The real point of my post was that as traders it does not matter which way we go. But even the most flexible traders have an opinion on market direction. If there was no opinion you would never put a trade on. On the surface we go with the flow, trade the current trend no matter what time frame but that little thought lurks in waiting. It waits for you to slip up just once. Then one day BOOOOMMMM!!!! Your opinion or ego gets a hair stronger than actual mkt direction and you are holding the bag of all bags. May it only happen once and you learn the lesson of all lessons. Trading stress free, indahook.
Oh man, how many of us does this include.... all, most, some, just me? When it happens, it happens just as you said. Thanks for the reminder inda'.
My pleasure...it was a long time for me until yesterday. "I just KNOW this is support right here"...it was like my subconscious said = "let me place my stop in the most obvious place on earth so I get absolutely positively smoked if it goes against me". No big deal in the end....as soon as I felt "hope" kick in I covered and went the other way making up half the loss. Being aware of these feelings and being able to adjust is the important thing.
I try to guard against having an opinion on market direction, because the second I have one the market murders me... So I just try to make sure I trade only strategies and signals and stay out of trouble. best Natalie
I agree. I've never understood why so many people believe that one must have an opinion. For me, at least, it's just signals and probabilities. The probabilities are there, regardless of what I think about them.
My belief is that I must find some why to feed my ego, and I do believe that this is a basic human need. IMHO if you don't feed your ego with your own spoon, then your ego will feed itself with a shovel! I market speculate in my mind and compare the prediction with the actual outcome for the needs of my ego. In the other parts of my mind I use what I have learned from T/A and experience to trade. For instance, premarket today my "egomind" envisions the markets moving positive today. My "tradingmind" actually traded in the opposite direction and caught a 4.5 pt down move on the ES from 10:25 to 10:50 using my strategy. Now whatever ends up happening to the market today will be the food for my ego. This is the only way I have learned to get my DAMN ego the hell out of my trading! I guess it works for me.
Whatever you can do to battle those demons. I frequently write down my EOD projections before the bell. Then EOD take a look at how wrong I was. P+L is all that matters.