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Are you sure that you really trusted the "particular system that provides consistent returns", because otherwise that is why you are not following it. Anyway, the solution is the one I suggested in the other thread, so I will quote myself: "Do not switch to real trading until you have...

I agree with R. Raskolnikov and the cure is called "paper trading". Do not switch to real trading until you have found a way to consistently make money, and then switch back to paper trading if you find out that you aren't able to consistently make money anymore. There will be no damage done...

Hello, Optionpro007, I also wanted to add something. Things have been bad and sick in my past behaviour. And also I might have a few personality disorders. But aside from that, things have been improving in my trading, slowly but constantly, in these past 12 years, and I might be ready for a...

Hi, Optionpro007. Thanks for your post. I may have GAD, but not a severe form of it, because I don't experience any of the physical symptoms listed here except insomnia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalized_anxiety_disorder But this is true indeed: "excessive, uncontrollable and...

The reason I kept trading discretionary despite being unable to make money, is that the more I was bored and inactive, the more I looked for fun and thrill from trading, whereas I should have looked elsewhere. I remember reading other people saying this, but I never thought it applied to me...

The only pyschology needed is in asking traders who lose money - why are you losing money when it's not necessary? You can paper trade until you find something that works. Probably the answer is - people want to gamble. Maybe not all of us are trading to make money. Some of us (me, too in...

Yes, but consider the "maximum drawdown" of a system. If the maximum drawdown is 10%, and the system is losing 50%, it doesn't mean you need psychology to withstand the drawdown, but that there's something wrong with the system, which is not performing as expected and so you should stop using...

As I said, this should be done by everyone. First of all, paper trade. If you can't find a way to be profitable with paper trading, then do not start trading real money. Take this advice from someone who never followed it and lost money for 12 straight years. Second of all, if you can't learn...

Thanks, mindtrade, for your feedback. I had the same experiences as you, where you say: "I decided to trade it live this month but NOT ONE day did I follow the system completely. I traded discretionary and it has almost blown out my account. I have now stopped trading futures and is sim...

Thanks, very much. And thanks also to Alexis. And this he said is also very good in terms of conciseness and I agree with it: "If you trust your strategies, there is no room for thinking or doubts". I can tell you lots of examples on it from my discretionary trading. One day you exit too...

Hey, this is very good. You understood and stressed some very important points, and I couldn't agree more. The reason people look for psychological reasons for failure (and I did, it, too for many years) is that - not having a winning method - they say "why didn't I apply the stoploss?"...

My biggest obstacle is: myself as a discretionary trader - I lost money, every month, every year, for twelve years. Having somewhat sensed this problem, after failing repeatedly for a few years, since 2002, I've started working on building trading systems. And, in 2005, I've started working...

The thread was dying so I will answer even a hostile remark to revive it, but I will put you back into my ignore list afterwards. You say I am not modest. I am sorry if I disgusted people by "self-glorifying" - I would rather say that I am conscious of my efforts and achievements. The truth...

Thanks, I understand what you are saying. Also, your post is quite poetic - that's how I wanted this thread to be: poetic, psychological, and so on. I am glad that some of us still managed to remember the original question and, despite the negative posts, to speak their minds sincerely.

Thank you. Much needed encouragement.

Concerning the filter... On the other hand, it does make sense, if you are forward testing, to measure profit of the trades done in forward testing, and only invest money in systems that show a profit (it's the only way of knowing if you didn't over-optimise your systems), so that is how I...

Regarding Ken (now on my ignore list): Yeah yeah... I'm doing everything wrong and he's doing everything right. I even believe that his one system is better than my 33 combined. His contribution? "You need to FOCUS". The real sense of his post? "Give up because you're not as good as me"...

Thanks, very good remark. I don't feel like ten years of work is enough to be entitled to a pension for the rest of my life. And I was wondering if others felt the same, and felt this pension was going to last.

Regarding my idea, I did tests on some of my systems (see attachment), with several settings: last 5, 10, 20, 40, 80 trades. None worked. If I stop the system from trading when the last 10 trades (or any of the above settings) profit is negative, their overall net profit gets worse: from about a...

Chan's book is great and his 8th chapter gives a very reasonable answer to the initial post of this thread (the chapter talks about "capacity" and other reasons why retail traders can actually do better than big firms at automated trading). Now, here's another question for Ed and Wayne, if...