What catalyst transformed you to a successful trader?

Well, not what made the difference but what improved profitability:

Turn off the red and green lights on yer trading software :)

And take the P & L off the screen

Seriously! amazing how much emotion that removed from the process for me - my screen looks downright bland now - any important alerts are auditory.

Silly, small things but they made a difference.
 
<i>"And take the P & L off the screen"</i>

Absolutely... critical thing for me not to see the #s rolling red or black as a trade is executing. Much more calm when not seeing the glitter of unrealized $$$s coming & going.

Also... believing & trusting what is known to work. How many times have you heard about = read about (done yourself?) fading a known, viable approach? I've done it 1,000 times in the past, always with negative cumulative results.

Measure the markets, and then damn sure trust your own ruler!
 
I will say one thing ... I am taking on more risk
with my acct being bigger than it was say
a few months ago or even a yr ago

the main theme for me if I keep my acct at "growing"
basis my positive P+L is not to "lose it" , to be "in tune"
with my markets and know the best hours for me to trade

I still can be %$^&* and there can still be stress for me
even if I think my "bets" are with "edge"

until "mr market" agrees with me and I close out my positions

:)
 
I've day traded for about 17 years. I think a key, though I hope this on no one, is to get absolutely pounded, and then get back up.

I started tape reading, and did well, then I went on a string of about 35 winners in a row, and was up over $250,000 in one month.

Then I lost $120,000 on 4 trades because I didn't want to take a loss. My confidence was so rocked I could not trade for a couple of years.

This experience taught me to take losses quickly, and don't fuss with it. Its really all about money management and not so much the system.

Also understand what the market is doing at any one time.

There are mostly just 3 methods of trading:

Support and Resistance
Trend
Volatility break out

Know which your system is.

Have a few of each, and know which one is working.

Cut losses quick and let the winners make money. I know it sound redundant, but that is what works.
 
There is an underlying rhythmical structure to price action which fairly straightforward signal estimation techniques readily reveal. It's an engineering thing. That structure is instantiated in my four trading screens with their nineteen individual studies. Eleven unique audibles continuously alert me to the evolving status of the market.

With that sophisticated algorithmic power as backdrop, I ignore it all and trade higher lows, lower highs, double tops, double bottoms, and head and shoulders.

To keep myself alert while waiting for the inevitability and ineluctability of classical TA to work, I draw Hershey channels and monitor Hershey volume patterns, all the while laughing my ass off at how his sycophants must be sweating the immense ambiguity of his "rules", and cursing the false signals and whipsaws they generate.
 
Quote from jtTrader:

Its really all about money management and not so much the system.
More...

This is what did it for me. once I started sticking to the rules with my money management the profit fell into place. Good setups are easy to find, properly executing them is the key. I kept trying to hit home runs and had trouble cutting losers because of this, and averaging down losing trades because I just had to be right. The only thing that was keeping me alive was the occasional home that worked! Once I started controlling my risk and properly sizing my positions immediately I started becoming profitable.

I started keeping a detailed journal of all trades. This is what really helped me figure out the problem.

cheers
 
your right there is a oscillation wave of emotion. you cant detect it when the price is moving slow.

there is a oscillation wave of expectation, when these two waves syn up thats where price gaps occur.
 
"<i>With that sophisticated algorithmic power as backdrop, I ignore it all and trade higher lows, lower highs, double tops, double bottoms, and head and shoulders."</i>

<b>Joe</b>, that is hands down the funniest post I've read here in forever! Amen to that!!!

Learning to reading price structure of a given session is a critical learned skill (not gift or art). Learning to measure the market and not try to guess = predict direction helps identify structure. All those classic patterns noted above will work well after all of us are gone, be we rich or otherwise in the end.
 
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