Emotional vocal outbursts <b>are not</b> a sign a trader is a piker. Not at all. Sometimes I can be heard across the hall. Here are some <b>real</b> traits, by which the piker trader can usually be identified: *He uses stop orders. *He avoids taking a small loss- wants to 'just get back to breakeven'. *Says things like: "Wow, I'm up $X on the day/week/month. I'm going to quit trading for now, so I don't give it back". That's just a few traits off the top of my head. Anybody have anything interesting to add to this list?
I yell and get pissed, only when I make a mistake, i.e. getting out too early...if the market does something crazy, I'm def. alot less pissed than others in my office...cause If I'm trading right and I didn't see it coming, no other locals did either...so hey, shit like that happens.
I don't buy it. To have winners.....you need winners. Losers certainly don't lead to winners, in fact, I think losers beget more losers, leading to drawdowns, and inevitably, being put out of the game. I hate losers and hate losing even more. When I come into my office in the morning, I have two primary objectives: Trade like a champion today and Make money today! That means I need to find winners, make winning trades, and If I do end up with a bad trade or a string of bad trades, that means doing the best I can with what I've got.
I have never, and probably never will, meet a full time professional trader who trades manually and who doesn't get angry and have outbursts. It sounds good in theory that one should always be self-contained, etc. However, the reality is that we are never in control of the market and sooner or later things happen that erase some of our gains. The key thing is to recognize that this happens and to have the discipline to step back and channel that energy into more focus. The trouble is when a person blames the market, yells and then continues to trade without recognizing that his perception may be effected. Losses are a fact of life. Some losses are just upsetting because the trader is doing something wrong and is not recognizing the problem.
Do you buy the idea of needing losers to learn and better yourself for larger and more numberous winners in the future? I think analyzing losers not only helps performance but can lead to a better mental state. When you lose, you can still reap some education and experience from it.... to go far enough to say then, that there are no true losers? every trade has value? If someone can, honestly, be constantly focused on trying to improve, there is no room for emotional disasters.
Emotional vocal outbursts are not a sign a trader is a piker. Not at all. Sometimes I can be heard across the hall. Here are some real traits, by which the piker trader can usually be identified: *He uses stop orders. *He avoids taking a small loss- wants to 'just get back to breakeven'. *Says things like: "Wow, I'm up $X on the day/week/month. I'm going to quit trading for now, so I don't give it back". That's just a few traits off the top of my head. Anybody have anything interesting to add to this list? Hey Metal just wondering about the stop order part He uses stop orders. Piker?
Sorry first time i use the quote fonction hope this is better. So what about using stop loss? What happens if you don`t and hold a few contracts ( go to the washroom and blow up a week)
I am still a newbie piker, but I never scream or yell unless I make a mistake. Bad trades are part of the business. Actually I never scream or yell but might say F**CK if I make a mistake. The more I learn though I realize everyone makes mistakes, I just try to keep the small and infrequent.
Loser are inevitable. One thing we can do as traders is learn how to manage those positions better. Sometimes, the "fog of war" causes us to make poor decisions, or execution mistakes, and it is only through a post mortem analysis that we are able to evaluate what happened and create a plan for handling the situation better in the future. My experience is that this will help you lose less money, though. I've always said, take care of your losers, the winners take care of themselves. The point I was making ealier was the one does not need to "love your losers!" And that my experience is that losers beget more losers, a string of losers is a drawdown, and drawdowns have the power to put you out of the game. To me, a losing trade means you are taking fire, move, take action, do something. Finally, losing trades do often contain informational value. That is , I some times use small size as a "pawn" if you will to test the market, and alert me to what is happening. As far as emotions go, There are many great traders who are emotional, and there are many great traders who are non emotional. I don't think it matters either way. The key is to be able to act under fire, and manage your losing position.
when I was younger, and before the specialists had been chastened, my goodness....if my screens could talk (and I'm glad they couldn't).