The simple fact is that you tempt fate by either being overly positive or negative about gains or losses. Bragging about gains brings upon you an overly confident attitude that nothing can touch you. You start to increase your size, increase your use of margin. The market seems to be with you for a while until it comes crashing down and fate bites you where it hurts most. Being too depressed about losses makes you walk away from the market and you get to the point where you dont want to do this any longer... Either attitude is very destructive. Top traders are always silent and emotionless just like poker players at a table. You dont want to show anyone your hand and you want to keep your attitude clean...
I totally agree with you, and have not really thought of it like that...but you're right I especially like the last few sentences.
Almost all traders are too positive and negative off the start. Any type of strong positive or negative emotion from trading after years of success means that the trader is either faking it or he is strongly going against his rules.
and how exactly did you conclude that where and when did I say trading should be emotional when did I even use the word emotional stop confusing me with pikers on ET products of US public education system AKA worthless eaters
Traders from all walks of life constantly talk about their gains and their losses. So I guess none of those guys/women are real? :eek: This the original title of this thread is specious at best, and at worst it's just another sign of the lack of anything substantative on ET at the moment.
I've been "successfully" trading for about a month, which I know is barely worth mentioning. But I am trying to teach myself to think of gains in terms of percentages instead of dollars. I figure that will help later when I build up something worth something. So is this a mistake since I am increasing my size? SM
I think the better way to put it is that most successful trader's hardly talk about their PnL. I am familiar with this firsthand, because the firm I was connected with actually emphasizes not looking at your PnL, just trade well, and the green will show up. They also hire psychologists to help traders with their Psyche about PnL. I should also add that it has alot to do with personalities. The quiet ones typically don't talk about their gains, and they were the ones who killed it every week/month/year. The rather outspoken ones were very mixed. Just my 2 cents/ what I know about the subject