Hi, I am a fairly new as a trader (8 months) and I've learned from what I've read that every trader should trade a style compatible with his own personality; experience should point the way to this personal style ... what are the questions a trader should ask himself as to find out which tradingstyle would best fit his personality ? suggestions ? thanks in advance for your contribution, kind regards, paulus
I CAN NOT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH THE IMPORTANCE OF FINDING SOMETHING THAT FITS WITH THE WAY YOU THINK. there are many, many, many ways to trade. the problem is, you probably won't realize the way you want to trade until you stumble upon it. i would suggest reading/experimenting as much as you can. hopefully, after a few years, you will find something you're happy with. for me, i needed to have confidence in what i was doing. it had to make sense to me. if it didn't make sense, i wasn't interested in it.
Gekko is right. You must have the EXPERIENCE of different trading styles and timeframes in order to make your own decision. Otherwise, someone's advice is going to be meanlingless to you, and you'll always be questioning whether or not you should be following a different path. That's probably why those of us who have been around the block a few times have settled into what we are comfortable with. But without experiencing a variety of styles, we wouldn't have arrived at a comfort level. So you just need to take your licks carefully, and see what fits. It takes time, and it usually takes the experiences of losses. Just try to keep them small, and think of it as your tuition.
How much $ did you guys lose before you started 'getting it' and arrived at your current style? -FastTrader
For me, about 100K and three years, off and on. But I was stupid and got involved in some complicated options strategies at a bad time in the market. But from that came some extremely valuable lessons that have served me very well. I think you will find that many traders who have survived and prospered have also had an initial encounter with rank stupidity like I did. It is an unfortunate human trait, but we really only learn from our mistakes. And the bigger the mistakes, the more we learn. The trick here is to be around long enough to put the learnings to use. The market is ruthless with errors. But once you master it, no better way to make a living.
I think it is easy to overdo this. The markets don't give a damn what your personality is or what you are comfortable doing. Better to find something that works and have the discipline to do it. It beats getting up and having to go to a real job. Now that's something that doesn't fit my personality.
I'm gonna disagree with you here. I think it is very important for someone to feel comfortable, because from that comes confidence. If you are not comfortable with your trading decisions, you are not going to be a confident trader, and you'll never do more than scrape by.
lindq, thanks for your response. That's what I was looking for. I certainly hope I can 'get it' before losing a lot of $. I'm trading smaller size so I can stay in the game long enough to 'get it' -FastTrader
Fast_Trader, if you can, set aside some money for plan B. everyone's plan A is to get the hang of it fast and not lose money. i NEVER thought i would lose as much as i did. but, a couple years ago i bought a car with trading profits. although it was stupid at the time, it is a blessing now. it is MONEY IN THE BANK. i might have lost it if it was money in my account. so, i'm just saying, if you have some money now, if possible, set aside some just in case you need it later. you may think you won't at the time, but a few years down the road, you just might, and you'll be glad you have it. plus, even if you are a trading genius, you can add that money into your account whenever you want anyways.