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12 Quotes From ‘Trading In The Zone'

1. Attitude produces better overall results than analysis or technique.

2. Positive winning attitude = expecting a positive result from your efforts, with an acceptance that whatever results you get are a perfect reflection of your level of development and what you need to learn to get better.

3. Winning in any endeavour is mostly a function of attitude.

4. Losing and being wrong are inevitable realities of trading.

5. The market has no responsibility towards the individual trader. Taking responsibility means acknowledging and accepting, at the deepest part of your identity, that you – not the market – are completely responsible for your success or failure as a trader.

6. If you perceive the endless stream of opportunities to enter and exit trades without self-criticism and regret, then you will be in the best frame of mind to act in your own best interest and learn from your experiences.

7.  You will need to learn how to adjust your attitudes and beliefs about trading in such a way that you can trade without the slightest bit of fear, but at the same time keep a framework in place that does not allow you to become reckless.

8. Trading is an activity that offers the individual unlimited freedom of creative expression.

9. The unlimited characteristics of the trading environment require that we act with some degree of restraint and self-control, at least if we want to create some measure of consistent success.

10. The hard reality of trading is that, if you want to create consistency, you have to start from the premise that no matter what the outcome, you are completely responsible.

11. One of the principal reasons so many successful people have failed miserably at trading is that their success is partly attributable to their superior ability to manipulate and control the social environment, to respond to what they want.  (Unfortunately) the market doesn’t respond to control and manipulation (unless you’re a very large trader).

12. The tools you will use to create this new version of yourself are your willingness and desire to learn, fuelled by your passion to be successful.  Successful traders have virtually eliminated the effects of fear and recklessness from their trading.

Quotes from :Dr Alexander Elder's best seller Trading For A Living

Proper money management is essential for successful trading.

A disciplined trader cuts his losses short and outperforms a loser who keeps hanging on and hoping.

As soon as you buy, place a stop-loss order.

Greed and fear destroy traders by clouding their minds. The only way to succeed in trading is to use your intellect.

The goal of a successful trader is to make the best trades. Money is secondary. If this surprises you, think how good professionals in any field operate. Good teachers, doctors, lawyers, farmers and others make money – but they do not count it while they work. If they do, the quality of their work suffers.

Serious traders place stops the moment they enter a trade.

We all like to hope that a trade will succeed – and a stop is a piece of reality that prevents traders from hanging on to empty hope.

Learning to place stops is like learning to drive defensively.

A stop is not a perfect tool but it is the best defensive tool we have.

Expect To Be Wrong

The reason I bring this up was to share with you two reactions I got when describing these recent trades and cash holdings. I had two separate conversations in July — one with a well known Trader, the other with a Fund Manager (known in the industry, but not a household name) — about our posture prior to yesterday’s drop.

The two responses were polar opposites, 180 degree apart.

The trader respected the discipline of honoring stop losses. Good traders know that opportunistic speculation is a process. Ignore any one single outcome, focus on the methodology that can consistently avoid catastrophic losses, manage risk, preserve capital. A good process can be replicated, a random spin of the wheel cannot.

The fund manager, who was having a decent year being long high vol names (at least before Wednesday), was having none of it. “Stops are for losers” is a quote I shall long remember (and email him after he blows up). Apparently, real men have the courage of their convictions.

Rather than fight our foibles, people should admit this error stream is real, and repair the errors of our ways as soon as we discover them. I have noticed over the years the difficulty some people have in cutting losses, admitting an error, and moving on. Way back in 2005, I wrote a piece advising investors that they should Expect to Be Wrong (originally published 04/05/05). I noted that “I am rather frequently — and on occasion, quite spectacularly — wrong.” However, if we expect to be wrong, then there will be no ego tied up in admitting the error, honoring the stop loss, and selling out the loser — and preserving the capital.

This is a recipe for investing disaster. We humans make 6 billion errors per day, at the very least. The biggest one is not acknowledging this simple truism.

3 Trading Nuggets

  • 3NuggetsRemember that becoming a profitable trader is a journey, not just a destination. The perfect trader does not yet exist. Try to become a better trader each day and enjoy the progress you make. Concentrate on learning the craft of technical analysis and on improving your trading skills, rather than focusing solely on the amount of profit or losses in your trading.
  • Congratulate yourself and feel good about a trade when you have done what you were supposed to do, according to your trading plan–regardless of the profit or loss on the trade.
  • Don’t get overly excited about the winning trades or too depressed about the losing trades. Try to maintain an even keel and a professional outlook regarding your trading.
  • Trade Your Plan

    “When you see a position that is going against you and the market is dropping, and you are losing money on a trade, but your stop loss hasn’t been hit yet, how do you stay with the position? What is your secret? Do you pullback and look at the big picture or do you simple assume its all noise as long as it doesn’t hit that lower low? This is my biggest problem with tracking your trades and most of the time you are right in holding on.” … Because we thought our answer to his question may be beneficial to other traders as well, we wanted to share our reply to his e-mail, which was…

    “The key point you stated is ‘but your stop loss hasn’t been hit yet.’ When we put on a trade, it’s like entering into a contract, so we try to stay the course and simply follow the plan. Over the years, we’ve found it’s best to stick with our original analysis because we usually plan a trade at night, or in the pre-market, without the stress of live trading. During the trading session, in the heat of the moment, there is so much pressure that we have to fight the voice in our heads telling us to sell the position when everything around is crumbling. It basically comes down to planning the trade and trading the plan…easier said than done, right? Sometimes, if you have a feeling things are going bad, and you’re an active trader, you can maybe sell 1/4 or 1/3 of the position to ease your mind. However, you must have the discipline to get back in once the coast is clear. Try to lay out a plan, write it on paper, and stick to it. The one thing every trader must accept, in order to be successful, is a loss. You must be fully prepared to lose what you’re risking. Once you accept losses as part of the trading game, the pressure to be right is not so intense. By the way, we at ASR are no different; we fight the same urges to sell that most traders do. It’s a constant battle, that’s for sure!”

    Analysing yourself

    “At the end of each trading day (week) you shouldn’t focus solely on your P/L. Instead, focus on your thought process during the day and how well you executed your plan. If you consistently execute your trades according to plan and still lose money, then you need to reevaluate your approach. While there is definitely a cyclical rhythm to the market, no strategy will always work. You need to constantly  and objectively  review what is working and what is not so you can make necessary adjustments to you plan.”

    Patience, Preparation and Performance

    Everything is difficult before it becomes easy.

    With the current volatility of the financial markets, it is extremely important that each of us resolve to be patient in our decisions and not make snap judgments. These can create future disaster.

    The most successful individuals around the world have a foundation of processes that they utilize consistently, no matter whether the markets are trending with clear direction or being extremely volatile.

    Each of us needs to be patient and allow the trading plans that we use to provide points of execution for trades. We need to be prepared for any and all movements in the market, yet stay committed to our plan and then perform with a self-confidence that ensures that we do not stray away from the steps of our plan.

    Patience, preparation and performance surrounded by a solid trading plan along with money and risk management will produce the highest probability for profitable success.

    Preparation combined with Opportunity creates a new word I would like to give to you — Prepartunity. Every day provides new opportunities for us. If we are prepared then we will receive the highest results possible.

    Four things traders can try to get Success

    1. pinnumber4Trust your gut If something looks like crap and smells like crap, then chances are, it is crap. Listen more to your gut to tell you when to cut a loss and move on.
    2. Keep it simple If something is working, keep doing it. There aren’t any bonus points for being clever. The money is the same color no matter how you make it. So do the simple things and chip away at the profits. I once had a client who felt he had to do complicated trades in order to make money. Bottom line was, he was wrong. Keeping it simple is the proven strategy for success.
    3. Probabilities don’t lie If you’re not carefully tracking the metrics on your trades, you might as well be gambling at a casino. Make it a point to track the data on your trades and study them. That way, you can do more of what’s working and less of what’s not.
    4. Avoid speculating and predicting I can’t begin to tell you how many times I see traders blow up their accounts because they try to speculate or predict what’s going to happen in the future. The simple fact is, no one knows. Even the best traders have a winning percentage of around 50 percent. That means successful trading is not about being right, it’s about what you do when you’re wrong. The bottom line is, trade what you see, not what you think.

    Why Trading Is A Performance Sport

    MB-TEAM

    Learn about various trading software
    Learn how to interpret candlestick charts and patterns
    Learn Fib extensions and retracements
    Try-out various time frames
    Learn trade executions
    Learn how to manage trades
    Learn about emotional control and psychology
    Learn about risk control
    Devise a precise trading method
    Learn about money management
    Backtest set-up for several months
    Internalize set-ups by paper trading
    Have to be adequately capitalized
    Specialize in gap trading
    Learn about creating a daily watch list
    Learn how to prioritize a daily hit list
    Set up blog for recording daily diary of ideas and thoughts
    Devise a system to analyze trading results – daily and monthly
    Develop a daily precise routine

     

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