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Conviction

convictionConviction implies a settled state of opinion and the inertia of a decision already made; this simply leads to a kind of prejudice towards one market direction or another. But let’s face it: assumption is always the path of least effort. And when has the market ever rewarded the followers of that path? It’s far better to strive to be continually skeptical and yet boldly decisive when the moment requires. The difference may seem limited to semantics, but I think the interaction between our perceptions and the market should be a continually active process, and that includes methodically denying ourselves the allure of false comforts that accompany an unyielding sentiment.

Trading should be boring

Perfect description of what trading should be all about. As you might have heard from lots of great and successful traders, trading should be boring. Don’t get me wrong. You need to be passionate about trading in order to succeed. That applies to all things in life. For me, the research I do, all the stuff I read in order to improve my trading, increase my knowledge and my technical skills is what I am passionate about. The process of putting on trades and doing what the charts tell me to do is what is boring.

My trading philosophy is really simple. If I had to put it in one sentence it would be the following: ‘There is no way I am going to argue with price.’ The gist of it really is that opinions do not matter. I do have very strong opinions but when the charts tell me otherwise I change my mind. No hard feelings. A great quote dealing with the subject is the following:

When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do Sir? – Lord Maynard Keynes

So why the ’same old, same old’ title? Because today was one of those days where I did what I have to do. My job as a trader is to be objective in my analysis of what is going on. The most important part is looking at my portfolio positions and sort them in descending order. The first one on the list is the one with the highest profit. The last one is the worst performer. I change the order in the streaming watch list of my broker whenever the ranking changes. Doing this manually is a ‘conscious and active’ process, as it literally forces me to ignore my opinions and therefore forces me to acknowledge the strength or weakness of  a stock. Remember:

There are no good or bad stocks. There are only stocks that make you money and stocks that don’t.

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