Archives of “absorption” tag

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Trading Without Ego

  
  Education
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Make no mistake about it. A trader’s self concept has to be separate from the trading. Who you are as a person began before you ever thought of trading and who you will be as a person will extend beyond your trading. When personal self-worth entwines with trading, it not only damages self esteem, it sabotages the trading.

You hear about it. You read about it. Don’t be misled. Traders tell stories. They write stories. They tell how great they are. Big trades. Big numbers. Big egos. Hubris. And sooner or later, big downfalls. It goes with the territory.

Consider the outsized egos of certain traders who brought themselves and those associated with them to ruin. Nicholas Leeson brought down the Barings Bank. Victor Niederhoffer ran his fund into deficit. John Merriweather threatened the health of our banking system by betting more than fifty times his capital that his strategies were certain to work, that he could forecast with impunity the direction of various bond markets. There’s a pattern here of seeming or real success for a while and then collapse for themselves and for those caught up in blindly following them. (more…)

Uncoupling your EGO

  
  Education
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your_ego“If you think that you are God and you go into the financial markets ,you are going to come out broke.The fact that Iam not broke proves that I don’t think Iam God “-George Soros on Sixty Minutes.

Make no mistake about it.A traders’s self concept has to be separate from his trading.Who you are as a person began before you ever thought of trading and who you will be as person will extend beyond your trading.When personal self -worth entwines with trading ,it not only damages self-esteem ,it sabotages the trading.

“Authentic freedom cannnot be experienced untill one learns to tame the ego and move out of self-absorption.”

 

Following my Parameters

  
  Education
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1) Relative Strength or Weakness- there’s no reason for me to pick from the mushy middle, as the biggest movers come from the best and worst 5% of the market.

2) Abnormal Volume- it can be abnormally high or abnormally low, but I’m looking for stocks that are doing something different that they’ve done in recent days or weeks.

3) Abnormal Range- again, high or low tells me something…average tells me nothing.

4) Identifiable Support(Longs) or Resistance(Shorts)- I have no need to be the first, that’s for the really brave and really smart(maybe).  If the idea is that good, I’ll have days/weeks/months to milk it…in case you haven’t heard, the second mouse gets the cheese.

4) News Absorption- I like to participate AFTER news events…it gives me a good idea of the temperament of a stock’s owners. It may have broken out from a base.  It may have been crushed but then built a base.  It may have reacted poorly to a “great” report. In any case, I want to see how a stock reacted the last time there was real news, and position myself on the side that has taken control since then.

6) Doubt- this is a tricky one, but our ideas should not be SO obvious that our relatives and neighbors love the idea.  Buy worry, short hope.  Buy after panic, short after euphoria.  I’m not saying to ignore an idea because your Twitter stream agrees with you…haven’t we filtered our list to only those we respect?  But take a second to check your spot on this curve, and where you sit on this idea.

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