Archives of “calmness” tag

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Characteristics of Perfect Trader

  
  Education
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-Sense of calmness
-Ability to focus on the present reality
-Not caring which way the market breaks or moves
-Always aligning trades in the direction of the market, flowing with the market
-Not caring about the money
-Always looking to improve your skills
-Profits now accumulating and flowing in as your skills improve
-Keeping an open mind, keeping opinions to a minimum
-Accepting the risk in trading
-No Anger
-Learning from every trade
-Winning and losing trades accepted equally from an emotional standpoint
-Enjoying the process
-Trading your chosen approach or system and not being influenced by the market or
others
-Not feeling a need to conquer or control the “market”
-Feeling confident and feeling in control of “yourself”
-A sense of not forcing the markets or yourself
-Trading with money you can afford to risk
-No feeling of ever being victimized by the markets
-Taking full responsibility for your trading

When you can read the list above and genuinely say that’s me, you have arrived!

Trading Rules from -Full Metal Jacket

  
  Education
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I look at charts so often, I usually have to have something on in the background to keep the rest of my brain from rioting. Typically, that “something” is usually a movie or some music, and today I put in Full Metal Jacket (which, like most of my DVDs, I’ve seen many times).

Semi-watching the movie made me curious about the Marines, and I found this really interesting code of principals, which I’ve put below. It’s an impressive list, and I think every element shown here is relevant to trading. Please read it:

INTEGRITY
Uprightness of character and soundness of moral principle. Absolute truthfulness and honesty.

KNOWLEDGE
Acquired information, including professional knowledge and understanding of your Marines.

COURAGE
A mental quality that recognizes fear of danger or criticism, but enables a Marine to proceed in the face of it with calmness and firmness.

DECISIVENESS
Ability to reach decisions promptly and to announce them in a clear, forceful manner.

DEPENDABILITY
The certainty of the proper performance of duty.

INITIATIVE
Seeing what has to be done and commencing a course of action, even in the absence of orders.

TACT
The ability to deal with others without creating offense.

JUSTICE
The quality of being impartial and consistent in exercising command.

ENTHUSIASM
The display of sincere interest and exuberance in the performance of duty.

BEARING
Creating a favorable impression in carriage, appearance, and personal conduct at all times.

ENDURANCE
The mental and physical stamina measured by the ability to stand pain, fatigue, distress, and hardship.

UNSELFISHNESS
Avoidance of providing for ones comfort and personal advancement at the expense of others.

LOYALTY
The faithfulness to country, Corps, unit, and to your seniors and subordinates.

JUDGEMENT
The quality of weighing facts and possible solutions on which to base a sound decision.

Calmness

  
  Education
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How do you handle adversity? What do you do when the markets go against you? Do you get angry and defensive or do you stay calm and play offensive?

 When the markets go against you, do you overtrade? Do you try to make all of your losses in one deal? Or do you stay calm, take a breather and reevaluate the market? 

When our emotions go up, our intelligence comes down. We make bad decisions. We take it personally. Then we start doubting ourselves and we start losing confidence. Then we start losing more and more…

When we stay calm, we can evaluate the market from an objective place. We can see the market for what it is and not what we want it to be. Then we can take a calculated risk. 

Trading Wisdom

  
  Education
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Successful traders:
1) are very solid with what he called the “basics” (tape reading, execution, preparation for the trading day),
2) have discovered the trades that fit your personality and became excellent at those and
3) realize that successful trading is about pulling a small bucket of profit water out of the market well multiple times (in other words they are not greedy).

4) a passion for trading,
5) the willingness to admit you are wrong in your bias and to change your bias or terminate a losing trade and
6) to work really hard to become better each day.

7) an ability to recognize what trades truly work for you and to STICK with them and
8) calmness in the midst of market volatility.

Unglamorous as it may sound, it looks like the clear winner is hard work and learning the basics. Should this be that big of a surprise? Wasn’t it Thomas Edison who said ” genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”? But it is interesting to note that two of the three put a very high premium on recognizing your trading strengths and focusing on those types of trades primarily.

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