Well said Trackstar, the heart of the matter is price and levels. All the rest id bullshit. This is the heart, the rest of the body is subtler and takes a couple of years to get a 'feel' for (ie getting out when things turn grim or holding on when you smell a run). Practice, practice and patience.
wiesman, There are many here who revel in bad news and hate good news. These people are losers, in trading and in life. I would suggest ignoring them and instead focus on making progress, step by step. Two steps forward, one step back--that is about as good as it gets in this business. Enjoy the steps forward, and learn from the steps back, and believe in yourself and in your ability to improve. And as for the negative posters, remember the Don Henley song "Dirty Laundry"? That's them!
Congrats on the progress. My only suggestion is never think you have it figured out even if you know you do. It makes you get cocky and sloppy. Just continue to follow your plan and see where it takes you. Good luck.
Very good advice. I think you never figure it all out, sometimes you just figure out how to pull out the easy money. Then it changes a little and you figure out how to adjust. Which is good, because it gets pretty boring sometimes and you need some kind of challenge to keep yourself motivated.
The most succesful traders I know spent at least a year and closer to two watching the markets before things "clicked" How are you different??
Anytime you think it's "finally clicked", just lie down until the feeling passes. Such confidence only lasts until the next time the market gives you a good kicking. Now when you start to post "Damn, I thought I had figured it out, but now I realise I hardly know anything about how markets work", you might be learning something.
Don't mean to be critical but you are in your fifth week and already feel you've reached a level which many traders have never reached. Hmmm..............
------------ Agreed, completely (as its happened to me once too often and also one of the reasons i don't pay too much attention to winning streaks). One of the best books i read is by Van K. Tharp, Ph.D.,Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom. What i found particularly useful was the snowball metaphor (http://www.tradingeducation.com/newsletter_archives/032307.asp) which talks about building small consistent profits and ensuring you never ever take a hit so big that it wipes out severals weeks worth of profits. So assuming you are already consistent, don't get over confident that you can't have a loss because its when you let your guard down when it hits you. My favorite rule in trading is expect the unexpected and to always remember that anything can happen (position sizing is key here). If you always keep that in mind you'll probably come out ok in the long run. BTW, perfect example was today, for the past week, market always rallied on news about the bond insurers bail out. Well, true enough, when rumors about ambac started again as it was halted, i decided to do the unexpected and keep a short bias. True enough, after about 5 or 6 trading sessions of sharp rallies due to bond insurer news, this time around market tanked.
Couldn't agree more. "You wont know why or what exactly put you over the hump but you'll be there."----->>> This is so true. You will wake up one day and it will feel like someone flipped the switch, like someone waved a magic wand over your and bam, you became a trader. It sounds as though you are on that course but I agree with Cocaine, you are very close but you'll get knocked down a few rungs first. The market will wack you a few times and you will grow and mature because of it. When you go throw that period of growth and maturity you will have completely turned the corner, and you'll have the ability to step into the market and step out of it with a paycheck.