Yeah, its quite controversial, calling yourself a 'loser' every morning. "Good morning, my name is Algofy, and I am a loser. I have it in me to do serious damage to my account. I’ve done it before. My only goal for today is to go home without blowing up my account." OR "Good morning, my name is Algofy, and I am a winner. My trading plan might generate a string of losses today but I am going to focus on following my plan with flawless discipline."
its not that, also trying to reinforce in mind that one is the looser is never good. His morning self encouragement concentrates on completely wrong issues One does not know if one lose or win on the next trade/day , what one should know/believe that he has a working method (not a plan) and he will try execute it flawlessly. The problem is imho - Elder never actually made a living trading (also he definitely tried) ". My only goal for today is to go home without a loss.” When the screen was up, I’d begin trading, following the plan written down the night before while the markets were closed. I can immediately hear an objection—what do you mean, go home without a loss? It is impossible to make money every day. What happens if you buy something, and it goes straight down—in other words, you’ve bought the top tick of the day? What if you sell something short and it immediately rallies? We must draw a clear line between a loss and a businessman’s risk. A businessman’s risk is a small dip in equity. A loss goes through that limit. As a trader, I am in the business of trading and must take normal business risks, but I cannot afford losses"==== sentence after sentence he is wrong through and trough.... the guy is a looser and all his morning prayers and autogenic training would not help
There are in general two types of traders (similar to alcohol drinkers): trade or gamble. For the normal rational traders like you, you are correct you do not need this. But for someone who is addicted to trading/gambling, getting their high from winning, then his approach is a reasonable way to control the urge not to over trade to ruin.
There are in general two types of traders (similar to alcohol drinkers): those who know how to trade and those who do not. Whats the difference? The first ones have a working method and they know it (or at least believe that they have it), the others do not have the working method and they know it too (or at least believe that they do not have it). One would ask: "Why then would the second bunch trade at all if they have noting at hand?" The answer is very simple - a pressure to show something to others and to himself for all those spent years and money ! That is why they trade. But it is unnatural act, because very soon it becomes evident to them that they do not know what they are doing, their loses mounted and they abandon they method but instead on switching to paper and continue developing their method they continue trading real money trying to compose on the run some hodgepodge out of nonworking method and trade that hodgepodge live !!!... it does not work either .... Alcoholic anonymous teaches one thing - you should not drink when you should not, loosers anonymous should teach the same: you should not trader when you should not. When one should not trade? - When one knows he does not have a working method ! But what Elder is trying to do is something different he (and his looser anonymous) is trying to convince himself that he has a working method, and to push himself to continue to trade it (even though all his human nature screaming to stop) !!! his solution - to avoid big loses wrong ! because without working method even minuscule loses will compound eventually in one nice huge loss his method does not work (how many time should i repeat that ??!!) the working method should have a dynamic stop-loss system build in it: the size of the losses should variate depending on market situations....that would lead to situation when he may face a very bid loss (which not necessarily would materialize, but it may) and he should take it, instead of taking loss after loss after loss,,, as we saw on the example given by of the OP....but if his system works that big loss would be justified my point is the guy is concentrating on pushing himself (and others) to trade, instead of seize the live trading and push himself (and others) back to the drawing board he should face the mirror and tell himself: "i am not a trader i am just trying to become one" (wannabe-trader as i call it) it is s hard to admit to oneself that all those years of work and money and sacrifices so far are fruitless.. one is not there yet... and most of the people know the truth... they just refuse to accept it... "I always knew what the right path was. Without exception, I knew. But I never took it. You know why? It was too damn hard." Al Pacino "Scent of the woman" PS. And regarding gambling - we all are gamblers (whether we admit it or not) and we are gambling in all aspects of our life ... just with different odds and determination
Well, truetype has been trading for a living for 20 years. To survive 20 years he must have done something right. I don't know how many on this site have been trading as long and be able to support a family with trading. I feel for him and wish him well, hoping he can bounce back and keep going instead of telling he should quit? Man, it is a tough call for any of us in that situation.
I know you are right and meant well. But with all due respect, none of us started out as expert trader from day one. Those who do not know may one day know. Trading is a tough game, like playing poker it is zero sum, so you professional traders need us mom and pop retail traders to fill the pool with money. And who knows, like Elder said, we can improve and maybe one day some of us can take money from you instead. For some, hope is the only thing they have left to keep going. Peace and best wishes.
Yes, I've seen it over and over -- markets change, a trader's edge evaporates, but he's unwilling / unable to move on to another career. Although certainly there are some who have the foresight and gumption to make a transition -- one group of ex-traders runs a successful carwash in my town!