Only seek outside guidance when you need to know data driven news. Form your own opinions. Implement them and stick with them. Trust your instincts and learn to identify when you are wrong. Capitalize when you are correct. Do not take specific trade entry/exit advice from others. No matter what their credentials suggest. DRT
I know my purpose. It is written concisely and I refine it year to year to include my new goals. I record it to an MP3 file. I put it in my IPOD and burn it to a CD. Each day when I walk, I play my definite purpose over and over for 30 minutes on my IPOD. If I am driving alone, I play the CD. I keep driving it into my subconscious mind. Day after day, after day, after day. I repeat it aloud with the CD when I am alone. Try it. Commit to it. DRT
Here some advice that seems to be working for me. Not for everyone but I'll throw it out there. Pick one strategy and stick with it, come hell or high water for at least a month. Keep a calendar on the wall and post the results in red and green every day. If its mostly red at the end of the month switch strategys until you find the green.Do not trade the afternoon. There are good trades in the afternoon for experienced traders but new traders will get chewed up. I highly reccomend flags as the first strategy to hone in on. Pick a couple of medium length moving averages and use them for trend. If they are sloping and diverging do not trade against them. When they are weaving and moving sideways, dont trade. p.s. Number one piece of advice: do not get in a hurry.
Props to the op for starting this thread. I think I'll share something with you guys. This is my 3rd year of trading, and in the this time I have seen many traders come and go. I began trading at a prop shop or trading arcade where many traders were hired and i would say 1-2 out of 10 ended up making it their 2nd year and beyond. Now, I know trading your own money is different than trading at a prop company but I would say that one of the most important thing that new traders in general must overcome is the monetary aspect of trading. When traders think about the money in their p&l whether up or down that is when mistakes happen and traders deviate from their plan( and not having a plan is another crucial mistake that Ive made and Ive seen others make as well). I mean all traders lose money to begin with, kind of like tuition for learning the game of trading. Anyone who says they started off making money right off the bat is either lying or got lucky and will lose their ass in the future. Its just the nature of the game. The best traders at my old firm were people who lost the largest sums of money their 1st yr. Of course these are the traders who LEARNED from their mistakes. For me, you can tell me in a trading class what not to do like add to loser with no reason or something stupid like that but if I dont experience: adding to a loser, trading too much size, leaving a position with no stop, etc.. without any bad consequence of these actions I will do them agian until I am proven that what I am doing is wrong. This is why I think to become a great trader you have to (hopefuly in the beginning of your career) do something extremly stupid, and hopefully lose money, to keep your trading ego in check. Just to give you an example of what I mean is I remember during my 1st year trading their was a FOMC meeting and I was trading a fixed income product. At the time I was allowed to trade 2 contracts, the rate announcement comes out market goes crazy nothing in the book, and rallies i try to get long for a quick trade, click 4 times miss everytime but the last. Yes I'm filled! Oh shit the market reversed hard I filled on 8 contracts wtf???? market is a half point lower!!!! Do you think I ever tried to put a trade on after a fomc announcement? Do you think I wouldve if that trade turned out to be the biggest $$$ amount winner I had had up to the point. Moral of the story losers are good! Once you love the losers that you have more than your winners and learn from why you took that loser, etc...you will become a better trader. I mean the reason why so many fail(system and discretionary) is because they dont have the capital to withstand the swings and drawdowns that are involved. Dont trade too much size! Dont think I doing this to get rich quick...you will fail if you think this way. Thats all for now gl all!
One more thing everyone has their own trading style depending on their personality I think. Don't try to imitate someone else's trading during your the first couple of years of trading. Do your own research, take your own notes everyday, share your trading ideas with yourself consciously all the time and write them down, dont be lazy.....
You should start with enough capital that your risk parameters allow you some leeway. Give your ideas some wiggle room to develop. If you are looking at hard stop points, chances are everyone else sees them also. Think about it a minute. Give yourself a break. Let your ideas develop but also understand when you are wrong and close your trade idea. Move on. Some will, some won't, so what, next. DRT
Learn to fully accept risk and the consequences it may bring. The good and the not so good. Once you have accepted it, focus all your attention on the "good" that it will bring. Clearly crystallize in your mind the advantage you have gained by learning to accept risk and understand it. Embrace it for it is one of your most important keys to success. DRT