Archives of “courage” tag

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Whatever You Think … Think the Opposite

  
  Education
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Don’t be negative about rejection. It happens.

Work for free, if necessary.

Good grades will not secure you an interesting life. Imagination will.

Go to work and do your learning in the school of life.

Start your own company, then you have control of your own destiny.

Form your own opinion.

Having the courage to stand up in the face of public opinion is what makes you a winner.

Have a goal.

How you present yourself is how others will value you.

If you want to be interesting, be interested.

When things go wrong it tempting to shift the blame. Don’t.

Knowledge makes us play safe. The secret is to stay childish.

When it’s right, it just clicks.

Trading Thoughts

  
  Education
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To truly become a proactive trader, you need to believe that your trade WILL go the direction you thought. This shows that you have belief in your system that finds your trade setups in the first place. If you put your trade on and the first thing you do is mark your stop or think “I hope this goes well”, then you are bound to fail as a trader. Successful traders do not hope. They do the research and use their system to find good candidates and enter the trades. It is at that point that they manage risk. They know exactly how much they have at risk and are perfectly fine if they lose that much. Why? Because it is baked into their system, and every trade does not go the way they thought. You need to be the same way in your trading.

You need to have the courage to fail, step off the curb, and enter the trade. Expect that the trade will go your way and use the power of positive thinking. Set your target, entry and your stop and then you know, at any point during the life of the trade, where you stand. If your target gets hit and you see the stock continue to go the same direction, you can’t get mad. You simply put the positive trade aside and evaluate it in a couple weeks to figure out why it continued to go beyond your target. It is at that point that perhaps you make an adjustment to your system. Perhaps you find out that it was a news item that caused the surge and then you know that it was atypical, rather than the norm, and no adjustment is needed.

In going through this thought process, you prepare yourself emotionally and as a result remove the chance of trading on emotion once in the trade. As an example, you need to be fully prepared to lose the amount invested in a single trade if your stop is triggered. If you aren’t fully prepared to take that risk, then you need to adjust the size of your trade or move on to another trade. If you prepare and emotionally accept the fact that you could be wrong, your trading becomes more mechanical and less emotional. Take some time to role-play the different scenarios and see what your reactions would be.

Eternal Truths About Trading Success

  
  Education
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truthToday afternoon  once again  read  small book from the late 1800s written by Dickson G. Watts and reprinted by Traders Press. Entitled “Speculation as a Fine Art and Thoughts on Life”, the book begins with a description of the “qualities essential to the equipment of a speculator” (p. 8). Here is the author’s perspective, written well over a century ago:

* Self-Reliance – “A man must think for himself, must follow his own convictions…Self-trust is the foundation of successful effort.”

* Judgment – “…equipoise, that nice adjustment of the faculties one to the other…is an essential to the speculator.”

* Courage – “…confidence to act on the decisions of the mind…be bold, still be bold; always be bold.”

* Prudence – “The power of measuring the danger, together with a certain alertness and watchfulness, is very important.”

* Pliability – “The ability to change an opinion, the power of revision.” (more…)

12 Habits of Highly Successful Traders

  
  Education
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Successful Trader– Preparedness
– Detachment
– Willingness to Accept Loss
– Taking Controlled Risk
– Thinking in Probabilities
– Being Comfortable with Uncertainty
– Consciousness of Abundance
– Optimism
– Open Mindedness and larity of Thought and Perception
– Courage
– Discipline

Courage

  
  Education
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Not all traders have the courage to stand up to their actions. It takes a lot of courage to deal with the fears a trader must overcome in his career. The first is the fear of success that is so common and is the most prevalent. We want success and are afraid of it at the same time too. As our account grows so does the fear of handling those amounts of money. Could you trade risking a bigger amount as the account grows? Sometimes we sabotage our own success as it puts us out of our comfort zone. Another aspect of the fear of success is the subconscious fear of not being able to sustain that success. Our ego is questioning our ability to avoid messing up and losing that prized status of a hero. Same holds true for a windfall success. We know we might be able to do it again but our ego says we will look bad if we cannot do it again. Professional Traders have developed the ability to methodically achieve success and the confidence to repeat it while reducing the odds of sabotaging themselves via their egos. Professional Traders know that trading is boring and is not full of fun and excitement. That is why they have the courage to give up the fun and excitement in exchange for trading capital preservation. They also have the courage to not become addicted to winning big all the time. They know there will be singles, doubles and losers along the way too. They have the courage to stay on the sidelines at times and miss trading opportunities. They also know when to get out of a trade bravely and have the courage to ask for help when needed. They have the courage to stick to their strategy, ask dumb questions, admit it when they are wrong and finally have the courage to trade for profit and not for pure excitement.

Essential qualities for Speculator

  
  Education
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1)Self-reliance :A man must think for himself ,must follow his own convictions.Self-trust is the foundation of successful effort.

2)Judgement :That equipoise ,that nice adjustment of the facilities one to the other ,which is called  good judgement ,is an essential to the speculator.

3)Courage :That is ,confidence to act on the decisions of the mind.In speculation ,there is value in Mirabeau’s dictum :Be bold ,still be bold ,always be bold.

4)Prudence :The power of measuring the danger ,together with certain alertness and watchfulness is important.There should be a balance of these two ,prudence and courage ,prudence is contemplation ,courage in execution.Connected with these qualities ,properly an outgrowth of them ,is a third ,viz :promptness.The mind
convinced ,the act should follow.Think ,act ,promptly

5Pliability :The ability to change an opinion ,the power of revision.He who observes ,says Emerson,and observes again ,is always formidable.

Bill Lipschutz Quotes

  
  Education
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 Sultan of Currencies in the New Market Wizards and at the time Salomon Brothers largest and most successful forex trader for 8 years. 

 

”Missing an opportunity is as bad as being on the wrong side of a trade. Some people say (after they have the opportunity to realize a profit) ‘I was only playing with the market’s money’. That’s the most ridiculous thing I ever heard.”

”When you’re in a losing streak, your ability to properly assimilate and analyze information starts to become distorted because of the impairment of the confidence factor, which is a by-product of a losing streak. You have to work very hard to restore that confidence, and cutting back trading size helps achieve that goal.”
”I don’t have a problem letting my profits run, which many traders do. You have to be able to let your profits run. I don’t think you can consistently be a winner trading if you’re banking on being right more than 50 percent of the time. You have to figure out how to make money by being right only 20 to 30 percent of the time.”
”Successful traders constantly ask themselves: What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong? How can I do what I am doing better? How can I get more information? Courage is a quality important to excel as a trader. It’s not enough to simply have the insight to see something apart from the rest of the crowd, you also need to have the courage to act on it and stay with it.”
”It’s very difficult to be different from the rest of the crowd the majority of the time, which by definition is what you’re doing if you’re a successful trader.”
”So many people want the positive rewards of being a successful trader without being willing to go through the commitment and pain. And there’s a lot of pain.”
”Avoid the temptation of wanting to be completely right.”  

Confidence-No Ego

  
  Education
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 Confidence: There is nothing worse than seeing a great opportunity but not having the courage to “pull the trigger” and execute the trade. Freezing up due to fear does NOT happen to great traders. These thoughts don’t even enter their mind because they are confident in their plan. They know wht they will do if the trade goes their way, and perhaps more importantly, they know what to do if it goes against them. Confidence cannot be taught. It comes from making decisions, taking action, and learning from experience.

 No ego:  Successful traders may have big personalities, but they separate their ego from their trading. They might have serious conviction behind their positions, but when the market proves them wrong, they don’t argue with it. They simply move on and accept it.

WHAT WALL STREET CAN LEARN FROM COWBOYS

  
  Education
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James P. Owen, a 40 year veteran on Wall Street, has written a interesting book entitled Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn From the Code of the West.  In it he lists the 10 codes of the working cowboy, explaining how each code can be a source of inspiration for all those involved in Wall Street, from traders to institutions.  Along with the message are beautiful photographs throughout by David Stoecklein.  You could actually classify this as a trader’s coffee table book.  Here are the codes:

1.  Live Each Day With Courage.  Real courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway, setting aside the fear of the unknown knowing there is work to be done.

2.  Take Pride in Your Work.  Cowboying doesn’t build character, it reveals it.  Stock trading brings out what is already there: pride in the preparation.

3.  Always Finish What You Start.  When you’re riding through hell…keep riding.  Good stock traders, like cowboys, never quit in the face of uncertainty.

4.  Do What Has to be Done.  The true test of a man’s honor was how much he would risk to keep it intact.  Stock trading is about taking responsibility for decisions and results, just like the cowboys.

5.  Be Tough, But Fair.  The Golden Rule was nothing less than a key to survival.  Cowboys always treated others with respect, especially those who differed.  Should we not do the same, whether bull or bear?

6.  When You Make a Promise Keep It.  A man is only as good as his word.  You have no one to trust but yourself and when you have rules they are there for you to follow.  If you do not, then you have broken a promise to yourself.  Same with traders as with cowboys.

7.  Ride For The Brand. The cowboy’s greatest devotion was to his calling and his way of life.  If you have clients, the clients come first; if you have family depending on your discipline, then they come first.  Period.

8.  Talk Less and Say More.  When there’s nothing more to say, don’t be saying it. No room for bragging or boasting out on the range or in the market.  Your work, devotion, and steadfastness speaks for itself.  Enough said.

9.  Remember That Some Things Are Not For Sale.  To the cowboy, the best things in life aren’t “things.”  What matters most on the range and in the trading room is not what money can buy but what can’t be bought.  Reputation is all that really matters.

10.  Know Where to Draw the Line.  There is right and there is wrong, and nothing in between.  Insider trading, whispers, rumors, secret deals behind close doors, and all manner of questionable activities may be all around us but we do not have to embrace them as our own.

Of all the places to learn a few lessons about investing and ourselves, is it not refreshing to find a few on the open range from a time not so long ago?

What characterizes great and successful traders

  
  Education
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  • Great traders graciously accept mistakes. They don’t need to be right all the time. Thoughts-Trading
  • Great traders focus on proper execution not on the outcome of a single trade.
  • Great traders concentrate on good risk management. They constantly manage their open positions.
  • Great traders are emotionally detached. Single trades do not affect their mood.
  • Great traders don’t compare themselves to others. They isolate themselves from the opinions of others.
  • Great traders are not afraid to buy high and sell low.  As you probably know by now the single biggest mistake a trader can make is to hold on to a losing position. Failing to cut losses quickly and letting them develop into huge losses is mentally and financially devastating. The underlying psychology which is responsible for this behavior is the ‘need to be right’ and the fear to sell at a loss. What aggravates the situation is adding to a losing position.  “Do more of the things that work and less of the things that don’t.“

  • Conclusion:Isolate yourself from the opinions of other people. Make trading decisions your own. Focus on proper execution. Have the courage to do the right thing because it is right.

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