I've found this webinar very enlightening. Dr. Steenbarger states that we should focus on what we do very well rather than trying to fix weaknesses. Which make sense, better keep the good trades and avoid the bad trades. Simply less negative trades is a game changer. So we must study our best trading practices and stick with them.
I have found that losing trades are losers cause I successfully took them as per system rules. Way too many traders try to somehow make them profitable trades with them. I think better to study profitable trades, learn everything one can about them and keep doing them if overall system is profitable. What I don't see written about much is when not to take some good signal trades based on what is left of current price based on S/R, indicators or reading Dome. Most don't study charting enough.
A trader with Dr. in front of their name...is kind of like an oxymoron or conundrum ; Academics historically have made horrible traders.
He does not mention stress , emotional hijackings /amyglada hijackings , trader personality , beliefs ,dunning krugers behaviours etc etc etc Maybe he lacks this knowledge He may not know the mind of a trader in real trading , because he may not have traded live accounts and made any money from trading. He is right about the following OK, so here comes one of my best posts. Ready? I'll give you a view you won't hear from any mentor, coach, guru, or furu. Why do so many traders talk about trading being a mental game and making bad trades because of emotions? Why do you find yourself making the same mistakes again and again, making money only to lose it? Is it because you lack discipline? Is it because you cannot control your emotions? Is it because you don't stick with a trading process? No. You have emotional problems in markets because you're the market's bitch. You heard me right, Mr. Independent Trader who doesn't want a 9 to 5 job and wants to only work for himself. You're the market's bitch. From open to close, you're hanging on every market tick, letting it sway your thoughts and feelings. When the market treats you well, you feel good. When it treats you poorly, you feel like crap. When the market's not moving, you don't know what to do. If you behaved that way in any relationship--with your boss at work or your spouse at home--everyone would see that you're someone else's bitch. But with markets, you tell yourself it's dedication, it's a passion for trading. Bullshit. You the market's bitch. You have a relationship with the market and anytime you're controlled in a relationship, you're the bitch. The only way to have an even relationship with the market is to control when you play, so that you don't get played. That takes rules, that takes finding and sticking to edges--and it takes the willingness to not play when your edges aren't screamingly apparent. What you got ain't passion for trading; it's a need to play. If you need to play, you're going to get played. You're going to be controlled by market behavior. You're going to be the market's bitch.
But there are few things that are extremely difficult to control stress , biases and reactive patterns, testetrones and amygdala hijack.It sounds easy to control these , but those who overtrade or trade frequently are at greater risks to these . Those who sell phsychology courses say you can control amyglada hijacks , or your stress response dna .They are experts at selling phsychology courses and , medicines and snake oil.There is no eveidence studies to prove it works. Maybe brokers told webinar presenters to not mention these issues , that humans can not control , so brokers would get more trading business.
My only point is we have no control over what happens with any trade we take except for how we follow our plan and how easy we allow ourselves to take a loss when our edge is proven wrong
Handle123, I 100% agree with everything you said above. Knowing when to trade a signal is just as important as ignoring the losers if you have taken them per system rules.
Most of the items you list are issues that effect beggining traders on the whole, experts occasionally suffer from these but they pretty much have that stuff under control. They have experienced and moved past that stuff and are able to operate at a much higher level. You want to see what those guys do in common.