Search results

A thanks to trackstar for reminding me (with his excellent daily read) of the critical importance of personal responsibility. Successful traders <b>ARE RESPONSIBLE</b> for their results. They take ownership of their bad trades, while sometimes crediting good fortune for their good trades...

While I don't dispute that emotional traders can be successful, I would question whether those emotional outbursts put them in the best mental condition for their subsequent trades. All things being equal, I would much prefer the odds of success for a trader that avoids getting too emotionally...

A couple of final minor thoughts come to mind: Many successful traders tend to be 'numbers people'. They are people that maybe have a math, physics, programming or engineering background, or possibly just have always tended to do well with numbers. Successful traders know that they should...

For the successful trader, success is no accident. They have put in the work, have created one or more trading strategies, and <b>know</b> that they will succeed in their trading. I could list a dozen or more of my trading acquaintances that post here on ET, and tell you (with complete...

The successful trader <b>LOVES TO TRADE</b>. Trading is almost an addiction for these folks. They have been known to dread weekends and holidays, and may avoid vacations (or at least trade every day of the vacation). These guys can't imagine ever retiring, because they're having too...

A successful trader <b>hates</b> to lose. Typically, these are ultra-competitive people, that play games to <i>win</i>. They are people that either want to be the best, or don't want to try. There is no half way. Certainly, successful traders lose, at times. But, they are always focused...

Moderator: If possible, could you move the earlier reply posts (by others), to the end of my initial posts? I'll try to post another 3-4 random thoughts and then welcome the input from others. Thanks.

A successful trader is skeptical. This is especially true when it comes to trader 'education'. When people tell you trading is easy, you should be skeptical. When companies tell you that they can teach you how to make $100k+ per year trading, you should be skeptical. When a newspaper...

Most successful traders I know are tightwads with their money. While this is not a criteria for being successful, I think this is a characteristic that helped <i>lead</i> to their success. Ben Franklin once said "A penny saved is a penny earned" => I can't think of a career where this is...

A successful trader is humble, not egotistical. The trader that knows it all, will typically quickly be proven wrong by the market. The humble attitude leads a trader to be willing to admit mistakes quickly, close out losing trades, and move on without loss of confidence. An egotistical...

A successful trader is logical, not emotional. They realize that what they 'want' is irrelevent to the market and that the market will not always do what is expected. The successful trader realizes that their 'j*b' is to make decisions that put the odds in their favor, and then react to the...

I've thought for a while about creating this thread, and figured maybe now was the time. I'll try to make 4-6 posts on various characteristics that I think are important, and then will answer some questions, if there are any. It should go without saying, but I'll be posting my thoughts, and...

Which is "better" depends on what the guy is trying to accomplish. Let me pick three examples of what the guy's 'goal' my be: 1) To make a profit. 2) To double his money. 3) To NOT lose all his money As the prior poster mentioned, both cases have an equal 'expectation'. Assuming a...

I've been following this thread for a while, and have to say that I agree with this post more than any other. There are spenders, and there are savers. Typically, the spenders are less likely to be great traders for many reasons: 1) They never accumulated the assets needed to enable them...

Hmmm. Not a knucklehead or right-wing Obama basher here... However, I assume your realize that even AFTER the "unprecedented 4-day run higher", the S&P500 is still down over 11% since Obama was elected. Pretty extreme move for a three week period, and not something I'd use as support that...

I sure hope not. Sadly, it's getting harder and harder to tell the difference between the U.S. and Venezuala.

Seems that a lot here don't understand capitalism. The OWNER (i.e. shareholders of a public company) actually <i>owns</i> the company. It's <i>their</i> company. They risk their money. They make the decisions (as it should be). They make the profit if/when the company makes profits. They...

Popular, and well deserved. Union membership has sharply declined in the U.S. over the past 30+ years. The best analogy is that of a parasite, killing it's host. Now, the parasites are begging to have someone save their host so that they can continue to survive. The U.S. steel industry...

Ahh, yes, Timmay was there. All dressed out in a suit. I had to chuckle under my breath as I walked past. Seems he was hawking some sort of low priced stock service (subscription based, I would guess). Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of the Expo itself.

Highlights: The best part of the trip, no doubt, was meeting up with fellow traders from ET, including Lescor, tntneo, Dustin, Jaan, Shreddog, PatrickQ, Szeven, RedInk, mnx and Wayne. Many of us also brought our wives, and a good time was had by all, chatting in lounges, eating in restaraunts...