To what extent does gut feeling/instincts/intuition serve in your trading?

lawrence-lugar · Dec 29, 2016

I've said it before and I'll say it again...Trading is part art, part science. (in my humble opinion) ...but I kind of lean more on the art side

trading is truly a Skill (or gut or instincts); you need to feel and understand and sense it on an almost supernatural level...whatever you're trading

All I watch/trade daily are the DOW/SPY/SPX charts (same thing basically) ...I like to think I am somewhat of a spirit medium with those in regards to predicting how it will behave or move in the day before the opening bell rings.
When you've been monitoring those like a hawk for the past nine years or so...you kind of develop an almost sixth sense.

All the great, or rare really great, traders are discretionary -- I'm kind of thinking of that Japanese CIS guy right now who was featured on a couple of Bloomberg articles.

algofy · Dec 30, 2016

Visaria said:
I use intuition a lot. Intuition is somewhat based on experience.

A good book on the subject is Trading from the Gut by Curtis Faith.

Do you find it ironic the name of the author of that book is Faith?

ET2017 · Dec 30, 2016

IMO, the gut feeling/instincts/intuition only count depending on how knowledgeable and experience you are in trading and how well you know about your trading system, where your trading system must possess some signals that are able to tell you cutting loss immediately. If your gut feeling is 50/50, then you will often get stuck with your trades because you don't know what you are going to do.

Scataphagos · Dec 30, 2016

Golden Retriever Trading said:
The vast majority of the time I ever use this is to get out of a trade. Sometimes I'll enter a trade and literally a minute later, something feels really off about it. I don't know what it is, but this overwhelming sense of unease kicks in, and I'll get out of the trade. I don't really make many decisions from the gut, but I place a high value on these feelings to get out.

What about you?

Trading money is made with logic and discipline.

All else is distraction.

Scataphagos · Dec 30, 2016

nonlinear5 said:
Zero "gut feel"

Yes!

Scataphagos · Dec 30, 2016

ET2017 said:
IMO, the gut feeling/instincts/intuition only count depending on how knowledgeable and experience you are in trading

The less experienced you are, the more you're likely to succumb to "feelings/instincts/intuition". NOT a formula for success.

lovethetrade · Dec 30, 2016

Scataphagos said:
The less experienced you are, the more you're likely to succumb to "feelings/instincts/intuition". NOT a formula for success.

Gut feeling never made anyone billions. Books on trading with your gut are simply hogwash (IMO).

Mathematics, logic and engineering is what makes money trading.

Golden Retriever Trading · Dec 30, 2016

Scataphagos said:
The less experienced you are, the more you're likely to succumb to "feelings/instincts/intuition". NOT a formula for success.

lovethetrade said:
Gut feeling never made anyone billions. Books on trading with your gut are simply hogwash (IMO).

Mathematics, logic and engineering is what makes money trading.

"Gut feel is very important. I don't know of any great professional that doesn't have it."
-Michael Marcus

Michael Marcus over a 10 year period multiplied his account by 2500 fold. He turned $30,000 to $80,000,000. Although not a billionaire, he has more money than most people on here.

I am not saying that gut feeling is the only way to trade. But for people to completely rule it out saying that it has no place in trading simply means that you don't understand how to trade with intuition. You may know how to trade profitably with other methods, but for some, it works.

Source is listed below.

https://books.google.com/books?id=B...page&q=michael marcus trader gut feel&f=false

W.J. Feathermaker III · Dec 30, 2016

lawrence-lugar said:
I've said it before and I'll say it again...Trading is part art, part science. (in my humble opinion) ...but I kind of lean more on the art side

trading is truly a Skill (or gut or instincts); you need to feel and understand and sense it on an almost supernatural level...whatever you're trading

All I watch/trade daily are the DOW/SPY/SPX charts (same thing basically) ...I like to think I am somewhat of a spirit medium with those in regards to predicting how it will behave or move in the day before the opening bell rings.
When you've been monitoring those like a hawk for the past nine years or so...you kind of develop an almost sixth sense.

All the great, or rare really great, traders are discretionary -- I'm kind of thinking of that Japanese CIS guy right now who was featured on a couple of Bloomberg articles.

A lot of truth there...the biggest obstacle is believing in your own eyes, intuition and experience. Even people who have been around this rodeo for decades can doubt themselves at times or the phrase "it's different this time" comes to mind...Plus, the longer you've been around this game, the more you've seen "the impossible" come to pass and that has to be factored into the equation.

vanzandt · Dec 30, 2016

Scataphagos said:
The less experienced you are, the more you're likely to succumb to "feelings/instincts/intuition". NOT a formula for success.

I disagree Scat, but agree with "lack of experience in the markets". Human nature is predictable. Patterns repeat themselves.
And markets always move in the direction that takes the most money from the most amount of people.
Does intuition come with experience, a sixth sense like Lawrence L stated? ... Absolutely.... but there is also another level of intuition. Its the same reason reason cops use psychics.

But its whatever works for the individual. So this thread can apply both ways to winners on both sides because strict discipline and a proven edge works too.