What's Your Biggest Obstacle?

nice post.

my biggest obstacle is me.

i like how ed seykota put it, "everyone gets what they want". a very provacative statement.

most of us don't really know (subconciously ) what it is we truly want......we tell our selves consciously that we trade to make $, but i believe that other subconscious reasons exist that get in the way of the conscious one....to be a hero....or to prove something...etc.


Quote from Redneck trader:

Sir

IMHO - Very good question you’ve raised

My biggest obstacle was, and remains to this day – me


Below is an excerpt from a document I created to help me get the hell out of my own way

I’ve removed some items I don’t wish to share – otherwise I hope it doesn’t come across too egotistical – it’s not meant to be.

Take Care
Redneck




The System of Me

My Trading Truth
•I trade who I am
•My trading is a mirror into my soul

To remain consistent with my trading truth I will;
•Maintain spirituality (inner peace)
•Journal (To make me distinguish reality – from what I “think” reality is)
•Exercise
•Decide each day – who I am – who I will be – what I want to have happen
•Completely accept that my only enemy – is me
•Completely understand why I trade

•Trade only when I am emotionally calm and centered
•Trade with total – clarity – awareness – and freedom
•Trade with a complete singularity of purpose

•Completely understand and accept the market for what it is
•Completely understand and accept a stock’s price for what it is



My Trading Perspective
•To be a consistently successful trader I must use a system that matches my perspective


From what perspective will I decide to trade today?
•Greed (Loves to win, looks for big winners, sometimes allows a winner to turn into a loser, prone to overtrading)
•Fear (Hates to lose, sometimes cuts winners short, prone to hesitation when pulling the trigger)
•Ambivalent – harbors neither fear or greed – identifies setups and trades them, exit’s as required


•Extrovert (prone to being impatient)
•Introvert (patient, sometimes too much)
•Centered – neither impatient, or overly patient



•Tendency to have weak opinions (prone to requiring too much confirmation before entering a trade, or of needing to know the unknown)
•Tendency to have strong opinions (prone to projecting wants, needs, will, and/ or desires onto the market)
•Opinion-less – it is what it is



•Ally (willing goes and/or agrees with the market – sometimes to the point of getting freight trained)
•Opponent (fights and/or disagrees with the market)
•Detached – simply reacts to what is observed every moment – remains in the present




My Profitability Goal
•Increase winners
•decrease losers

My Profitability Facts
•Good traders learn from losers
•Great traders learn from winners
•I will learn from both

•I absolutely know my next winner or loser does not matter one damn bit




My Growth Goal
•I must continuously grow my mental, physical, and emotional capacities in order to effortlessly flow with the market

•I must know, appreciate, and continuously grow – the successful trader I am.


The tools I will use to grow;
Journaling
•I will journal the following every trading day
oBasically every damn thing
oWinners – why they won – amount they won
oLosers – why they lost – amount they lost
oDays of week, times of day – of each trade
oTrades I did not take, their outcome, and why I did not take them
oMy emotions, thoughts, reactions throughout each trade
oThe amount of sleep I had the night before
oMy meals and meal times
oMy exercise
oMy greed / fear meter
oA printout of daily chart

I will periodically categorize my journal and review it to identify poor behavioral patterns. Identifying these patterns will force me to bring attention to my shortcomings. Bringing attention to my shortcomings will force me to focus on, and fix my shortcomings.

Journaling will also help me stay in tune with myself, help me identify my shortcomings sooner, and enable me to resolve / eliminate my shortcomings earlier in their lifecycle.



Exercise – physical

•I will perform the following physical exercises daily
oAerobic 30 min. (To help breathing, relaxing, and establish my internal rhythm)

oStrength 45 min (To help overall wellbeing – promote faster healing – support emotional strength)
oFlexibility 10 min – 2 / 3 times a day (To promote limber mind and body)

Exercise – mental

•I will perform the following mental exercises daily
oMeditation 5 min. (To quiet my thoughts and center my being prior to trading)

oVisualization 5 min (No negatives, I will only use positive messages, and pictures, to set a successful preconceived set of notions into my subconscious)
More...
 
Howdy Everyone,

I just read through all the very kind comments regarding my post – I am truly humbled and honored


A Sincere Thank You right back to Y'all :)

Redneck
 
Doug,

The biggest obstacle to success for traders is themselves without question. No other business punishes those who lose their cool or make what are seemingly minor mistakes in other areas of their lives as quickly as trading does. With great possible rewards, comes great responsibility. Markets provide tremendous freedom and with that freedom they cannot protect people from themselves (nor should they IMHO). There is the rub. Denial and the blame game don’t work in trading over the long run whereas you can get away with it in many aspects of normal life and employment.

Most people in all activities of life know what they SHOULD do most of the time. Everyone on some level knows how to lose weight. They know that they shouldn’t smoke or drink and drive and so on. Most just don’t have the discipline to do what they know they need to succeed. Today’s society seems to make it ok for people to distance themselves from the fact that they are personally responsible for themselves and they aren’t owed anything. The sooner someone takes personal responsibility for their actions in all of life’s activities, the more successful they are in whatever they choose to do with their lives. Until someone does that, they have no chance at success in trading. Just look throughout ET for examples of many who don't every day.

Good trading

BM
 
Quote from Doug Allen:

I'm just curious about what other traders think is their biggest obstacle to success.

I know my biggest challenge used to be boredom and over-trading even when all my signals were telling me to stay on the sideline.

Maybe if we all share what our biggest obstacles and challenges are we could see a common pattern and then fix it! :)

Doug
More...
A common pattern is there but it cannot be fixed for most because they don't have the temperament or underlying savvy to trade as winners and make themselves rich.

Lets journey a little among the causes.

The need to lose is a primary reason. This is a consious or subconscious need. You know your place in the great kingdom of loserdom. It is crowded, welcoming and accepts allcomers. Here you can revel in the comfort of victimhood knowing with certainty that it is the will of the powerful that you are relegated to your lowly status. Embellish this, your comfort zone, if it is your wish, with stories of conspiracy, corruption and unfairness which you challenged 'bravely' but were overcome by daunting odds. In this great kingdom of the many, all wishes you have to make excuses for yourself are granted. Now, tell me, who would want to leave?
:)
 
Quote from Redneck trader:

Sir

IMHO - Very good question you’ve raised

My biggest obstacle was, and remains to this day – me


Below is an excerpt from a document I created to help me get the hell out of my own way

I’ve removed some items I don’t wish to share – otherwise I hope it doesn’t come across too egotistical – it’s not meant to be.

Take Care
Redneck




The System of Me

My Trading Truth
•I trade who I am
•My trading is a mirror into my soul

To remain consistent with my trading truth I will;
•Maintain spirituality (inner peace)
•Journal (To make me distinguish reality – from what I “think” reality is)
•Exercise
•Decide each day – who I am – who I will be – what I want to have happen
•Completely accept that my only enemy – is me
•Completely understand why I trade

•Trade only when I am emotionally calm and centered
•Trade with total – clarity – awareness – and freedom
•Trade with a complete singularity of purpose

•Completely understand and accept the market for what it is
•Completely understand and accept a stock’s price for what it is



My Trading Perspective
•To be a consistently successful trader I must use a system that matches my perspective


From what perspective will I decide to trade today?
•Greed (Loves to win, looks for big winners, sometimes allows a winner to turn into a loser, prone to overtrading)
•Fear (Hates to lose, sometimes cuts winners short, prone to hesitation when pulling the trigger)
•Ambivalent – harbors neither fear or greed – identifies setups and trades them, exit’s as required


•Extrovert (prone to being impatient)
•Introvert (patient, sometimes too much)
•Centered – neither impatient, or overly patient



•Tendency to have weak opinions (prone to requiring too much confirmation before entering a trade, or of needing to know the unknown)
•Tendency to have strong opinions (prone to projecting wants, needs, will, and/ or desires onto the market)
•Opinion-less – it is what it is



•Ally (willing goes and/or agrees with the market – sometimes to the point of getting freight trained)
•Opponent (fights and/or disagrees with the market)
•Detached – simply reacts to what is observed every moment – remains in the present




My Profitability Goal
•Increase winners
•decrease losers

My Profitability Facts
•Good traders learn from losers
•Great traders learn from winners
•I will learn from both

•I absolutely know my next winner or loser does not matter one damn bit




My Growth Goal
•I must continuously grow my mental, physical, and emotional capacities in order to effortlessly flow with the market

•I must know, appreciate, and continuously grow – the successful trader I am.


The tools I will use to grow;
Journaling
•I will journal the following every trading day
oBasically every damn thing
oWinners – why they won – amount they won
oLosers – why they lost – amount they lost
oDays of week, times of day – of each trade
oTrades I did not take, their outcome, and why I did not take them
oMy emotions, thoughts, reactions throughout each trade
oThe amount of sleep I had the night before
oMy meals and meal times
oMy exercise
oMy greed / fear meter
oA printout of daily chart

I will periodically categorize my journal and review it to identify poor behavioral patterns. Identifying these patterns will force me to bring attention to my shortcomings. Bringing attention to my shortcomings will force me to focus on, and fix my shortcomings.

Journaling will also help me stay in tune with myself, help me identify my shortcomings sooner, and enable me to resolve / eliminate my shortcomings earlier in their lifecycle.



Exercise – physical

•I will perform the following physical exercises daily
oAerobic 30 min. (To help breathing, relaxing, and establish my internal rhythm)

oStrength 45 min (To help overall wellbeing – promote faster healing – support emotional strength)
oFlexibility 10 min – 2 / 3 times a day (To promote limber mind and body)

Exercise – mental

•I will perform the following mental exercises daily
oMeditation 5 min. (To quiet my thoughts and center my being prior to trading)

oVisualization 5 min (No negatives, I will only use positive messages, and pictures, to set a successful preconceived set of notions into my subconscious)
More...

Awesome! That's exactly what I'm looking for...
 
Quote from Cheese:

A common pattern is there but it cannot be fixed for most because they don't have the temperament or underlying savvy to trade as winners and make themselves rich.

Lets journey a little among the causes.

The need to lose is a primary reason. This is a consious or subconscious need. You know your place in the great kingdom of loserdom. It is crowded, welcoming and accepts allcomers. Here you can revel in the comfort of victimhood knowing with certainty that it is the will of the powerful that you are relegated to your lowly status. Embellish this, your comfort zone, if it is your wish, with stories of conspiracy, corruption and unfairness which you challenged 'bravely' but were overcome by daunting odds. In this great kingdom of the many, all wishes you have to make excuses for yourself are granted. Now, tell me, who would want to leave?
:)
More...

FWIW & IMHO

Is it really the “need” to lose, or the inability to accept a (small) loser - and move on to the next trade?

I believe by denying the inevitable (that some trades WILL be losers) - one is ultimately consumed and unable to escape…

Maybe we're saying the same thing, but in a different way

Your thoughts Sir?

Thanks
Redneck
 
Quote from sc85:

Awesome! That's exactly what I'm looking for...
More...


Just one request Sir.... - Please make it you own - else it won't be worth the paper it is written on


Good Luck Sir
Redneck
 
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