Perfectionists consistently lose money?

Quote from kiwi_trader:

actually ... if a trader focusses on making money ... thats another way of screwing up for most.

a winning trader cares about executing his tested and documented system/strategy/method/trade plan as well as he can. he or she knows that if they do that then over time they will make money.

its like a shop owner .. you focus on giving good service .. not trying to suck dollars from this customer ... if you want to make money in the long term.

Focus perfectionism on gradually improving your process ... a winning formula.
More...

Yes, I think I know where you're coming from in this. One should
not have an attitude of "I MUST make money today."

I think a lot of this perfectionism stuff goes back to school.
12 x 12 only had one answer. If you wrote down a different
one you lost points (i.e. on the test). At that link I just gave,
two antonyms of perfect are defective and faulty. Who wants
either of those two applied to them?

I think we're looking at a perfect/imperfect matter here.
A 100% score or an "F". A 99% score on a test would
be imperfect and therefore considered to be an F by a
perfectionist.

See below:

PERFECTIONISM

****************************************

A propensity for being displeased with anything
that is not perfect...
****************************************

a personal standard, attitude, or philosophy that demands perfection and rejects anything less.

*****************************************

a disposition to feel that anything less than perfect is unacceptable

*****************************************

a disposition to regard anything short of perfection as unacceptable; especially : the setting of unrealistically demanding goals accompanied by a disposition to regard failure to achieve them as unacceptable and a sign of personal worthlessness

******************************************




http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/perfectionism

-Stephen
 
Quote from crgarcia:

Perfectionists tend to look for Holy Grails and exact tops/bottoms.

Perfectionists are so self-confident that often they leverage, and hold to losing trades forever, to avoid having to admit they were wrong.
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Its always nice to see a humorous thread.

Why discuss perfection and the Holy Grail?

Why discuss whether a person chooses between being right or rich?

Why can't people who think about these things get on with achieving excellence in knowledge and skills amd make every moment an enriching experience?

It is possible for a person to climb the mountain plateau by plateau. Seeing repeated postponment of making a serious start is kind of humorous to observe. False start after false start, I believe, shows shallowness instead of purposefulness. The psychological effects do show up after a while.
 
I love these threads ... highly entertaining

Just a passing thought.

If an Intraday Trader makes grows his account consistently every trading day, does that make him a perfectionist.

After all 5 from 5 every week = perfection.

regards
f9
 
Quote from fearless9:

I love these threads ... highly entertaining

Just a passing thought.

If an Intraday Trader makes grows his account consistently every trading day, does that make him a perfectionist.

After all 5 from 5 every week = perfection.

regards
f9
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It makes him successful, but not the best. Improvement
indicates a less than perfect method/system. Perfectionism
is not rational so one has to get to the core of why the
trader is obsessed with being perfect. I don't even think
being the very best trader would be acceptable to a
perfectionist.

In the SAT's a perfect score is possible.
In predicting the future it is not. A perfectionist may not
see that.

I'm tired now so I don't know if this made any sense.
Gave it a shot though.

-Stephen
 
Quote from Thunderdog:

Actually, I think that perfectionism stems from self-doubt.
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There is no way to determine what is needed to trade with
100% certainty of a profitable outcome. There is no way to
to be *sure*. I see what you're saying here.

-Stephen
 
This thread is Total Reaking Bullsh*t and so very worthy of ET.

I nominate it for Thread of the Year.


In reality, you MUST be a perfectionist to build ANY successful business.
 
Of course they already knew that they were wrong. The difference is that perfection by definition, in trading, all trades must be the winning trades, no losing trade is accepted; therefore the reason why the forever holding is to expect that the stock will turn to be profitable at someday in the future. This game is not for perfectionist because loses and win small instead of big win are part of the game. Small win with high certainty is much better than big win with less certainly. Better not to catch the falling rock right away, let it hit the earth first and rebound a little bit before you can catch it with safety.

Quote from crgarcia:

Perfectionists tend to look for Holy Grails and exact tops/bottoms.

Perfectionists are so self-confident that often they leverage, and hold to losing trades forever, to avoid having to admit they were wrong.
More...
 
Asking for perfection in ones trading is seeking improvement from where you are at any given level of skillsets acquired up to that point in time. Seeking improvement is a better choice of words. Any fool knows there is no perfection in all professions, never will be.

Perfection is required for moon landings etc. Read.......... math is required in science but is basically useless in the world of trading, investments. Many trading books state perfection leads to ulcers, not profits. Perfection is what new fools look for because they have yet to learn the hard lessons that losers are part and parcel in this game.

PERFECTING "your signals", now you are getting somewhere. Trial and error is where the skillsets are honed. All that is required to make a closet full of money is out there for everyone.

Check this little tidbit out............when you have honed your signals down to where your brain tells you...........PULL THE TRIGGER............you are as close to perfection as you will ever be. Even well honed "GOLDEN 10" signals will be more than enough to catch most moves in any given day.......IF you are FOCUSED. I was not focused today and made a tad of what was available..........the HEAD just was not in the game as Dr visit is thurs and a holiday weekend is coming....... No FOCUS and you will not get even the well honed signals....

Perfection is for losers,...............improvement is always for all of us.
 
I think I have sufferd from being a perfectionist. I am always trying to have perfect entry and exit. This has caused me to miss many entries and exit to early many times. This has been an emotional issue because I bail on my tradeplan to often.

Today I just focused on trading good looking entry points and stop worrying about being correct every trade. I went to a lower timeframe so i could get more entries with tighter stops. I was like a new man. Didn't hesitate trading felt much more comfortable.

Thus I agree trying to be to perfect can hold you back because taking losses is a part of the game. So just take them and move on. Today I had the best day I have had in a week


:D
 
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