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10 Trading Psychology Points

1) We are most likely to behave in inhibited or impulsive ways, violating trading rules and plans, when we perceive events to be threatening;

2) What we perceive to be threatening is a joint function of events themselves and how we think about those events;

3) A key to gaining control over trading and maintaining consistency is to be able to reduce the threat associated with market events and process adverse outcomes in normal, routine ways;

4) We can reduce the threat associated with adverse market events through proper money management (position sizing) and through proper risk management (limits on losses per position);

5) We can reduce the threat associated with adverse market events by training ourselves to respond calmly to adverse outcomes (exposure methods) and by restructuring how we think about those outcomes (cognitive methods);

6) Optimal skill development in trading will occur in non-threatening environments in which learners can sustain concentration, optimism, and motivation;

7) A proper mindset is therefore necessary to the development of trading skills, but does not substitute for such development;

8) The cultivation of trading expertise is a function of the amount of time and effort devoted to learning and the proper structuring of that time and effort;

9) Proper structuring of learning involves the setting of specific, doable, cumulative goals and the provision of rapid feedback and correction regarding the achievement of those goals;

10) Practice does not make perfect in trading or anything else; perfect practice makes perfect. Training must gradually build competencies and correct deficiencies in a manner that sustains a positive mindset and optimal concentration and motivation.

The Measuring Stick


What do you use to measure your success after a trading session?

If you are like most, your success or failure will be determined by the amount of profit you made or lost. If that is what you do, you are missing out on one of the greatest aspects of your growth.

We all need to be more than just disciplined with our trading tools; we need to be devoted to trading.

Eliminate greed and you will enhance your skills faster.

Winning & Losing

People lose money at the stock market for very simple reasons:

1. They don’t have a method at all. They rely on other people opinions.

2. People don’t have a winning method. The method they are trading has a negative expectancy. Being disciplined about stop losses and position sizing won’t help, if you are trading a losing method. Expectancy changes with volatility. When your method stops providing satisfying results, you either find another that is working in the current market conditions or stay on the side until things change.

3. Those who have a winning strategy often don’t use it. They get emotional and forget about their strategy.

“Good trading is 10% technology and 90% psychology. People defeat themselves. It doesn’t matter how often you repeat basic trading principles when almost no one will practice them” (Maoxian)

Everybody knows the four cardinal rules of trading, but so few people follow them — 1) Trade with the trend. 2) Cut losses short. 3) Let profits run. 4) Manage risk.

There is a big difference between knowing something and applying it. Most people don’t use what they know.

Commitment

Becoming a successful investor/trader requires hard work. You must get to know yourself intimately because you are the source of your trading performance. You must develop a business plan to guide your trading. You must develop and test three or four strategies that fit within the big picture (as you see it) and then become part of your business plan. You must do your homework every evening. You must follow certain disciplines during the day that we call the ten tasks of trading. And all of this requires a lot of time and energy. And in my experience, it is only the people who are really committed who will put in the work necessary to become successful.

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