The most important tools in your opinion

You must have these tools once you have an edge.

1) The ability to accept that once you get into a trade, it may not work out.

2) The ability to pull the trigger once you see a setup.

3) The ability to leave your stop and target alone.

4) The ability to not revenge trade and not to get emotional after a loss or a win. For example, you can not feel you need to trade because you did not make enough profit or to try to make back a loss.

5) The ability to be patient and wait till you have a setup instead of trading noise.

6) The ability to do all of this consistently every single day.

7) The ability to trade an instrument that is compatible with your psychological makeup.
 
Quote from Nicolaskao:

Well I trade mostly options
More...

When I trade options, I do not look at any charts, no technical analysis at all. Just search for mispricing.

After examining all the technical bells and whistles, I usually need to make a directional bet. IMHO, it is better to trade the corresponding underlying.
 
Quote from riskaddict:

Great point, does this go hand in hand with asking why is this happening or this doesn't make sense? When I'm on I don't care why or how it just is what it is.
More...

Here is a try, I look at it as mapping the subconscious:

I only know, that I have a yellow legal pad next to the desk. Try to catch those emotive moments, height of emotion and write it down - the act of writing it down is detachment - the writer is now the observer. Every time you realize you need to capture it on paper is a moment of being self-aware. Don't need a soliloquy on what's happening, just the pc clock time, entry/exit or in a fearful/greed trade (simple 1,2, word emotion you observed). It will add up (small exercises in self-awareness).

As you say It is what it is, zactly.
 
Quote from oraclewizard77:

You must have these tools once you have an edge.

1) The ability to accept that once you get into a trade, it may not work out.

2) The ability to pull the trigger once you see a setup.

3) The ability to leave your stop and target alone.

4) The ability to not revenge trade and not to get emotional after a loss or a win. For example, you can not feel you need to trade because you did not make enough profit or to try to make back a loss.

5) The ability to be patient and wait till you have a setup instead of trading noise.

6) The ability to do all of this consistently every single day.

7) The ability to trade an instrument that is compatible with your psychological makeup.
More...

Those are rules to live by.

I trade on TD Ameritrade and one of the live show guys (Brad) has four distinct rules that helped me settle down and get things moving in the right direction:

1. Trade to trade well, not to make money. (the money will come if you trade well)

2. Fiercely protect your capital. (Risk management)

3. The only thing worse than being wrong is staying wrong. (self explanatory)

4. Act immediately upon your price points. (follow your predetermined rules)
 
Quote from Nicolaskao:

Well I trade mostly options
More...

Well you still have not stated your time frame. If you are day trading options, you are playing a fast paced video game. You will either make a lot of money or we won't hear from you any more.

If not, then you need to predict with reasonable accuracy either price or vol. I started off as a directional trader so price is easier for me and that is what I stick with. Which is not to say I do not look at vol, I do so that I know what I am getting into, but the strategy is based on price of the underlying.

Use whatever helps you. Forget this stuff about this being superior to that. What works for you is what is superior. So if you are trading based on price of the underlying, whatever helps you get that right is what is best. There are indicators for trend which you can look into, with the implication that when the trend is weak to non-existent you might put on a neutral spread, otherwise directional.

Short term for me is 5 to 10 days, normal is >20 days. I really don't care about indicators lagging price. If I'm going to hold for 20 to 25 days, I'll happily give up 2 days up front in order to get it right because the 2 days will not make too much difference to my profits.

And don't be afraid to experiment with small positions. I never made money on ATM calendars, when I switched to OTM things changed. That was right about the time I was about to give up on calendars and stick to flies, so thank goodness I was stubborn.
 
Quote from Nicolaskao:

Hello everyone,

I am new here, I have been trading for about a year now and I am trying to become better at what I do. I have been using a few indicators and oscillators (mostly: MACD, Vortex and RSI) , I would like to now which strategies and tools do you people most like to use / had the most success with and why.
More...

You are looking for a new indicator ... why?

You already have some good ones ... which leads me to conclude that you are not "reading" them correctly.

The best tool available to all of us is ... Google.

Search for a trending indicator, and one that indicates range bound. Too many indicators can cause conflicts ... and you really only need two.

You've gotten some good advice in this thread ... but few specifics. We all have our own trading preferences, and your specifics must suit your needs.

Good luck in your quest.
 
Quote from Nicolaskao:

Hello everyone,

I am new here, I have been trading for about a year now and I am trying to become better at what I do. I have been using a few indicators and oscillators (mostly: MACD, Vortex and RSI) , I would like to now which strategies and tools do you people most like to use / had the most success with and why.
More...
the best tools are

- a logical and disciplined mind (should go without saying, but let's put it out there all the same)

- excellent price data (accurate and current and a lot of past data for backtesting). Maybe excellent volume data as well but not everybody uses it so that's a personal call.

- a good imagination. Almost all the indicators you named (can't comment on Vortex) have serious flaws that need to be mitigated. If you can "fix" macd, etc., then good on you but you might be better off starting from scratch and creating your own indicator(s). I've found creating my own indicators was the best decision I ever made.

- the ability to program on some level. You don't need a computer science degree or have to learn some high level computer language like C++, but if you use say a trading platform like AmiBroker, you should learn the built-in programming language (for AmiBroker, it's called AFL (AmiBroker Formula Language)). You can trade with a modern spreadsheet but you should learn the built-in macro language. It will pay off in the long run.
 
Quote from endgame:
Those are rules to live by.

I trade on TD Ameritrade and one of the live show guys (Brad) has four distinct rules that helped me settle down and get things moving in the right direction:

1. Trade to trade well, not to make money. (the money will come if you trade well)

2. Fiercely protect your capital. (Risk management)

3. The only thing worse than being wrong is staying wrong. (self explanatory)

4. Act immediately upon your price points. (follow your predetermined rules)
More...

Excellent
***********
I use RSI and EMA on weekly charts for trend/counter. On dailies I prefer MACD & EMA cause I want the lag, too quick of indicators cause overtrading for me. On intraday I use TSI and EMA, again I want even more lag, too easy to over trade in day trading, so only the very best trades sticks out for me.

Recently have started backtesting of Stock/ETF credit spreads, I lack education in this as it been very frustrating, LOL. Been awhile since I been this pissed off, LOL.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top