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Personal strengths and Weakness

We all have different personal strengths and weakness.  Many people focus on transforming a weakness into a strength. While that is admirable, the reality is that it’s not always possible. Although I agree with the basic idea of brain plasticity, and I whole-heartedly agree with the idea of always striving for self-improvement, I also know that as humans we have a certain degree of natural-born temperament and not everything about us can be changed.

Although we can’t always build or change every weakness into strength, the good news is that we can always leverage our strengths, if we know how. And that is mighty powerful. It’s so powerful that if you leverage the right strengths in the right way they can do an excellent job of not just counter-balancing your weaknesses, but can propel you so far ahead  that those weaknesses pale in comparison.

One of the most powerful things you can do for yourself is identifying your natural strengths and then work to see how you can build on them.

We all have different personal strengths, and knowing how to leverage them is an important part of successful trading. A major consideration here is that you try to identify and leverage your own personal strengths, and not simply copy someone else’s. All too often I see struggling traders running from one style to another style whenever they see someone else’s success. One of the primary reasons why copying someone else’s trading style doesn’t always pay off in trading is because of different personal strengths.

Top Ten Reasons Traders Lose Their Discipline

rightway-wrongway
Losing discipline is not a trading problem; it is the common result of a number of trading-related problems. Here are the most common sources of loss of discipline, culled from my work with traders:

10) Environmental distractions and boredom cause a lack of focus;
9) Fatigue and mental overload create a loss of concentration;
8) Overconfidence follows a string of successes;
7) Unwillingness to accept losses, leading to alterations of trade plans after the trade has gone into the red;
6) Loss of confidence in one’s trading plan/strategy because it has not been adequately tested and battle-tested;
5) Personality traits that lead to impulsivity and low frustration tolerance in stressful situations;
4) Situational performance pressures, such as trading slumps and increased personal expenses, that change how traders trade (putting P/L ahead of making good trades);
3) Trading positions that are excessive for the account size, created exaggerated P/L swings and emotional reactions;
2) Not having a clearly defined trading plan/strategy in the first place;
1) Trading a time frame, style, or market that does not match your talents, skills, risk tolerance, and personality.

For many traders, promising to follow rules doesn’t work for long

How many times have you broken the rules?

For many traders, promising to follow rules doesn’t work for long. One reason is willpower fatigue, a well-documented phenomenon.  I regularly receive emails from traders who are very bright and hard working – often with a degree from a top school or a successful prior career– and they are so frustrated with themselves about ‘breaking rules’ in trading.

For most traders, the work required to succeed is not what was expected. Trading discipline is not about willpower to follow rules. It seems like that on the surface, and it sort of is in the beginning of one’s trading career, but there are three reasons why simple willpower is not the answer for long-term success:

First, discretionary trading means by its very definition that we must use our judgment to make a decision – not simply use willpower to follow a rule. (more…)

Jesse Livermore's Trading Rules (circa 1940)

1. Nothing new ever occurs in the business of speculating in stock and commodities.
2. Money cannot be consistently made trading every day or every week during the year.
3. Don’t trust your own opinion or back your judgment until the action of the market itself confirms your opinion.
4. Markets are never wrong – opinions often are.
5. The real money made in speculating has been in commitments showing a profit right from the start.
6. As long as a stock is acting right, and the market is right, do not be in a hurry to take profits.
7. One should never permit speculative ventures to run into investments.
8. The money lost by speculation alone is small compared with the gigantic sums lost by so-called investors who have let their investments ride.
9. Never buy a stock because it has a big decline from its previous high.
10. Never sell a stock because it seems high-priced.
11. I become a buyer as a stock makes a new high on its movement after having had a normal reaction.
12. Never average losses.
13. The human side of every person is the greatest enemy of the average speculator.
14. Wishful thinking must be banished.
15. Big movements take time to develop.
16. It is not good to be too curious about all the reason behind price movements.
17. It is much easier to watch a few than many.
18. If you cannot make money out of the leading active issues, you are not going to make money out of the market as a whole.
19. The leaders of today may not be the leaders of two years from now.
20. Do not become completely bearish or bullish on the whole market because one stock in some particular group has plainly reversed its course from the general trend.
21. Few people ever make money on tips. Beware of inside information. If there was easy money lying around, no one would be forcing it into your pocket.

Trading Tactics

Gerald Loeb

Gerald Loeb was a highly successful trader who wrote the classics “The Battle For Investment Survival” and “The Battle For Stock Market Profits.” Although they’ve been around for as long as I’ve been alive, you may find them helpful in today’s market.

Once in a while I take time to review old handwritten notes I’ve taken from the books I’ve read in the past including from Loeb. These notes often serve as inspiration to my own trading. Even though I’ve read them many times over the years, they always offer a good insight.

Loeb’s Trading Tactics:

  • The market is a battlefield. Make sure you are on the winning side
  • You must trade with the actions of the market and not simply by how you might think the market should trade
  • Knowledge through experience is one trait that separates successful stock market speculators from everyone else
  • To do well in short-term trading, it takes full-time attention and dedication
  • Exploit all new trends quickly and aggressively
  • The best traders are usually psychologists. The worst are usually accountants (more…)

Beliefs of Winning Traders

chessgame
 
 
 
 

Winners share certain behaviors and beliefs. Check to see if you possess the traits and beliefs of winning traders !!!

  1. If you have the belief that you will win, you increase your chances of trading to win. In order to have this level of conviction, you must have a thoroughly-tested plan. You also must have a clear vision of how you will proceed with your plan to reach your goal. The more detailed you can visualize your goals being achieved, the more you will strengthen your internal belief and confidence that you will reach your goals.
  2. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying (more…)

Top Ten Reasons Traders Lose Their Discipline

Losing discipline is not a trading problem; it is the common result of a number of trading-related problems. Here are the most common sources of loss of discipline, culled from my work with traders:

10) Environmental distractions and boredom cause a lack of focus;

9) Fatigue and mental overload create a loss of concentration;

8) Overconfidence follows a string of successes;

7) Unwillingness to accept losses, leading to alterations of trade plans after the trade has gone into the red;

6) Loss of confidence in one’s trading plan/strategy because it has not been adequately tested and battle-tested;

5) Personality traits that lead to impulsivity and low frustration tolerance in stressful situations;

4) Situational performance pressures, such as trading slumps and increased personal expenses, that change how traders trade (putting P/L ahead of making good trades);

3) Trading positions that are excessive for the account size, created exaggerated P/L swings and emotional reactions;

2) Not having a clearly defined trading plan/strategy in the first place;

1) Trading a time frame, style, or market that does not match your talents, skills, risk tolerance, and personality.

Assessing Your level of Impatience

  • Do u wait for your Predetermined signal to exit a trade ?
  • Do u enter trades early with insufficient evidence ?
  • Do u change your trading plan after the market starts trading ?
  • Can u wait for the market to fill your at your price ?
  • Do u feel rushed or hurried as you trade ?
  • Do u sometimes trade just to have something to do ?
  • How does this help  or hurt your trading ?
  • One way to slow things down is to write each days’s trading plan in advance.
  • Set your firm intention to follow your plan.
  • At the first violation of the trading plan ,take a break ,and recommit to a steady application of the plan.

SUPPORTIVE BELIEFS :

  • Time is on my side
  • I have all the time I need to accomplish what I want.
  • The world is an abundant place.
  • The market is rich source of unending opportunity
  • I can be in alignment with the quiet part of me even as I watch the market.
  • The Market moves in its own rhythm ,and I can move fast or slow depending on it’s pace.
  • A person is able to create wealth slowly through trading.

Personal Strengths and Weaknesses

We all have different personal strengths and weakness.  Many people focus on transforming a weakness into a strength. While that is admirable, the reality is that it’s not always possible. Although I agree with the basic idea of brain plasticity, and I whole-heartedly agree with the idea of always striving for self-improvement, I also know that as humans we have a certain degree of natural-born temperament and not everything about us can be changed.

Although we can’t always build or change every weakness into strength, the good news is that we can always leverage our strengths, if we know how. And that is mighty powerful. It’s so powerful that if you leverage the right strengths in the right way they can do an excellent job of not just counter-balancing your weaknesses, but can propel you so far ahead  that those weaknesses pale in comparison.

One of the most powerful things you can do for yourself is identifying your natural strengths and then work to see how you can build on them.

We all have different personal strengths, and knowing how to leverage them is an important part of successful trading. A major consideration here is that you try to identify and leverage your own personal strengths, and not simply copy someone else’s. All too often I see struggling traders running from one style to another style whenever they see someone else’s success. One of the primary reasons why copying someone else’s trading style doesn’t always pay off in trading is because of different personal strengths.

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