Thought this would relate to this thread: http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/...idence-may-matter-more-than-ability?gt1=43001
very smartass article. but i think its right. overconfidence is necessary at the right points. otherwise i would have never thought that i could make money in the markets. bcuz if told someone back in the days, that i want to be a trader, everybody laughing at me and they told me "everybody knows the financial markets are a big casino, you cant win there - you dreamer". But there were books from people who did it without any special university degree, many books. After i ve read 2 books from different millionairs, who never went to university, i decided for myself i do everything i fucking need to become a fucking money making asshole trader. Fuck. My earlier hobby of skateboarding helped me a lot, bcuz there its the same, i always tried a trick over and over again until i can stand it - its the same in trading, the trade setups are nothing else than skateboard tricks and you decide if you wanna make just an ollie or an 360 flip down 6 steps. the harder the battle the greater the victory..... overconfidence is truly good, in the sense to win the whole thing one day.....:eek: :eek:
Same for me, but in my case it was golf. I knew that if I could crank it 275 down the middle once (the days before graphite shafts) then I could do it again. It's a matter of repetition and managing ones emotions, same as in trading.
Yes, very good. I like the comparison to skateboarding, bcuz in skateboarding when you have the "positive" energy you can kick every fucking trick you wanna do that day. Then you are just in a rush, and let it flow - trick by trick. You feel unstopable. You are the Master. There are no thoughts, you just let it flow, let the inner programm run. All the same in trading. After you ve installed your programm and learned all the tricks (like learning riding a bike, once you ve learnt it you will can do it forever) you can just let it flow and enjoy how "cool" this all is, and how beautiful and fantastic life really is. And how beautiful youself are. It dont know a better feeling than making a perfect trade. The same it was with skateboarding, there wasnt a better feeling in my life than making 3 or 4 difficult tricks in one row. You know for example, the one day i tried 50 times to make a 360 flip down a 2meter gap and on the 50hst try i made it. - then the next day, i made it on the first try and made it once again, until i started to learn a new trick. But the bad thing was, i always hurted myself so badly, broke my ankle so often - still can feel it today....since it almost 7 years ago, i ve skated the last time..... In this things you just must "feel it", feel the passion. Its not a matter about making money, its the game itself. Ask yourself. If you have enough money safed for your life, for your self satisfaction. Would you still trade in the markets (dosnt matter if with real money or on paper) ??? Only for doing what you love ??? I would. I love my trading. Its my skateboarding of the present. I want to perfectionate it until i am the Master of my thing. Do you know what i am saying ??? Its the obsession to being perfect, dosnt matter what it costs.......
Me too, gave up skateboarding when I took up golf in middle school. Then got into motorcycles and found a new way to hurt myself, quit that and got into surfing...would you believe I managed to break an ankle surfing??? I love to trade, and watching the markets can be (and has been at times) very addictive for me. I took a couple years off for this reason, when the Sh!t hit the fan a few years ago in the markets. I have recently begun trading full-time again, and it is truly a passion for me. No two days are the same, the market is constantly changing, and I love the freedom of trading for a living. I read a book many years ago by Melody Beattie called "Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow." When I become financially independent, I will still trade, because it's what I love to do. This is post number 420 for me...sweeet dude!!!
How the fuck did you break your ankle with surfing, tried to make an MCtwist ....??? Very true, do what you love for a living because then you will never work in life again.......like an artist, painter or musican.....i dont think they call their job as "work". Me too, i dont call my trading as work, i call it my money making strategy game. hehehe, i always hated it to work....good for me i dont need that anymore.... Hmm ??? I think the markets are every day (and year and decade) the same....well different views....LOL I know i should stop my posts now, nobody takin me for serious anyway, first you must be here for 10 years and have written max. 500 posts, than you could be pro trader, anyway i ve read here, pro trader, dont write in forums....so i better stop it now.... anyways, i didnt learn anything new here, but its fun, to talk with other traders, where else should i ve the chance to talk to other people like myself...i am sitting all the day of the week in front of the computers......... LOL regards
Just thought I'd share this with you guys. Obviously being aggressive is okay, but undisciplined aggressiveness can lead to trouble. One could argue that trading unusually well could be a bad thing sometimes. Every trade you make including those outside your normal trade plan adds to the size of your account! How can you go wrong right? You might take trades you probably wouldnât have before, but their working for you so why stop? Youâve mastered the market! Many traders will go through spats in their trading where they simply canât lose. So whatâs happening during these series of trades? Your building what we call âghost habitsâ that are destroying your future ability to make profits. Every time you place a trade good or bad youâve lost a little bit more discipline and gained a lot more future pain. Your trading is becoming that of gambling and luck and this luck is leading to what we would call once again âghost habitsâ. These are hidden agendas buried deep within your internal Central Processing Unit(CPU or brain) that will flash in and out during the good and during the bad trading days. Of course when it hurts is normally during a bad trading day. Your magical market calls begin to not workout as planned and you have a draw down in your account that begins to change the whole dynamics of your trading. Youâve lost the very discipline that got you there and Iâm sure youâve lost the âphysicalâ trade plan that you once spoke so highly of. So what do you do now once youâve let your trading get to this point? You simply start over in all aspects of your trading. Bring your contract amounts back down and limit your trades through the day. Establish a set amount of trades for which you will extract your profits. Re read your trade rules and begin to place trades again. Of course your learning curve is dramatically cut short due to your previous skills and knowledge so you donât need to wait months to begin implementing size back into your trading. Understand that size comes with discipline and without that you will do nothing more than cause more damage to your own trading mindset. Trading a lower amount of contracts allows you the ability to regain good habits that may take time to re develop. If you start tweaking and adjusting to get your trading back to normal with size you are unnecessarily damaging your account. This truly is the only business of which you can perfect and practice with growth coming at the click of the mouse. Itâs important to realize these times in trading where you could be developing bad habits and regroup even if things are going well. Always understand what is going on and when you feel yourself start to slip pull it back a bit and bring yourself back in. You donât want your trading to snowball out of control so put yourself into damage control mode bring your contract size down, regroup, and trade with confidence.
ChrisFutures: Thanks for that post, an excellent reminder of what NOT to do, and exactly what I did last Friday. I was up for the week, and though I don't usually trade Fridays, I put on a trade anyway. The reason was greed, I had a good week going, and wanted to make it better. Long story short I did not trade my plan, and despite several opportunities to exit B/E I held to the close, expecting a move that didn't materialize. So now I am in drawdown, and that one trade erased most of my gains for the week. I can see how the ghost habits that I developed during the week of "can't lose" trading led to me deviating from my plan, and trading in a way that I knew would cause me pain. So now, I start over again, going back to the plan that has been working for me, and making a commitment to follow it. Thanks again for helping me gain some clarity about my cloudy thinking. That is the very reason why I visit this forum- traders helping traders succeed.