1) Have a firm stop-loss point for all activities: jobs, relationships, and personal involvements. Successful people are successful because they cut their losing experiences short and ride winning experiences.
2) Diversification works well in life and markets. Multiple, non-correlated sources of fulfillment make it easier to take risks in any one facet of life.
3) In life as in markets, chance truly favors those who are prepared to benefit. Failing to plan truly is planning to fail.
4) Success in trading and life comes from knowing your edge, pressing it when you have the opportunity, and sitting back when that edge is no longer present.
5) Risks and rewards are always proportional. The latter, in life as in markets, requires prudent management of the former. (more…)
Archives of “ethics” tag
rssThe 13 Virtues, from Dylan Distasio
I am sure you have seen and heard the story of Benjamin Franklin’s 13 moral virtues, but here they are as a good reminder for all of us:
TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing. (more…)
Our 10 Trading Resolutions for 2015
- We will only take the very best trade set ups in 2015 discarding the average and mediocre ones.We want each trade to have an excellent risk/reward ratio.
- We will position size based on the worse case scenario for volatility and range expansion not what I think is a safe bet.
- We will use more option contracts when their volume permits in my trades to limit my risk to the size of the option contract instead of using so much capital to trade equities.
- We will limit my total risk exposure to only two trades on at a time.
- We will focus on limiting my losses and drawdowns in 2015 to in return maximize my gains.
- We will be looking to structure trades for a more consistent monthly return by trading stock indexes primarily.
- We will focus on understanding the emotions that arise during my trades, each trade will be made with a clean slate focused exclusively on current price action.
- We will be in absolutely no hurry to place trades. I will be waiting for trades to come to me.
- We will flow with the patterns and price action of the markets and restrain from bias and options. Signals will be my guide.
- We will double my efforts in backtests and chart pattern studies of historical charts.
One Liners For Traders
- Let winners run. While momentum is in phase, the market can run much further than might be expected.
- Corollary to that rule: Do not exit winners without reason!
- Be quick to admit when wrong and get flat.
- Sometimes a time stop is the right solution. If a position is entered, but the anticipated scenario does not develop then get out.
- Remember: if one thing isn’t happening the other thing probably is. Historically, this has never been good for me…
- Be careful of correlations. Several positions can often equal one large position bearing unacceptable risk. Please think.
- I am responsible for risk management, money management, trade management, doing the analytical work and putting on every trade that comes.
- I am not responsible for the outcome of any one trade. Markets are highly random. I do not have a crystal ball. I am not as smart as I think I am.
- Risk management is the first and last responsibility. I can make almost any mistake and be ok as long as I do not violate my risk management parameters.
- Opportunity comes every day. Do not neglect the work. Must do analysis every day.
- Opportunity comes every day. Get out of poor positions. Move on.
- I am a better countertrend trader than a trend trader. Sometimes the crowd is right, and they will run me over at those times if I’m not quick to admit I’m wrong.
- If you’re going to do something stupid, at least do it on smaller size.
James Montier's 7 Immutable Laws Of Investing
1. Always insist on a margin of safety
2. This time is never different
3. Be patient and wait for the fat pitch
4. Be contrarian
5. Risk is the permanent loss of capital, never a number
6. Be leery of leverage
7. Never invest in something you don’t understand
Trading well = managing your risk (how much you LOSE) Its not about making money Do the former & the latter will come
Just Manage Your Luck
- You absolutely must have an edge. In the short run, you can get lucky and make money doing something that has no edge, but expected value will catch up with you. Don’t gloss over this point, because it might just be the single most important thing we can say about trading–you have to have an edge.
- You must be consistent. You must trade with discipline. Nearly everyone who writes anything about trading says these things, but the why is important: you must be consistent because the market is so random. You cannot change your approach based on short-term results because those short term results are confounded by the level of noise in the market. In other words, you can lose doing the right thing and make money doing the wrong thing. Too many traders make adjustments based on evaluating a handful of trades, and this is likely a serious (fatal) error. See point 1: have an edge, and, now, apply that edge with consistent discipline. Markets are random; you don’t have to be.
- Luck matters. There’s no denying that, but so does skill and so does edge. In fact, the more skillful you are as a trader, paradoxically, the more luck matters. (See Mauboussin book and video link near the end of this post.) You can be successful without luck, but the wildly successful traders (who are outliers) always have some significant component of luck. If the overall level of investment skill in the market is rising (far from a certain conclusion, in my opinion), then performance will converge and luck will play a bigger part for the top performers.
- If you understand the part luck plays in your results, you will realize that emotional reactions to your results are largely inappropriate. Yes, that sentence sounds like something a Vulcan (from Star Trek) would say, but it’s true. Too many traders ride the emotional roller coaster from euphoria to depression based on their short term results, and this really doesn’t make sense because you’re letting luck (random fluctuation) jerk your emotions around. (It is worth considering, though, that this works for some traders and may actually help their performance.)
Wisdom is knowing the limits of your knowledge
What does it mean to be wise? What is Wisdom?
One of the more interesting aspects to wisdom is self-awareness. “Thinking about wisdom,” writes Stephen Hall in his book Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience, “almost inevitably inspires you to think about yourself and your relationship with the larger world.” The book is an investigation into fuzzy questions such as how can it help us shed light on the process by which we deal with big decisions and dilemmas.
He writes:
Wisdom requires an experience-based knowledge of the world (including, especially, the world of human nature). It requires mental focus, reflecting the ability to analyze and discern the most important aspects of acquired knowledge, knowing what to use and what to discard, almost on a case by case basis (put another way, it requires knowing when to follow rules, but also when the usual rules no longer apply). It requires mediating, refereeing, between the frequently conflicting inputs of emotion and reason, of narrow self-interest and broader social interest, of instant rewards or future gains. Moreover, it expresses itself through an insistently social vocabulary of interactive behavior: a fundamental sense of justice (which is sometimes described as an innate form of morality, of knowing right from wrong), a commitment to welfare of social (and, for that matter, genetic) units that extend beyond the self, and the ability to defer immediate self-gratification in order to achieve the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people. (more…)
SELF DISCIPLINE
Developing Self-Discipline is something that you can start doing right NOW. It doesn’t take vigorous special forces training, nor does it require being related to the almighty samurai bloodline. Instead it requires will, devotion and regular action.
- Start by cultivating a desire. Do that by understanding the incredible benefits of such an achievement. The majority of human endeavors fail because humans themselves quit; they quit because their mind and emotion subdues their will and discipline. Such a trait shall make you unstoppable.
- Use what is coined by NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) as an Incantation. Stand up and energetically state that you shall achieve this regardless of anything, it’s crucial to incorporate physical movements as well. This molds a stronger message in your mind due to the incorporation of emotion and physicality. Repeat this daily.
- Analyze yourself; know where your discipline falls short and is mostly likely to fail. Is it exercising, or facing fears, or maintaining dietary habits? This will create the targets which you shall work upon. Fast results will come from major concentrated action and not from minimal diffused efforts.
- Start, initiate your pursuit by working directly on the weaknesses that keep you away from being self-disciplined. Start small and gradually proceed to making big chances. Day by day incorporate more change but avoid overloading yourself.
- Once you have tackled one weakness proceed to the other. The conquest for self-discipline is a never-ending one. Acquiring it requires a constant stream of action, otherwise it shall simply leak from your possession.
Know yourself.
Easier said than done, but it’s worth spending time understanding who you are in relation to risk, money, hard work, uncertainty, and a number of other things you will face as a trader. While you’re at it, also consider what skills you need to develop: a better understanding of probability? Deeper knowledge of financial markets? Any specific analytical techniques?
There are many ways to work toward the goal of knowing yourself, and it’s probably the process that matters more than anything. Some people will talk to a therapist, some will go on long walkabouts, some will journal and reflect, and some may work on the answers in the quiet moments each day. There’s no wrong way to do this, but the market is going to make you face the best and worst in yourself.