The Million $$$ Quest...

[ozzy]

Winning % in my opinion is not that important.

(You problably heard this a million times but here it is again) The key is to cut your losses ASAP and let your winners run (its that simple). For example today I was right 55% (not a great number) yet I was up over 5.0+ points/contract on the ER2.

ozz

P.S look into buy stops/sell stops. Let the trade come to you, not you to it.

Quote from Ripley:

Day 8
PATIENCE is the "KEY"...

# of Disasters: 4

I need to quit taking every trade imaginable. I need to NOT TAKE TRADES. I should only take the best trades, and I should not jump in on those trades. I need to be patient, sit back and only enter the trades when they come to me rather than chasing after them. I need to work on my winning percent.

DO NOT under NO CIRCUMSTANCE should a trade get past your business man's risk. NO NO NO...

# of Disasters must be "0" everyday.

 

[Ripley]

Day 9
Trading for the WHOLE DAY...

# of Disasters: 5

Whatever bias you may have, or whatever you think will happen, you cannot just let it happen...and take your eyes off of it. You have to stay within your Trading Plan at all times. You cannot be complacent even for a second.

Today, I got behind the 8-ball early, and I was down and I had to fight back just to even finish barely in the money. (+$ 384)

Bear is right, I need to have a smaller daily profit target. Thus, my daily profit target should be +$ 400, with +$200 in the morning and +$ 200 in the after noon. I could shoot for +$ 2,000 daily target when I might eventually have +$ 100,000 etc in my account one day.

Ozz... good job there. And you are right, cutting losses ASAP and letting winners ride is all there is to it. It is that simple.

# of Disasters must be "0" everyday.

 

[Ripley]

Thoughts

Market's goal is to make the most amount of people lose the most amount of money possible. For that, Market is going to throw at you the least unexpected thing you possibly cannot ever imagine at you every time.

You have to be on your toes at all times. FOCUS.. be one with the Market.

 

[Ripley]

Day 10
LONG ways to GO...

# of Disasters: 5

Such a losing day... Because I played around with my contracts around and I got hit for some hefty losses that were bigger than my winners.

I should also have a shut off point for the day before my trading gets out of hand. My new goal is +$600 and the shut off point for the day should be -$300. Of course, my goal should be to never get to this point.

The more I trade, the more I suck as a trader. I need to stay consistent with my # of contracts, stop, profit target etc. I should also not fight the market and be along for the ride along the points of least resistance...

 

[coolweb]

Hello Ripley,

Please reconfigure your profit target: 600
max lost a day 100

600 and 300, that just won't fly.

 

[Ripley]

Yeah.. Looks like you are right.

Profit Target: +$900
Shut off: -$300 (goal is never to get here)

 

[Ripley]

Trader Expectations

The only expectation you should have as a trader is that you will lose money. Beyond this, any profit you make is a gift. Expect the worst-case scenario, not the best!

(**Jake Bernstein quotes)

 

[Ripley]

Fear
It is the fear of being wrong that inhibits action. But if this fear also keeps you from making decisions, then you had better give up the game-there's no way you can play it without taking some heat. You never know ahead of time whether your decision will be profitable or not. If you did, there would be no game. There would be no losers to help sustain the winners.

 

[Steve Tvardek]

What?? Expect to lose? You should expect to win consistently but also understand that losses are part of the game. Its impossible to avoid the hits sometimes. But know, that over time, you should be winning. Your trader expectations seem rather defeatist.

Quote from Ripley:

Trader Expectations

The only expectation you should have as a trader is that you will lose money. Beyond this, any profit you make is a gift. Expect the worst-case scenario, not the best!

 

[Ripley]

The Game

Trading game is not necessarily a game that is won by brain power. Rather, the game is won by following your rules, letting your profits run, and closing out your losers quickly.

Most traders are sorely lacking in discipline. This is the single most pervasive and costly problem facing all traders. It has been the case for many years. By adding more information to his or her repertoire, the undisciplined trader will need to process even more information. The result will be less clarity and more confusion.

The best trading system in the world will lose money if traded by an undisciplined, inconsistent, or inexperienced trader.

Although the concepts and methods of trading may be simple and easy to understand, they require practice and discipline. The methods may not take long to learn, but they must be applied with consistency.

Self-discipline, consistency, persistence, and patience are not inherent human qualities. They must be learned. As you can see, there are several levels of learning and many things to learn. Few traders are willing to make the effort required to learn the game. They want success handed to them on a silver platter. It won't happen.