Hello, I have studied/attended/reviewed numerous books, videos, seminars and software, like many of you. As they stand by alone all by themselves, they generally are not worth the money. I examined the techniques they described, and found for the most part that they do not test out as they are described. It's safe to say that none of the patterns work all the time. Some of the patterns work some of the time. In my opinion, the key is to figure out which technique, and when these techniques, are likely to work. Unfortunately, none of the books/videos/seminars explicitly tell you how to determine this. They may give clues, but it's all very subjective. I believe however that if you study any particular technique in great detail, execute it in real-time and then analyze the results, you can learn when the technique is more likely to work. This will of course take time and effort. Also, I've learned that a lot of the materials I've studied does not "click" with my personality. They may be too complicated, too subjective, not to my liking, etc. Going over all these materials haven't entirely been a waste of time and money though, as it has helped me learn what my "trading personality" is like. Some of the materials really clicked with me, while most did not. I have found the following to be helpful: + Mark Douglas' "Trading in the Zone" - trading psychology + Hayden's "The 21 Irrefutable Truths of Trading" - trading psychology + Koppel' and Abell's "The Inner Game of Trading" - trading psychology + Schwager's Wizard books for inspiration. + Writing out a trading plan, executing the trading plan, keeping a trading log of trades, analyzing the trading log for areas of improvements, and then modifying the trading plan. Good luck with your trading. -- ITZ
ITZ, I am for the first time "struggling" through the process of writing out my trading plan (extremly important something I avoided before but now am doing before I trade anymore) , overall I think you have mede excellant comments, I especially like Mark Douglas's book, he is going to be part of a seminar in Arizona along with Larry Pasavento I am seriously considering attending that, if anyone interested here is the list of participants (and NO I have absolutly no affiliation with this event); Here is the email I got from Larry P describing the event. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On May 10-13, I will be a part of a very special four day workshop for stock and futures traders in Scottsdale, AZ. Join me and Bob Miner, Mark Douglas, Arch Crawford and Alan Farely for two days of intensive workshop learning experience plus another two days of real-time stock and futures trading. I know each of the other trainers personally (we all live in AZ). Each has many years of experience trading and educating traders and we have met to make the entire four days a structured and practical learning experience. This intensive four day workshop is limited to just 100 participants. We expect to sell out well before the April 25 registration cut-off date. For complete information regarding the workshop, you must go directly to the workshop web site at: www.tradersworkshop.com. I hope to see you in Scottsdale in May. Best regards, Larry J-