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The importance of success in succeeding at trading.

  
  Education
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Different shapes and forms.

Failure comes in all different shapes and forms.  The distance you fall after a failure,  time it took to get to the failure,and whether you get back up determines that shape and form.   I realize there are a million posts on why failure is important but success is important, especially in trading.

Failure is different in trading.

Failure/losing in trading is not the same as failure in other contexts.  What is working right now is always changing. What happens to many traders is that they waste money until their system is working again or they run out of money before it happens.  I believe in having a process so you can adapt to that change.  When you find something that works continue to do it till it does not work.  A 100x easier said than done.

Trading is gambling for some. (more…)

Ritualize practice

  
  Education
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“The best way to insure you’ll take on difficult tasks is to ritualize them — build specific, inviolable times at which you do them, so that over time you do them without having to squander energy thinking about them.”  The best time to prepare for trading is before the market opens or late in the evening after you have had a break from the close.  Execution is based on proper preparation.  If you are properly prepared for the battle then the execution will be a synch.  Remember:  trading is war PREPARE your weapons.

If you wish to excel at trading it is going to take a lot of hard work but we all know that anything really worth having comes with a sacrifice of one thing for another.  As Mr Swartz sums it up:  “If you want to be really good at something, it’s going to involve relentlessly pushing past your comfort zone, along with frustration, struggle, setbacks and failures. That’s true as long as you want to continue to improve, or even maintain a high level of excellence. The reward is that being really good at something you’ve earned through your own hard work can be immensely satisfying.”

Use discipline to eliminate impulse trading

  
  Education
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  • Have a disciplined, detailed trading plan for each trade; i.e., entry, objective, exit, with no changes unless hard data changes. Disciplined money management means intelligent trading allocation and risk management. The overall objective is end-of-year bottom line, not each individual trade.
  • When you have a successful trade, fight the natural tendency to give some of it back.
  • Use a disciplined trade selection system: an organized, systematic process to eliminate impulse or emotional trading.

  • Trade with a plan – not with hope, greed, or fear. Plan where you will get in the market, how much you will risk on the trade, and where you will take your profits.

    • Conquering Your Negative Trading Emotions

      
      Education
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    The trader has two emotions that must be controlled in order to become successful. I call them ‘the two sides of a coin’ and they are commonly known as FEAR & GREED.

    The beginning or new trader will first encounter FEAR. There are two types of FEAR. The fear of losing money and the fear of being wrong.
    The fear of losing money usually derives from a trader risking money that should be used for the rent, food, children’s education etc. ‘Scared money’ will render one incapable of pulling the trigger when a trade setup comes along. The only way to overcome this paralysis is to be well capitalized with funds that you can risk.
    The fear of being wrong is simply that part of all of us that feels that to make a wrong decision is reflective on our personal competency. The cure for this is to simply realize and accept that losses are part of this game. Think about this? A baseball player needs to hit the ball once for every three times at the plate and this will get him into the Hall Of Fame. Whenever you feel the fear of being wrong, just remind yourself that… “My approach for trading has both historically and real-time produced over (number)% winning trades.” This will give you the confidence to step up to the plate and keep swinging. Also tell yourself that the only way to earn the big money is to get into the game. Have confidence in your trading system that when properly executed, it will make much more money than it loses.
    So, why is GREED the flip side of fear?
    Greed is caused by the fear of not making enough money. Traders who are greedy are often the exact opposite of the ones who are fearful. They have no fear and usually are very aggressive traders, which can get them into big trouble fast. Greed will usually lead to overtrading, failure to follow the trading rules, and not applying the system consistently. One of the biggest problems when greed sets in is the inability to know when to take profits. These traders are so bent on making a killing that they are never satisfied. If they have significant profits they don’t even think about cashing out, as they want more. This often leads to the inability to see the trade turning against them and they will allow winning trades to turn into big losing ones. (more…)

    How Indian investors get a lifetime of free meals

      
      Education
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    In one of the AGMs that I attended, there was an impatient “investor” sitting next to me.FREE LUNCH

    He confided to me that he was waiting for this AGM to get over so that he could have his lunch and then he could attend two more AGMs !

    I remarked that he must be having lots of shares to attend so many AGMs. He replied in Hindi “Nahi, Nahi.Sab mein 5-10 shares hai .”

    Looking at my puzzled expression, he explained” You buy 5-10 shares of a company.In a AGM, they normally have a meal (lunch or snacks). If the venue is nearby, you attend the AGM.By attending two/three AGMs, you recover the cost of your shares.Sometimes the management gives gifts also.Plus, you get dividends and a lifetime access to free meals !”

    If Ben Graham heard this approach to value investing, he would probably turn in his grave ! 

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