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Trading and Tennis

  
  Education
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The accompanying comments  were inspired from Brad Gilbert‘s book,  Winning  Ugly, which was written about tennis. There are many parallels between tennis and trading, both being individual performance disciplines. 

And on that last note, remember that ATTITUDE is everything. How you frame out an individual experience or event will affect your success in the long run. Do you see a trading loss or bad drawdown period as a major setback, or do you see it as a learning experience from which you can figure out how to be on the RIGHT 

The accompanying comments (see sidebar) were inspired from Brad Gilbert‘s book,  Winning  Ugly, which was written about tennis. There are many parallels between tennis and trading, both being individual performance disciplines.

 

 

And on that last note, remember that ATTITUDE is everything. How you frame out an individual experience or event will affect your success in the long run. Do you see a trading loss or bad drawdown period as a major setback, or do you see it as a learning experience from which you can figure out how to be on the RIGHT

●     Desire. The most successful players are the ones who have a burning desire to win.

●     Defy Failure! Don’t check out of the game. Never give up!

●     Consistency. Improve your consistency. Stay active, stay involved, and keep your feet moving.

●     Patience. Be patient. Do not force a trade that isn’t there. Wait for the play to set up.

●     Management. When you get a good trade, go for it.

Manage it. Trail a stop. Don’t be too eager to get out.

●     Flexibility. Be flexible – if what you are doing isn’t working, change what you are doing!

●     Confidence. When down, get a little rhythm and confidence going. Don’t worry about being too ambitious.

●     Concentration. Stay with your game. Don’t let outside distractions bother you. They take energy and break your concentration.

●     Know Yourself. Match your particular strengths to the type of market conditions.

●     Clean Up Your Act. Hate making stupid mistakes and unforced errors. This includes not getting out of a bad trade when you know you are wrong.

●     Stay Positive. Many players will play their best game when they are coming from behind.

Trade in Private

  
  Education
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do_not_disturb_signs

Never under any circumstances reveal your trading positions to anyone. Your mind must be in complete harmony with your trading positions. When you reveal your positions to someone, they will immediately start to question the trade and start to erode your confidence and concentration in the trade. You will then be a less effective trader and eventually lose.

Is Venting Emotion Good for Trading?

  
  Education
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ventingDoes venting emotion help a trader regain focus or does it exacerbate emotional and physical arousal and interfere with concentration and decision making? Research actually suggests that venting emotion after a traumatic event can lead to worse psychological outcomes. The key seems to be whether the venting allows for a reprocessing of the stressful events. If the venting leads to new ways to interpret what has happened–new perspectives–it can be helpful. If there is no such transformation of the stressful event, venting can simply amplify stress responses and reinforce them. Venting in a social manner to gain control can constitute good coping. But losing emotional control simply reinforces a sense of lost control.

Traits of a Successful Trader

  
  Education
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We urge you to use this checklist for your own trading and investing preparation.  We truly feel that these traits are very important for you to understand.  These trader traits coupled with the proper psychology can make a huge positive difference in your overall trading performance.     

•  The ability to act on your decisions.

•  The ability to accept responsibility for your actions.

•  You must have emotional detachment from the markets.

•  The ability to accept risk and take losses (you’ll never be right 100% of the time). (more…)

Swope and Howell, Trading by Numbers

  
  Education
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The title of this book by Rick Swope and W. Shawn Howell is somewhat misleading. It’s not intuitively obvious, or at least it wasn’t to me, that Trading by Numbers: Scoring Strategies for Every Market (Wiley, 2012) is primarily about options.

But let’s start, as the authors do, with their trend and volatility scoring methods. The trend score has four components: market sentiment (the relationship between a long-term moving average and a short-term moving average and the position of price in relation to each moving average), stock sentiment (the same parameters as market sentiment), single candle structure (body length relative to closing price), and volume (OBV trend). The range is -10 to +10. Volatility scoring has three legs: historical market volatility, historical stock volatility, and expected market volatility. The range is 0 to +10.

Before moving on to the standard option strategies, the authors address risk management, which they wisely describe as nonnegotiable. Risk management again has three legs: risk/reward, concentration check, and position sizing. 

And, with chapter five (of sixteen), we’ve reached covered calls. The reader who has no experience with options will be lost. Even though the authors push all the right buttons (ITM, ATM, OTM strategies; the Greeks; position adjustments), they push the buttons almost as if they were playing a video game. Very fast.

Assuming that the reader is not new to the option market, what can he/she learn from this book? Let’s look very briefly at three strategies and see how they reflect three different market or individual stock conditions: a long call, a straddle/strangle, and an iron condor. Traditionally described, in the simplest of terms, the first is looking for a significant bullish directional move, the second anticipates a surge in volatility, and the third expects a rangebound market. (more…)

Positive Affirmations

  
  Education
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affirmationsRepeat the words yourself to ingrain them in your brain.
Repeat the words yourself to ingrain them in your brain.

  • –I am a consistent trader.
  • –I have complete confidence in my abilities.
  • – I follow my trading plan.
  • –I know the markets today are capable of doing anything.
  • –I am prepared to trade what I see.
  • –I will have winning and losing trades today.
  • –I set stops immediately after I enter a trade.
  • –I will never add to a losing position.
  • –I have complete confidence in my abilities.
  • –I have supreme concentration.
  • –I will immerse myself into the market flow.
  • –I will take what the market offers up to me.
  • –I know what my trading edge looks like.
  • –I will not hesitate when my system gives me a signal.
  • –I have complete trust in probabilities.
  • –I will buy when my system signals me to buy.
  • –I will sell when my system tells me to sell.
  • –I will trade responsible size, never risking too much.
  • –I am moving closer to my goals everyday.
  • –I am a skillful trader but always striving to do better.
  • –I learn from my mistakes so I do not repeat them.
  • –I have complete confidence in my abilities.
  • –I am an excellent trader.

Concentration

  
  Education
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ConcentrationYou can be super motivated to trade, filled with deep optimism, have millions of trading capital available, and a solid trading strategy, but if you don’t devote your full concentration to the trade that you have on at the moment, you will lose money.

It’s essential that you learn to concentrate while executing a trade and scrupulously monitor the market action during a trade

Why is concentration difficult? While in school did you have trouble studying in a noisy library? It’s easy to concentrate when we are in a quiet room and when we are calm and at ease. But trading is often chaotic and full of stress. It’s easy to become shaken and lose your ability to concentrate. When you aren’t fully focused on your ongoing experience, it’s easy for self-doubts to creep into your consciousness. You may start having second thoughts and may want to sabotage your trading efforts.

The more you can stay focused on your ongoing experience, the more you can trade effortlessly and skillfully. But how can you concentrate more easily? (more…)

Is Venting Emotion Good for Trading?

  
  Education
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Does venting emotion help a trader regain focus or does it exacerbate emotional and physical arousal and interfere with concentration and decision making? Research actually suggests that venting emotion after a traumatic event can lead to worse psychological outcomes. The key seems to be whether the venting allows for a reprocessing of the stressful events. If the venting leads to new ways to interpret what has happened–new perspectives–it can be helpful. If there is no such transformation of the stressful event, venting can simply amplify stress responses and reinforce them. Venting in a social manner to gain control can constitute good coping. But losing emotional control simply reinforces a sense of lost control.

10 Lessons for Traders

  
  Education
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10) Those who are willing can be taught almost anything.
9) Great people want to help others achieve great success.
8) Success in business requires tremendous concentration. Outside distractions must be avoided.
7) Sometimes it is best to leave politics to politicians.
6) Everyone fails at some point in his life. The true winners rebuild after their failures.
5) To put on a trade when everything is going against you requires character and commitment.
4) Rules are rules. Stick to them.
3) Adapt with the times. Be willing to be malleable.
2) Always leave yourself outs. Never commit everything to one position or to one person.

1) The market is bigger, stronger and badder than you. Always respect it for the beast it is.

Donchian's 20 Trading Guides (First publication: 1934)

  
  Education
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General Guides:

  1. Beware of acting immediately on a widespread public opinion. Even if correct, it will usually delay the move.

  2. From a period of dullness and inactivity, watch for and prepare to follow a move in the direction in which volume increases.

  3. Limit losses and ride profits, irrespective of all other rules.

  4. Light commitments are advisable when market position is not certain. Clearly defined moves are signaled frequently enough to make life interesting and concentration on these moves will prevent unprofitable whip-sawing.

  5. Seldom take a position in the direction of an immediately preceding three-day move. Wait for a one-day reversal.

  6. Judicious use of stop orders is a valuable aid to profitable trading. Stops may be used to protect profits, to limit losses, and from certain formations such as triangular foci to take positions. Stop orders are apt to be more valuable and less treacherous if used in proper relation the the chart formation.

  7. In a market in which upswings are likely to equal or exceed downswings, heavier position should be taken for the upswings for percentage reasons – a decline from 50 to 25 will net only 50% profit, whereas an advance from 25 to 50 will net 100%

  8. In taking a position, price orders are allowable.  In closing a position, use market orders.”

  9. Buy strong-acting, strong-background commodities and sell weak ones, subject to all other rules.

  10. Moves in which rails lead or participate strongly are usually more worth following than moves in which rails lag. (more…)

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