“When you see a position that is going against you and the market is dropping, and you are losing money on a trade, but your stop loss hasn’t been hit yet, how do you stay with the position? What is your secret? Do you pullback and look at the big picture or do you simple assume its all noise as long as it doesn’t hit that lower low? This is my biggest problem with tracking your trades and most of the time you are right in holding on.” … Because we thought our answer to his question may be beneficial to other traders as well, we wanted to share our reply to his e-mail, which was… “The key point you stated is ‘but your stop loss hasn’t been hit yet.’ When we put on a trade, it’s like entering into a contract, so we try to stay the course and simply follow the plan. Over the years, we’ve found it’s best to stick with our original analysis because we usually plan a trade at night, or in the pre-market, without the stress of live trading. During the trading session, in the heat of the moment, there is so much pressure that we have to fight the voice in our heads telling us to sell the position when everything around is crumbling. It basically comes down to planning the trade and trading the plan…easier said than done, right? Sometimes, if you have a feeling things are going bad, and you’re an active trader, you can maybe sell 1/4 or 1/3 of the position to ease your mind. However, you must have the discipline to get back in once the coast is clear. Try to lay out a plan, write it on paper, and stick to it. The one thing every trader must accept, in order to be successful, is a loss. You must be fully prepared to lose what you’re risking. Once you accept losses as part of the trading game, the pressure to be right is not so intense. By the way, we at ASR are no different; we fight the same urges to sell that most traders do. It’s a constant battle, that’s for sure!” |
Archives of “losses” tag
rssOvertrading: A Common Mistake
Over trading is one of the biggest causes why traders never make it in the financial markets. With a click of a button, a trader can place a trade anytime he wants. It takes tremendous discipline to hold yourself back from over trading. There are many reasons why one may choose to over trade.
1. Traders without a plan
Traders without a plan are my favorite type of traders because they will always lose. Without a plan, how would one know when to take a trade and when not to? Having a trading plan is a necessity. I can not trade if I do not have a plan for the day. I feel lost without one.
2. Revenge trading
Many new traders become tilted after a loss or a string of losses. This causes them to revenge trade just to break even. This often leads to reckless trading forcing a trade when opportunity is low.
3. Chasing the markets
Alot of new traders feel more pain when they have missed a move than an actual loss. This is why new traders love to chase the markets. If price has moved away from your projected entry point, let it go. There are plenty of more opportunities. Chasing is one of the worst habits a trader can have. Not only does it offer you low rewards, it also gives you a horrible entry and alters your stop loss placement. Always think about the risk before the profits.
When you have a plan to follow, it is easy to filter out bad trades from good one. This keeps you discipline and selective in your trades. I personally do not like trading more than 5 round trips a day. Patience is a virtue. There are always good high probability trading opportunities everyday. Just sit tight and don’t jump the gun.
One way to control a loss is by reducing your size. The problem with gamblers is that they will often double up their stake so they can get even quicker. This usually leads to a greater loss and devastation. Having the strength to grind your way back from a loss is important in trading. Whenever I am having a losing streak, I will trade small and gradually recover. This also gives me the confidence I need after a string of losses.
What you WILL DO vs. NOT DO is what it comes down to
In trading you MUST take action and control. It’s not the market makers, or the talking heads, or your neighbor, or any of the experts or people you entrust with your money that are causing your losses or your poor investing performance. You are making the decisions, directly or indirectly. Any trading and investing decisions made in your accounts are all DOWNSTREAM from you and your initial decisions, so you can make different ones in the future.
But you must take measurements. You must have a plan. You must assess, then make DECISIONS to GET you to your FINANCIAL, HEALTH and RELATIONSHIP goals.
In trading we teach a very simple and effective way to make consistent profits in the markets. There is a learning curve and much of that curve is you getting to know you. It’s understanding the psychological aspects of trading profitably with consistency and making those thought process changes that are necessary to get you in a winner’s trading mindset.
For many people this is a challenge. The actual steps and actions you must take are not laborious or physically draining, they are simple things that need to be done but will go against the natural instinct to just want to go through each day on ‘autopilot’.
And this is why many a trader who is struggling slips into the ‘blame’ or ‘victim’ game. Being aware of this is important and we are all human and capable of slipping off track……but the key is to catch it early, forgive yourself for it, and then learn and ‘zig zag’ your way back onto the path that will get you to your goals.
Trading in the Zone
These Beliefs are the Seven Principles of Consistency from Mark Douglas’s “Trading in the Zone” I highly recommend picking this book up to add to your collection, because it has benefited me tremendously in understand how beliefs and values play a vital role in one’s trading and ultimate success.
I remember the first time I picked this book up I didn’t “get” it and put it away. About a year later I read it again and it just clicked. I now reference it on a weekly schedule just so the principles in the book stay fresh in my mind and to reinforce what I had learned.
I am a Consistent Winner Because:
1. I objectively identify my edges.
2. I predefine the risk in every trade.
3. I completely accept the risk or I am willing to let go of the trade.
4. I act on my edges without reservation or hesitation.
5. I pay myself as the market makes money available to me.
6. I continually monitor my susceptibility for making errors.
7. I understand the absolute necessity of these principles of consistent success and , therefore, I never violate them.
Five Fundamental Truths:
1. Anything can happen.
2. You don’t need to know what is going to happen next.
3. There is a random distribution between wins and losses for any given set of variables that define an edge.
4. An edge is nothing more than an indication of a higher probability of one thing happening over another.
5. Every moment in the market is unique.
Addional Mark Douglas Material in PDF form. (more…)
Discipline & Passion
All successful day traders need discipline, once you have a plan stick to it. When day trading you can lose money as well as make money, as losses can result in an end to your career you need to manage your risks, know where to set your limits and stop loss orders accordingly. Once you have met your objectives do what you planned don’t let greed or fear take control of you.
Day trading involves being passionate about the market, a good day trader never switches off tracking the market day in and day out following news globally, analysing charts and looking at quote screens. This all has to be processed as quickly as possible, this is of course is what will give a good day trader an edge.
Do You want to Win or Lose at Trading?
There are things that make you win in the stock market over the long term and then there are things that make you lose quickly even in the short term. The key to trading success is learning the difference quickly and doing what really works not what you emotions or opinions tell you to do.
If you want to win then you must create your own trading plan and follow it, if you want to lose just trade whatever you want whenever you want based on your own opinion.
If you want to win then you must control your risk carefully with only 1% or 2% of your capital at stake in every individual trade, if you want to lose then just trade huge position sizes, put all your chips on the table.
If you want to win plan your entries and exits before you enter a trade then follow them, if you want to lose ask for everyone’s opinion and just make decisions based on other people.
If you want to win cut your losses short and let your winners run, if you want to lose hold your losers and hope that they come back and sell your winners quickly to lock in gains.
If you want to win trade only the best high quality stocks in the market, if you want to lose trade the junk and hope for a miracle come back.
If you want to win then build complete confidence for your system through chart studies and back testing, if you want to lose trade with no idea of if what you are doing even works.
If you want to win go with the current trend of the market, if you want to lose fight the trend and trade against it.
If you want to win then go long the hottest stocks in a bull market, if you want to lose short the hottest stocks in a bull market.
Do what makes money not what you feel like doing.
Zen of Trading-10 Rules
1. Have a Comprehensive Plan: Whether you are an investor or active trader, you must have a plan. Too many investors have no strategy at all — they merely react to each twitch of the market on the fly. If you fail to plan, goes the saying, then you plan to fail.
Consider how Roger Clemens approaches a game. He studies his opponent, constructs his game plan and goes to work.
Investors should write up a business plan, as if they were asking a Venture Capitalist for start-up money; just because you are the angel investor doesn’t mean you should skip the planning stages.
2. Expect to Be Wrong: We’ve discussed this previously, but it is such a key aspect of successful investing that it bears repeating. You will be wrong, you will be wrong often and, occasionally, you will be spectacularly wrong.
Michael Jordan has a fabulous perspective on the subject: “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Jordan was the greatest ball player of all time, and not only because of his superb physical skills: He understood the nature and importance of failure, and placed it appropriately within a larger framework of the game.
The best investors have no ego tied up in a trade. Those who refuse to recognize the simple truism of “being wrong often” end up giving away unacceptable amounts of capital. Stubborn pride and lack of risk management allow egotists to stay in stocks down 30%, 40% or 50% — or worse.
3. Predetermine Stops Before Opening Any Position: Sign a “prenuptial agreement” with every stock you participate in: When it hits some point you have determined before you purchased it, that’s it, you’re out, end of story. Once you have come to understand that you will be frequently wrong, it becomes much easier to use stop-losses and sell targets.
This is true regardless of your methodology: It may be below support or beneath a moving average, or perhaps you prefer a specific percentage amount. Some people use the prior month’s low. But whatever your stop-loss method is, stick to it religiously. Why? The prenup means you are making the exit decision before you are in a trade — while you are still neutral and objective.
4. Follow Discipline Religiously: The greatest rules in the world are worthless if you do not have the personal discipline to see them through. I can recall every single time I broke a trading rule of my own, and it invariably cost me money.
RealMoney’s Chartman, Gary B. Smith, slavishly follows his discipline, and he notes that every time some hedge fund — chock full of Nobel Laureates and Ivy League whiz kids — blows up, the mea culpa is the same: If only we hadn’t overrode the system.
In Jack Schwager’s seminal book Market Wizards, the single most important theme repeated by each of the wizards was the importance of discipline.
5. Keep Your Emotion In Check: Emotion is the enemy of investors, and that’s why you must have a methodology that relies on objective data points, and not gut instinct. The purpose of Rules 1, 2 and 3 is to eliminate the impact of the natural human response to stress — fear and panic — and to avoid the flip side of the coin — greed.
Remember, we, as a species, were never “hard-wired” for the capital markets. Our instinctive “fight or flight response” did not evolve to deal with crossing moving averages or CEOs resigning or restated earnings.
This evolutionary emotional baggage is why we want to sell at the bottom and chase stocks at the top. The money-making trade — buying when there’s blood in the streets, and selling when everyone else is clamoring to buy — goes against every instinct you have. It requires a detached objectivity simply not possible when trading on emotion.
6. Take Responsibility: Many folks believe “the game is fixed.” To them, I say: get over it. Stop whining and take the proper responsibility for your trades, your losses and yourself.
Your knowledge of the game-rigging gives you an edge. So use your hard-won knowledge to make money. (more…)
Cut your losses short, no questions asked
The majority of unskilled investors stubbornly hold onto their losses when the losses are small and reasonable. They could get out cheaply, but being emotionally involved and human, they keep waiting and hoping until their loss gets much bigger and costs them dearly.”
William O’Neil
The key to trading success is emotional discipline. If intelligence were the key, there would be a lot more people making money trading… I know this will sound like a cliche, but the single most important reason that people lose money in the financial markets is that they don’t cut their losses short.”
Victor Sperandeo
Some people say, “I can’t sell that stock because I’d be taking a loss.” If the stock is below the price you paid for it, selling doesn’t give you a loss; you already have it.
William O’Neil
When I became a winner I went from ‘I figured it out, therefore it can’t be wrong’ to ‘I figured it out, but if I’m wrong, I’m getting the hell out, because I want to save my money and go on to the next trade.’”
Marty Schwartz
Nuggets of Wisdom from Jesse Livermore, Greatest Trader Ever
Here are some valuable nuggets I have gleaned from the book, “How to Trade Stocks,” by Jesse Livermore, with added material from Richard Smitten. It’s published by Traders Press and is available at Amazon.com. Most of the nuggets below are direct quotes from Livermore, himself.
• “All through time, people have basically acted and reacted the same way in the market as a result of: greed, fear, ignorance, and hope. That is why the numerical (technical) formations and patterns recur on a constant basis.”
• “The game of speculation is the most uniformly fascinating game in the world. But it is not a game for the stupid, the mentally lazy, the person of inferior emotional balance, or the get-rich-quick adventurer. They will die poor.”
• Don’t take action with a trade until the market, itself, confirms your opinion. Being a little late in a trade is insurance that your opinion is correct. In other words, don’t be an impatient trader.
• Livermore’s money made in speculation came from “commitments in a stock or commodity showing a profit right from the start.” Don’t hang on to a losing position for very long.
• “It is foolhardy to make a second trade, if your first trade shows you a loss. Never average losses. Let this thought be written indelibly upon your mind.”
• “Remember this: When you are doing nothing, those speculators who feel they must trade day in and day out, are laying the foundation for your next venture. You will reap benefits from their mistakes.”
• “When a margin call reaches you, close your account. Never meet a margin call. You are on the wrong side of a market. Why send good money after bad? Keep that good money for another day.”
• Livermore coined what he called “Pivotal Points” in a market or a stock. Basically, they were: (1) Price levels at which the stock or market reversed course previously–in other words, previous major tops or bottoms; and (2) psychological price levels such as 50 or 100, 200, etc. He would buy a stock or commodity that saw a price breakout above the Pivotal Point, and sell a stock or commodity that saw a price breakout below a Pivotal Point.
• “Successful traders always follow the line of least resistance. Follow the trend. The trend is your friend.”
• A prudent speculator never argues with the tape. Markets are never wrong–opinions often are.
• Few people succeed in the market because they have no patience. They have a strong desire to get rich quickly.
• “I absolutely believe that price movement patterns are being repeated. They are recurring patterns that appear over and over, with slight variations. This is because markets are driven by humans — and human nature never changes.”
• When you make a trade, “you should have a clear target where to sell if the market moves against you. And you must obey your rules! Never sustain a loss of more than 10% of your capital. Losses are twice as expensive to make up. I always established a stop before making a trade.”
• “I am fully aware that of the millions of people who speculate in the markets, few people spend full time involved in the art of speculation. Yet, as far as I’m concerned it is a full-time job — perhaps even more than a job. Perhaps it is a vocation, where many are called but few are singled out for success.” (more…)
Contingency Planning!
- -A contingency plan to limit losses when wrong.
- -A contingency plan to get back into the trade if you’re stopped out.
- -A contingency plan for getting out of winning trades.