What was the ***last*** thing you had to master before becoming profitable?

[jackieo79]

Cool thread!

Managing me.. by managing the risk appropriately and not taking trades because im bored impatient and risking to much because I have an opinion. It really became about managing me more than anything.

 

[PieterSteidelmayer]

A lot of people drum it into you to cut your losses, which is a good thing, right? But If you’ve assessed a trade and calculated position size, stop, target and time do you really want to 2nd guess all that and cut it when it moves against you by less than your painstakingly calculated stop? And the inevitable ‘move to breakeven’. Why? Breakeven is rarely in my experience a valid stop level, so why put your stop there? Once your position is in profit and moving in your direction you recalculate your stop based on the same basis you did prior to initial entry. The number of times I cut a losing position while losses were small and that was a good move has been completely outnumbered by the number of times had I simply left my initial stop in place until the trade had developed into profit I would have been taking profits, not losses. I got this a long time ago, but it has stayed with my ever since as the turning point in my profitability.

 

[Energy_boi]

Be greedy and pyramid aggressively.

 

[GreedAndFear.eu]

... to make only one trade per day. Have the orders (open and stop close) put in, and not look back until the end of the session.

Or put differently: not modify any previously made decisions during the session.

 

[bone]

The guy that said an edge is not kidding, all your confidence and trade craft comes from a quantifiable system that produces results. We can bang on about trade management and price action until we are blue in the face but most of the time that is someone with a losing system looking for answers in all the wrong places.

Amen brother. Quite well done and spot on.

 

[cornholio]

A lot of people drum it into you to cut your losses, which is a good thing, right? But If you’ve assessed a trade and calculated position size, stop, target and time do you really want to 2nd guess all that and cut it when it moves against you by less than your painstakingly calculated stop? And the inevitable ‘move to breakeven’. Why? Breakeven is rarely in my experience a valid stop level, so why put your stop there? Once your position is in profit and moving in your direction you recalculate your stop based on the same basis you did prior to initial entry. The number of times I cut a losing position while losses were small and that was a good move has been completely outnumbered by the number of times had I simply left my initial stop in place until the trade had developed into profit I would have been taking profits, not losses. I got this a long time ago, but it has stayed with my ever since as the turning point in my profitability.

Same here. Took me a while to realize it. It's death by a thousand cuts. No risk, no reward.

 

[bwolinsky]

If a strategy works in the summer but fails in the winter, it's probably worthless.

If someone wants to sell his strategies, they're probably worthless.

Or they want $200,000 every time they make a million for you the day you make it.

 

[Energy_boi]

Really depends on the risk threshold, some plp has more some has less.

 

[Crude Man]

I had to bump this Hall of Fame thread to put in my 2 cents.

The last thing that had to fall in place for me to becoming consistently profitable was: giving up attachment to outcome. Having no mental anguish over a loss knowing that it is one itty bitty trade only. When you can do this, you're trading will improve granted that you have an edge and you understand risk management.

 

[tortoise]

Myself.