There must be a lot of misunderstanding or misinterpretations in the first few goes. It's just normal.
Just like I may misinterpret your points too. Sorry about that!
Anyway you have misinterpreted me too at least in 2 parts (although all should be my own faults of unclear elaboration):
- hoping to avoid taking losses
altogether
- trading discipline cannot be learned from the markets
Quote from Steve Tvardek:
It seems that you do this b/c you are trying to avoid being wrong and hoping that reading (and learning from other traders mistakes) will allow you to avoid taking losses altogether.
Clarity: You can never avoid losses in the market. Losses are part of your trading. No one, even the legendary ones, CAN escape from them.
You avoid losses at full strength. You avoid profits at full strength at the same time.
Treat losses as costs/expenses in a business. What we do is to keep losses small and let profits run (most people who read books will hear this wisdom)
But that's doesn't mean a newbie should just jump into the market and trade. These losses (and a whole lot of silly mistakes) are meaningless AND unnecessary.
There're much better way to learn than trading now (as a newbie). Market is NOT the best starter
for newbies.
I don't understand why, if I interpret correctly, you would like to tell newbies to trade in the market to learn (now).
Again my two cents only.
The fact that you "get upset" when you lose in your sim account says a lot about you in this respect. Losing truly hurts you and this mentality in trading will ultimately lead to failure. You cant be afraid to lose, and you must learn from your OWN mistakes. Thats the only way to improve. I dont care if you've read every technical analysis book or every story on every single trader ever written, this will not fully prepare you for successful trading
Agree! You can't be afraid of taking losses.
I don't agree "you MUST learn from your OWN mistakes".
I tend to agree "one SHOULD/CAN learn from one's own AND others' mistakes. Others' mistakes are still valuable to you. You don't need to make EVERY mistake in trading YOURSELF before you
can learn EVERYTHING!"
I don't agree "learning from your OWN mistakes is
the only way to improve."
I disagree with the word "only". This is just one of the ways. There're other ways too.
Now to some of your points. You say books are the best teachers....I disagree. The best teacher is the market itself. It will tell you if you are making the correct reads and plays. There is no substitute for REAL trading experience. Book are abstract. I'm not saying books arent helpful, because they are. But they shouldnt be #1 on your list.
Although I say "the best", it really means one of the best. Practice/Research of the market are also very great. I learn much when I do my research. Although I place books as the first point "practice/research" second, they are both very good sources of learning.
I forget to say, learning a few quality books is much better than learning from lots of "average" or "substandard" books. A few books will give you most of what you need about trading ideas or edges etc.
Sure if you are here to learn basic stuff (eg what's a stock market), introductory books may do a good job.
Also, you mention trading discipline cannot be learned from the markets. Of course you must know this is false. After trading for awhile, you will start to see when you should be trading and when you should sit on your hands and wait for only the very best setups. If you are reading the tape/price action right, you will be able to see when to open up your game or slow it down. Again this comes from experience. There is no way you'll already know when to be extra disciplined or when to be more aggressive until you have traded for a good deal of time.
I'm not saying "
trading discipline cannot be learned from the markets".
I'm saying "
market is NOT the only place to learn discipline". I did say lots of people need to get burnt (learnt from the market) before they can be disciplined. Some people may learn after 1 painful mistake. Others may never learn even after tons of msitakes. Their psychology suxks.
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After all, as I said, they are all my two cents, NOT some authoritative ideas/opinions/advice everyone must follow.
Don't get burnt/angry after reading this post.
Thanks for your time.
See you! Bye!
