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Trading Lessons

The market is a tough battle.  Each day there are chances and opportunities to make money though, it is the greatest form of free market capitalism known to man.  It’s a vast ocean with treasures; we just have to be able to unearth them at the right moment.  We have the ability to navigate carefully through markets, put our bets out there and see where the chips fall.

But if we are too loose with our capital then we are headed for a bad ending.  Discipline is one of the keys to success:  learn your craft and practice.  Each day that passes is one more great learning experience – capture it, analyze it and grow from it.  Use a trading system, pay attention to the timeless patterns of price/volume and believe in what you see and not what you hear. (more…)

The importance of emotion in trading.

Anxious:  Am I prepared?  Can I afford to lose what I am risking?  Am I breaking my rules?  Did I drink too much caffeine?

Anger:  Have I not moved from the last trade?  Am I tired?  Is there conflict in my personal life?

Happiness:  Are psychological gains more important than monetary gain?  Am I overconfident?

Indifference:  Do I care?  Is something more important?

It is natural to feel emotion but in an appropriate and proportional way.

Anxious:

To this day, the first trade always produces a little anxiety.  That little tingle in your stomach and shallow breathing.  The same is true when I a trade I have been waiting for sets up.  Above that, I know there is something wrong.

Anger and Happiness:

I am angry after a negative outcome and happy after a positive outcome but in order to adapt more quickly I have to remove emotion from the outcome as soon as possible.  It is more important to focus on what happened and less how I feel about it. Prolonged feelings of anger or happiness causes risk blindness and impedes my learning.  Misjudging risk will prevent me from taking a trade or taking too much risk. (more…)

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