Worse than that... he's one of us! LOL... Any time there is ever some major issue at ET that ruffles lots of feathers, there is always some new poster who shows up who just signed up but it able to jump right into the conversation. You can tell because they already come with position firmly entrenched. They know who the good guys are and they know who they don't like and hence will attack right away. A new poster usually doesn't start with posting something controversial, and even if they do, they don't usually cause trouble, only maybe if provoked. But given how this thread went, its fairly obvious to me that this OP is more than likely already a member of ET who is looking to either cause trouble or has some other cause. Even if we were to ask Baron to compare IP addresses, this might not help as some people might be able to have a VPN, or perhaps use a home line and then a cell phone connection so that they can apprear to be two different people in two different locations with 2 different names on here. Over the year and a half that I've been here, I've stopped quite a few names that fit into the category of experienced poster based on what they say, but brand new in terms of signup date. But since this is the internet, we have to take everything with a grain of salt.
Lol. I don't think @NoDoji has the need to inconvenience herself by what you can afford to pay her. I wish you the very best in finding a good partner or mentor though. Just remember: "Those that know, don't talk. Those that talk, don't know." Of course there are exceptions to the above.
I honestly think 80% of trading is psychology. Fear, anger, frustration and anxiety mess with your head. There are hundreds of ways to trade, but as long as you are a discretionary trader you must learn to deal with your emotions (not repress). If you are not familiar with trading psychology, check out Mindset by carol dweck, the inner game of tennis, one good trade and the playbook by mike bellafiore and the daily trading coach by brett steenbarger. Improving strategy has done nothing for my game, because my psychology has been and still is sub optimal. It is my numner one area for improvement. Only, then will developments in strategy yeild results, because otherwise emotions will cloud your judgement and interfere with execution.
The more these emotions are present, the more it implies that the trade is being taken away from a set plan. Good trades are taken based on sound statistical analysis, which have a definite outcome. The outcome is not always that of success, but it does have a probability that sits on ones side. Regardless of what the outcome is, trade management has to be carried out for whichever side the trade tips to. In that case, it is just a task that is to be taken care of and therefore emotion should be at a minimal. All good reading material. Very nicely put. Strategy and psychology, BOTH, need to be utilized well to make it comfortable. The major part of psychology comes in reading what the market participants are doing, and to a smaller extent of ones own psychology. IMHO.
I think attachment to outcome is the main cause of strong emotions. If someone points a gun at your head and says, ok you need to make a winning trade within the next 30 minutes, 10 tick stop 30 tick profit target. If you fail I will pull the trigger. You can have a solid plan, but if you are overleveraged, or you are under capitalized and have bills and rent to pay and what not (making outcome very important to you) then you will be extremely dependent on outcome and vulnerable to strong emotions. Even if you are well capitalized, we can all be frustrated by string of losses or choppy markets. As for reading what the market participants are doing, that is important to how I trade but not necessarily to all traders. I view that as part of strategy rather than psychology. Reading price is the same as reading herd psychology imo. You don't even haven to understand herd psychology, only that it causes markets to move in certain ways.