True Edge in trading - Willpower

You need confidence AND willpower. As you wrote, willpower implies you are consciously working against your own natural instincts to do something that you think is best for you. The problem is in your own natural instincts. Especially in the beginning of your "career" as trader. Subconscious is very powerful and works without you noticing it. It is an automatical reaction. So in situations were you are distracted, or have to take a very fast decision, your subconscious will overrule your conscious. You need time and have to train your brain to stop your automatical and subconscious reaction and replace it with the conscious reaction that should be executed.
For the rest I agree completely with your posting.

A good example of this power of subconscious is that people can learn how to react if they lose control over their car while driving. Following their natural instinct is always a bad solution, so they have to learn what to do and what not to do. And apply it immediately when necessary. Especially that last thing is difficult and can only be changed by training a lot.

How do u train your brain or sub conscious to do the right thing? Is it by repeated experience and u hope the brain 'gets' it?
 
Besides, the markers and the competitors are not static.

They are dynamic.

Not only we need to know/detect/identify any changes of the markets.

By the time when we have made certain improvements against the market changes, our competitors might have already made some better and more effective improvements than us!

You can do it, no doubt. But remember, your competition are the smartest most educated people on earth.

Perhaps you are cleverer, i don't know. Only you can make it happen.

surf

http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index...niversity-planning-to-trade-full-time.295982/
 
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How do u train your brain or sub conscious to do the right thing? Is it by repeated experience and u hope the brain 'gets' it?

By repeating over and over again. It can take months before you can achieve it. It took for me many months of daily training. Especially for getting speedy, when things go slow you have plenty of time, but sometimes markets can surprise you... Cognitive resonance.
And secondly you should try to let your brain link the subconscious reaction with pain, and the trained conscious reaction with pleasure. So in fact it would be a small brainwash.

If you want to change a bad habit for a child, you should also repeat it over and over again. And you should punish for bad behavior and reward for good behavior. Traders are grown up children.
 
Besides, the markers and the competitors are not static.

They are dynamic.

Not only we need to know/detect/identify any changes of the markets.

By the time when we have made certain improvements against the market changes, our competitors might have already made some better and more effective improvements than us!



http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index...niversity-planning-to-trade-full-time.295982/

Yes, but the marketers are ALWAYS behind the curve. Like now they are pushing Price Action etc from decades ago--- this is just one example ---

surf
 
Don't "con" yourself. When dealing with yourself be scrupulously honest. Unless you are accomplished at psyco cybernetics .
 
I don't believe in will power. I believe we almost always do that which we most want to do in any situation, given enough time to think about it.
 
I don't believe in will power. I believe we almost always do that which we most want to do in any situation, given enough time to think about it.

You're probably correct! Everyone can be a winning trader, given enough time!

"You shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet" - Abraham Lincoln.
 
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10 years on ELITE and never thought about this????
The most important element of the trading game is the trader. He has a huge impact on what will happen. He is the "achilles" heel of the trading game.
Markets move because people move. Even bots are controlled by people. Behavior is important and predictible within certain limits.
Like what kind of behavior? And how is it predictable?????
 
Like what kind of behavior? And how is it predictable?????
That's the job to do: find it out.
That's a big part of the the education to become a trader.
Nobody will learn it to you, you should do the work yourself.

You have however now already a huge advantage: you know at least where to look and what to do. Most people lose years in trying to find out where to start looking.

If it wouldn't be possible to predict the results would always be 50/50 in the longterm. The fact that some traders reach much higher scores that predictability exist. Predictability does not mean that you always know what will happen, it means that you have an advantage over the competition.
 
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