Where do you feel your # 1 edge is? What is it that enables you to make a steady career of trading? Please pick the two most important items to you and feel free to add your comments on any items you feel have played a larger role in your success. Trading Strategy ... be it Opening Orders, Swingtrading, Scalping, Shorting, or whatever. Technical Analysis Trading Platform Account Size Prop Firm's Money Prop Firm's Guideance ... be it education or general guidelines. Mentor Confidence / Patience / Perseverence / Discipline ... involves everything from patient position entry to confidence to stick with your plan. Ability to work alone (for remote traders ... an often overlooked item). A passion for the markets. Low Commissions _____________________ Thanks for your response
birdman, Choosing from your list, I'd say (1) trading strategy and (2) confidence/patience/perseverence/discipline... The first can be acquired through study, books, tapes, seminars, trial and error (lots of it) etc The second sounds simple but it takes a whole lot of bouncing around in the school of hard nocks to really pick it up.
I believe that if I want to do something well I simply have to learn it from someone that already does it well, therefore I read a lot... everything is written somewhere. Everything! I assume that I know less than the guys that have shown results in the field I want to excel and I learn from them. Learning however is not easy as it seems, it may require a change in character, in your belief system, to go against yourself. So I guess it is your "Confidence / Patience / Perseverence / Discipline" option. If someone is not making money it is because he is not confident or patient or persevering or disciplined. Why? Because it is his emotions that will control his behavior not his rational mind. Let me give an example. I have this game "Vice City" that I sometimes play. You are a gangster and you go around this city to regain money, power, and respect. You can get into any car and drive around. Now sometimes when I drive a car I hit it a lot (accidentally) and it starts to smoke. I hit it one more time and it starts to burn. You are driving like mad and your car starts to burn at the worst possible time and you KNOW (!) it will explode any moment - what is your reaction? You are pissed, you continue to push the gas, you DON'T WANT TO STOP, YOU DON'T WANT THE CAR TO EXPLODE, YOU CAN'T DIE RIGHT NOW, YOU KNOW THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE STOPPED BUT YOU DIDN'T AND YOUR CHANCES OF SURVIVAL ARE EVEN LESS NOW AND YOU GET PISSED EVEN MORE... at this very moment my rational mind takes control of the situation and I hit the brakes as hard as I can, and get the hell out of the burning vehicle only to see it explode a second after I left it... I go through this emotional exercise EVERY time. I "died" many times before I learned to force myself to hit the brakes, get out of the car, save my life and continue my mission. And this is just a game
The two most important factors are having solid trading strategies ( and having more than one is critical, I focus on having a strategy for trading every market that is thrown at me), and the ability to follow my trading plan with focus, discipline, and tenacity. The former is something that is easily taught, the later is completely up to the individual trader. Creating a plan is easy, following through with it is much more difficult. Good trading to all, Mike