There is much to learn about technical indicators and trading systems. Obtaining and retaining strategies that work for your situation and your personality is a daunting process.
I would also venture to say that the new trader probably doesn't give much thought to turning inward to themselves and examine in-depth their thought processes and belief systems. After you learn to read charts and have amassed a data bank of practical knowledge about how the markets work and react, the most important step is to apply that knowledge successfully in an ongoing manner. You can have the best system in the world but if you continually sabotage yourself by letting your faulty programming ruin the show you will not be successful.
The solution is to recognize what is holding you back and change these areas. That sounds like common sense doesn't it. But if you keep doing the same things that get you in trouble you will continue to replay the painful past.
Keep a journal and immediately write down your thoughts, your actions and zero in on problem areas as they happen. Be true with yourself. Then trust yourself. Work through each area. Stop the bad habits. Change them into good habits.
The most frequent question is "How long will this transformation from amateur to consistent pro take"? There is no definite answer. It will take as long as it does and your timetable means nothing to natures timetable. I know that the less you fight the system and the more you go with the flow, the easier and faster it comes to you. Fighting the system means being rigid in your expectations and flexible in the execution of your edge. Reverse that. Your transformation is not a race. It is a plodding absorption of knowledge that you eventually can use to your benefit.
After you gain this knowledge of the markets and yourself, a change occurs that moves you from thinking about what the markets are doing and moves into a more instinctive feeling about what is happening. Throughout this blog I've said many times that I feel what the markets will do. I certainly have conviction and act on those feelings. I trust myself. Call it being in the flow or zone or whatever you want but whatever it is I just let the markets show me what to do. I heed the advice and play the probabilities not expectations. The markets are an ocean of opportunities. You can cast your net into them and haul in your catch when you are in the right place at the right time.
Anything can happen and once you prepare yourself to trade from that perspective things will suddenly become easier. You and only you are responsible for adjusting your outlook on where the future direction may be. Unlearn bad habits or entrenched personality traits. Overcome stumbling blocks. Go around walls if you cannot go over them. Never give up.
5 comments:
Good article,
I heard a quote one time that summed up almost everything you need to know about trading pysch:
"It is not enough to know what must be done, one must also feel it."
Tq for sharing Scott.
I was in the level:
1. Don't care where the market go, just care where I am at that time
2. Don't care what's the news result. Just prepare for the volatility.
3. Don't have bias at all. Nothing's overbought and oversold. In fact I am know happy to long on high, shorting the low if my system said so.
4.Dont' expect the market go according to my will. Expect ME go according to market's will.
5. Prepare that everything can happen so looking the Stop Loss not as a loss but more as a protection.
6. Flipping position as easy as flipping my palm, no bias needed.
7. Pi** off more missing the movement or exit too early than being stoppe out.
So, where is my level as a trader? :) I need your opinion since you're the experience trader.
Tq in advance Scott :) Wish you have great life.
Appreciate the entry Scott.
So much of this seems like common sense - but there is some crazy disconnect - the obvious can be staring me right in the face and I keep keep going out of my way to avoid it.
My tendency has been to run straight to trusting my 'sense' of the market, but without a clean impressionable sense, I am left with my hindered and hampered sense (a la expectations and fears). Takes a lot of work to recognize the problem, and it takes even more to remedy it. I finally acknowledge the first step.
Looking back on your trading journey - was there anything that you especially associate with a breakthru on the 'market can do anything' front?
Thanks!
This examines how far back our sense of the market can go. We are no better than monkeys at this stuff:
http://www.ted.com/talks/laurie_santos.html
De'T- If you really , truly believe in all those points, you are not far off. It is more of a gradual transition than an on/off switch though.Experience gained fosters added confidence in all market conditions which makes more experience and more confidence. What is right for you and your personality will be unique to you. Learning never stops and don't think you will know it all, I certainly don't. I look forward to learning. You are on the right track if you keep on doing what you are doing.
Never underestimate the amount of time that it will take though.
DTF- The "ah ha" moment was when I realized I didn't need to know how I could do what I could do. That then progressed to "I don't need to know anything about the future or any information about a stock". Like Sgt. Shultz it was better to "know nothing". That freed my mind up to see and act on what was happening in front of me at that moment.
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