Forget where I heard / read this:
"If you can't see it from the back of the room it's not worth trading"
(paraphrased)
If you knew then what you know now, what would you have done differently to learn to trade?
- Thread starter learner2007
- Start date
Forget where I heard / read this:
"If you can't see it from the back of the room it's not worth trading"
(paraphrased)
Good point about the Transportation Index.......
1) I wish I had taken the time to do some self discovery. If I had paper traded various styles of trading I could have saved some time focusing on what suited my personality best.
2) Journal. I should have started a journal on day one.
3) Understanding that there is no "holy grail". There is no "system" or magical indicator that is going to make you profitable. There is no "red light/green light" system that will work over the long haul in every market condition.
4) I wish I had focused on one product and learned it well rather than trying different markets.
5) I wish I had found the right trading tools (for me) earlier and understood there are limitations to the amount of information I can process at any given time. I started out just like everyone else thinking that if one indicator was good five would be better.
Now I just use the tape, DOM, volume profile, VWAP and footprint chart.
6) Trading is a business.
2) Journal. I should have started a journal on day one.
3) Understanding that there is no "holy grail". There is no "system" or magical indicator that is going to make you profitable. There is no "red light/green light" system that will work over the long haul in every market condition.
4) I wish I had focused on one product and learned it well rather than trying different markets.
5) I wish I had found the right trading tools (for me) earlier and understood there are limitations to the amount of information I can process at any given time. I started out just like everyone else thinking that if one indicator was good five would be better.
Now I just use the tape, DOM, volume profile, VWAP and footprint chart. 6) Trading is a business.
minimize my exposure and start trading way earlier!
The question is useless for yourself (maybe not for others as they can learn from your mistakes).
You cannot change your past anymore. Better to think about what you will do in future based on your experience in past. That would be much better and might help you.
You cannot change your past anymore. Better to think about what you will do in future based on your experience in past. That would be much better and might help you.
Great question.
I don't think I could tell myself any one thing. I've learnt from so many sources that have all had different influences on me.
But saying that, I've often gone through certain learning experiences in trading with a half arsed approach. Where I'm really intense in one particular area but don't quite get deep enough for change, giving up.. 'that' learning is essentially entertainment.
I've been what George Leonard would call in his book 'Mastery' a 'hacker' and a 'dabbler'.
It's only once the pain of the markets pushed me to fully commit that I started making good progress.
So id tell myself to fully commit and put 100% into any ideas I had at the time.
If I connected with a book, to not just read it once and get an 'entertainment' buzz out of it,
but to properly study it multiple times. To take that attitude to everything.
I don't think I could tell myself any one thing. I've learnt from so many sources that have all had different influences on me.
But saying that, I've often gone through certain learning experiences in trading with a half arsed approach. Where I'm really intense in one particular area but don't quite get deep enough for change, giving up.. 'that' learning is essentially entertainment.
I've been what George Leonard would call in his book 'Mastery' a 'hacker' and a 'dabbler'.
It's only once the pain of the markets pushed me to fully commit that I started making good progress.
So id tell myself to fully commit and put 100% into any ideas I had at the time.
If I connected with a book, to not just read it once and get an 'entertainment' buzz out of it,
but to properly study it multiple times. To take that attitude to everything.
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I would have focused 120% on me, myself, and I and my trading studies and would have avoided any concern as to how and what others in a different world were doing. By those in a different world I mean institutional investors/traders of all kinds. As I found out much later, through personal involvement with such, that they are by no means the Gods of the trading world just because they have a BB and all available information at their finger tips.
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I posted the above in reaction to a new thread listed today(06/08/17) and my reply to it which is as follows:
What are the general Win rate and RR of professional/Full Time traders?
Why are retail traders always so concerned and interested in the results of hedge funds, institutional investors, market makers, Buffett, hft, quants, other retail traders etc.? They are playing a different game on the same board/chart, under different conditions, with different restrictions and rules. Comparing oneself to anyone else is really irrelevant, and it will not identify your position on the trader's/investor's totem pole. Trading to the best of your ability is all that counts.
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I posted the above in reaction to a new thread listed today(06/08/17) and my reply to it which is as follows:
What are the general Win rate and RR of professional/Full Time traders?
Why are retail traders always so concerned and interested in the results of hedge funds, institutional investors, market makers, Buffett, hft, quants, other retail traders etc.? They are playing a different game on the same board/chart, under different conditions, with different restrictions and rules. Comparing oneself to anyone else is really irrelevant, and it will not identify your position on the trader's/investor's totem pole. Trading to the best of your ability is all that counts.
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I often read and hear traders say how they find that exiting a trade skillfully is more difficult than executing a good entry. I imagine that for most traders the desire for profits reduces the amount of analysis done at the entry, and the 'Let your profits run' saying causes hesitation to exit. And 'Letting your profits run' has its hidden costs.
There is a saying that the entry is a skill and the exit is an art. I believe that to be just the opposite.
Early on I believe that I gave equal emphasis on the entry and the exit. However I soon changed that to 99.9% on the entry and .1% on the exit. By no means though does that mean that the exit is done on a whim. Simply, with a poor or mistaken entry you have an instant problem. A correct entry should turn into a profitable position very shortly, of course.
On the other side of the trade, even a terrible exit only results in reduced profits. However that need not be the case. In those days there were no intraday charts with which to find the earliest indications to exit. And many of the traditional exit indications on daily charts took too long to complete and reduced performance. Initially, scaling out seemed to be the best answer, and for various reasons it is an excellent tactic. However, further detailed research found fairly simply and excellent tactics for exiting that did not require the precision or time needed for a good entry. Also, many of the exiting tactics are followed by a re-entry.
So, early on in my trading education, having a different viewpoint regarding the exit of trades would have saved me a lot of time and would have increased my performance.
There is a saying that the entry is a skill and the exit is an art. I believe that to be just the opposite.
Early on I believe that I gave equal emphasis on the entry and the exit. However I soon changed that to 99.9% on the entry and .1% on the exit. By no means though does that mean that the exit is done on a whim. Simply, with a poor or mistaken entry you have an instant problem. A correct entry should turn into a profitable position very shortly, of course.
On the other side of the trade, even a terrible exit only results in reduced profits. However that need not be the case. In those days there were no intraday charts with which to find the earliest indications to exit. And many of the traditional exit indications on daily charts took too long to complete and reduced performance. Initially, scaling out seemed to be the best answer, and for various reasons it is an excellent tactic. However, further detailed research found fairly simply and excellent tactics for exiting that did not require the precision or time needed for a good entry. Also, many of the exiting tactics are followed by a re-entry.
So, early on in my trading education, having a different viewpoint regarding the exit of trades would have saved me a lot of time and would have increased my performance.
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