Trading is not for everyone. There is no shame in this fact. I can assure you the successful traders here failed at other projects before they became successful in trading.
I feel like giving up!
- Thread starter Unquestionably
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Trading is a zero-sum game. Thus the way to make money consistently is being better than the rest OR selling subscriptions to traders (which incidently is a business venture).
Without Elite losers no Elite Traders.
Without Elite losers no Elite Traders.
businesses aren't a zero-sum game like poker or trading is. it adds value.
Trading is not a true business. Its a zero-sum game like poker. You need losers to get winners. In businesses, that's not always the case, but it certainly is always the case in trading.
A commercial hedger might lose money on the deal with a speculator but he gets to fix his price in advance. That is something real that is value added above the zero sum nature of trading.
Thanks for some good ideas.
Not everyone's trading experience is the same. It took a year for me to develop my strategy. I paper traded it for 5 months. I traded is for small money for 2 months. I now trade it for serious money. Including the 2 months of small money trading I average 10.6% month on month return.
I make my living trading and I love what I'm doing. It's not a job, it's a joy.
I make my living trading and I love what I'm doing. It's not a job, it's a joy.
I know to some this is gonna sound pious and all righteous and all, and some are gonna think I'm full of shit, ... whatever... but success in trading has very little to do with technicals, etc. It has everything to do with mastering your inner emotions. Most people fail because they have not mastered self discipline and emotional control.
Use your technicals to develop your edge, but without a sharp, disciplined mind that is emotionally mature and stable... nothing will help. Success in trading starts from the inside out. In the long run, nothing else will work.
I can give two people a very clear and easy to understand edge to trading...
trader 1 is emotionally erratic, prone to highs and lows, doesn't follow his rules because his fear or greed drives his decisions, lets small losses turn to big losses because his emotions won't let him take a small loss, etc..
trader 2 follows his rules, trades with ice in his veins, doesn't let his emotions of fear and greed drive his decisions, realizes a small loss is the cost of doing business, etc...
Without a shadow of a doubt, trader 2 will succeed for obvious reasons.
Use your technicals to develop your edge, but without a sharp, disciplined mind that is emotionally mature and stable... nothing will help. Success in trading starts from the inside out. In the long run, nothing else will work.
I can give two people a very clear and easy to understand edge to trading...
trader 1 is emotionally erratic, prone to highs and lows, doesn't follow his rules because his fear or greed drives his decisions, lets small losses turn to big losses because his emotions won't let him take a small loss, etc..
trader 2 follows his rules, trades with ice in his veins, doesn't let his emotions of fear and greed drive his decisions, realizes a small loss is the cost of doing business, etc...
Without a shadow of a doubt, trader 2 will succeed for obvious reasons.
Mastering self discipline and emotional control is easier if you recognize there are tools you can use to provide the necessary counterbalance. If you believe it is just making up your mind and doing it you are fighting a loosing battle.
I use two tools. The first is a trading journal. I am honest about any missteps. If I make an unforced error by being careless, I note it in my journal. I am able to resist making trades outside of my rules if I can't make a competent case in my journal. The journal has proved a remarkable counterbalance to emotional decisions.
To make it even harder on myself to do emotional trades, I make my journal public. Readers are quick to spot trades that do not fit my rules. I fear ridicule as a consequence of trades that are outside my rules going bad more than I crave the pleasure in indulging in a trade not within the rules.
Choose tools that work for you. But they must be more powerful than just wishing.
Mastering your emotions and discipline is a very personal journey and something thats different for everyone. I wouldn't even begin to tell someone how to develop their own, but for me it was thousands of hours in front of a screen and thousands in losses until it finally started to click. If I could point to one thing that turned me around... I learned to accept a loss. My ego finally got out of the way.
A lot of traders feel that getting stopped out is a loss. It really isn't... you've actually won. One sign of a successful trader is having small losses, not huge ones.