Have you used dbphoenix's teachings to become a successful trader?
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Oh no, I like it. So you grew personally as a trader in addition to having evolved from harder stops and targets into a flexible approach closer to Wyckoff's. I think that's an important lesson by example for newcomers.
Actually, I suspect that Larry Phillips had as much to do with my evolution as Wyckoff did. After all, if one is choking on fear, there are no systems that will save him.
You might find this thread interesting. I've stolen from it liberally: http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?threads/zen-and-the-art-of-trading.38333/
Incidentally, when it comes to trading, one has a choice between either growing or going broke.
Ahh yes, Mr. Poker.
I found a similar message in Mark Douglas' Trading In The Zone. As much as I hated his Disciplined Trader being redundant and full of pseudoscience, I thought that his Zone was a good introduction to trading psychology: think in probabilities and eliminate all emotions. I just wish he got proof-read by a physicist...
I'm going to post this because it's been a subject of discussion lately. I'm going to post it here because this thread is about "dbphoenix's teachings" and whether or not they're useful. Whether this post proves anything one way or the other remains to be seen, but at least it's pertinent.
First, the context, from this morning.
Note that the overnight range was generally 44-48 (it doesn't matter whether this is to the tick or not; it is after all a 30m bar). Just before the open, the entire range shifts, like Alaska during the earthquake, and creates a new range from 40 to 44, the lower limit of the previous range. At around 0845, price tests that old lower limit of 44 and drifts downward. At a quarter after nine, it tests the 40 level, which it had done earlier at 0745.
Now we switch to the 1m. Note the 0915 test of 40 noted by the first arrow. Price then drops through 40. This is a breakout (or breakdown if you like). How one trades this or if one trades it at all is up to the trader. But whether he sold the breakdown or not, it only goes as far as 32. Not bad, but not great. Maybe he exits when price takes longer than he likes for a continuation. Maybe he notices that this level matches the previous day's afternoon low. Or maybe he sees that "spike" up through 38 and gets out then, maybe at BE or maybe with a small profit. Or loss.
Then he sees price re-enter -- or try to re-enter -- 40. Maybe he tries to go long there with a tight entry trigger. Maybe he gets stopped out for a small loss. If he does, then he is not only thinking about that first trade and how much he gained or lost, but now he's also thinking about this second trade and how lucky he is that it didn't get triggered or that it did get triggered and provided him with that loss.
What he isn't thinking about is the market, and the price movement, and when and how and when it's moving. And why. He is, therefore, setting himself up to miss a trade that will soon reach 54.
Unless the trader can stop thinking about himself and his trades and whether he's won or lost and how much, he will not be prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that the market gives him. He will instead miss first one, then the next, then the next, all the while deepening and enriching his self-pity. This must be eliminated. The Phillips book I mentioned earlier can help. So can a trusted trading plan. But the trader must never forget that the market couldn't care less where he entered or what his stop is, if any, or what he wants or how he feels. The market doesn't even know he exists except for his infinitesimally small and trivial trade. Rather it is up to the trader to shift his attention outside himself to the market and focus on what and how much the market is willing to give him at that moment and in the moments to come.
First, the context, from this morning.
Note that the overnight range was generally 44-48 (it doesn't matter whether this is to the tick or not; it is after all a 30m bar). Just before the open, the entire range shifts, like Alaska during the earthquake, and creates a new range from 40 to 44, the lower limit of the previous range. At around 0845, price tests that old lower limit of 44 and drifts downward. At a quarter after nine, it tests the 40 level, which it had done earlier at 0745.
Now we switch to the 1m. Note the 0915 test of 40 noted by the first arrow. Price then drops through 40. This is a breakout (or breakdown if you like). How one trades this or if one trades it at all is up to the trader. But whether he sold the breakdown or not, it only goes as far as 32. Not bad, but not great. Maybe he exits when price takes longer than he likes for a continuation. Maybe he notices that this level matches the previous day's afternoon low. Or maybe he sees that "spike" up through 38 and gets out then, maybe at BE or maybe with a small profit. Or loss.
Then he sees price re-enter -- or try to re-enter -- 40. Maybe he tries to go long there with a tight entry trigger. Maybe he gets stopped out for a small loss. If he does, then he is not only thinking about that first trade and how much he gained or lost, but now he's also thinking about this second trade and how lucky he is that it didn't get triggered or that it did get triggered and provided him with that loss.
What he isn't thinking about is the market, and the price movement, and when and how and when it's moving. And why. He is, therefore, setting himself up to miss a trade that will soon reach 54.
Unless the trader can stop thinking about himself and his trades and whether he's won or lost and how much, he will not be prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that the market gives him. He will instead miss first one, then the next, then the next, all the while deepening and enriching his self-pity. This must be eliminated. The Phillips book I mentioned earlier can help. So can a trusted trading plan. But the trader must never forget that the market couldn't care less where he entered or what his stop is, if any, or what he wants or how he feels. The market doesn't even know he exists except for his infinitesimally small and trivial trade. Rather it is up to the trader to shift his attention outside himself to the market and focus on what and how much the market is willing to give him at that moment and in the moments to come.
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Some smart material in this post, but I need to correct a misstatement of fact. The MARKET DOES CARE--- the market is designed to TAKE YOUR MONEY.. It cares very deeply about where your stops are and when you enter since it lives off of your losses and commissions-- IT NEEDS you to trade and TRADE FREQUENTLY--- the market is very aware of you and your trades no matter how small you are. surf
Market isn't a live entity like a person, not does it have emotions. Each individual may have feelings and each individual may act in cohesion giving the appearance of feeling, yet that is simply an illusion of collective behavior. In other words MARKET DOESN'T CARE and is incapable of caring, nor does it have NEEDS. People have feelings and people care, not the market itself.
Gringo
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False. The market is out to take your money. It cares very much.