I've been thinking about the same question for a while but I was a bit hesitant to ask it because I assumed people would write it off as luck or something. As a newbie I started reading and researching a lot without hands on experience (maybe close to a year now) and I've recently been papertrading successfully...not cleaning up like a pro but not losing my ass like most beginners might. Not that I completely ignore my indicators, but sometimes I'll just feel that something has been running up too high and short it and that something is due for a price increase and go long. I keep tight stops and am very well disciplined which I know contributes some to success but I wonder, is this just luck or is it really possible to "feel" things unless you're a seasoned veteran?
Aren't those who scalp for a few pennies trading from a feeling? When I first started thinking about trading I went to a prop firm for an interview, and many of the top traders where scalping stocks without charts and only a level 2, and it seemed that there was no method to their madness, but these guys were good.
I like to make an analogy to football ; do you think Maradonna consciously thinks now I have to do that and then this,etc... when he is passing one guy after another ? No, he is just playing on his "feel" , he is in the "flow" , my best trading was always a consequence of being in the "zone"
Hi, I think Maradonna had worked a lot about theory in order to master football. Nobody can ever do this without weeks,months,years of hard work... I believe that "feel" that you sometimes have when "in the zone" comes from all the work you have done in the past, even if this is unconscious when you are right "in the action".
Where do you draw the line from trading on "feeling" and trading on impulse? -- A thought + a feeling = a reaction psychology 101 cm
Thinking is wrong?... -- Thank god someone other than me started this thread, so I can say this: When I used to trade tops/ and bottoms, it was also done mostly from FEEL, however such a trading method has opened me up to much fire from others. cm
I make a living at it. If you don't ask me while i enter or exit it's hard to explain. I test certain situations but it's all in the feel of the stock
It just starts to happen after a while. Finally you will begin to trust yourself, that's when the fun starts. You'll just know, you'll no longer need to think and doubt yourself.
I think that after you have traded for some time that your best trades are ones you "feel". However, its not something you can expect to just come into the market and have, it comes from having a structure and method that you get comfortable with and whatnot. After some period of time then you will develop it, but again I think that it takes awhile for that to happen. Brandon