Fearless trading

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Helpful points Johnny-T;
especially the last one.

Actually agree with starting small;
which is certainly true with papertrading, then realtime money.

And have had papertrading keep me out of some things which didnt fit me.

Also papertrading can help learn a new contract, stock;
very true your guts know the difference between pretend money,
& realtime money. Important difference.

 

To me "fearless trading" means you have actually accepted the risk on every trade. Meaning no second guessing your strategy.

Let them trade where they may

 

One thing that helped me early on was this: I began to look at trading as placing a long series of loaded bets instead of trying to win the next trade. If you are rolling loaded dice, it doesn't matter which individual trades win or lose, because you KNOW the protracted series of trades will make money as long as you follow good money management rules. If your system or method or market feel is consistently profitable over time, you can say to yourself with authority; " I know how to trade and I am not afraid." If you were rolling loaded dice that are set to win , say 83% of the time, how could you possibly be hampered by fear? You would roll those dice until your arm fell off and collect the money. What is hard for many to visualize is that trading a proven method or system is exactly the same. I can take a long time for some traders to reach the point where they truly believe this. When you finally reach this epiphany, trading becomes easy, fun and profitable and your fear is no longer a major factor. You can then focus on operating your system and making money. You can, as my old boss Tom Dittmer used to say in the mid 1980's, "Have fun and make lots of money."

 

I read this and it's like seeing my path leading to where I am at the moment. I have always been surprised at traders saying that trading is not fun, but a serious occupation, blah blah blah, I love trading, I could do this all day long (if I didn't have a family). You definitely have to enjoy what you do, you can't simply be driven by the idea of making money, it's absurd.

 

I think papertrading, then graduating to small sizes is best.

Paper trading allows for system to be proven profitable to the trader.

Then going real with small amounts is a great way to get your feet wet without losing your shirt.

Stacy

 

Most trading systems transfer to the various instruments with minimal adjustment.
Besides a demo account — available with all fx brokers, one can trade as little as $1 with Oanda.
The suggestion — open a trading account with say $10 or $100 margin, trade whatever % of that amount, test one's methods/systems and learn how it feels to risk real money.

https://fxtrade.oanda.com/

"No account minimum": http://fxtrade.oanda.com/whyfxtrade/

 

Are your stops/targets being held natively or at your PC/ Server?

 

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Good suggestion, especially risk ''2''
THEN '' try...10%,25% ''simulated, or paper, NOT realtime

Sounds like Johnny T, you have a market maker/high frequency trading style, especially with your ''scratch trade ''example.

Position, chart trading intraday, prefer profit or loss;
they usually are profitable, even if they drawdown[loss temporarily ]some.

Actually if more of us had followed your helpful risk suggestion above;
less pain, more gain.

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Still find that helpful to cut back quick with a loss, my losses tend to trend also;
usually trend had changed is the first way i find that out, for sure.

Welcome back Indahook, meant to mention that earlier..

And while paper trading could interfere with some trading styles;
my paper trading is helpful for aggressive trading/questionable trading & that kind of paper trading almost always isn't as profitable , like today, most anytime, as real time trading today.

Figure another reason BOT,CME OXPS,ISE,TRAD are so profitable;
even entry of questionable,aggressive trades is fun , but not profitable for me/many others;
papertrading solves that need for action.

A top trader in Schwagers books solves that problem by trading questionable smaller ;
a cheaper way for me is paper trading for questionable trades.

Your experiment of position % risk is one of the most helpful;
dont know why most of us ignored that starting out.

 

They are being held naitively. Your PC is never reliable enough in my mind to leave your stops on.

 

i tried fearless trading... got my head handed to me. haha. im still fearless but more "respectful" )