Humility. By now you know the drill. Why should patience lead to humility? Because after practicing patience for long enough, you realize that you are being led. Not like the crowd. But by essential market dynamics. Who are you? Nothing to the market or any participant. What do you know? Only how to follow. Are you a market genius? How can you be if you only do what you are told to do? So are you constantly looking to short long trends or long short trends? No. Why not? Because you're not that smart. Events will make themselves plain to you when it is time. Are you constantly trying to get on the right side of a midday congestion? No. Why not? Because you know there IS no right side then. The market will make it plain to you when it is time to act. Remember? You commit when the market commits. Have you listened to trading coaches speak who really trade? How does Larry Pesavento behave? Mark D. Cook? Eddie Toppel? They exhibit a humility, a deference to the market, that verges on self-effacement. Certain people here could learn from that.
Open-Mindedness. How easy it is to be open minded when we aren't geniuses! I should know. I used to be a trading genius. I put yesterday's O/H/L/C on my chart, and I just KNEW before the open what was going to happen. Close or attempt to close the gap. React positively to expected good news. Flirt with the high. Test the low. Once. Twice. Then zoom up to a new high. Right! As soon as you expect something TO happen, you blind yourself to what COULD happen. It is SO much fun to imagine that you are a market genius. But it's not very profitable. What kinds of thinking aren't open minded? "Man, four legs up? This run is just about out of steam." "I can't fucking believe that the market thinks a bad employment number is good." "Time for the PPT to step in!" "Triple support! MA! Round number! 50% retrace from the high!" "Another test of the low coming up. Fourth time's the charm!"
Detachment. Open-Mindedness makes possible all-important detachment. When you are not hoping or expecting the market will do something, you become aware that all the possible outcomes are opportunities. But more importantly, when you are in a trade, you are not attached to it. Because whatever happens to this trade, another one will follow it soon enough. This attitude is crucial, because if you are attached to the trade you are in, you are blind to the signs that it is ending. And when it ends, well before you know it has, you are confused and regretful and miss the opportunity the next trade offers. Signs of attachment? "Come on, baby!" "You bastards!" "Oh, fuck!" "Push it, bitch!" "No. No. They're NOT going to shake me out!" "This can't BE! This isn't RIGHT!"
If you are totally detached from your trading, I would suggest you are trading too small, and not taking enough risk in the market. I find that the occasional emotional outburst allows me to vent my frustration, break the tension, and ultimately clear my head so that I can get back in the game and move forward from here. On a positive note, Rally caps are always good to get things going when the chips are down. Don't forget to pay homage to the trading gods, it's better to be lucky then good, I find that incense, song, and incantations work well. Finally, one can never forget the famous Bear Claw, and the Bull horns which always help push your positions in the direction you want them to go. Emotions are what makes us human, to try and turn them off is crazy. I think a better approach is to learn to harness your emotions and use them to make you a better trader. For instance, scared money can't trade, however, if you put your self into a state of absolute confidence and certainty, you can get yourself to take action and trade. So shifting your focus from being scared to being confident is a powerful tool. Just an example, and the opinion of this humble trader.
Thanks Duref, good reading. *********************************** "Signs of attachment? "Come on, baby!" "You bastards!" "Oh, fuck!" "Push it, bitch!" "No. No. They're NOT going to shake me out!" "This can't BE! This isn't RIGHT!" **************************************** I've managed to neutralize somewhat, Trade up, I say "Okay" Trade down, I say "Okay" Let the market do its job, give it time "okay". Problem is I still have an attachment disorder because I don't like how it feels. The only way I have overcome this is by scaling in. The patience of knowing I have to wait to add seems to relieve some of the urgency, hence removing the emotion.
Mschey, thanks for sharing your views. I had hopes that cool trading would facilitate scaling up, haha! As I said at the outset, this is a personal view. I have to be cool, or I can't think. But I try to keep just enough emotion to recognize how other more emotional traders might feel if they were in the same trade, or contemplating a new one. I find that helps tremendously. Best regards.
Focus. Detachment from outcomes brings the ability to focus on what is important. Not focus on where you think price will go. Or where you fear it will go. Or where you want it to go. Focus on the profit potential inherent in the NOW. Trades can evolve down many paths, each characterized by the nature of the retrace to each impulsive move. The retrace tells you what kind of trade you are in. Retraces back past each surge beyond the previous bar's extreme in the trend direction (a ratchet) means you are in a weak trend, perhaps even a bear or bull flag. They want simply to sucker you and take your money. Retrace precisely to the BO beyond the previous bar is stronger, but they don't want you to participate in the profit of the trade, they want to shake you out. A brief retrace or consolidation is the stongest, and means that they want your help propelling the market where they want to take it, and they don't mind if you make some money. They have bigger fish to fry. The time durations between retraces are similarly informative. That's focus. You understand the trade as it evolves, and make your exit decision accordingly.
Determinism. With all but one physical and mental element in place, determinism comes into play. By determinism I mean the opposite of randomness. The market is quasi-random. You shouldn't be. Determinism is your trading system, or systems. EVERY entry you make is system based. NO entry is random. Guessing is random. Guessing is stressing. Apologies to intuitive traders. IMO, if you are successful, you have systems, they are just subconscious.
Top of the morning to you Duref Mudgins. Another day, another dollar. I am attempting to attach a chart as ordered. Frankly there is not much to see as it is all going on in the background and telling me what to do via WAV files. Yes DM, I regard the delicate art of mining money from the markets as being far too important to be entrusted to my fragile brain under combat conditions in the RTH. And so, everything is pre-prepared with immense cunning and then I can behave like another well mannered lab rat does. You will see down my right hand margin a series of scrolling notes telling me where I am at all times. In this snapshot of yesterday you see the upthrust of the delta in window 2 to reach a 3 day high and then collapse. All I am trying to do is snatch a few tics here and there at obvious turning points to always maintain a positive day in my account. None of this "let your profits run" fairy talk. Your imagination will tell you what you can do with trading size on the ES if you always maintain positive balance days. FWIW. Some of my very best break throughs in development have come with a hangover.