From what I have seen of ET (not talking about this thread btw) a major obstacle to struggling traders is a lack of common sense and being able to look at trading for what it is really is in simple terms and not what they read in a book.
BIg mOney,, Hands down one of the top 3 best posts of all time in ET.. You nailed this business and most of life in general in this post, Personal repsonsibility . good work chap, EF
Sometimes when times are boring I am just surfing this forum... but you Redneck trader, you made me join to congrat you on one of the best post I have ever read. I hope that you will be able to stand close to your self even outside of the battlefield... ( life isn't a battlefield ? ) Thx for the sharing
Some people are probably built to lose to fulfill some kind of need or desire. Accepting a loss can help, but to celebrate it according to NLP... who are you modelling ?? "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change" - Charles Darwin
SNBthetrue / Jalee25, Thank You both for the very kind words SNBthetrue No, neither life, nor trading is a battlefield â and actually life is pretty greatâ¦. well except for my two teenage sons at times :eek: Y'all Take Care
Complexity is my obstacle and my enemy. Simplicity is my patron saint. Profitability is found in simplicity. But do not be FOOLISH, simple and easy are NOT euphemisms. Traiding for a living is not EASY, but success in all thing is found by those who keep the DIFFICULT as SIMPLE as possible.
My biggest obstacle is: myself as a discretionary trader - I lost money, every month, every year, for twelve years. Having somewhat sensed this problem, after failing repeatedly for a few years, since 2002, I've started working on building trading systems. And, in 2005, I've started working on automating systems, which is taking it one step further. I am sure many others have come to the same realization, sooner or later, but I am also sure only a part of them has carried through with developing trading systems and even fewer automated them. So I can say that, whereas I am my worst enemy (I still am - I lost 30% of my capital yesterday, because of my discretionary trading) as a discretionary trader, I am my best friend as a system developer. Very hard-working, dedicated, meticulous, persistent - I've kept at it for over 7 years now. In the past year, my systems have made money pretty consistently, every month. At the same time, I managed to lose most of those gains because I was doing discretionary trading at the same time. So right now, even this weekend, I am struggling very hard against myself, to find a way to stop myself from trading discretionary for the rest of my life. I am trying to make sure I will never again click that "Transmit" button on the BUY or SELL order. It usually happens when I get home and find some losses from the automated system, and try to make a quick trade to recover that loss. Usually it works. But my problem when it doesn't work is that I do not conceive using any stoplosses, so my loss can go on for days and can even blow out my account (it happened a few times already). I say "why shouldn't I be able to make some money by myself? I am better than the system I've built". Most of the time I can make money. Like 3 times out of 4. On that fourth time of my discretionary trading, I lose everything I made in the previous 3 times, plus much more. It's a total disaster. And I repeat this pattern since years and years. Now, why do I think that I can simply recoup my system's losses by trading discretionary? Simple - who built those systems that make money? I did. So deep inside, despite repeatedly losing for 12 years, I can't believe that if I was able to build a system that makes money, I won't be able to make money by myself by picking trades. And yet, amazingly, each time I fail. At this point, it's clear to me that I have limits there's things I am overlooking, and so I will try to physically block myself from even looking at markets, but I don't know if I will ever manage it. Yesterday's loss was huge and it's fresh now, so I won't try to trade discretionary for at least a few weeks. But then I'll get cocky again and little by little I'll get closer and closer to the trading platform, look at quotes... insert orders... click transmit eventually. I am very afraid it will happen again, and I am positive, after failing for 12 straight years, and 144 straight months, I am positive that I will not make any money, I will lose it instead, and I will never learn to trade discretionary. There would have to be someone there beating me up each time I don't use a stoploss. Or someone implementing it for me, automatically, but that is impossible. So basically I do not know what to do. Part of the solution may be to implement such a great automated system that it will make money every day and then I may - maybe - get the point that it's best to let it run and not interfere, by second-guessing its trades, sometimes reversing them, and losing as a consequence. It's awful... this month the system made about 100%, but I lost all of it in two instances: yesterday I lost 30% and a month ago I lost 50%. Each time I fall for it again. This year I blew out my account twice already. It's a total disaster. On the other hand, as I said, thanks to being so bad at trading, I developed a great system. The big problem now is letting it run, without thinking that since I am the creator I must be better than it is. Seriously, I do think deep inside that I am better than the system at picking entries. Then I see that it entered a position - I think it's wrong (I did friday), and I'll reverse it. At the end of the day I lost, whereas it would have made money if I had let it work. It's a total disaster... I have the worst psychological make-up for a trader. And I don't fully understand why yet, or else I wouldn't be like this. Maybe I am self-sabotaging myself or maybe I really think it will work - but it's a fact that I failed at it for 12 straight years.