What are actions you can take to build your trading skills while the markets are closed?
- Thread starter cadig
- Start date
When you have the holidays or the weekends, this is a perfect time to review past trades especially, if you made mistakes. That will give you the opportunity to improve yourself by correcting those mistakes and minimizing it as much as possible. Each serious mistake costs you monies but, you can learn from it and strive to be a better trader. Trades you handled well too, reinforce your confidence in yourself and make it easier to get in trades instead, of being afraid and unsure.
Find balance once you know how to kill it. Until you don't, - become obsessed with it, a maniac. Nothing else matters but this.
When you meet with your friends/family, there's nothing to talk about, only this.
Keep exercising tho and get a proper rest.
This ,,grinding" phase should last around 2 yrs.
The most valuable tip - get >your own< data on that which works & that which doesn't.
Then, when you find a way that works for you, start creating this ,,balance".
Don't stay there for too long, comfort zone = death.
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When you meet with your friends/family, there's nothing to talk about, only this.
Keep exercising tho and get a proper rest.
This ,,grinding" phase should last around 2 yrs.
The most valuable tip - get >your own< data on that which works & that which doesn't.
Then, when you find a way that works for you, start creating this ,,balance".
Don't stay there for too long, comfort zone = death.
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https://www.flashbackrecorder.com/express/
I don't do it often now but when I was new I would record every trading day using the above free video recorder. It helped to review what I did wrong.
One thing I wish someone had told me when I first started out is that what works for one guy/gal may not work for another. There is no "right way". If you spend your time testing out the "System of the week" you will just keep going down rabbit hole after rabbit hole.
Find something you understand and have confidence in and stick with it.
I don't do it often now but when I was new I would record every trading day using the above free video recorder. It helped to review what I did wrong.
One thing I wish someone had told me when I first started out is that what works for one guy/gal may not work for another. There is no "right way". If you spend your time testing out the "System of the week" you will just keep going down rabbit hole after rabbit hole.
Find something you understand and have confidence in and stick with it.
Create a serious system that measures the trading system. Most people do not create a way to measure AND THEN optimize their trading. A good "measurement harness" system is like a Meta-trading system. It should be able to take all your trade data and measure their combined and cumulative effectiveness. It is what took my system from OK (over 18 months), to VERY good in a matter of months.
Systems require tweaking because markets change, tactics change, opportunities change. As you adjust your system one needs to be able to measure which combination of changes are the most effective in terms of returns, risk and actionability.
All those things you mention are helpful, but once you do all them, one has to decide what to change, or what blend of changes to do. Unless you have a system wide detailed execution benchmarks one cannot really know if those changes are the right things to do.
I am referring to more than the standard Ratio etc. Those are very high level and global, and useful. But there are more granular measurements of your tactics that are specific to a system, that can be optimized.
For instance, assuming your system actually works, can you optimize your entries, scaling, exits, time in trade, risk while in trade, etc. Those things need to be measured over time and then summarized, analyzed, and then optimized. There is a lot of money (as a percent of profit) in better execution tactics. It is the "low hanging fruit", imo. Do the things a Prop Shop would want for your tactics and executions.
Systems require tweaking because markets change, tactics change, opportunities change. As you adjust your system one needs to be able to measure which combination of changes are the most effective in terms of returns, risk and actionability.
All those things you mention are helpful, but once you do all them, one has to decide what to change, or what blend of changes to do. Unless you have a system wide detailed execution benchmarks one cannot really know if those changes are the right things to do.
I am referring to more than the standard Ratio etc. Those are very high level and global, and useful. But there are more granular measurements of your tactics that are specific to a system, that can be optimized.
For instance, assuming your system actually works, can you optimize your entries, scaling, exits, time in trade, risk while in trade, etc. Those things need to be measured over time and then summarized, analyzed, and then optimized. There is a lot of money (as a percent of profit) in better execution tactics. It is the "low hanging fruit", imo. Do the things a Prop Shop would want for your tactics and executions.
Do you have much experience with this type of evaluation system? I’d really want to dig deeper into the tactics and specific questions that you could ask of the measurement system.
One specific I can think of is Mean Absolute Excursion analysis to optimize your stop loss placement.
Are there any good resources on this type of thing? Perhaps this deserves a separate thread
ps I posted this same question on three different forums and this response seems to be one of the most though provoking for me
Play a lot of first person shooters so you can get faster at your hotkeys. 
Sounds a bit like the 9 to 5 mentality. The 9 to 5 mentality has a negative impact on the potential to get better and richer as a trader.
I still have to meet the first businessman that became successful with the 9 to 5 mentality.
Just work till you experience physical, emotional or mental problems. Try to find the balance between motivated research, working and taking some time off.
I did many years much more than 9 to 5, and I would never have been profitable without the extra hours. A healthy amount of obsession and motivation is needed. Or you should win the Powerball...
The 9 to 5 mentality can be applied once you have reached a level of "best trader" as then you will not need to do lots of research as your system works well.
Learn more data science.
I just started reading a book on machine learning and agriculture. "Smart agriculture" is the field basically. Not because I care about being an AI farmer but because it doesn't even make sense to me how you would apply machine learning to farming. Super interesting to see how people apply these tools in a different domain that doesn't quite sound like you could on the surface.
It really gets the brain going to figure out novel ways of approaching trading problems if you see how people tackle data problems in other domains that have nothing to do with trading.
I just started reading a book on machine learning and agriculture. "Smart agriculture" is the field basically. Not because I care about being an AI farmer but because it doesn't even make sense to me how you would apply machine learning to farming. Super interesting to see how people apply these tools in a different domain that doesn't quite sound like you could on the surface.
It really gets the brain going to figure out novel ways of approaching trading problems if you see how people tackle data problems in other domains that have nothing to do with trading.
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Rule of 72/ work 6 days@ week ,x12 hours@ day =72 hours per week. That includes homework also.
40 hours per week used to work in a union job /but Andrew Carnegie busted unions + sold his steel co many years ago. Most millionaires have a good library; a public library card could help.
Doable goals help/Andrew Carnegie worked for $2 per week to eventually fund his investments; that $2 he made =ABOUT $58 OR 59 IN TODAYS MONEY.
Avoid crowds, bitcons + forex/over priced tulips, and other unwise forms of leverage..........