Whether you win or lose, you are responsible for your own results. Even if you lost on your broker’s tip, an advisory service recommendation, or a bad signal from the system you bought, you are responsible because you made the decision to listen and act. I have never met a successful trader who blamed others for his losses.
Archives of “trader” tag
rssFive Trading Lessons From Market Wizard Dr. Van. K. Tharp
The composite profile of a losing trader would be someone who is highly stressed and has little protection from stress, has a negative outlook on life and expects the worst, has a lot of conflict in his/her personality, and blames others when things go wrong. Such a person would not have a set of rules to guide their behavior and would be more likely a crowd follower. In addition, losing traders tend to be disorganized and impatient.”
The profitable trader is able to manage stress, has a positive outlook on life and expects the best from themselves and their trading. They take responsibility for their wins and losses. They know who they are and are in touch with their goals. They have specific rules to guide their trading and are organized and patient.
“The simple truth is that most people are risk-aversive in the realm of profits – they prefer a sure, smaller gain to a wise gamble for a larger gain – and risk-seeking in the realm of losses – they prefer an unwise gamble to a sure loss. As a result, most people tend to do the opposite of what is required for success. They cut their profits short and let their losses run.”
Most traders are unprofitable because they take profits quickly but let losers run. Many traders can have a nice winning streak or be profitable in a bull market only to give back their profits with one big loss or lose all their bull market profits during the next bear market.
“Most people approach trading to make a lot of money, and that is one of the primary reasons they lose.” (more…)
Risk Profile
Same Incident-Different Conclusion
Yes ,Valid in Life and Valid for Traders too !!
Anti-Fragile Trader
The Anti-Fragile Trader is someone that puts on very small position sizes in low probability trades, but shifts huge amounts of risk to the trader on the other side of the trade. The methodology of the anti-fragile trader is to bet on the eventual blowup of the traders making high risk trades for a small premium.
The favorite tool of the Anti-Fragile Trader is the out-of-the-money option contract. For pennies on the dollar, they can control huge amounts of assets. While they expire worthless the majority of the time, when a random Black Swan event hits the market affecting the option contract, they can return thousands of percent on capital at risk, and makeup for all the past losses.
The creator of the anti-fragile concept, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, traded long option strangles, betting on both directions to capture any huge trend event up or down. A company being purchased and rocketing up, or a disaster and a company stock sent crashing, was hugely profitable for Taleb. He also bought option contracts on futures markets. The key is very tiny bets on these trades versus total account equity. Tiny losses and tremendous wins was what made the system profitable. (more…)
Timing
Timing your entries and exits is crucial to your success as a trader. The charts and price action tell you when the time is right. You just need to pay attention and recognize what they are saying.When you can simplify your information sources down to only a few then your task will become easier. After all , how many indicators do you really need when the chart shows it is going up and the markets show they are going up? How much confirmation do you need? And confirmation of what? The future is unwritten. The more you wait, the farther way the prime entry/exit spot is moving away from you. The more risk you take on. More risk can play on your emotions. Indicators are always behind the times. I view them as pretty useless. The price on the chart and the candles are my REAL TIME indicators. Sounds simple and it is.So if you have simplified things in the manner I describe, the next item to truly believe in is probabilities. I (and everybody else) don’t know what is going to happen in the future. However, I know that profit taking will happen after long trends, pops, drops etc. Trading the probability of a reversal after a extended uptrend when the candles are getting shorter, volume is dropping off and the overall markets showing the same is only taking the view that gravity usually takes effect and that the stock will drop. This is timing the market. My mind is not encumbered by hopes, dream and predictions of what will happen. I think of only the probability. There is a huge difference between the two psychologically after you take some losers in a row. I don’t take the losers personally as a reflection of my poor judgment. I just think that it’s the law of probabilities playing themselves out and so I can go into my next trade opportunity unafraid and without hesitation.
Strategy
- Adaptable- a strategy must be able to adapt to a changing market. It must also be able to adapt to your internal changes. If nothing changes there would be limited chances for profit. Every trader must root for changes but it does not matter if you cannot adapt.
- Definable- there are times when you need to override your strategy but that happens for less frequently than we think. A majority of your trades you should have a definite reason for a action.
- Quickly explainable– if you can’t explain your strategy or reason for a trade in a minute or less it is probably too complicated. Until you fully understand your strategy a majority of your “indicators” are just putting a band-aid over a gaping wound that is your lack of understanding.
- Personal- You are an input into the way you execute. You cannot be something you are not. Do not get me wrong there are things about yourself that you need to bend to trading but strategy should not be that one. It is hard to fake being tall and expensive to be a type of trader you are not.
I am not saying a trading plan will make you a successful trader, there are other factors. It is a necessary first step. You need a trading plan to consistently and confidently execute. Your trading rules should answer whatever questions the market asks you. Originally I made the mistake of planning out my trades, for example. If the market does x I am going to do y. Well when I was creating that plan that was what was working. When I started to apply that plan the market had changed. That is why many probably scrap their plans or do not work on them in the first place.
You are either a system trader or a discretionary trader. Each has it’s own equity curve and set of responsibilities. Below are some videos that you will find helpful.
Cutting losses
There is one big difference between traders, who make money and traders who don’t. It is called risk management. Even if you blindly pick your stocks, in the long-term you will make money as long as you cut your losses short. Add to risk management a proper equity selection model and then you are in top 5% in the world. The 5% that actually make money, consistently. This is the biggest secret of successful traders – cutting losses short. It saves capital and it saves your piece of mind.
If you browse on the internet, you will find thousands of articles that preach that losses should be cut short. It is well known fact and yet you’ll be surprised how few people actually utilize it, even those who write about it. Words are free. You can say whatever you want. Many people don’t practice what they preach and this is why the biggest edge someone could have is called discipline.
There are two types of traders: the ones that cut losses short and the ones that lose everything and go out of business. If you can’t define your risk in advance and most importantly if you can’t accept it, you should not be trading at all. Reading about cutting losses short will never be enough. It is human to believe that you are different and that you know better and that it will never happen to you. You have to experience it to realize it. It is part of the learning curve. I knew about this rule long before I committed serious money to trading and yet I didn’t practice it until I had my portion of outsized losses. Today, the thought of how and where I’ll exit a trade, is the most important.
I know that there are many people who preach that they don’t use stop losses and yet they are successful. Well, if they are successful doing that, then they are not really traders. They are investors and they limit their risk by hedging, which is a whole new chapter.
Trading Quote-Real Truth
Learning to do nothing
This is a lesson I keep needing to come back to. I can see that trading for amusement has been my own downfall a thousand times in the last few years, and to just sit at the sidelines can be painful.
I just read a brilliant quote by the trader John Piper.
“Once able to trade, it is very likely that a person will make the emotional decision to do just that when bored. This timing is unlikely to correspond with a low risk trading opportunity.”
“Once able to trade, it is very likely that a person will make the emotional decision to do just that when bored. This timing is unlikely to correspond with a low risk trading opportunity.”