The true power of perseverance, belief and determination. That the majority is usually wrong (in order to make the minority all the money). That the latter applies just as much for ET members. That TA indicators are generally useless, that price patterns and volume is all that really counts. That anybody who sells marvelous trading products / education, does so because they can't make any money using it themselves. That losing trades are much more valuable and insightful teachers than winners, and you therefore should honor them, love them, and by all means - not just forget them! To do every mistake once, but never twice. To celebrate and reward yourself for great performance, not least in order to build your resource anchors (see NLP). That there is no limit to how much you can really make in the market, other than your mind. Think about your limit as to how much you can lose. That's how much you can make. And if that's not a serious bit - then maybe your idea of how much you can really lose is a little distorted. That every mental ceiling or upside preconception you may have regarding performance is useless, dirty and should be treated like something you (hopefully never had to) pull out of a congested toilet. To have known that every trade not recorded and individually reviewed and sceptically evaluated in complex journals is a trade wasted and with it a great learning opportunity. To have a log and journal of every single trade I've ever made, and to have all the stats and variables evaluated and tracked in Excel spreadsheets, with notes, comments, charts, statistics etc. I now do this every day. It is smartest thing I can think of doing. To know how powerful and exponentially accelerating it can be to have a mentor. If I had a mentor when I started, everything would have been different. I have a great mentor now, and I do not regret. A mentor is more valuable than a thousand and one trading books or hours in front of the screen. It is the smartest move you could ever do. I would recommend anybody to find a good mentor. To have known that the singularly best way to seriously combat your discipline problems is to snapshot every daily Trade and P&L log from your trading platform and send it to your mentor (or best trading buddy) for evaluation. The will to avoid embarrassment is the only one greater than the will to do unplanned, random or low-probability trades. This is about using your ego to your advantage. An ET journal doesn't work as well. You can always 'cheat' here, or forget a day, and nobody notices. But if you have an excellent individual to critically evaluate and comment on your mistakes, without you fearing public embarrassment, then you can really learn. To have known how difficult a task it still is to become successful. I would have scheduled my learning time a little more generously. To have known Mark Douglas' books & The Dalai Lama's wisdoms on happiness. That 99.9% of trading books are sheer time wasted, if not worse. To realize that success in trading can not be found in trading forums, software, but in fact only in your own mind. Your mind is everything that makes the difference. Therefore do everything to train your mind to succeed. And here starts the next one: NLP. I am glad to have known the power of self-programming to excellence via NLP before I started to trade. I might not have mastered it otherwise. At least not to the extent I have now. To know that anybody who thinks he can trade with maximum brain effectivity drinking less than 2L of water during RTH is simply kidding himself. Not coffee or tea, coke or orange juice (all of which dehydrate!), but actual water. It is paramount. To have known that physical fitness is more important to superior brain performance than can be expressed, particularly for traders. Desk or couch performance does not count. Every trader needs balance. I'm an active martial artist, it makes a lot of difference. And then a couple of quotes I like: "Do or do not. Do not try. There is no try." - Yoda "Do not covet your ideas. Give away everything you know, and more will come back back to you." - Paul Arden "Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill "If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn't thinking!" "Do not seek praise. Seek criticism. If you get approval, your idea can't be great anymore, because it has been accepted. Also you can't grow anymore. So do not ask 'Is it good?' Instead, ask 'What's wrong with it? 'How can I improve?' - You are more likely to get a truthful, critical answer." - Paul Arden And last but not least: That charity and giving something back is one of the most important things for anybody who's successful in any business. And that giving is generally a lot more exciting than taking. That happiness and doing what you really love doing is the most important thing in your life. Never forget that life is not a test run. It's the only time you got. Make the best of it. And that love is the most important thing of all. Not just love towards yourself or those close to you. No, love towards everybody. Your attitude towards others, including animals, plants and martians, is what forges your own happiness. Indifference or hate is never appropriate, everybody wants to be loved and understood. Always remember that. These are just a handful of things I can think of right now, in no particular order. Not all trading-related, but some even very general. Nevertheless, I personally consider them all important to the issue of becoming a successful trader, and to reduce it to the trading-only ones would mutilate the idea. Trading is much more about attitude than numbers or anything else. Non-traders often don't believe that. Trading isn't just a profession. It is a neverending process, journey and pursuit of self-recognition and psychological excellence. Most of that is only in your mind. I believe that with some of these known and followed, one can shave years of one's learning curve. All the best to you. Warmest Regards, Scientist.
Hmmmm. I trade better with diet Pepsi! Water is very over rated. The brain lesions add additional neural net pathways.
If I had to do it all over again -- I would not change a thing. What I know came through action and I would not have it anyother way; for "wisdom/knowledge" through action is the only real kind I know of in this game... Perhaps if there was one thing I know now that I wish I knew then - it would be this; It has never been my lessons in this game that have shaped me, but my capacity for those lessons... Knowing that might have made me a better student in the beginning, but something tells me that lesson also came to me in exact proportion to where I was @ along my journey... PEACE and good-specul8tion...
I wish I know for everytime when and where the market retraces, cheering or scaring off folks, so that I can sell high for more cash and buy low for the inevitable 100% up room to go. (gasp)