Trading is hard, very hard, damn hard

Quote from NoDoji:

Selecting a very high % of setups that quickly become winning trades (I'm mainly a day trader) is something I'm very good at, but pulling the trigger on them quickly is something I'm terrible at. Really terrible. I trade about 20%, sometimes less, of the setups I see.

I've made a 30% return on my account this year but it's not enough. I need a minimum 100% return.

I think this undercapitalization is my only barrier to achieving my profit goals. Which means that what's holding me back is purely the mental game.

What would you recommend?
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Per cent of winning trades is VERY IMPORTANT.

TRUST your NUMBERS, TRUST your research.

As far the psychology of trading goes, one must understand the psychological DIFFERENCE of ENTRY and EXIT.

My ENTRY into the market is 100 per cent scientific and analytical.

My exit is at LEAST 60 to 70 per cent INTUTITIVE.

You have things REVERSED.

You have the NUMBERS to be confident on ENTRY, any SKITTISHNESS should be on exit and staying too long on a trade.

I too am a daytrader. There is MORE profitabiltiy found in EARLY EXIT and asking question and analysis later, than there in OVER ANALYZING entry which should be on what you assert is your solid research.
 
Quote from Ticketwatcher:

Per cent of winning trades is VERY IMPORTANT.
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This is the least important of all trading statistics. Winning% is a function of emotions and money management. Small wins and large losses = high winning%.

Profit Factor, Sharpe/Sortino, max DD and others are far far more importany.
 
Quote from jones247:

I don't fully buy it... folks such as John Arnold and Paul Tudor Jones were extremely wealthy after a few years... NOW THAT'S A FACT!

The bottom line is if you learn properly from the correct sources, then you'll have a short learning curve before becoming extremely profitable. However, most folks learn from the wrong sources or through "trail & error". In such cases, it's a LONG and PAINFUL journey, assuming that you ever get there...
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It is painful to read newbie posts like this. This is what paper traders think and say.
 
Quote from TraderZones:

This is the least important of all trading statistics. Winning% is a function of emotions and money management. Small wins and large losses = high winning%.

Profit Factor, Sharpe/Sortino, max DD and others are far far more importany.
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Could have been an impressive post, had you not ignored the spell checker in getting in your last word, and I would guess getting in the last word is something that pleasures yourself.

I cannot disagree with what you said.

Holding on to losers longer than winners separates the men from the boys in trading and in poker and in any other endeavor involving risk taking as it always will.

For those not taken to thread crapping and kibitzing, a more careful reading of my post would understand that my remark was directed at the original poster's assertion that he was recognizing trades which COULD have a high winning percentage but unable to pull the trigger.

That was what my assertion on the importance of winning percentage was aimed at.

It goes to what was the original premise of this thread.

The hand wringing trading is difficult crowd thinks that a winning trade is very, very finite and precious commodity.

That is because they have not developed the statistical eyes that show them differently.

Step one in day trading is recognizing winning trades, the difficulty is turning what is shown on paper into profitability.

That is what was the intent of my post was aimed at.

If one would follow Baron Von Rothchild who said his profitability was from always selling to soon, then it is more difficult for small wins and large losses to come about.

If you are always going to err on early exit then not only are you cutting your profits on your winners but cutting what my be your potential big losers. The calculus of maximizing winners and minimizing losers is not precise or exact in such a short time frame.

But I am only speaking now as a day trader to another day trader which the poster to whom I directed my post identified himself.

As I said earlier, day trading cannot be as precise as trading with longer time frames.

When I encouraged the poster to exit intuitively and ask questions and do analysis later, I was pointing out that limiting time on trade is the day trader's best friend and is an effective way of managing risk.
 
She's just across town, Jack. Why not go over there and mentor her, and document it in a journal? Do for her what you did for Nwbprop and Gucci. I'll even pay your bus fare.
 
Quote from Redneck trader:

BP,

Very true Sir…. But keep pushing forward and it becomes very “not” so hard

The way to get there – look within…. It’ll stay hard until you decide it’s time for it not to be Sir


Just food for thought from a redneck

Take care
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Good post.

A couple pearls of wisdom:

#1 Insanity defined: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Keep changing strategies/edges until you find something that works. Not only do losers hold on to losing trades, but losing strategies, as well. Think long and hard about that. This is where you check EGO at the door...

#2 Perseverance - keep going. Even if it takes 10 years, keep going. Perseverance will lead you to that needle so long as you employ the wisdom to discard the thousands of worthless straws along the way...
 
Damn you guys are raining on my sunny day.
I'm 5 months into this little journey and i feel like it's finally starting to come together a little bit.
I'm just glad I'm a cheap bastard and didn't go full speed ahead with my entire savings account. I'm down somewhere in the neighborhood of $400 and it easily could have been more since i've mostly traded options.

That is quite possibly the best $400 i've ever spent tho.
I've tried to take it as more of a learning experience than a money making scheme.
 
Something I like to remember from time to time is the 4 stages of progression in learning & application.

Unconscious Ignorance - you don't know anything, and what's worse is you aren't aware of this fact.

Conscious Ignorance - you found out you don't know anything.

Conscious Intelligence - you finally learned something but you have to constantly be conscious to maintain it.

Unconscious Intelligence - You know your stuff, putting it into practice is now second nature.


You might be ignorant about a field you want to undertake, but if you are honest with yourself about which stage you are in, you can vastly lower your risk profile and get some realistic expectations.



One thing I'd give as advice is, don't feel like you have to trade all the time. Some people will put trades on in a pretty consistent manner with respect to time. That's almost tantamount to them saying, they feel they know what is going on all the time. The market doesn't behave rationally at times - it's ok to sit it out on the sidelines sometimes.
 
Quote from nelsanity:

Something I like to remember from time to time is the 4 stages of progression in learning & application.

Unconscious Ignorance - you don't know anything, and what's worse is you aren't aware of this fact.

Conscious Ignorance - you found out you don't know anything.

Conscious Intelligence - you finally learned something but you have to constantly be conscious to maintain it.

Unconscious Intelligence - You know your stuff, putting it into practice is now second nature.


You might be ignorant about a field you want to undertake, but if you are honest with yourself about which stage you are in, you can vastly lower your risk profile and get some realistic expectations.



One thing I'd give as advice is, don't feel like you have to trade all the time. Some people will put trades on in a pretty consistent manner with respect to time. That's almost tantamount to them saying, they feel they know what is going on all the time. The market doesn't behave rationally at times - it's ok to sit it out on the sidelines sometimes.
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+1
 
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