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5 Major Trading Pitfalls

  
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2dl87puPitfall #1. Betting the farm. Let’s be realistic. Not every trade is going to be a winner. Here is a simple rule for you to remember. Never commit more than 10% to any one position. When I was trading in the pits in Chicago I heard for the first time about the “RIOTRADE”. Simply put, you take a huge position in the market. If it works out, you are a hero. If you lose, you leave home and head for Brazil. Again, NEVER BET THE FARM ON ANY POSITION.

Pitfall #2. Planting too few seeds. This one goes hand in hand with the first pitfall. The key here is diversification and following several markets. Ken watches 30 markets and looks for profit opportunities in each one as they occur. PLANT MORE SEEDS AND YOU CAN ENJOY MORE WINNERS.

Pitfall #3. Jumping the gun. Patience, patience, patience. This is perhaps one of the toughest things for traders to remember, particularly after they have taken some good money out of the market. JUMPING INTO A MARKET BEFORE ALL INDICATORS ARE POSITIVE CAN CAUSE UNNECESSARY LOSSES.

Pitfall #4. The hope trap. This is one of those pitfalls that goes completely against human nature and it is the biggest account killer. What I am talking about is hanging onto a losing position in the desperate hope that it will turn around. A SIMPLE SOLUTION IS TO ALWAYS PLACE A STOP ON EVERY MARKET POSITION AND DO NOT CANCEL IT! (more…)

Negative Trading Behaviors

  
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*Over Trading in Size *Jumping the Gun *Hesitating *Skipping Trades *Being in A Hurry * Trading without Proper Preparation *Getting Stuck in A Losing Trade *Whipsawing *Breaking Your Trading Rules *Shooting From the Hip * Over Interpreting *Discounting *Trading A  Scenario without Reference to Price *Trading Heedlessly *Trading Wildly *Abandoning Your Trading Plan *Not having A Trading Plan *Switching Strategies Frequently *Not having  A Proven Strategy *Not Pulling the Trigger *Not Believing the Evidence the Market Provides *Blindly Believing   A story you tell yourself *Blindly Believing A story somebody else tells you *Becoming Impulsive.*Not Verifying A System Or Method Before you trade it.*Over Researching *Using Trading as a Spectator Sport *Jumping in before you think *Trading too Big *Grabbing Profits too soon.*Getting Careless *Being too Careful *Not adding to A Winning Trade.*Trading Heavier when losing *Forcing  trades *Getting Trigger Happy *Gulping Profits too soon *Adding to A losing Trade.*Overtrading  in terms of Frequency *Sticking with A Losing system *Sticking with A Broker that gives you bad Fills.*Not Making Trading A Priority*Worrying what others will think.*Trading with borrowed Money.*Trading with Money you need to live on*Holding Unrealistic Expectations.*Engaging in Negative and Destructive Self talk*Becoming Despondent about your trading results.*Wanting certainty before you trade.*Disregarding Probabilities*Fooling Yourself about your Trading.*Not keeping Proper Records*Not Acknowledging Mistakes.*Not Learning from Mistakes.*Repeating Mistakes*Engaging in Self Pity* Blaming Others *Getting Envious of other traders *Giving Up periodically *Resisting loss* Feeling shame for loss *Lying and Covering up results *Becoming pessimistic about the future of your trading * Being Unrealistic about your present trading &Tying self worth to trading * Bragging about Trading * Being Unduly Secretive  about trading * Using  trading to inflate your ego *Letting trading interfere with A full and Balanced life *Letting life interfere with A Full  and Balanced trading *Using trading to avoid living *Doing anything Unethical regarding your trading *Doing what Doesn’t work *Not continuing to do what does work *Getting Reckless & Getting Overcautious * Letting others put your down Re your trading * Waiting to Respect yourself untill you succeed with trading*Being Unorganized in your efforts * Trading for the sake of trading *Letting Distractions take your attention away from trading * Not Specializing *Not executing with precision *Forgetting to cancel stops after a trade is off*Fighting Yourself *Fighting the Market *Fighting Your Methods *Making careless errors & Personifying the Market *Projecting your own feelings on the market.

-Other

Go over each of the Behaviors you have checked and scale them from 1 to 10 as to severity.Let 10 represent the most harmful to your trading.

5 Major Trading Pitfalls you must avoid at all costs!

  
  Education
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5pitfallsPitfall #1. Betting the farm. Let’s be realistic. Not every trade is going to be a winner. Here is a simple rule for you to remember. Never commit more than 10% to any one position. When I was trading in the pits in Chicago I heard for the first time about the “RIOTRADE”. Simply put, you take a huge position in the market. If it works out, you are a hero. If you lose, you leave home and head for Brazil. Again, NEVER BET THE FARM ON ANY POSITION.

Pitfall #2. Planting too few seeds. This one goes hand in hand with the first pitfall. The key here is diversification and following several markets. Ken watches 30 markets and looks for profit opportunities in each one as they occur. PLANT MORE SEEDS AND YOU CAN ENJOY MORE WINNERS.

Pitfall #3. Jumping the gun. Patience, patience, patience. This is perhaps one of the toughest things for traders to remember, particularly after they have taken some good money out of the market. JUMPING INTO A MARKET BEFORE ALL INDICATORS ARE POSITIVE CAN CAUSE UNNECESSARY LOSSES. (more…)

SNIPER LESSONS

  
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One of the trader’s biggest psychological barriers to overcome is over trading. Of course, over trading is relative depending on the type of trader you are and the time frame(s) used to make trading decisions. However, if you have a well formulated trading plan, you will know from past experience when you are walking the line between planned trading and over trading.

Here are some of the symptoms of over trading:

1. not sticking to a plan or system

2. taking trades for no clear reason

3. taking on larger than normal positions

4. second guessing your system

5. jumping the gun (entering a trade in anticipation of an affirmative signal/pattern)

6. obligatory trading (if I am not in a trade, then I am not working)

The underlying cause of over trading is purely a lack of confidence either in yourself and/or your system. If you truly believe that your trading strategy provides X number of high probability set-ups over X number of days, then why would you waste your energy (and capital) taking high risk, low probability trades? The answer: lack of confidence. The solution: think and train like a sniper.

According to the dictionary a sniper is a skilled military shooter detailed to spot and pick off enemy soldiers from a concealed place using long-range small arms. The word originates from the snipe, a game bird difficult for hunters to sneak up on. (more…)

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