Archives of “walks of life” tag

rss

Day Trading is like Monopoly

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

I know a lot of traders who are just eeking by or breaking even at the end of the month. Many of these traders ask what they could be doing better or what my “secret” is.Monopoly. You buy 4 houses and sell them to buy a hotel. In other words, you find a simple, routine, monotonous way of trading and you just do it over and over. Most of the guys I talk to have a trading strategy, most of them have tested it. What they don’t have is the confidence to just stick with it. Trading shouldn’t be a roller coaster, but rather it should be routine like filling out TPS reports.Mental Toughness by Daniel Teitelbaum. In his book he states that you need to break down the walls that are stopping you from reaching success. He has you work on several mental exercises to help you focus on what you need to do. After all, if you knew that you had to take that GOOG trade this morning or your family would die you’d be plenty motivated to take the trade and to do it right.

So what’s the secret? It’s painfully simple – Day Trading (or any type of trading) is like

I think the main reason that most traders can’t stick with it is that they haven’t got enough mental focus. They get tired and sleep in past market open, or they become unsure of themselves so they fail to initalize the first trade of the day when the setup is right in front of them, or they rationalize that some piece of news or the other will do such and such to the market. All of these rationalizations are subconscious disruptions coming to the surface.

If you’ve ever failed to stick with your trading plan and end up taking the one losing trade of the day, I strongly recommend you check out

Make a committment to yourself, to your family and to your trading by taking the next 30 signals without deviating from your trading plan and I guarantee that you will learn the secret to your trading success – you.

Do successful traders have different mental models

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

While much of the focus on trading is around chart patterns, scanners, analytical techniques, indicators, quantitative techniques etc., most of it is commodity. Everyone has access to same tools, techniques, books, research or analysis. So why is it that some traders are very successful and some are not. You can largely divide the traders in to those with consistently good returns, those with mediocre returns and those who are unsuccessful. Most of the time you will find mediocre traders continue to have mediocre returns for long time and their best years never exceed beyond a certain thresh hold.

Much of the same things you will notice in life in general. Vast majority remains stuck in sea of mediocrity. It has nothing to do with innate talent or efforts. Much of it has to do with mental models.

Mental models are deeply held mental images, beliefs, and assumptions. The mental models play a very important role in dealing with world around us. We interpret the world according to our mental models. Two people with different mental models react and interpret same data and same situations differently. Mental models include what a person thinks is true but not necessarily what is actually true.

Successful people in most walks of life have different mental models than mediocre people. That is why successful people can see and act on opportunities which others do not see.

One thing which you can do to be successful in trading or in life in general is to change your mental models. But in reality it is one of the most difficult things to do. Movies often have very dramatic scenes of mental model change leading to transformation in leading character. But in real life changing mental models requires a sustained and structured process and many times requires facilitation by an outside entity. There is a vast array of books and techniques dealing with this field. I have spent years studying this fascinating field of mental modeling.

Once you have the right mental models you see the markets and the trading opportunities differently.

The Stock Market is like a Beautiful Woman

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

The stock market is like a beautiful woman, always 
appealing 
challenging
fascinating
captivating
mystifying.

Appealing     The stock market appeals to everyone – the ignorant and illiterate, barbers and bartenders, brokers and bankers, best and brightest, professionals and people from all walks of life.

Generally, the stock market is perceived as a marketplace to get-rich-quick, make a fast buck, make a killing and turn rags to riches.

Challenging     The stock market challenges all kinds of players – gamblers, speculators and investors. In the game of sports, amateurs play against amateurs, professionals challenge professionals, and olympians compete with olympians on different level playing fields; whereas in the stock market, novices, amateurs and professionals challenge each other on the same level field. (more…)

Winners Trade to Win

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

As you already know, I am not a slave to conventional wisdom. It is my belief that most popular beliefs held by the masses are not wise at all. This applies to all walks of life, not just the stock market.

The latest bit of unwise conventional wisdom is the idea that one must “focus on not losing money in order to make money”. Play it safe and protect your capital has been a popular mantra over the past month. What a load of crap.

You know what happens when you focus on not losing money? You lose it. Either that or you make meager gains (all hail consistency, as in consistently average!). It’s akin to an athlete playing not to get injured. That is when you get hurt. The team that plays not to lose rarely wins.

In trading, playing not to lose will cause you to pass up on good trades and scare you out of trading volatile, yet lucrative markets. If you have put in the blood, sweat and tears that accompany hard work and dedication, know what you are doing, and have a sound methodology and edge, don’t ever play not to lose.

Note that this doesn’t mean you throw caution to the wind. On the contrary, a trader must be vigilant about managing risk, position size and ones emotions. These three factors, along with having an edge, allow one to play to win, rather than lose, and put on winning trades.

Go to top