Psychology, are you sure?

How I handle my winning or losing streaks, or just a winner or a loser, is a purely psychological matter. How I handle that will play a role in how I trade in the future.

So for me, psychology, with a bit of philosophy, are both very, very important.

 

Hey Elomich

Absolutely will Sir


Price going up – go long

Price going down – go short

Exit when it stops

Or stated another way;

BLSH
SHBL


Because

How many times have you heard others with an opinion on what the market “should” or “should not” do…. and it does the exact opposite….?

How many times have you held a loser – because you thought it should be doing something else, - but it never does? (btw me too in years past Sir)

How many times have you thought – no… no way price could go there – but it does?

How many times have you heard a market move explained away by “news” (catastrophic / worldwide events not withstanding of course)?

On... and on.. and on...

A trader must always do what they must (exactly what price dictates) – to hell with what they think – it just doesn’t matter


Because as we all "should" know – price will do – what price will do – regardless of our opinion


btw - imho - one should come to expect winners, but always be prepared for, and accept losers with ease

Take Care Sir

RN

 

Ah, thank you for the clarification. I agree completely. I do not worry about what the market should or should not do, because that is an opinion, and opinions are deadly in my trading.

As far as some move being explained by news, I couldn't agree more. In my opinion, market news is just a way to explain a move, when in reality the move is probably far more complex than can be explained by a journalist. Not to mention the news is after the fact, and thus worthless to me.

If you don't mind my asking, how hard would you say it was for you to start accepting losers with ease? If I make what I feel is a good trade and manage it properly and it turns out to be a loss, I can accept that. If it was a bad trade to begin with or managed improperly, I kick myself.

Are we on the same page?

Thanks for the reply.

 

I thought of a few more oldies but goodies Sir


We must see and accept reality for what it is, not what we want or hope (think) it should to be – 100%

We must always be objective in grading our self and our system / approach / methodology for maximum efficiency and effectiveness – regardless of what we think about it – and be willing to fix it

We must always be able to objectively identify, accept, and repair our flaws, weaknesses, inadequacies – or at the very least make work a round solutions for them

We must always be our harshest critic, staunchest ally, and most objective observer

RN

 

Yes Sir

We are on the exact same page

Took me 18 months of hell (head hard as concrete)

Now if I do what I need to do, and it loses or profits - It's business - and I move on

RN

 

Travis,

i encourage you to follow the advice of Optionpro007, even though i don't know him/her at all. i have been using the centerpointe meditation system (the blog that optionpro mentions comes from the centerpointe program) for a few years now, and have had positive results in both my trading and my life in general.

 

Good chatting with you and good trading.

 

You are begging the question (circular reasoning) in your arguments. You are already assuming that the trader has a good psychological make-up suitable for trading (i.e. "he should stop using it" and "you should prepare to accept it"). If he is not in the right mental state he might not be able to stop using a system that fails.

 

Thanks for your advice. I can't make any commitments (as we said earlier about how I am) but I will check it out sooner or later. I have already read plenty on personality disorders and I am always diagnosing some to people I know and to myself (narcissistic personality disorder in my case). So I guess that makes us colleagues.

Speaking of my madness again, I just woke up and as usual I had some wise and very clear thoughts as soon as I woke up, and here's what I was thinking. I remembered that, when I was trading discretionary (I quit over a week ago), I was very excited and had my eyes wide open, and I felt like at the amusement park. If I leave the screen with the quotes on, I can see that happening again. It's like putting in front of me some chocolates or similar. Sooner or later you're going to pick one. Just for the record.

 

Ok, I will put it into my favorites.