Deep thoughts...

This is part of my journal. I have kept a daily journal on trading since 1989 (consistently)--remember when Silver was $5.00 per ounce and the big 'spoos' were in the mid-300's; remember the days?

I guess only us more mature gentlemen were trading back then.
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Here is my 'spiel.' I live it, I love it & I make it mine.

I Intraday and Swingtrade because I know my long-term edge plays out when I

a) follow my pre-planned rules
b) NEVER take IMPULSE or ill-planned trades
c) ALWAYS quantify the trend--I must have a trend for trading my 1st and 2nd pullback in a trend w/higher time-frame confirmations

OR

d) Momentum breakouts and Momentum pullbacks {both clearly defined on all timerames) & w/ higher Timeframe confirmation...
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If I feel the need to do something reckless or against the rules...IT IS OUTSIDE TRADING--this is a balance of

DISCIPLINE (in trading/job/left-brained activity)
AND
FREEDOM (what is fun) {right-brained impulsiveness/bullshit 'center' of brain, etc...}

Yea, I know all you good-looking studs with massive game never resort to feeding a foolish young chick booze or other substances. However--80%+ of my scores have involved one of the two.

Recall the movie 'American Beauty' and Lester being asked by Ricky 'Do you party?' Do you get high? I usually just go with 'do you party?'

If I am in a lower-class neighborhood with mixed ethnicities I go with 'I have works, want some?'
-----------------------

Back to trading...if bored and you are done for the day and need something to do

a) call a fat hog/girl/woman and tell her "I have to fuck you" (usually she tells me to fuck off); however, later at night with party favors {I always have a full grab-bag of them) it is 90% easier with her or others--nothing wrong with that...eh?

b) take a walk/teeter/stretch/drink 42oz water/go to the gym--not 'fun' but productive in a sense that is NON-TRADING related yet is a POSITIVE for stuff outside of trading--after all, trading is only a PART of one's self actualization. It can be a LARGE and IMPORTANT part--but balance is paramount and necessary.

c) chill--and turn off brokerage account and sim and surf the web or take a shower or call a friend--whatever--get out of your head.

Okay, take care everyone.

peace

Hedvig
 
A good webinar here on psychology!

42 minutes long http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHTLPqPBgYI&list=UUV2aGbQ1HAcL6GXR797lRrg&feature=player_detailpage

By this guy www.theinsidetechnician.com

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A solid end to the week for me this a.m. (a quickie but a goodie).

2 wins & out for Friday and done by 9:35am est. I decided NOT to trade NQ (had I done so it would have also been a winner).

My 1st trade in 6E short shortly after 7am est was a large R:R winner (3 to 1 reward:risk)

My 2nd trade in CL short just after 9:30am est was also a large R:R winner (2.5 to 1 reward:risk)--so

@that point I was fine with a 4% day @1% initial risk. Killed the DOM and then watched the NQ and New Home Sales @10am est (when I would normally take my '1 & done' NQ Friday trade).

The week had several quite large intraday winners for me this week with

15 trades
7 wins
2 loss
6 b.e.

Up 14.17% for the week on risk (avg) of 1% per trade.

4 of my b.e.'s are what I call 'keystroke errors' (once I enter a trade if I 'know' it is premature and does not fit my trading plan--I immediately exit that trade) this week. I trade fast timeframes (see volume breakdown below), so--I avg. about 0.5-0.75 trades per day that I enter and then exit w/n seconds because I realize the trade setup was not 100% according to my written trading plan.

So I average 3 hours per day in front of the market intraday and I took 11 legit trades this week. I spent 13 'active' hours in front of the markets intraday this week and executed 11 trades (legit).

This is less than 1 per hour. I patiently wait for my trades to setup properly. I trade on fast timeframes as well.

6E: 59V/177V/531V/1593V
CL: 463V/1389V/3100V
NQ: 750V/2250V/3100V

A quote from a good trader that I reference often in my own intraday trading when the market(s) are consolidating and one may be getting uncomfortable with the 'nothingness' and sitting on one's hands.

"How much personal trading do you do? I watch the S&P everyday. However, coming to the office with
the idea of making $3000 today, or any amount, for that matter, is foolish. In fact, I focus entirely on remaining out of
the market. I trade by exception only."
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I took my trade entries this week without hesitation and spent quite a bit of time 2 nights (couldn't sleep well) visualizing my trading plan and setups and execution w/proper trade management.

At some point on Thursday I felt so relaxed that I was able to get my resting heartbeat (while in trades) to below 65 beats per minute. And that was the day I had my 2 losers.

If a trader can internalize the concepts that I have outlined throughout this thread it is (analogy) like you are working out each day for power/flexibility and extremely low body fat with a solid base of muscle underneath.

You KNOW if you stick with your routines and continue to get the bad urges ('money and fear of missing out') out of your f'ng head--then you are simply a statistician and documenting the spreadsheet that keeps adding the gross profits and business expenses and seeing your inventory each week 'moving.'

One really needs to 'internalize' these multi-modal concepts. Make them your own. Let your 'trading edge' continue to play out and know that you are disciplined and focused and motivated enough to do exactly what you need to do when the situation arises; with confidence and without hesitation.
-----------------------
There was a great special by Wayne Dyer on PBS earlier this week. It was excellent.

http://promos.hayhouse.com/wishesfulfilled/

I have used one of his main concepts he outlines in the video for over 5+ years now.

It is the following: 5 minutes before I fall asleep I visualize and affirm in the present tense.

Also (covered in his video) he explains that in order for your wishes to be fulfilled you have to ask yourself 'does it feel natural?' This is in reference to whatever your goals are in different areas of your life.

Finally, he says that (paraphrasing) that if you are doing everything you need to do and it is 'not happening'--then you need to let go of all hate and judgement etc in your life.

I am a nihilist so I put my own interpretation on the preceeding paragraph's logic: I really don't follow nor do I care what anyone or anything does, now or in the past or in the future--live your life--you are your person.
----------------------
Speaking of pussy; it is 11:15 am est and time for one of my favorite sleazy activities that fulfills my 'wishes.'

I like going to awful 'dive' bars (dumpy shitholes) for lunch on either Friday's or on a Tuesday.

It is theatre and the populace (fuck ups, retards, drug whores, alcoholic people) stirs something deep in me {especially if I go to a new one}.

My winning % at 'dive bars' on the days I go is @ approximately 28%. 28% of the whores that I actually speak to get naked.

I approach maximum of 3 'whores/trades' on a Friday. As in trading, Friday {in my opinion} should be '3 & out.' You either got it quick or you didn't and then you can relax the rest of the business day.

Peace & blessings!

Archbishop Hedvig Von Dikkeman V
 
Traders take risk, in the sense they routinely make judgements whose outcomes are uncertain. So it would follow then, that good traders don't try to eliminate risk as much as manage it, and intsead, can increase their chance of profitability by better reducing that uncertainty.

This can be accomplished by making better trading decisions than those that are less informed, less knowledgeable, and less skilled. Ultimately, it is not what the trader knows, but who he is.

The really profitable traders are able to ignore or subvert their natural tendencies to do what feels comfortable, and instead, do what is necessary, to be optimally profitable.
--------------
Daytrading I am 2 to 1 or 2.5 or 3 to 1 in reward to risk. I trade up from about 7am est to 11am est (w/breaks and maximum trades per instrument rule).

Short-term Daily Swingtrading (Daily Rick) I am at least 1.5 to 1 or up to 3 to 1 in reward to risk.
--------------------------
This is acceptable for long-term profitably.

Less is more. Less trades w/more contracts and the 'size' allows me to make up for the 'action' I sometimes crave.
---------------
Good post from another trader (below)...

A conclusion that can certainly be drawn from our discussion is; the whole question of risk management is far from an objective subject. You need at least one subjective piece of the puzzle to put it together, and that is an individual’s tolerance to risk. Now that is subjective, meaning there is no rule that says how risk averse you should be. That is an integral part of your emotional makeup.

The problem is, human nature does not operate to maximize gain, but rather to maximize the chance of gain, i.e., maximize the the number of winning trades, and minimize the number of losing trades. The result is, not only is risk controlled, but profitability is also controlled. In other words, playing it safe can be just as bad as taking too much risk, because you are not optimizing your winning trades nor the days with expanded ranges.

Sure, it's possible to devise trading schemes based on very short-term price swings that will on average be profitable. However, the average profits on individual trades from such methodologies are miniscule, and the trades they generate are so frequent that it not feasible to scale these strategies. If you look at it from a (modern portfolio theory) point-of-view, you can think of the trading profit on any given trade, as the compensation you receive for the risk you took on the trade. In a sense, the market demands a premium from the trader for taking less risk, which is of course, reduced profitability

As Michael Moubassin pointed out above, "Substantial empirical evidence shows that price changes do not fall along a normal distribution. Actual distributions contain many more small change observations and many more large moves than the simple distribution predicts." The ramifications of this observation are that not all markets should be treated the same and not all trades should be treated the same. The individual days and individual trades, which I like to call "special" must first be recognized and then they must be taken advantage of to the fullest extreme. It is far worse to miss taking advantage of a special trade than to make a bad trade, and it is just as bad for your P&L to fall into it's normal distribution of returns, on a day with 3XATR, as having a bad day.

Traders take risk, in the sense they routinely make judgements whose outcomes are uncertain. So it would follow then, that good traders don't try to eliminate risk as much as manage it, and intsead, can increase their chance of profitability by better reducing that uncertainty. This can be accomplished by making better trading decisions than those that are less informed, less knowledgeable, and less skilled. Ultimately, it is not what the trader knows, but who he is. The really profitable traders are able to ignore or subvert their natural tendencies to do what feels comfortable, and instead, do what is necessary, to be optimally profitable.

peace

Hedvig
 
Hola all,

1st my weekly trading results and then on to psychology and pontifications on poontang.

I am 'drinking my drink' and just had a hot tub. Was done by 10:26am on Friday after unusual time to chill this a.m.

Took an early loser in the currencies and was able to relax from 7:20am to 9am est. I am '1 & done' on Friday.

CL & NQ both gave me 2.5 to 1 Reward:Risk winners--so the day was nicely positive.

A solid week for trading size (25% larger size than my 'baseline' throughout the week).

PM Session trading this week went well (Tuesday and Thursday) w/

4 trades
3 wins
1 b.e.
+$5,320.00 net net

AM Session was Monday, Wednesday & Friday for

12 trades
7 wins
2 losses {$600.00 in 6E on Monday/$750.00 in CL on Wednesday}
3 b.e.
+$13,500 net net

AM: Friday a.m. trading rules

6E: risk $500.00/loser -$500.00 {2.5 to 1 Reward to Risk} -$550.00 net net -8ticks on 8tick risk
CL: risk $1,100.00/winner +$1400.00 {2.5 to 1 Reward to Risk} +$1350.00 net net +27cents on 11cent risk
NQ: risk $850.00/winner +$2050.00 {2.5 to 1 Reward to Risk} +$2000.00 net net +41ticks on 17tick risk

+$2800.00 net/2.24X's daily goal/4%+% roi on the day
-----------------------------------------
I listened to an archived webinar this week:

This is from Adrienne Toghraie w/Jan Arps and his indicators.

She talks about several men in her psychology examples.

http://tradingontarget.omnovia.com/archives/103650

password: 'MOD' (case sensitive)

They are both older and speak very slowly with deliberation in their speaking and use repetition.

It is a privilege to get older; I realize that now.

I also realize that as I get older, my interest in the young flesh increases like the NQ100 as it worked its way to the 50% retrace of all-time bubble highs to lowly lows in the early 2000's.
---------------------------
Lately I have been lounging in old book stores and have become somewhat fascinated with older books on topography. I don't know why.

One of my passions is profiling young 'bookish type' girls at these places.

Over the years I know that their primary weakness is alot of high-quality caffeinated beverages and then if I can lure them offsite, they are much more agreeable to something completely different that offers some non-analytical stimulation (both activity and substances).

Well, that is what I want to do outside trading today. Visit some bookstores.

However, before I do that I will visit one of my favorite dive bars (Friday ritual) for lunch.

peace

Hedvig
 
Great blog post here http://www.tradersstateofmind.com/articles/article/7367349/161481.htm
-----------------------
His article highlights are in 'quotes.' My responses are after the ________
-----------------------
"The moment that a trader uses his performances in trading as an indicator of his worth as a human being, he is in trouble. This is a faulty assumption to base your beliefs about self worth upon. Trading is a not a measuring stick of your worth. Trading is a performance. It is a performance that requires a stable and trained mindset to produce success, but it is only a performance – and not a measure of a person’s worth."
__________________________________
This is somewhat difficult for traders to understand, especially if they spend alot of TIME in front of the markets.

"When you trade, what are you trying to prove? Many traders will say that they got into trading so that they could become rich. What will being rich prove? Notice that, for most, money becomes a short term fix to fix up a psychic hole rooted in “feelings” of inadequacy, not mattering, not being worthy, or powerlessness."
_____________________________

I guess one has to disconnect performance with a personal life. Use the money that you make as a result of having an edge and making good decisions in the market and concentrate on doing things you enjoy with your free time; even if that is sleeping and being lazy or whatever.

Peace

Hedvig
 
10 fucking years this whole forum has been shit till this thread and i almost cracked a smile. almost... m


ps - can a shallow mind have a deep thought?
 
I am recruiting deviants!

I actually smiled when I read the 'bring me your finest meats and cheeses' thread several years ago.

peace

Hedvig
 
Mid-week 'wake up.' Better than snorting a line; believe that!

A post from a Darvas Trading advocate. If you can really internalize what he is writing you are 75% of the way there; then you just have to have a repeatable/sustainable 'edge' methodolog(y)ies for your preferred trading style(s).

Counting the hours 'til Friday. It is spring break week for high school girls & there is so much 'product' out there waiting for me to take it (young girls).
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Why Most People Fail as Traders

by DARRIN DONNELLY on APRIL 3, 2012
Why do people who are hugely successful in one career end up failing miserably as traders?

My trading hero, Nicolas Darvas, succeeded in several other fields besides trading, but his case is an extremely rare exception. The much more likely scenario is for someone to confidently enter the trading world after finding success in other areas, only to whittle away at the fortune they made.

Why is that? After all, there are universal principles that make one successful and we therefore tend to assume that success in one area will more than likely translate to success in another area. But in trading, this logical assumption fails much more often than it proves right.

I think the reason for this is due to a fundamental difference in what it takes to succeed in trading compared to other professions.

To be a successful in almost any field, you have to be extremely productive.

Whether you’re a writer, athlete, teacher, salesman, doctor, entrepreneur, CEO, just about any career you can think of, the level of your success is dependent on how productive you are; how much value you add to the finished product. Your goal is simply to produce more of something or a better version of something.

However, for a trader, there is no product to produce. Our finished “product” is the amount of money in our account at the end of the day and we make that money by making smarter decisions, period.

The inability to truly comprehend this simple fact (and its implications) is why so many people fail at trading.

People enter the trading world eager to multiply the money they’ve earned from their other career. However, the crucial skill (productivity) that helped them earn all that money outside of trading doesn’t translate to success as a trader.

The reasons are obvious. You can’t force a winning trade the way you can force yourself to finish a task. You can’t create more winning trades the way you create more widgets for your company. You can’t fix or improve a trade the way you fix or improve the product or person you were hired to fix.

New traders rarely adapt well to this fundamental difference. The most common response to a dwindling trading account is to change the trading system.

It’s easy to see why this is such a common response. In other careers, where all success hinges on production, if something isn’t working, we continuously make changes until the final product is working the way we want it to.

But in trading, constantly tweaking our strategies is a recipe for disaster because we’re not building a final product. Put another way, we can’t force the market to behave exactly the way we want it to.

Successful trading is about reading and reacting, not changing and creating. It’s about coming to terms with the fact that we have very little control – actually, none whatsoever – over what opportunities the market will give us on any given day.

And that brings us to perhaps the biggest problem of them all: most people CAN’T STAND the idea of not being able to control something.

In our technology-obsessed world, we hate the idea of not having control so much that we often delude ourselves into thinking that we do have control over things we don’t. (Come to think of it, that may be why The Secret, a book that promised to reveal how you can control every single aspect of your life with the power of your thoughts, recently sold more than 20 million copies.)

The sooner you accept the fact that you can’t control the market and change it to your will, the sooner you will be on the path to successful trading.

Ultimately, successful trading is all about substituting one fundamental key to success – that is, productivity – for a different one: DISCIPLINE.
 
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