I remember watching my net worth grow to $1Million and what a great feeling it was to "Be a Millionaire". I also vividly remember the first time I made $1Million for the year. I was sort of giddy for about 6 months! That was SO GREAT... I wish that all of you experience it during your careers... I mean that!!
I think Chapter 1 is actually what most of us struggling traders missed. We were in a hurry to get to the good stuff that we totally ignored it--time and time again. Would you mind giving us a little summary of what the Chapter 1 of your book will looks like? Thanks!
Dammit, now I have to ask. How many years did it take you? You mentioned you started at age 35... I am assuming you were profitable after your first 12 months.
What great thread. Congrats to Gnome, you seem like a decent guy who had the consistency to make it happen for you. And the money doesnt seemd to have jaded you much or at all. E.F.
Chapter 1 1. Pay attention. (You'd be surprised at how often THIS is a problem.) 2. Trade the charts. Look for correlations of market behavior where the risk is low and profit potential is high... at least 2:1 R/R, in your mind. 3. Be properly courageous. 4. Have stop discipline and NEVER abandon it. Markets are tricky. Stops are your best defense. That should do for a primer...
I was profitable "right off the bat", but probably mostly because I started in '82. That was the good part.. the bad part is that I didn't have much money then. But by the '96-'99 up phase, I had more money and KILLED 'EM... well, sort of. It's not like I was loaded in Tech or Internet stocks or anything like that, but still good.
gnome, I really need to ask you one more thing here. My biggest problem so far in swing trading has been how to deal with winners. I have zero problem stopping out a losing trade. But...a trade goes your way, let's say 2% of the value of the stock ($50.00 stock goes to $51.00). What now? I have made the mistake of bailing on a retrace to $50.50, only to see it go to $58.00. So I thought 'scale out, take half off at $51.00'. But you say you don't scale out, and at the same time you mentioned that you don't really have profit targets. Now... believe me please, this is not a suggestion that there's any contradiction here. Rather, it's my inability to catch on. So when you say you're playing a chart point...you are watching action around that point and then you will be either 100% out or you will move a stop up? What sort of % move up are you looking at and saying 'I need to make sure this doesn't turn into a loser from here?' I guess I would be interested to know how many of your winners are stopped and how many you take off because you don't like the chart action after an upmove. Hope that makes sense - this is a big deal for me in my trading (head in hands as a stock I was in and in goes parabolic after I get stopped out for a small winner). Last one from me, I promise...