- A good trade is based on your trading plan; a bad trade is based on emotions and beliefs.
- A good trade is based on your own personal edge; a bad trade is based on your opinion.
- “A trader should have no opinion. The stronger your opinion, the harder it is to get out of a losing position.” -Paul Rotter
- A good trade is made using your own time frame; a bad trade changes timeframe due to a loss.
- A good trade is made in reaction to current price reality; a bad trade is made based on personal judgment.
- Your plans can make you money because you’re not trying go predict what will happen; you’re adjusting in real time to what is happening.
- Always trade in the direction of the longer-term trend of your time frame where the easiest money is located.
- A good trade is made after identifying and trading with the trend; a bad trade fights the trend.
- “The answer to the question, ‘What’s the trend?’ is the question, ‘What’s your timeframe?” -Richard Weissman
- A good trade is made using the trading vehicles you are an expert in; a bad trade is when you trade unfamiliar markets.
- In the markets you will see that money flows from those who have not done their homework to those who have”
Archives of “Fair trade” tag
rss12 Trading Mantras from Trading Legend Mark Douglas
Fill the “profit gap” with the right things…
In his books and seminars, Mark Douglas often refers to something he calls the “profit gap”. What he is talking about is basically the difference or “gap” between the potential profit you could achieve if you had just followed your trading method and what your actual bottom line results are.
Traders often begin trading a method with very high hopes. They want to produce an income they can rely on and get consistent results from their trading. However, this is only possible if you are trading an effective method with discipline and consistency, which most people simply do not do and as a result, they experience the profit gap that Mark refers to.
The key point that Mr. Douglas makes about this profit gap is that traders typically try to fill the gap by learning more about the market, changing methods, spending more time in front of their computers etc. However, what they really need to learn is more about themselves and how they interact with the market. Essentially, they need to acquire the “proper mental skills” to trade their method as they should and to get the most out of it, in order to properly fill the profit gap.
Winning and being a winning trader are two different things…
Anyone, and I literally mean anyone, even a 5-year-old child, can find themselves in a winning trade. It does not require any special skill to get lucky on any particular trade and hit a winner. All you have to do is open your trading platform and push a few buttons and if you get lucky, you can make a lot of money in a short amount of time.
As a result of the above, it’s natural for a trader who has not yet developed his or her trading skills to take the leap from “it’s easy to win” to “it can’t be that much harder to make a living from this”.
This is how many traders’ careers get started. Needless to say, it is also how they get on the path to losing a whole lot of money just as fast or even faster than they made it.
A winning trader has the mental skills to realize, understand and utilize the FACT that any particular trade he or she takes has basically a random outcome. That is to say, they cannot possibly know the outcome of that trade until it is over. The winning trader knows this and they also know that they must trade in-line with this belief over a large series of trades and ignore all the temptations and feelings that get kicked up on each trade they take. They are able to do this because they keep their eyes on the bigger picture. That bigger picture is the fact that IF they execute their method flawlessly, over and over, over a long enough period of time / series of trades, they will come out profitable.
Thus, do not mistake a winning trade for you being a winning trader, yet. A very easy trap to fall into. (more…)
Great Quotes by Market Wizards -Collection
The quotes listed below come from interviews Jack Schwager conducted with top Traders in his best seller Market Wizards.
Jack D Schwager
Trading provides one of the last great frontiers of opportunity in our economy. It is one of the very few ways in which an individual can start with a relatively small bankroll and actually become a multimillionaire.
Of course, only a handful of individuals succeed in turning this feat, but at least the opportunity exists.
A rigid stop-loss rule is an essential ingredient to the trading approach of many successful traders.
Winning streaks lead to complacency, and complacency leads to sloppy trading.
As I use the term, a ‘trader’ would be primarily concerned with which direction the stock market was heading, while an ‘investor’ would concentrate on selecting stocks with the best chance of outperforming the market overall.
Joseph Marshall Wade
If I wanted to become a tramp, I would seek information and advice from the most successful tramp I could find. If I wanted to become a failure, I would seek advice from men who had never succeeded. If I wanted to succeed in all things, I would look around me for those who are succeeding and do as they have done.
Michael Marcus
Taking advantage of potential major winning trades is not only important to the mental health of the trader but is also critical to winning. Letting winners ride is every bit as important as cutting losses short. If you don’t stay with your winners, you are not going to be able to pay for the losers.
In addition to not overtrading, it is important to commit to an exit point on every trade. Protective stops are very important because they force this commitment on the trader.