Can you elaborate on what you mean because it's difficult for me to see how that's connected to trading and I've been interested in hearing how you were going to tie all that together....with the markets.
Psychology? ...so much wasted time.
- Thread starter dartmus
- Start date
Trading is really no different to everyday life, but for some silly reason most who try think it is. Ignoring the usual text book stuff about the psychology of trading, in simple terms, if your everyday life is full of falsities, then so will your trading, as it can not be any other way.
If your wife is one of those demanding women who likes to keep up appearances and "be as good if not better" than the rest, this will affect how you set up and plan your future. So, instead of paying off your mortgage and loans asap, you will probably end up re-mortgaging several times and staying in debt for most of your working life.
One of the main keys to financial independence is to be debt free and not owe a cent to anyone. Pay your bills as they arise and do not let yourself get sucked into the big world of advertising and false security.
A good way to gauge if you are on the right track is to set a realistic age that you will retire at, and it should be well below 65. I know many people who have worked hard all of their life, came to pension age and only got a few years before they kicked the bucket.
When you are financially independent you think more clearly, and see things for what they really are. If you embark on trading to shorten your retirement age, unless you are debt free and have a thorough understanding of how the financial markets really work, then you will more than likely just waste your time and start to put yourself under pressure, which is exactly what you do not need.
I've been preaching this for a while, but have never stated as elegantly as you just did.
This is where you have limited understanding of psychology/"spirituality" for trading.
Psychology/spirituality would get you to ask :
* why have I not "whatever"?
* why I don't have formal rules for "whatever"
More simply : why do you do things that are not helping your trading?
Most traders, after some "practice" experiences, do know what they need to do.
The gap is why they do not do it. This is where psychology/"spirituality" come into play.
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If the psychology umbrella is so wide that it includes everything, then the utility of "psychology" becomes increasingly doubtful.
Successful trading stems from (a) a robust trading plan and (b) the discipline to follow it. Most traders, after some practice experiences, do not know what they need to do because they don't know how to organize the data they've collected from their experiences and thus have no idea what they've been looking at. Even if one includes laziness and stupidity under "psychology", nothing is gained by resorting to Oh, Well, It's Just Psychology.
Sitting in a cave and meditating on one's navel are not going to help one's trading one whit. Develop the trading plan first. Then if one can't or won't follow it, determine and examine the fears that prevent him from doing so. Does this examination fall under the rubric of "psychology"? Yes. But psychology is the cart. The trading plan is the horse.
The trading plan is important of course..but other things are far more important!
Psychology is a minefield..to try and apply standard techinues for to improve trading results is a futile effort..such as..meditation.. visualization..etc..etc
There are but a few key simple things that a trader needs to understand..and also..be able "to do".. without these things the trader will be resigned to the "going round in circles"..which happens nearly everyone who tries!
In order to make money trading..you must..repeat..you must..become a good loser.. otherwise you will never make money..no matter how hard you try!!!!
If by "other things" you mean becoming a good loser, the trader without a robust trading plan won't understand why he lost and will thus be unable to do much about it.
Can you explain exactly what a "robust" trading plan is!