In trading business, all you guys need is a cup of coffee in the morning to keep your mind clear especially in the winter time... My lady brew two cups of coffee for me every morning lol.... The next step is to go through your trading plan to remind you of the rules that you need to follow... Now you can pull up charts and observe the market to see if you can execute your trading plan. If yes, then you stick to your screen. If no, go out for a walk with your dog or do something else... Why do you have to make your brain to suffer for gambling while there isn't any trade to take?
This is very encouraging. I have been struggling with whether or not to sell some of my TSLA shares. I'm getting too emotional.
That’s just poor advice from someone whom never took the time to learn TA properly - true for them regardless. Rather than collecting an assortment of tips and tricks, focus on methodology. Being systematic, especially through your learning process is the difference that makes a difference. Search through older, longer threads and make use of the ignore function to filter out noise. It’s pretty easy to see who contributes value and those attempting just to diminish it. You’ll find if you are actually learning, that questions will arise spontaneously overnight as your mind attempts to assimilate contrasting info. Log your questions, log and reference answers, build a web of associations in your mind. Create a glossary, add to it daily - learn the vocabulary of the market. All the above helps to build a foundation so that when looking at your screens, it’s similar to getting behind the controls of a plane after ground school. Observing in real-time how a bar builds, the sequence of events that constantly repeat themselves as you observe and participate in the never-ending flow of prosperity that is the market. The profession requires a tenacity of due diligence. Good luck!
Manage Risk Above All Else. This does not need to be complicated (Kelly Criterion is overly complicated for small traders). Manage position sizes. Understand diversification - systemic and individual. Find your style - I like medium term trades - 1 week to 2 months or so. Lots of smaller ones, with very high probability of success. (I do covered calls or diagonals). Learn asymmetric outcomes - this is mostly to do with options. Then you can take on appropriate risk for reward. Try to get Risk of loss >50% and Reward/Risk ratio above 50%. Don't shoot for the moon. It's just the death of a thousand cuts.
Stay away from forums. At least don't expect to learn anything. They are fun places to watch the cat fights and ego preening that takes place. And you have to navigate those forums trying to sell you something. Sure, you have companies selling their trading platforms etc but other than that treat the forums as a place to chill while waiting for trades.
Great Question! Most people willing to speak with you at length will be losing traders. Most guru's-for-hire are hustlers and losing traders. Most traders lose, especially day traders. Only a few ET posters will be worth listening to and you have to sus this out. Things change: Big edges stop working. Candy stores close: SOES Bandits, for example. Listen skeptically to even people who used to win. ----- Shoenfeld, years ago, was the largest trainer and backer of day traders and they gave that up to become a multibillion dollar quant firm. Fifteen years ago I knew well over ten strong winning trader's; they all lost their edges and quit. ------ You will be outgunned in information, technology, execution, costs, and so on. A good book to help you understand what is what is Traders of the New Era. The author occasionally posts on ET If you are very serious, here is what your goal should be: What you would like to do is find a winning trader who will chat with you. Better yet would be if you could provide value to that trader's life or even work for them .
My estimation there are a good couple of hundred at least succesful ET traders, that from the list of those whom I follow on ET, plus many others. However, most seldom post frequently, they keep a low profile, they have nothing to crow about. As well, many have been here on ET for numerous years, there is little more to talk about. Every trading subject has been thrashed to death. There is nothing to learn much, nothing worthy to debate for them, its all been said before. The search function is what to use or google the word "Elitetrader" plus the subject to find archived stuff. Plenty of very talented traders on ET, but it's not obvious at first. What it is, the low key guys are drowned out by noise when looking on the surface.