Archives of “February 5, 2019” day

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Traders -Remember These Two Words-Won't & Can't

  
  Education
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Won’t– Phrases include: “The market won’t…” or “I won’t make money”. Notice a theme here? You are part of the market, you are not the market. Not getting what you expect, even if it is positive, confuses the brain. If you expect to lose and don’t it is still a bad outcome. Your brain is going through enough as it is. The market is a one way walkie talkie, you listen, it talks.

Can’t– Phrases include: “The market can’t..” or “I can’t…” or “I can’t lose anymore”. Yes the market can, go look at a chart. Go look at a Fed day or about any chart from 2008. Not only can it happen, it does happen. There are no more once in a lifetime moves in the market. There are and always have been life changing moves. No one ever said trading was easy but at least in the case of futures someone is taking your money. If you think you can’t, you probably wont. The market will take every penny you have. If can take every penny you put at risk. Fix the problem, when you run out of money it is too late.

14 Questions for Traders

  
  Education
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1)       Do I treat my trading/investing like a business?  Have I prepared for it the way I would for any other business?

2)      Do I have a business plan – a working document to guide my trading business?

3)      Do I have a set of written rules to follow?

4)      Am I following a regular procedure to prevent mistakes?  A mistake means not following your rules that you have laid out for yourself.

5)      Do I have a tested trading methodology?

6)      Do I know how my methodology will perform in different kinds of markets?

7)      Do I know what kind of market we are currently in now and what to expect from my methods in such a market?  Should I be trading these markets?

8)      Do I trade with exact exit points that are preplanned for every trade (position) I take?

9)      Have I developed specific objectives for my trading/investing?

10)    Do I understand that I achieve my objectives through a POSITION SIZING METHOD?   Have I developed a specific position sizing method to meet my objectives?

11)   Do I truly understand the importance of all the questions mentioned above?

12)   Do I understand that I create my own trading/investment results through my thoughts and beliefs?

13)   Do I accept full responsibility for that creation?

14)   Do I regularly work on myself to make sure that I follow the very important points (questions) above? (more…)

Market Timing

  
  Education
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“Market timing is the art of making investment decisions using indicators and strategies to observe and determine the direction of prices. Many believe that market timing involves predicting the future, when in reality, the goal of market timing is to participate in periods of price strength and avoid periods of price weakness.?

THE SUCCESSFUL TRADER … ACCORDING TO MARK DOUGLAS

  
Analysis, Education
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douglasquote

There is a reason why so few traders succeed.  It is not for lack of study or effort or passion.  It is not for lack of education or a Bloomberg platform subscription.  It is not because only a select few have access to technical “secrets” (a.k.a. indicators).  No.  So few succeed at trading for the same reason that so few succeed at living an abundant life.

The unsuccessful refuse to think differently when faced with difficulties believing that luck has passed them by.  They do not succeed because the want of instant gratification and its fleeting rewards has replaced the need for sustainable, hard fought, earned rewards indicative of a mindset prepared to tackle failure as nothing but a mathematical equation: here is the problem now let’s find the solution.

The mediocre search for easy answers to difficult problems believing that the right answers to their questions are found somewhere “out there”.   The successful make difficult decisions where there are no easy answers, questioning whether their perception of what is out there is a distorted reflection of what is inside of them.

The best traders, according to Mark Douglas, think differently than others because they know that what is most important is “how they think about what they do and how they’re thinking when they do it.”

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