2000, Solvic 2002, etc. ] There is a direct correlation between securing profits and gaining more in the minds of Traders; this feature can go a long way in developing beneficial trading habits for Traders, specifically in the operation of securing profits.

I personally battle in the loss-of-profit arena, and do know other Traders are undertaking the same contest. Just to possess the feeling one is not isolated in the struggle yields a serene effect. Therefore I say to the imperfect Trader, Ye are not alone. I thirst for a comfortable life equal to those that have already overcome profit targets, securing profits, willpower to just stop and such as well. And just because another Trader is already rooted with all the parts of not overtrading, protecting their profits via self-discipline and superstar Trading habits, does not affirm the process that shaped their self-control will be the same for others. I believe through technology by way of TopStep's altruistic management of their Traders, will do the same for Traders as myself through a Lockin-Profit feature on TopStepX.

One may lack inner substance and stand weak against the loss of profits or the need for more, yet be cognitive of and disciplined enough to allow technology/TopStepX Trailing Lockin-Profit feature to make the ultimate daily trading decision. This feature would relieve the stressful trading conundrum- "trade or not to trade when in profit."

FOR TopStep Personnel:

Whether this explosive idea of a Lockin-Profit or a Trailing Lockin-Profit concept is agreed upon or not, its use from the TopStepX "Research Analyst" will collect more than useful relevant data, a.k.a. profitable-information. This trading management adjustment may yield great results.

The data obtained will show that a Trader will have the motivation to achieve self-discipline in securing profits through the TopStepX feature, thus creating a beneficial Trading habit in utilizing a "Trailing Lockin-Profit feature", an obvious cognitive decision, in return will have rich implications in Trading, Investment, and Research Analysis. This is a promising area for future study for improving knowledge of how profits are truncated, to the extreme of daily and max loss limits invoked. Moreover, linking the most used and favored Lock-out feature with a new Trailing Lockin-Profit stop is complementary rather than antithetical.

Integrating these two knowledge domains [the Self and Technology] offers a promising way. This data may bridge the gap between these two knowledge domains by linking quantifiable psychological research and simple interpreted sentiment influence on traders mental management of an on going trade. Thus incorporating these TopStepX platform choices [Lockout and Lockin-Profit] into each other goes a long way toward interpreting a psychological difference with the inevitable un-disciplined trader, who will since form a habit of disciplined profit consumption.

Enhancing knowledge of the influence of one motivated to use technology, in this case the Lockin-Profit feature, to form a positive profitable habit requires further study to incorporate different economic, emotional factors as well as cultural into this accumulated data. Of course the data is only obtained when the new Trailing Lockin-Profit feature is implemented.