A great thread to read for the start of my new year. Thanks for sharing. Making it in trading is none other than self-awareness, self-control and risk aware. We can only control our hands, our risks, but not the markets and not our profits. I think successful trader has a system that suits he follows faithfully. Does one prefer trend following, counter-trend trades, scalping, or swing? Does focusing on one instrument works for you or gets you bored? Do you get careless if you watch too many markets? Tendency to over trade, take profit too early, stop out too late. Those are all tied to one's personality. If one can find a system such that all the system's parameters suit your personality, one will probably have an easy time following the system with full faith, and thus the success will follow. Always be aware of our own conditions, physical and mental. If we are sleepy, hungry, greedy from a winning streak, paralyzed from a losing streak, no trade is better than trading clouded or with filtered glasses. Always know our risk tolerance for the trade, and get ready the exit before submitting the entry ... That's mostly it, I think ... Just want to write down my words for myself and perhaps a few others. Best wishes to everyone in your trading!
You made EXACTLY 1000x what I made. Tomorrow, I will begin scalping 3000 contracts instead of 3 and see what happens...LOL
<i>"If one can find a system such that all the system's parameters suit your personality, one will probably have an easy time following the system with full faith, and thus the success will follow."</i> Well, sort of. A discretionary trader IS the system itself. All entry - management - exit decisions are based upon whatever criteria, but the emotional self-control of each individual is 100% responsible for results. Said another way, each and every individual is 100% personally responsible for their trading results. They either create, enhance or negate any edge for any approach, discretionary or systematic. No approach exists that will negate or overcome negative = destructive human emotions. Ever. The fallacy exists that mechanical system trading negates emotional control. Not true. Every system trader goes thru the failure process of shutting off their system in a drawdown, sitting idle thru the subsequent recovery period, turning on the system at next peak equity high, riding into next drawdown, shutting off in the equity dip, repeat the process until they quit. Some survive and emerge from that self-destructive behavior to enjoy profitable system trading from there. Trading is ridiculously easy... when it pertains to having a methodical edge in any given market. Managing oneself thru the daily process of maintaining that edge is absolutely everything. One hundred people can have the exact-same parameters to trade with... but only five or ten will manage themselves properly for success. That is a universal law in our profession regardless of all else, there is no circumventing that fact. None of us follow any system... we are each the system itself.
How much of that is yours? LOL This is same as the $500 daytrading guy saying... I bought $45,000 of equities today (one ES contract).
This may be true for some systems traders, but not for others. A rigid systems trader would incorporate and implement methods to systematize the process of shutting off their systems in a drawdown, subsequent reactivation, etc. The following thread discusses one such way for systems traders to manage these decisions: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36083&highlight=activate/deactivate
<i>"A rigid systems trader..."</i> Key words... replace "rigid" with "fledgling" and that's what I meant. Before a systems trader experiences and survives the full gamut of emotional churn following computer bots, they will inevitably make all of the emotional mistakes involved. Most aspiring system traders do not survive that emotional learning curve, no different a process than discretionary traders.
Even with the inclusion of this last (and very key) point, you have described in this, and the previous pages, the most successful trader I personally know... and I know many traders. Every point you put forth describes this person to a "T". I just find that interesting. Great thread Eric and thx for sharing. B
a sucessfull trader does not have time to write stuff here ,,,, there are better things to do in life....
What a fabulous thread. EricP thank you sincerely. I have recently started trading and this is wonderful. I have already swallowed a bitter pill of ignoring my rules and blowing out a large amount. I think that will be the best trade I ever made when I look back in 5 years. Thanks again.