Kudos if you re making money on ID trades selling when the market is "not going your way"... (I would have thought that way you would "scratch" all the freaking time...) Anyway, typical ET thread where it ends up talking about anything but the original post...
To you too... however I note that "scratching" a trade : - not by intuition - not using a stop is a process rather difficult to imagine... I guess since most traders have some ego it will be difficult to avoid lengthy discussions going everywhere... to prove a point that is not central to the initial post.
So desu ne ! I agree with Scata... on this one, but not Phoenix who would seem to me more of a pure scalper. Anyway, if anyone is able to retake the original topic of the thread, I would greatly appreciate it !! Wakarimasu ka??!
I strongly agree with LaissezFaire, even the most disciplined trader will blow up his trading account if his "system" has no trading edge to begin with. If a system has been backtested with enough data (20 years for example) and the drawdown is reasonable then the "psychological" stuff (discipline, confidence, etc...) usually takes care of itself, because now the trader knows the value of his system and is 100% confident about its profitability. In other words he knows exactly when to enter a trade, when to exit and each position is opened and closed without any hesitation. The minute the trader says something like : "Mmmm....should I exit now or wait ....mmmmm....let's just wait a little longer, we never know..." then, like LaissezFaire said, he simply does not know what he is doing, even if he is ...."trading in the zone".
Here is a good trading psychology book I read recently, it's called "What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars", by Jim Paul and Brendan Moynihan. In my opinion this book is more insightful than the other well-known trading psychology books from Elder, Douglas and the like.
=========================== LEM; Good points; but re-reading Jack Schwager ; re-reading times many many times.............%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Frankly that + Proverbs of Solomon are some of the best things I ever READ-STUDY. however I realized the first time I read both, they were a gold + silver mine worth digging in, so to speak. Easy to pass over a gold mine, many do that; even a mining co has to work , dig hard. Wisdom is profitable to direct
"In other words he knows exactly when to enter a trade, when to exit and each position is opened and closed without any hesitation" And that battle is only won once you have your psychology straight
Exactly volante.. am happy to see that at least someone is trading here Am trying to find a pdf of Douglas' Trading in the Zone, can not find it. Somebody has it?..