Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
A Sunday afternoon and I notice with a smile that I am about to hit the 1000 post mark on futures.io (formerly BMT). (Hey, @Big Mike, I owe you a lot!)
This is a list of simple beliefs I, the trader, follow:
1. Love the Process of trading.
Trading is embracing a lifestyle, an attitude, and accepting the long journey where change and uncertainty are constant companions. Expect to sweat out during the learning part, and master many things before seeing peaceful days roll by.
The key here is: Have no desire to act inappropriately. Love and be proud of all the times when you consistently are able to not have any desire to act inappropriately, notice that this happens when you are engaged in the process instead of focusing on rewards/reprimands.
2. Patience and Inaction are Your Edge
Avoid taking trades, playing at all unless your mind calmly notices that it is time to act. Doing nothing is trading (more so than taking marginal trades and then hoping, coaxing and praying).
Patience and inaction arise from Discipline (not from Sloth). Wait until there is money lying in the corner and all you have to do is pick it up. Once you know what you are looking for then wait in preparedness for that to materialize. Not taking a single trade all day is perfectly acceptable.
To repeat the key again: Have no desire to act inappropriately. This comes easier when you are in complete immersion, in the flow, in the zone - these being alternate terms for Being in The Present Moment where time fades, hence impatience does not exist.
3. Don't make much ado about being patient and disciplined
Make your ego so small, so minuscule, and so elastic that it is blessed with agility and flows naturally with the market and be peaceful with the fact that you are achieving your goal - namely that of being here to make money and getting paid for having an edge. The call of sirens being loudest when you are virtuous - as if the market owes you and wants to pay you; as if being a good tape-reader, patient and disciplined means 'you have arrived' - all these thoughts simply mean you are shifting focus away from the process and glamorizing it in itself. As a lifestyle change, remove the'I' from everything in life and be humble, helpful, kind and know your place in the universe is not in the center of it. Simple and frugal living, surrendering to some faith, and understanding that the order that move the markets is the same order than makes the earth spin,sun rise and seasons happen is the enlightenment that is always needed for trading.
4. Love thyself
Make peace with yourself. Place yourself in the best position to Give your Best; but also Forgive yourself for letting that trade slip away, for missing those zillion pips had you stayed in instead of exiting. Love yourself enough not to take marginal trades, revenge trades, or do any other thing that will diminish confidence in the Self or see yourself any lesser than the imperfect but yet so perfectly trustworthy being you are. Never hate yourself; this is the key to prevent depression, mania, hatred and irrationality. Only allow the clear stream of reason to run the forefront of your engine - be your boss by reasoning with yourself and not tolerating lapses of discipline, never adding to losers, not exiting a perfectly working trade, never slack on studying and improving. Do not substitute attitude for work, do not fool yourself into procrastinating by trading needs a special elevated mood or that one needs to meditate one's self into some magical zone. By doing the necessary preparations in whatever mood you are in, you make sure that you do not refuse the pips that the market offers NOW; do not foolishly say that this Now is not right for me to make money, I'll have that Now tomorrow or (insert time period). Days turn into weeks turn into months and you will find yourself looking back at a series of days when you were 'broken' and realize it was all a game of pretend and excusitis. The other end of this is wanting to win Now and seeing things that haven't materialized yet (good trades where there are marginal ones or sometimes no setups at all) - this is assigning more importance to the I, making it bigger and more bloated than it really is - the I is not important, and the I needs to submit itself to the market's agenda and flow with it, and get out if that isn't happening. Not getting excited is a part of loving yourself and taking I out of the equation. In this game you win when you surrender.
As Mark Douglas says, be the observer of the I - catch yourself thinking about committing a trading error - if you don't then your realizations come after the experience.
5. The Journal is your ultimate line of defense
Record your losses most of all. The journal allows you to judge whether you erred or whether you took the best decisions in the light of available information, but the bad result was simply due to variance. Anyone reading your journal should be able to follow your line of reasoning and follow the same steps that you would later.
A journal does not ask 'What do you do in this situation?'
A journal asks The Relevant Question 'What all aspects have you considered when you approach this situation before determining what is to be done?' and also records the honest answer.
6. Be natural. Forcing yourself is suicide
The mind has a muscle for self-regulatory behavior. That muscle has limited strength and energy and needs building up, conservation. As we trade and take decision after decision, the resource is weak and tired and depleted. Removing the I allows pure strength to be fed directly this muscle, adding I cramps it and restricts it. Nevertheless lot of screen time is akin to a workout and you become capable of sustaining more of its continued use. Know where your meter stands and be prepared to walk away when you realize that further decisions on a tired muscle may bring the weight crashing down and cost you dearly. The players who simply play defensively break even, the ones who play the A game become profitable. It is simple, difficult.
Took 6 trades (actually 4 but T4 counts it this way), 1 loser of $100
5 winners of $100, $50, and 3 x $37.50
First trade (taken at dawn here) (short) (second break) was exited quickly on pure intuition - it would've been stopped out (and the market reversed at that stop point and went my way 40 ticks!).
Second trade (short, range break) was taken post-office hours as evening was falling just moments before news hit the market. Target was missed exactly by 1 tick as market reversed. Had to settle for 4 tick profit instead of the 10!
I reduced size to 1 lot 'protect profits from eroding'. Caught myself thinking negative.
Third trade was taken really early and hence exited at 3 ticks instead of the planned 10.
Fourth was a long that would have only given max 4 ticks so took it off at three.
I had to stay in office very late to finish off a pending project and that meant I barely got a teeny wisp of time to trade!
Luckily a setup materialized at the exact point I logged in and I took it without hesitation.
Exited at 5 ticks instead of the 10-tick target based on my tape reading feeling that it was going to pop and shoot upwards (that happened!).
Hence only one trade today, a short taken with 2 contracts that yielded $115 post-comissions.
Stats:
Off to bed. Its my father's birthday tomorrow, let's see if I can trade! Dad! I am getting there where you've wanted me to be - a stress free zone where I live in the present moment and not worry about the future. Good trading to all!
Day 3 started with a stupid mistake - a hurried thoughtless entry and a hurried mindless exit instead of a technical stop-out. There would have been ample opportunities for profit had I not done either. $125 lost for no good reason.
The second trade was a textbook IRB short. I entered way too early and had to sit it out with my stop above the pattern high. Finally after a wait of more than one hour the market reached target and the trade ended +$150.