Archives of “January 18, 2019” day

rss

Learn to trust yourself

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

Trust your plan and trust your powers of judgment. Furthermore, keep this sense of confidence in yourself throughout the duration of your position in the market. Loosing confidence in yourself and your trading plan while holding a market position most often results in losses. If doubt is haunting you and you cannot control, it is best to simply offset your position and be clear of the market. Reversing or altering your trading plan in mid-trade is the last thing you should do.

The most important thing to remember about trading with confidence is this: No matter how diligent or thorough your research into a particular trade, you may still end up wrong about the direction of the market. This is true for everyone, nobody is right every time. You might be wrong this time, but your trading plan (with clearly defined loss thresholds) will save you. So, in the final analysis, it isn’t always being right about the direction of the market that will make you a success. Instead, it is having the discipline to stick to your trading plan that will.

Be Imperfect

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #

As a trader – or an investor – you will not be right all of the time. If you can accept your imperfection, and work within it, you will be much more successful:

If you have a perfectionist mentality when trading, you are setting yourself up for failure, because it is a “given” that you will experience losses along the way. You must begin to think of trading as a game of probability. Your losses ( that you hope will return to breakeven) will kill you. If you cannot take a loss when it is small ( because of the need to be perfect), then you will watch that small loss grow into a larger loss and so on into a vicious cycle of more and more pain for the perfectionist. Trading on hope does not work. The markets can remain irrational for a lot longer than you can remain solvent.

The object should be excellence in trading, not perfection. Moreover, it is essential to strive for excellence over a sustained period, as opposed to judging that each trade must be excellent. This is a marathon…not a sprint.

The greatest traders know how to take cut losses and let winning positions run. Perfectionists often do exactly the opposite. They get in at the wrong time, stay in too long and then get out the wrong time. Perfectionists are always striving and never arriving. The market will find the flaw in a perfectionistic trader and exploit it day after day.

25 Trading Truths

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

Seeing an opportunity and acting upon it are two different things.
•  Price has memory. Odds are what price did the last time it hit a certain level will be repeated  . . .
•  Pay attention to price action, regardless of what the charts are saying.
•  Look for a reversal at the same place you’re expecting a breakout or breakdown.
•  Price action sets up against the majority; the best profits are often in the opposite direction of the way you’re planning to go.
• Add to your winners and cut your losers. ’nuff said.
•  Opportunities come along all of the time. Wait for the best ones.
•  Don’t overly anticipate or see things that aren’t there. Wait for your signals.
•  The day isn’t over until the closing bell ring. The way it ends may be vastly different from how it begins.
•  Your first job isn’t to make money. It’s to protect capital.
•  Don’t rush to buy the lowest price or sell the highest price; It could get much lower or much higher before turning around. (more…)

Trading Lessons From Nicolas Darvas

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

Nicolas DarvasNicolas Darvas has inspired traders for many generations. His book, “How I Made 2,000,000 in the Stock Market” is one that you’ll find on many recommended reading lists including my own. While some have argued that much of Darvas’ success had to do with lucky timing, his books are still widely read and for good reason.

A lot of traders can identify easily with Darvas because he went through the process of learning how to trade much like most people do today. Darvas began by first looking for the “secret” to the market. And, just like all of us have found, after finding no success from trading on the stock tips of others including brokers and expensive newsletters, Darvas figured out that he ultimately had to develop a trading system on his own. He accomplished that feat by committing himself to years of study of the market and from learning from his own mistakes. His determination, perseverance, and constant self-evaluation offers an excellent model for all traders to follow.

In continuing a series of posts where I share my notes I’ve taken (and refer to from time to time) after reading the books and methods of others, here are some things you may find of interest about Nicolas Darvas and his approach:

Trading Lessons From Nicolas Darvas:

  • There are no good or bad stocks. There are only stocks that rise in price and stocks that decline in price, and that price is based on the laws of supply and demand in the marketplace
  • “You can never go broke taking a profit” is bad advice that will result in overtrading and cutting winners short. Selling winners and holding losers is to be avoided at all times (more…)

A Personality Questionnaire for Traders

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #

The following questionnaire asks you to assess your emotional experience during your trading. Specifically, you’ll be rating how often you’ve experienced the following feelings over the past two weeks. Below, I’ll explain how to score the questionnaire; please complete the items before looking at the scoring. My next post will explain how to interpret your results.
Please use the following scale for your responses:
1 = rarely
2 = occasionally
3 = sometimes
4 = often
5 = most of the time
1) I feel happy when I’m trading _____
2) I feel stressed when I’m trading _____
3) I feel alert and energetic when I’m trading _____
4) I feel discouraged when I’m trading _____
5) I feel capable of succeeding at my trading _____
6) I blame myself when my trading doesn’t work out _____
7) I feel satisfied with my trading results _____
8) I feel edgy and frustrated when I’m trading _____
9) I feel in control of what happens in my trading _____
10) I make impulsive decisions when I’m trading _____
SCORING
Add the scores for the odd items. That is your positive emotional experience score: _____
Add the scores for the even items. That is your negative emotional experience score: ____
The ratio of your positive to negative experience is one of the most important psychological contributors to your trading performance. 

Go to top