This journal is helping me to stay on top of my trading. As much as I hate positing in it and wait till the very last second of the day to post on it, I still get a lot out on my own little introspection. And they say you have to do the hard things.. positing is indeed a hard thing. I have a plan, and that is to make some money from trading. To make myself believe that it isn't a one way money burning fest. Eventually, I need to make $ 1,000,000 USD net of taxes ASAP. I am going to post on a journal till I get there. This journal maybe creating too much of a buildup, but I haven't noticed it or haven't affected my trading because: I am a positive, fearless & a successful trader. I am succeeding in making money trading the markets.
As you know, I cited a few concerns earlier in this thread. But at this point, I just want to wish you all the best. Good luck in your journey.
And gosh darn it, people like you? IMO all this mental self-stimulation is not useful. Direct some of that energy towards useful activities. Fletch
lol. .that was from a book I read just yesterday. Granted, I have a 100,000 wpm reading speed and finished it in less than 2 hours: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/04...f=pd_bbs_1/002-1485584-2640002?_encoding=UTF8 But, the books tells you to reinforce those two sayings in your mind. You have to think like a successful trader to actually be one. The bold indicates that it is not my word, and someone elses.
Ripley, Is your trading style similar to the Flipper (Paul Rotter)? http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=49425&highlight=paul+rotter http://www.rotterinvest.com/
Rotter Invest Assest Management will be managing my money soon b/c I like their strategy. (www.rotterinvest.com) 1) Be true to yourself For us, asset management means more than just tracking indices. We expect more - more of our dealers, our analysts and our back office staff. And more of our clients. Our core competence is in trading financial derivatives, especially options and futures. On peak days, we trade contracts on the bond markets with a total value of up to â¬50 billion, more than many major banks. We have achieved returns of 20-300% on our client portfolios over the last few years, depending on the risk strategy selected. Such returns can only be attained if you perfectly understand yourself and your capabilities, your limits and the markets in which you operate. 2) Wait for the right opportunities We're not stockmarket gurus or prophets. We don't have to defend any published opinions or implement any pre-defined strategies. Our independence gives us the flexibility to respond appropriately to the markets - we can exploit market trends by buying and selling faster and more consistently, and allow ourselves the freedom to go against the trend or do nothing if there are no clear opportunities. 3) Skills Rotter Invest's traders are known for their outstanding abilities and dealing skills. There is no compromise â being able to master our trading systems and state-of-the-art technologies is a requirement for working at Rotter Invest. Personal discipline is key to achieving this technical excellence. 4) Precision Precision calls for detailed knowledge of what's going on right now. For us, this means enabling dealers to concentrate on the right market at the right time, generating a profit from information on market trends by responding quickly and applying our technical edge. 5) Maintain control Total control is an illusion. Life is full of surprises, large and small. We have the professional skills to deal with surprises: our risk management tools give us a reliable early warning of negative trends, enabling us to respond in good time. 6) Interpret the signs These days, modern asset management techniques rely heavily on complex IT systems. We use them as a matter of course. But machines cannot yet replace highly skilled people. Successful systems will always be copied by others, and even programmed to trade automatically. However, these systems alter the markets themselves, and what was a successful system before becomes average at best over time. In Rotter Invest, we constantly adapt our systems to keep pace with changing markets. 7) Don't count on chance We review our positions constantly: Would fresh buying make sense? If not, then the right time to liquidate an investment has probably come. We apply a sophisticated stop-loss philosophy. Sitting out or averaging rarely make good strategies. 8) Confidence and nerves Self-confidence and strong nerves are essential personal traits in any successful dealer: for taking on risk at the right moment and implementing ideas without hesitation. We consider simple, transparent client relationships to be very important, so that we can concentrate on our craft.
Day 16 Trade not to LOSE I will trade from now on only to take the BEST entries available to me. I need to put aside trading for the sake of trading. Put aside taking trades because it is fun and move forward to be a hawk. Wait for the blood, that vibrance to be there. Wait for the prices to COME TO YOU. You need to go for 100% winners. You can do that if you sit back and let the prices come to you. If you wait for a trigger to jump in on a trade. If you can be patient, and hold off till you get a great entry. Thus, it is simple: WAIT, TRIGGER, & be PATIENT. Also, understand that it is OK to miss trades. It is OK to let trades go. Markets are there forever, providing you with endless opportunities. You have to be the one that has to be patient and hold off on taking, jumping in every chance you get. WAIT, PATIENT, & go for extremely high quality entries tommorrow... # of Disasters: 6 1) Stay within your region. It is when you sneak into the enemy camp is when you get shot. Crazy.. God, please give me the strength tommorrow to be your child and be patient. 2) DISASTER: Shorted at the very bottom. At, yesterday's low. The turn around was abrupt and the .....................same old.... .same old.. ... . story of trade getting out of hand.. and moving stops, and me crying.. .How the hell can you repeat these same old shit everyday?: The market will always let you in on the losers; the market's job is to keep you out of winners. Dump the dogs & ride the winning tide. 3) Just because the prices comes to you.. isn't good enough to take a trade. This is precisely when you have to be even more patient. This is precisely when you cannot jump in. You have to wait.. be watching. .& only when you know you are going to WIN should you jump in. How can this shit be so hard? 4) DO NOT PICK BOTTOMS.. you faggatt.. Stick with your plan. Your plan is your guide, your guide is your light. Follow the light... 5) DO NOT MOVE A STOP... & you do that by not taking IMPULSIVE trades. You do that by WAITING, waiting for prices to come into your territory. You're going to get shot if you try to sneak up on someone else's... You're going to get injured. 6) Bad key strokes are things you have to deal with. The best way to deal with it is to GET OUT there with -4 or -5 pt loss right then and there.
It seems to me that the creativity and confidence required to succeed in this business is the same creativity and confidence which wrecks our systems, kills our discipline, and justifies our impatience. For every trade that matches my system, there are at least 100 which are incredibly similar but as a whole, have a far worse expectancy and will grate down my account, nerves, and spirit over time. I have come to believe after testing dozens of systems and varying % return, # days, volatility blah blah blah that any system with over 20 trades/yr is overtrading. I even tried to come up with a mathematical proof for this given hedge fund returns but whatever I fall for twisted tangents too. I developed many systems with very high % win rates but didn't follow a damn one of them. Now using as many as 5 systems with 20 trades/yr is 100 trades/yr or 2/week so even 2/week is still bordering on overtrading. My buy n hold system of 4 stocks picked in Jan 05 would have made 60%+ (AES, BTU, EOG, SUN) so hard to beat this with putz discipline and mutating systems. Besides it's critical to understand many markets and crashmetrics and options else one disaster overnite and only an exorcism will get that look off your face... Actually besides my useless rantings there is an excellent special edition Harvard Business Review on the stands now it is all about decision making distortions/biases and uses many trading/betting analogies. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Best Wishes to you my friend.
one could ask the market the very same question, the answer would be, because that is how it suppose to works to take money from the weak hand. So know the sequence, see the sequence and be a participant in the sequence, Let somebody ask the very same question instead, cheer.
Day 17 avoid so-so trades, and take SURE TRADES... I was reading how Larry Williams made $1,000,000 trading commodities last year. And this passage from his most famous book would sum up my thoughts for the day well: There are mediocre trades presented everyday, but there are only a very few sure-thing trades. We tend to overlook the best trades. You cannot allow this to happen to you if you are going to succeed in futures. The high risk trades will nickle and dime you to death. The only big money I've ever made has been earned by sitting tight on good positions. In and out trading does little more than pay the broker, it usually loses money for me. You must stay with red hot trades. Forget about day trading, about trying to scalp a few points or about selling for a reaction in a bull market. One fellow I know had good vision in the Plywood market in late 1972 when it staged a dynamic rally. He knew it would go so much higher. However, along the way he decided that it was time for a small pullback. Accordingly, he sold out of his long positions and shorted an equal amount. It was a good decision because prices did begin to pull back and for a few days he showed a profit. Then, without warning, prices began limiting up, seven days in a row. Before my friend could get out of the market he had lost $62,000. His error was in looking for too small a move and overlooking the big move. So-so trades that offer a possible gain equal to, or only slightly greater than the risk, must eventually drag all traders down. Regarless of how agile or smart you are, if you play around with these dangerous situations, you will be hurt. .....How true. The man is right on the money. Thats what I need to do, I need to go for sure trades. I would rather not trade, than to lose money. This is why, I have to WAIT PATIENTLY, use limit orders (with my tight stop) and be happy if I get filled or not. I need to trade with my terms rather than getting whipsawed in market's terms. # of Disasters: 4 1....4) They all can be summarized as avoid the danger zones.. Stay away, very far away. Don't jump in too fast only to get shot at. Trade only to win... to WIN, and never lose.