What is the One Thing That Changed Everything In Your Trading? It is actually the things that changed everything in your trading. I am posing it that way so that you select only the best things, with a focus on the one thing that led to the "HaHa moment". The one thing could be an insight, an observation, an idea, a thought, a book, a thread, a blog, a mentor, luck, etc. It is "the one thing that changed everything" in your trading world. I was chatting to a friennd who is new to trading (newbie who wants to have fun in trading with the intent to maybe take it more seriously if it makes money). I got a sense that my friend views trading as only/mainly buying and selling transactions, but what I want the friend to FIRST see is that the task of a trader is to locate upsides that are worth on average more than the downside, and to earn the different as a result of his labor/insight/risk taking. If this sounds trivial to you, I am not convinced my friend sees it yet. The day when my friend sees , I am thinking I will get a question such as "this is gambling", or a more profound one, "why would anyone sells to me an upside that is worth more than the downside on average, as this would be in contradiction with markets which should price this out". When that day comes, I will share with you what my answer would be, but you can tell me what I should answer my friend, and also what you think are the one things that will change my friend's view on trading. Please make them as items in a priority list. I did not want to tell my friend all the other steps, otherwise my friend may give up. What do you think?
TJ, When I changed the way I thought (and it admittedly took awhile) â everything begin falling into place and making sense RN
The best example I can give The market has always been what it is, the names change but the buying and selling never have It was the same a hundred years ago as the first day I stepped in But the way I perceived it, the way I was affected by it, and the way I interacted with it - changed the day I changed the way I thought about itâ¦. RN
The a-ha moment came to me actually when I started to win at poker consistently. I play limit hold-em. Watching me play is extremely boring to most. I pick my hands that have the best odds of winning. Kind of like a "risk-reward ratio". I will also bet according to who else on my table is calling,raising, or folding. That's like a volume indicator to me. I bring a predetermined amount of money to the table and will not add another dollar to it no matter what. That's my hard and fast stop loss. My job is to preserve the money I lay on the table and wait for the big hand. I manage the hand by who stays with me and I'm not afraid to fold (take a loss). I will rarely chase a hand with a mediocre chance of catching a good card. That's the equivalent of averaging down on a market that keeps falling. Bluffing is literally nonexistent. Once I realized that trading was almost exactly like gambling LOL I have become profitable. I am a very disciplined poker player. I trade like I play poker. Let me add that I am 42 years old and I made my first stock trade when I was 12yrs old. (I bought Mattel @ 7 1/8), They made really cool toys. Since then I have made and lost fortunes. Now with my ridgid discipline, my nest-egg continues to grow. It's been a tremendously difficult learning curve. Who would thought it would be this easy. I wish I started playing cards when I was 14. Not 38.