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Kiev, Hedge Fund Masters

I took notes on Kiev’s book when I first read it, and I’m going to select four self-therapeutic passages from them for this post. I suspect that most of my notes are quotations, but I don’t think it’s important to check their accuracy, though I will provide page references.

* * *

By establishing a vision, you have promised to achieve something. The promise means you are giving yourself permission to begin to act in the realm of the impossible, to create all kinds of openings. In that one promise, you begin to abandon self-doubt and the need for approval. This way of being in the world lets loose huge reserves of energy and creates enormous possibilities. Yet none of this can happen until you take the first step forward in pursuit of a goal with no guarantee of outcome. (p. 218)

Living in the gap makes you vulnerable. Once you’re out there, on the cutting edge, you’ll suffer breakdowns as well as breakthroughs. Although it will not always be comfortable, living in the gap between where you are and where you want to be will make your days far more interesting and action packed than if you traded with the intention of avoiding pain and discomfort. (p. 229)

It is useful to note when an activity becomes tedious, dull, and routine and leads to withdrawal and avoidance. This is the time to consider whether you are facing obstacles and are retreating behind your survival needs or whether these feelings signify that you have reached your goal and now need to raise the stakes. (p. 236)

The development of mastery is, in a sense, an existential and experiential methodology, directed at what is and what can be. You invent your own future through commitment to a goal, identifying what is necessary to produce specific results, and learning how to handle the unknown. (p. 247)

Fear of failure

Don’t worry about perfect.

The easiest way to fail the first time is trying to be perfect. In the beginning, understanding how different the experience is from how you imagined it is important.  Start with reasonable expectations and over time shift to unreasonable expectations.

Seeing others do it.

At the beginning you believe you will be successful. After your expectations for success are not met, your belief fades. Surround yourself with as many people who are successful.  Seeing is believing. You will begin to notice some of the little things that they doing.  The difference between good and great, I have found, is in those little things. (more…)

Why do you think most traders fail?

  1. Poor selection criteria; usually based on personal opinion, theory or tips and bad advice
  2. They don’t stick to and commit to an approach; style drift

  3. Don’t cut losses (#1 mistake made by virtually all investors)

  4. Don’t know the truth about their trading – they fail to conduct in-depth post analysis

  5. Treat trading as a hobby and not a business

  6. Want too much too fast; learning a skill takes time

There’s a lot of important meat in those few lines of text.  We all recognize that it’s not easy to cut losses, but I firmly believe that this results in more grief for traders than anything else.  What causes a trader to suffer a big hit?  I believe that it’s the unwilligness to accept that a trade is not working, and that it’s not likely to get any better if held longer.  Under those conditions, losses mount.  The only way to prevent that big loss is to cut it off at its knees – and the time to do that occurs when it’s a much smaller loss.The difficulty with that is sacrificing the possibility that the trade would turn profitable.  My advice:  Get over it.  Many trades will be unprofitable.  That’s a fact of life for a trader.

I understand that on a rare occasion a gap opening may do irreparable damage, and not provide an opportunity to take the small loss.  However, that’s also a preventable occurrence.  If the damage is too great, then the position was too large.  It really is as simple as that. 

How many of us look at trades after the position is closed?  How many dissect the entire trade in an attempt to find out what was done correctly and what mistakes were made?  Very few. 

A mistake is not a trade that loses money.  A mistake is making a decision that was clearly incorrect at the time, but the trader was unable to see that.  Another mistake is avoiding a trading plan and not doing postmortems on  your trades.  It all takes so much time.  However, if you take trading seriously, and do not consider it to be a hobby, there’s work to be done.

Mistakes are part of the game.  Making the same mistake repeatedly is not.  At least it’s not part of any successful trader’s game.

The Easiest Daytrade To Make

ss-7853536-potOfGold Essentially there are 3 timeframes to trade when it comes to “daytrades”:

1) the open

2) the close

3) and everything else in between

As you know by now, #3 is really the toughest to trade. It is the lowest probability trade of the three types, and your stops frequently get hit. Frequently, even if we get the direction right it is not very profitable because we get whipsawed like crazy. However, this is where many trades can be made, so the scalps do add up to a good chunk if you know what you’re doing.

So those who had joined us and getting Intraday calls-ofcourse having upperhand and minting money. (more…)

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