Mark Douglas' "Trading in the Zone" is what I read. I still haven't "grokked in fullness" what he was trying to convey. Still, the focus on techniques for identifying and believing in your edges is critical. I didn't pick this book at random off the shelf. It was recommended through personal communication with a couple of different traders I know.
This is not a discipline problem. You just made a low probability trade. Take a look at the chart for visa and see if you can find any clues about you being wrong. If you can find some, then good, you've learned from you mistake. If you can't find any, then either you haven't got enough experience to see them, or there aren't any, in which case you should not have traded visa at that price.
the market is a professional wash out machine. its role is wiping out funds from the under capitalized and transferring it to the more well capitalized. the method employed to achieve this goal is called <b>leverage and volatility</b>. every time you decide to put on a trade, think about this so you can position yourself in the <b>right</b> way of the fence. all the rest is secondary.
truthfully I would have made a over a grand on visa bec. I usually trade 1000 share lots. it was up while stockes were getting battered yesterday morning and for some reason I guess lack of experience I didn't take the short trade. If I had I wouldn't have gotten faked out because it never went back toi the high of the day. thank you for all your recommendations crash I don't understand your second sentence. When you say markets move from under capitalization to a more well capitalized fund do you mean a guy with a 25-100 grand account will end up losing bec. a fund manager or a guy with a million dollar account has more leverage? and if I think about this how do I get on the right side of the fence?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote from 1a2b3cppp: How come sometimes you demo trade profitably for months and then go live with the same exact strategy giving the same exact signals but lose money? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- here is why: 1-no emotions of risk or loss with demo 2-real money emotion can cloud judgement 3-in demo trading you usually risk more than you would trading with real$$$...so your rish managment strategy becomes off ...I belive personally that demo trading is worthless...my thoughts
there is no perfect thing including taking profit/entry/exit. never blame yourself. the market is not in your control. there is no perfect thing. you can not squeeze every dime on a move becuase the market moves wildly with lots of noise ticks. congratualtions to yourself, you made some money!