What is your definition of a mistake? If it is a losing trade, then you might possibly be missing out on one of the most important items that successful traders use to enhance their profitability. |
Archives of “mistake” tag
rssImpulse Trades
Three things to know about Impulse trades for scalpers:- Impulse Trades are a strict No-No
- If you do take it by mistake, don’t do it again if you want to be a serious profit-making trader
- Ok, you did take an impulse trade ? Do the following:
Watch it more carefully than you would do with a normal trade that follows your system.
Keep a stop loss or limit in mind immediately and no matter what, GET OUT at that level. If it moves in your direction, trail it with the same rigourous discipline.
Monitor yourself
I define a mistake as not following your rules. Thus, for many people who have no written rules, everything they do is a mistake. But if you have followed the first four steps, then you will have rules to guide your trading and you can define a mistake as not following those rules. And, of course, when you repeat the same mistake over and over again, then that is self sabotage. However, by monitoring your mistakes and continuing to work on yourself, you can minimize the impact of such mistakes. People who do this, in my opinion, will tend to produce consistent, above average profits
50 Trading Mistakes
1. Many futures traders trade without a plan. They do not define specific risk and profit objectives before trading. Even if they establish a plan, they “second guess” it and don’t stick to it, particularly if the trade is a loss. Consequently, they overtrade and use their equity to the limit (are undercapitalized), which puts them in a squeeze and forces them to liquidate positions.
Usually, they liquidate the good trades and keep the bad ones.
2. Many traders don’t realize the news they hear and read has already been discounted by the market.
3. After several profitable trades, many speculators become wild and aggressive. They base their trades on hunches and long shots, rather than sound fundamental and technical reasoning, or put their money into one deal that “can’t fail.”
4. Traders often try to carry too big a position with too little capital, and trade too frequently for the size of the account.
5. Some traders try to “beat the market” by day trading, nervous scalping, and getting greedy.
6. They fail to pre-define risk, add to a losing position, and fail to use stops.
7 .They frequently have a directional bias; for example, always wanting to be long.
8. Lack of experience in the market causes many traders to become emotionally and/or financially committed to one trade, and unwilling or unable to take a loss. They may be unable to admit they have made a mistake, or they look at the market on too short a time frame.
9. They overtrade.
10. Many traders can’t (or don’t) take the small losses. They often stick with a loser until it really hurts, then take the loss. This is an undisciplined approach…a trader needs to develop and stick with a system. (more…)
7 Bad Habits of Traders
Trading with no stop losses. You can’t control your profits but you can control and limit your losses with a planned exit. Not having an exit plan can be very expensive when a trend takes off against you and you start hoping instead of just cutting your losses and moving on.
- Your opinion can be very expensive. Trading your opinion against all other market participants can be very expensive. The market goes where it wants and when you disagree with where it is going it will cost you.
- “Egos are expensive things.” – Ray C. Freeman. Inflated egos cause a trader’s #1 priority to be proving they are right and refusing to admit when they are wrong. It is very expensive for ego gratification to be above making money.
- Trading off predictions can cost a lot of money when they are wrong. There is more to be made by reacting to what the market is doing instead of predicting what you think it will do later.
- Stubbornness causes small losses to become big losses. It causes a trader to make the same mistake over and over becasue they do not assimilate feedback they keep doing the same thing over and over and getting the same results.
- Not having an exit strategy for a winning trade can be very expensive, it is possible to ride a big winning trade into being a big loser if you do not have a set way to take profits. Trailing stops and targets can put the profits in the bank.
Trading too big of position sizes for your account size can be very costly because no manner how good your winning trades are you are set up to give back the profits with a few big losing trades.
20 Trading Skills for Traders
1. Know the difference between trading and investing. We are traders, NOT investors. •• Disciplineis doing the right thing at the right time…every time! Survival in this business is dependent on the right decisions.
2. Don’t let losers run! Always use stops . Riskmanagement is very, very important in your trading. Don’t be stubborn in holding a position. Remember, while you may not be wrong often, The Market Is Always Right. The best traders are the first to admit (to themselves and the market) that they made a mistake.
3. Trade only price pattern set-ups.
4. Trade for skill, NOT the money. If you’re focused on the money aspect of trading…you’re not focused on the ‘trade’. And SCARED MONEY NEVER WINS!
5. Concentrate on what you are trade. Each market has personalities, habits and friends…get to know them all.
6. Focus on your executions. Remember, every execution is a trade. Money is valuable…don’t leave it on the table.
7. Model Yourself After Successful and Experienced Traders. You will be all you can be…but you need to start somewhere.
8. Be Teachable. Learn something new every day (or at least every week). The ‘Losing’ and ‘Winning’ trades can teach you a whole lot.
9. Remember that even the best of the best traders lose money. Learn to accept your losses and move on to the next trade. That’s just part of the business – you will NEVER win 100% of the time.
10. Use only 1 contract at the beginning. Large wins at the beginning generally means large exposure. (more…)
Emotional Satisfaction
William Eckhardt once said that “If you’re playing for emotional satisfaction, you’re bound to lose, because what feels good is often the wrong thing to do.” If any trade makes you feel like “kicking yourself,” then you’re likely trading for emotional satisfaction and that’s a problem. In other words, if every trade you make has the purpose of trying to make you feel good, prove you are right, feed your ego, eliminate pain from a prior mistake you refused to deal with early on, or something other than just making money for you, you need to learn how to put trading in the proper frame of mind if you desire to become a better trader and investor.
Trading Wisdoms
“Never let the fear of striking out get in your way” – Babe Ruth
“If you can’t take a small loss, sooner or later you will have to take the mother of all losses” – Ed Seykota
“Don’t think about what the market is going to do. You have absosutely no control over that. Think about what you are going to do if it gets there.” – William Eckhardt
“I turned from a loser to a winner when I was able to separate my ego needs from making money. When I was able to accept being wrong. Before that, admitting I was wrong was more upsetting than losing money” – Marty Schwartz
“The worst mistake a trader can make is to miss a major profit opportunity. 95% of the profits come from only 5% of the trades” – Richard Dennis
Trading Lessons
The market is always right–except at significant tops and significant bottoms.
Keep and open and flexible mind. When in doubt, get out.
If you must have a guru, take him or her with many grains of salt
Do not add to losing positions.
Try every day to make yourself stronger, better and more integrated as a person.
Stay true to yourself. Lying to yourself and others, and trading on hope and prayer do not work
Most importantly, accept and recognize that you are not perfect. You are human and are going to make mistakes. Trading is the only profession where losing is actually winning. BUT— unless you accept mistakes as mistakes and learn from them, you will not progress and be upside down. Unless you are able to get your trading brain out of the cave you will not accumulate regret. It is only through the true acceptance of a mistake as a mistake that we accumulate regret. This is how we learn and grow as traders and human beings.
Gann's trading rules
- Never risk more than 10% of your trading capital in a single trade.
- Always use stop-loss orders.
- Never overtrade.
- Never let a profit run into a loss.
- Don ‘t enter a trade if you are unsure of the trend. Never buck the trend.
- When in doubt, get out, and don’t get in when in doubt.
- Only trade active markets.
- Distribute your risk equally among different markets.
- Never limit your orders. Trade at the market.
- Don’t close trades without a good reason.
- Extra monies from successful trades should be placed in a separate account.
- Never trade to scalp a profit.
- Never average a loss.
- Never get out of the market because you have lost patience or get in because you are anxious from waiting.
- Avoid taking small profits and large losses.
- Never cancel a stop loss after you have placed the trade.
- Avoid getting in and out of the market too often.
- Be willing to make money from both sides of the market.
- Never buy or sell just because the price is low or high.
- Pyramiding should be accomplished once it has crossed resistance levels and broken zones of distribution.
- Pyramid issues that have a strong trend.
- Never hedge a losing position.
- Never change your position without a good reason.
- Avoid trading after long periods of success or failure.
- Don’t try to guess tops or bottoms.
- Don’t follow a blind man’s advice.
- Reduce trading after the first loss; never increase.
- Avoid getting in wrong and out wrong; or getting in right and out wrong. This is making a double mistake.