The ultimate goal of a futures trader should be to have overall trading success by being profitable. There is no single-best path one can take on the destination to trading success and profitability. However, there are a few general trading tenets to which all successful traders have subscribed. One such trading tenet is “losing your ego” when trading futures.
Mark Cook, a well-respected trader and trading educator from rural Ohio, for many years has stressed that traders need to lose their egos before getting into trading futures markets. He is also an advocate of survival in futures trading. One must survive in this challenging arena before one can succeed. I enjoyed listening to Mark at a trading seminar a few years ago. He even used to wear bib-overalls (with no shirt) at some of his trading seminars – just to drive home the point that trading futures is not easy and that ultimate success takes a lot of hard work.
My good friend and respected trader and educator Glen Ring also espouses the notion, and may have even coined the phrase, “it’s better to be profitable than right in futures trading.” Those who know or have talked to Glen know he, too, is a no-nonsense, no-hype trader who takes a yeoman’s approach to the business. When asked what direction a specific market “will” go in the future, Glen is never afraid to say, “I don’t know,” before he adds that, “successful trading is not a business of predictions but one of probabilities based on past price history.” (more…)
These were the last words of Buddha ,in the Theravada tradition.The title Buddha means ‘Enlightened one ‘ or ‘Awakened One’.In Buddhism ,the Buddha refers to Siddhartha Gautama,born in Lumbini in modern Nepal.According to most traditions ,he lived many lives before coming to our present world era.Born a prince ,at the age of 13 he was escorted out of the palace.Buddha came across the ‘four sights ‘ :an old crippled man ,a diseased man ,a decaying corpse and finally an ascetic.Gautama realized that age ,disease ,death and pain were inescapable ,and that the poor would always outnumber the rich.However ,even if one was wealthy ,everyone shared age ,disease ,death and pain.Neither money nor peace can relieve people from fear and anxiety ,or lead them to ultimate happiness.