Please consider reading "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. Napoleon was a guy that was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie to study ultra successful people in life and identify key characteristics that they all shared. This is a list of the many lessons he passed on in his famous book: _________________________ "All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea." "A goal is a dream with a deadline. " "Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought." "All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination, Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth. " "Before success comes in any man's life, he's sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That's exactly what the majority of men do. " "Big pay and little responsibility are circumstances seldom found together. " "Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements. " "Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action. " "Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything." "Don't wait. The time will never be just right. " "Edison failed 10, 000 times before he made the electric light. Do not be discouraged if you fail a few times. " "Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought." "Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit. " "Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit. " "Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win - essential to success. " "Fears are nothing more than a state of mind." "Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind's eye, and you will be drawn toward it. " "If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self. " "It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project. " "Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true. " "More gold has been mined from the thoughts of men than has been taken from the earth. " "Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure. " "Nature cannot be tricked or cheated. She will give up to you the object of your struggles only after you have paid her price. ' "No accurate thinker will judge another person by that which the other person's enemies say about him. " "No man ever achieved worth-while success who did not, at one time or other, find himself with at least one foot hanging well over the brink of failure. " "No man is ever whipped until he quits in his own mind. " "One must marry one's feelings to one's beliefs and ideas. That is probably the only way to achieve a measure of harmony in one's life. " "Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat. " "Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success. " "Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel. " "Procrastination is the bad habit of putting of until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday. " "Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire. " "Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle. " "Success in its highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which come only to the man who has found the work that he likes best. " "The battle is all over except the "shouting" when one knows what is wanted and has made up his mind to get it, whatever the price may be. " "The ladder of success is never crowded at the top. " "The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail. " "The man who does more than he is paid for will soon be paid for more than he does. " "The way to develop decisiveness is to start right where you are, with the very next question you face. " "The world has the habit of making room for the man whose actions show that he knows where he is going. " "There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge. " "There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it. " "Think and grow rich. " "Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another. " "Understand this law and you will then know, beyond room for the slightest doubt, that you are constantly punishing yourself for every wrong you commit and rewarding yourself for every act of constructive conduct in which you indulge. " "Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting. " "War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain advantage at the expense of his fellow man. " "We begin to see, therefore, the importance of selecting our environment with the greatest of care, because environment is the mental feeding ground out of which the food that goes into our minds is extracted." "When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal. " " When your desires are strong enough you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve. " "You give before you get. " "You might well remember that nothing can bring you success but yourself. " "Your ability to use the principle of autosuggestion will depend, very largely, upon your capacity to concentrate upon a given desire until that desire becomes a burning obsession." "Your big opportunity may be right where you are now."
On the other hand, having worked for a couple of I-banks, I can tell you the low hanging fruit is arbed almost into oblivion. many desks on a very large electronic trading floor had gone from traders to support staff, including IT staff. Each year, algorithmic trading will continue to snuff out more and more trading jobs. It is also a matter of time until the prop firms adapt or die. Unfortunately, black swans will still likely be an Achilles heel for the mega-billion dollar institutions.
An interesting thread. I'm not sure if I could re-count all the errors I have made but I am certain I have made more than 30 errors over the past few years. My top 3 errors are... 1) Feeling the need to trade everyday. 2) Feeling the need to catch every move. 3) Using indicators to trade Happy trading.
This is one of life's greatest lessons to me, and it's why I survived my first year trading. Your use of the plural confuses me; is not the action of the majority the ONLY leading indicator of price?
there are plenty of setups that present themselves, the longer u trade the more u see. They dont always pan out but the majority do. I would say the single most important rule would be only trade the setups,making the opposite ,overtrading, top of the list on costly errors.
If this is your passion, the next sequence is to find a way to get paid to do this. Reminds me of this guy who had a passion for reading. Who would pay someone to read? The fellow took a job as a chauffeur, and spent most of the day reading while waiting for his employer's next trip.
Some good suggestions, but there are always variables. My biggest winners were one's I averaged down on. Tips? The value of the tip is relative to the value of the tipster. Made a few big hits on tips. In my experience the most costly trading error was having only one tool in the tool box. Ex. Averaging down during late 99, early 2000 was a winning strategy. Play that same game during the last half of 2000... blow up. Been there, did that. Market sentiments change, and when they do, you had better have another tool to whip out, otherwise you'll get your head handed to you.
This is why averaging down is so dangerous, the fact that there is possibility of massive losses makes it a huge trading liability. I like to average down but I have a couple of rules that I follow no matter what. Some of the rules I use. I never fade the strongest of the trends I predetermine the max Im willing to lose from the play and this rule is never broken no matter what The add points are predetermined to make sure I stick to the plan, again, no matter what. It works for me, but perhaps because I got the discipline, something that many traders lack. I know this is some sort of taboo in trading and in this board but you know what ? It works for me, and it works well. Perhaps I'm too dumb to realize, too naive, that I'm actually not averaging down due to the rules I use ? Who knows, if so, I will stand corrected and keep doing what I do, whatever it is called.
Or one better, I have a friend who hits up library sales and stuffs as many jacketed hard cover book as he can into brown paper bags that he then purchases from them for $4 each for which he then goes around to all the used book stores around town and sells them for an average of $2 each and uses the proceeds to buy one or two rare books. To date he has well over $100,000 worth of these rare books which costed him all of nothing but time!