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Trading Psychology

3 Rules To Follow When Trading While Working Full-Time👋 Hello, and welcome my name is Dean Muller from WealthTIP where our tip for wealth is to trade invest and prosper, today’s post is focused on the 3 rules that I believe you need to follow if you want to actively and successfully trade the markets while still working a full-time job, business, or side hustle. So, if you enjoy this type of content then go ahead to leave a thumbs up and that way we know that we’re on the right track to meeting your content needs. Now that we covered that, let’s jump over to the first rule you need to implement as a trader, working full-time. 1. 📝 Create a Watchlist I remember when I started trading I only traded one pair, and that was the GBPUSD, as I began honing in on my skills as a technical trader, I started looking at a few more pairs, and the more pairs I looked at the more opportunities I saw, the problem was however, that I wasn’t able to keep up with the movements of each pair and this coursed me to lose focus on the pairs I had positions on and ultimately mismanage a lot of the trades. I then reached out to a good friend of mine and he suggested I create a watchlist now at the time I had absolutely no clue what a watchlist was, and if you don’t know what it is, it’s simply a list of pairs that according to your strategy has potential trade setups coming together with a probabilistic profitable outcome. Now if you would like me to do a video showing you how to put a watchlist together, then simply write a comment in the comment section below and if we get 100 likes on this video then I will be happy to put one together, but for now This is a cardinal rule for anyone trading, while still working full-time. 2. ⏰ Set Trade Alerts When you are working, vary rarely are you able to access the charts freely, this means that you could miss out on the very opportunities you identified when you put your watchlist together. The best way to combat this is to use platforms like tradingview that allows you to set trade alerts that will notify you when the market is on an area you deem significant. Setting these alerts ensures that you aren’t distracted by the charts while you working and you won’t have to check your phone every 5 min, instead, you only jump on the charts once you are notified, making it easier to focus on your job, while still having a hand in the markets. 3.🎯 Use Pending Orders Pending orders are a powerful tool that trading platforms provide all traders with, and no one benefits more from pending orders than someone working a full-time job. Personally after putting my watchlist together I have a good idea with regards to where I intend to enter the markets, and because I do my watchlist over the weekend when the markets are closed, I set all my pending orders as soon as the markets opens Sunday midnight. What this allows me, is the freedom to focus on other things while still having a hand in the markets. Now if you would like to know more about how you can use pending orders to make your trading easier give this video a thumbs up and I will be sure to put that into our project list. And always remember, if you frustrated, annoyed, angry or anxious when trading, then you doing it wrong, and should check out our Foundation Series, where we explain the process to successful technical analysis in a plain, and simple way. Furthermore, I really do hope that you were able to extract some value from today’s post, and if you did be sure to hit like and share so that we can continue creating content that not only serves you, but equips you to successfully and joyfully navigate your way through the financial markets. So until next time, you should keep well and bye for now.
Education
by DeanMuller
What to do on the weekends?When I first started trading back in 2014 I used to hate weekends and love Mondays. In that I found great sense of pride that unlike other people I liked Mondays instead of hating them. Every time markets closed on Sunday I would constantly wish for weekends to pass asap and start trading the next week. It was needed for that period in time. Fast forward 8 years later, and I actually learned to find a remarkable balance by enjoying the Friday evening with my family and friends, having a rather relaxing day on Saturday, and some needed off-market hours on Sunday. Here are some tips on how to reframe that view to get better balance on life outside trading, and trading outside life. (Some of these may not be 100% applicable to you, but sharing experiences is always helpful to pick a thing or two for each other). 1. After end of trading session on Friday (whatever your hours are) close your computer and walk away no matter the current weekly or daily PnL. If in a trade - manage it by moving stops appropriately and let it go. Take the evening off to do what we like. Dinner out, watching movies, going to bed earlier, whatever floats your boat. The key here is to disconnect from the market completely. Let the mind come to the non-trading mode. When we are trading we are operating with uncertainty, disconnecting from the market thus by definition means disconnecting from uncertainty. Being out of uncertainty for a day or two creates a relaxed mind that will be ready to pounce in the coming weeks. It might be hard for people starting out, but the long-term benefits of actually unplugging on Friday evening is way underrated. 2. On Saturday, if possible and you have no other obligations, treat yourself an extra hour of sleep. Getting enough sleep is a risk-management strategy as lack of it creates a lopsided perception of risk in our minds. Thus, by definition, getting more sleep removes this lopsidedness. On weekdays it's not often possible to sleep in, so getting just an extra bit of rest of Saturdays gives little bit of edge for the next week. Rest of the day is obviously unique to everyone of us, but the key in my opinion here is to keep being unplugged from the market. Not checking how the weekly candle closed, or how Friday NY closed - it doesn't matter on Saturday. Markets are closed they are not going anywhere. By rushing in we create hesitancy, and by creating hesitancy we practice opposite of patience. Instead, by remaining unplugged we practice detachment, a much needed quality to trade effectively. 3. On Sundays take a few hours (or whatever time you need) to do all the trading related work: Journaling review, self-review, price action closes, prepare for the coming week by placing drawings and so forth. It's very relaxing to do charting and trading related work when markets are closed. There is no rush. It's poise and calm. Working once a week in that environment and actually preparing for Monday creates huge edge. 4. On Monday, and that is optional but I kinda like to do it sometimes, although at current time I am stretching myself by not doing that, but I will come back to doing that in 2-3 months, so, risk only half of what you usually risk. I like to call that a warm up day. After a period of more than 2 days of not being in the environment of uncertainty it's not necessary to just jump in with full risk. Starting Monday with only half risk helps us to ease in into the week. In case of profits - we still make them, in case of losses - they are limited, thus after some rest we reduce its effect on us and we ensure that after warmup we can be ready to strike on Tuesday. 5. Tuesday-Friday - proceed as normal, rinse and repeat. For me, Mondays are least profitable day anyway. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions, or share your routines and how you treat weekends? On to the next one. Lightwork_
Education
by Lightwork_
Why do most ppl fail as retail tradrers?I see two main reasons which complement each other for the high rate of failure. First and foremost, the media and the industry promote this idea that it’s easy to become a profitable trader and anybody can go it. This is, of course, not true. Theoretically, anybody can do it if willing to put the effort and approach it as a business. Practically almost nobody approaches trading with the same rigorousness as any other professional endeavor. Let’s put aside the first reason, about which there is not much we can do. A big chunk of the industry relies on peoples being naive and we’re not going to change that. On top of the first reason, we have a second reason related to people themselves. Most of those who try trading financial markets simply don’t manage their emotions and risk well enough to survive the learning curve. Managing your own emotions turns out to be a complex endeavor and constantly changing market conditions lengthen the learning curve. One of the things that makes this business so attractive is also the main thing that makes it so difficult to master. The direct and sometimes violent feedback you receive from the market, after each trading decision, has an astonishing impact on a human’s ability to keep his psychological well being in check and control his own reactions. It has the potential to disrupt executive functions and trigger instinctual “fight or flight” responses. This leads to emotional trading or trading on tilt which quickly generates more losses than any other mistake you could make in this business. Most other jobs have a protective buffer zone between usual day to day work decisions and the ultimate feedback — end of the month paycheck. This profession doesn’t. Every little call you make has an immediate impact on your capital. Every little mistake can take a portion of your capital away and every good decision can bring it all back and more. This kind of psychological exposure is heavily distressful and being aware of its mechanisms makes a huge difference. So … psychology differentiates the pro. Don’t get me wrong … professional discretionary traders are not emotionless but are much more aware and in control of their reactions. The successful pro deeply understands that trading is mainly about people's perceptions and the rest are just details. You may ask yourself how can such a level be reached? A starting point is to stay away from any market, financial instrument, time frame, trading technique, or any combination of those that doesn’t fit who you are deep inside. The least the exposure to triggers that can awake the demons within, the best. Always seek strategies that you understand and match your inner self. For example … if you are impatient trade shorter time frames, if you are very risk-averse don’t use huge margin, if you are risk-averse but you don’t have enough capital use margin with a tight risk management (maybe options), if you have a statistical mind try quantitative approaches etc. There are infinite possibilities to adapt to yourself and is a must to do it if you want to have a chance. It always amuses me to see the vast majority of educational resources geared towards what market does when most of the success in this business is knowing how you adapt to the market, whatever it may do. And, of course, the market is, more or less, the other traders. Best of luck! Mihai Iacob
COINBASE:BTCUSDEducation
by Mihai_Iacob
19
📖 STEP 4 to MASTER TRADING: Focus on One Pattern 📖 "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." - Bruce Lee We, traders, have a natural passion for learning and that’s really great and helps us build that foundation for trading. However, a moment comes when enough is enough and it’s time to focus on something more specific. But very often, we can make the unconscious mistake of trying to learn as much as possible, without even questioning if we really need it at the moment. 🟩 TOO MUCH INFORMATION For anyone eager to learn, the information is there. In fact, too much information, and naturally, it can be hard to stop learning. Sometimes we just feel we need to learn about one more pattern, one more strategy, one more approach. And it may seem that more knowledge will bring quality. And that’s true when you just start trading, however, later in your career, it makes sense to think and ask yourself: “Do I really need one more strategy which I know on an average level, or should I maybe focus on one strategy, or one pattern of any given strategy - and really master it, and refine it to the very deep level of understanding?” 🟩 IT’S UNCOMFORTABLE TO LET GO This part can be discussed for a long time, but based on what was said before, it’s literally uncomfortable for traders to let go of this habit of trying to trade multiple patterns, and learn more patterns in between. I’m not sure why this is so, there must be some psychological reasoning for this, but in simple words, every new trading pattern can be treated by us as a new opportunity to make profits in the market. And so when we stop learning more patterns - it can feel like we’re missing something. And it may seem that the more we trade, the more patterns we can use - the more profit we can bank because we can enter into the market based on different patterns. And while that may be true to some genius traders, for most of us it doesn’t work that well. More importantly - we don’t need to do it. It’s enough to master 1-2 patterns of a given system we believe in and tested, and so have confidence in it. I propose you consider “cutting off” 90% of your trading knowledge and focus only on executing 1-2 patterns max. Think about it. If you’re like me, you should feel really uncomfortable or even scared to do this. It may even seem stupid. Because it means you should let go of all the time you dedicated to learning, and maybe even trading with some systems before. But it’s an illusion because that time and effort - they are not lost, you can’t lose them, they are part of you now, part of your experience, something that led you to finally choose something you will work with really closely. But if you will attach to everything you learned before – this will confuse you and spray your focus all over the place, making it much harder to become a specialized, professional trader. 🟩 FOCUS ON YOUR BEST PATTERN ONLY When the time comes, and you’ve tried several strategies, it now makes sense to stop exploring additional systems and just focus on one system and learn everything about it. For example, if you’re trading head and shoulders, then stop trading double tops and bottoms, break and retest, and diamond patterns. Why? Because head and shoulders are not just 5 lines on the chart, it has numerous variations in how it plays out in the market, in different markets, sessions, and contexts. And you have to know it, see it, test it, and refine it. Become a master of head and shoulders, or any other specific pattern and trading approach, and be profitable with it. And if profitability is there - you can move on to another pattern, but at that stage, you will not need it probably. 🟩 HINDSIGHT TEST, BACKTEST, FORWARDTEST, REFINE It’s a great practice to have a “hindsight journal” and your backtesting journal, that will only be about that pattern you chose to trade. And there could be several reasons for choosing some particular pattern. But usually, it comes from your mentor or anyone else that you saw who reached sustainable profitability with it, and you believed in this pattern. But that would not be enough. You can’t tell your brain - believe in this. You need to actually show and prove it to your brain and to yourself. So you need to backtest this pattern, and only this pattern for at least 150 trades. This will help you to develop real confidence in the system. 🟩 YES, IT CAN BE HARD TO FIND “YOUR” SYSTEM I spent almost 3 years before I really found something I was willing to stick to long-term. Not sure if there’s actually good advice on how to find the system for yourself. It depends on your personality, your lifestyle, etc. Based on my experience, I would say just continue to learn and listen to yourself. Most likely you’ll find some trader or a mentor and you’ll like his trading style. Try to replicate it, and stick to his system. With time, and during journaling and live testing, it will all develop into your own system. Yes, it may look similar to your mentor’s but it will be your system. And once again, a trading system can have different kinds of entry confirmations, but it makes big sense to choose 1 or 2 confirmations and master them. 🎁 For those who are still reading :), thank you, and here’s BONUS trading hack for you. Next time during your trading day, when you'll feel something is wrong, maybe you're frustrated or just feel like your discipline starts to slip away, or maybe even you catch yourself thinking about entering without entry pattern or risk more than usual - realize that's your "monkey brain" stepping in. It's very hard to control, but easy to trick. Here's what you should do. Say to yourself: "Ok, I'll do whatever I like, place any kind of trade with the risk of half of the account if I want, BUT after 20 min. pass." Then you just start a timer (you can google "timer 20 min.") and do whatever you like after that 20 minutes. Usually what happens is you calm down and don't do stupid things. It very simple but effective technique. 🚀Thanks for your BOOSTS and support🚀 💬Send your comments and questions below, I'll be glad to talk to you💬 Dima
BITSTAMP:BTCUSDEducation
by Yelli_trades
19
Trading Psychology | How to Perceive Your Trades 👁 Hey traders, In this post, we will discuss a common fallacy among struggling traders: overestimation of a one single trade. 💡The fact is that quite often, watching the performance of an active trading position, traders quite painfully react to the price being closer and closer to a stop loss or, alternatively, coiling close to a take profit but not being managed to reach that. Fear of loss make traders make emotional decisions: extending stop loss or preliminary position closing. The situation becomes even worse, when after the set of the above-mentioned manipulation, the price nevertheless reaches the stop loss. Just one single losing trade is usually perceived too personally and make the traders even doubt the efficiency of their trading system. They start changing rules in their strategy, then stop following the trading plan, leading to even more losses. ❗️However, what matters in trading is your long-term composite performance. A single position is just one brick in a wall. As Peter Lynch nicely mentioned: “In this business, if you’re good, you’re right six times out of ten. You’re never going to be right nine times out of ten.” There are so many factors that are driving the markets that it is impossible to take into consideration them all. And because of that fact, we lose. The attached chart perfectly illustrates the insignificance of a one trading in a long-term composite performance. Please, realize that losing trades are inevitable, and overestimation of their impact on your trading performance is detrimental. Instead, calibrate your strategy so that it would produce long-term, consistent positive results. That is your goal as a trader. ❤️If you have any questions, please, ask me in the comment section. Please, support my work with like, thank you!❤️
Education
by VasilyTrader
15
✍️WEEKLY QUOTE: How to be rigid and flexible at the same time?✍️ In what way does a trader have to learn how to be rigid and flexible at the same time? The answer is: We have to be rigid in our rules and flexible in our expectations 🟢We need to be rigid in our rules so that we gain a sense of self-trust that can, and will always, protect us in an environment that has few, if any, boundaries. We need to be flexible in our expectations so we can perceive, with the greatest degree of clarity and objectivity, what the market is communicating to us from its perspective. At this point, it probably goes without saying that the typical trader does just the opposite: He is flexible in his rules and rigid in his expectations. Interestingly enough, the more rigid the expectation, the more he has to either bend, violate, or break his rules in order to accommodate his unwillingness to give up what he wants in favor of what the market is offering. 🟢To eliminate the emotional risk of trading, you have to neutralize your expectations about what the market will or will not do at any given moment or in any given situation. You can do this by being willing to think from the market's perspective. Remember, the market is always communicating in probabilities. At the collective level, your edge may look perfect in every respect; but at the individual level, every trader who has the potential to act as a force on price movement can negate the positive outcome of that edge. To think in probabilities, you have to create a mental framework or mindset that is consistent with the underlying principles of a probabilistic environment. 💡 A probabilistic mindset consists of five fundamental truths.💡 1. Anything can happen. 2. You don't need to know what is going to happen next in order to make money. 3. There is a random distribution between wins and losses for any given set of variables that define an edge. 4. An edge is nothing more than an indication of a higher probability of one thing happening over another. 5. Every moment in the market is unique. From Trading in the Zone, by M. Douglas ❤️Please, support this post with like and comments!❤️
OANDA:XAUUSDEducation
by Yelli_trades
4
📖 STEP 3 to MASTER TRADING: WHAT’S YOUR TRADING EDGE? 📖The topic of trading edge in the market is highly underrated, in my opinion. That’s why today I propose to discuss it, and I hope it can help you to shift your perspective on this matter. So let’s think about this together. What parts does your trading edge consist of? 🟩 THE BIG FILTER For me, the first part of any trading edge is its filter. So your trading system tells you very clearly when you should NOT be in the market. It protects your capital - both $ capital and emotional capital - from poor market conditions, and low-quality and low-probability setups. And what it actually means when you execute your edge is that most of the time, you will stay out of the market. 🟩 YOU WILL “MISS” THE MOVES That’s really tough topic for many of us, me included because very often you’re looking to enter the zone, but the price can either turn right before tapping into it or tap and doesn’t give any confirmation for entry. And that could be very emotional. However, the fact is simple - such “missed” moves are also part of our edge. Why? Because if you tested one set up, one pattern, and you know it’s profitable the way it is, then you need to execute it the way it is. Keep in mind, when I say profitable, I don’t mean crazy profitable. Today, with access to prop firms, we need a very low % of profitability to earn for living. We can scale the $ amount relatively easily if we are profitable consistently. So again, we don’t need every move, and we don’t need the whole move. We just need some part of some moves - and a good edge will make consistent profits out of this. And only then, if you want, you can tweak, refine and step by step make your system even more profitable. 🟩 THE PATTERN This part is actually your entry pattern. Notice again, this is just a part of your system, not the whole system. If you really understand this, you’ll be much more relaxed in the market. This part should include a written checklist for your entry - just like a pilot has a checklist before his flight. A checklist, in its turn - is a part of your trading plan, it’s the essence of your trading plan. You will refer to it before every trade. 🟩 MANAGEMENT, LOSERS AND BREAKEVENS When you executed your edge in the market, now you need to manage the trade accordingly, based on your checklist. So take partials, accept breakevens and losers. If you entered into a high-quality setup, which turned into a BE or a loser - it’s the part of your system, and usually, it doesn’t make sense to overthink it and try to find flaws in your system. But that’s flexible, and of course, you can analyze what happened, and maybe even find something to tweak, but very often a loser is just a normal loser, and breakeven is just a normal breakeven. 📖To recap, any edge will include: 🔹“missed” trades 🔹trades, where price didn’t tap into your entry order just a bit 🔹trades where you were stopped out for several pips and price then went to profit (if it repeats constantly, maybe consider having a bigger stop loss) 🔹full TP 🔹partials 🔹losers 🔹breakevens 🎁If you’re still here, here’s a BONUS trading hack for you. Ask yourself and try to answer honestly this question: “During all the time I’m trading, what is the maximum amount of days in a row, when I followed my rules to the T, honestly?” You will be surprised, but the usual answer is 3-10 days. Yes, people can trade for 2-3 years, but never manage to follow their rules (whatever they have at the moment) for at least a month in a row. It all leads to catastrophe, of course. Thank you for your time! If you want to see more educational materials, please hit the BOOST button and leave your comments below. Dima
FOREXCOM:XAUUSDEducation
by Yelli_trades
7
STEP 2 to MASTER TRADING: what to do with the NEWS. NEWS BRING TERRIBLE TRADING CONDITIONS During release, spread is all over the place, in addition you can easily miss the fill. So actually worst time you can enter a position is on a release itself, hoping price will rise or fall. But usually, price will make massive moves up and down, liquidating hopeful "news traders" before going in either of direction. So next time when you will regret you were not involved in the news move, just remember that you would not have a good entry point anyway. PRICE CAN GAP BELOW YOUR STOPLOSS Another really important thing to keep in mind is that very often during red news, price can momentarily and significantly gap, and now instead of your breakeven or usual -1RR, you'll have -2 or -3RR, and what's worse - you'll have a big drawdown in your emotional capital. ILLUSION OF UNDERSTANDING Sometimes beginners, and even advanced traders, fall into this illusion. Someone reads 5 articles about a specific news type, and now begins to think they understand how the news will effect the market. In reality, each trading instrument is effected by hunderds of factors, and anyone who wants to understand them, should spend months, even years with that one instrument, learning literally everything about it and what effects it. Everything else is just gambling or being naive. EFFECT HAPPENS BEFORE THE RELEASE If you've being familiar with smart money or institutional trading, ideas of Wyckoff, you'll know that institutions position themselves long time before news release, during accumulations and distributions. Market structure gets established long before actual realease, and what news do are just producement of sporadic moves, grabs of liquidity and easy manipulations. But only 0.01% of news actually change pre-established structure and starts a new trend, big picture doesn't change because of news. What actually starts a move and a trend are accumulations and distributions, and news really can be a part of it, but only a small part. SO WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE NEWS? 1. Check red news releases during your day. Don't enter 15-30 min. before and after the news. 2. If you're already in a trade, and price came relatively close to your entry, it's better to close out the position now, because remember that price can gap below your stoploss. 3. If you're positioned in profit significantly away from the price, leave the position open. So to recap everything above, you need to trade YOUR SYSTEM, YOUR EDGE - for me it's structure, SnD and confirmations - but also we need to acknoledge the short term chaotic news effect, and use our knowledge to manage risk and that's all. Hope this post give you better understanding what should you do in order to become a successful trader. I will be grateful if you support this post by smashing the BOOST button and sharing it with other traders. Thank you! Dima
BINANCE:BNBUSDEducation
by Yelli_trades
1
How to control your trading mentality 🧠Mental training helps individuals to improve their performance by preparing their emotions and mind. Focus, confidence, and motivations are important factors of mental factors. According to a study done at Brown University, it may be possible to train your brain’s automatic emotional responses. It may improve your experience in trading. To be a mentally tough trader, one should tap into his emotional and mental resources that keep his mind in check at its peak as often and consistently as possible. One may make wrong decisions when he/she is unstable emotionally and mentally. Stop 🚫 It does not matter how you good or how experienced you are in trading. If you don't see the whole picture 100%, your trading experience would end unsuccessfully. What happens when you keep hitting that stop loss and losing money? Your body starts to release cortisol, the primary stress hormone, which increases blood sugar in the bloodstream. When cortisol level is more than normal, you will have high blood pressure, will become agitated, irritated and start to sweat. You have to STOP! You will only lose more if you continue to trade. Take a breath and take a step back. When you come back, you will have a better perspective and a better picture of how to trade. Accept ✅ Every trader has their own pace of learning and trading. Don't compare yourself to others. Your friend may have started earlier and made more than you. You just have to ACCEPT! Trading is not about competition. You cannot start trading with a competing mentality. Don’t take a higher risk than you can handle. If you have only $100, just accept that you have $100. 100 is a start of a bigger number. Don’t follow social media group who claims how much they made and how easy it is. Your brain may unconsciously make competitive decisions. Make a plan 📝 You have to make a plan. You may have made a plan and failed. Let me tell you what worked for me. Like many traders, I lost in the beginning. The more you lose money while trading, the more you focus on the money not on the trading. When you focus on money, you may try to find money by different ways; borrowing, stealing and some in easy ways. To make a plan to trading, you have to see the whole picture; the risk, the situation it is creating for you, your family and finance and your future. Summary It is important to stop when you are overwhelmed and take a step back. When come back you will see how much difference it makes when you are calm and in control of your emotions and mind. Accepting that you have your own pace of learning and trading is also crucial in trading. Last but not least, to make a plan consider the risk and the situation. Be prepared and be in control of your emotions. Now you know when to stop and accept. You are ready to start your trading journey. Don't put at risk what you already built. Take it slow at your own pace.
CME:BTC1!Education
by YertuntsTrader
8
STEP 1 to MASTER TRADING: Hindsight trading. Train your eyes.A common mistake that traders make after learning any kind of trading setup is jumping into backtesting using a replay tool, or even live trading. However, if you think about it, trading is very much about pattern recognition. And when you force yourself into live trading without a proper understanding of what your patterns look like, most likely you’ll need much more time to succeed. A different approach and much more effective would be using hindsight, that’s when you see what actually happened. During this process, try to find at least 50 high-quality setups, that represent your trading system. So you actually see everything that happened and find situations, where your edge played out, document it in your journal. That’s great training for your eyes and brain. You don’t need to guess, you will not feel anything, because you already see what happened, you’ll notice that sometimes your edge, your system doesn’t give you entries and price goes without you, sometimes, you’ll see a loser or a breakeven after your entry, start to get used to this, as it’s all part of your system. After that, you'll have a much better understanding and vision for your setup - and that could be the time to try some backtesting and forwardtesting. I’ll talk more about a different kind of backtesting in future posts. Meanwhile, take care, send your questions, and comments, will be glad to chat with you. Dima
Education
by Yelli_trades
1
Trading Insights #3: Mastering Your Mind Debriefing In the opening two parts of our Trading Insights Series we evaluated the importance of probability and random distribution, and then covered some key misconceptions relating to technical analysis and price movement. We recommend you start at part one and work your way up, but this entry can stand alone. Intro Your mind is the most powerful piece of the puzzle when it comes to your trading success. Without developing the mentality of a pro trader, you will never achieve the results you desire. When it comes to mastering your mind, we can think of no one better to draw influence from than Buddha. In this entry to the series, we intend to turn back the clock to see if we can glean some valuable insight and apply it to our trading endeavors. Trading Pitfalls There are several pitfalls most aspiring traders fall prey to when operating in the market. In our analysis, there are two categories of trading errors. We define these as conceptual errors and execution errors. While it’s tempting to focus on execution errors, we’ve found that addressing conceptual errors simultaneously fixes execution errors. Conceptual errors stem from inappropriate ideas about trading. These errors are: 1. Not believing you need a defined strategy 2. Blaming the market for your failures rather than taking responsibility 3. Trying to get rich quick by trading in an aggressive and reckless fashion 4. Not viewing your trading exploits over a set of trades and over-emphasizing individual trades Not believing you need a defined strategy This is one of the most common and difficult to break trading habits. The market is a limitless environment where you can do whatever you want, whenever you want. Many traders enjoy this type of freedom and struggle to develop or follow trading rules. Some traders say they recognize the importance of a defined game plan, but when it comes down to it they don’t embody or act out a belief that rules are necessary. By not having a gameplan, or not following your game plan, you will never allow yourself to find out what methods work best for you. When you factor in random variables based on your momentary perception you prevent yourself from learning what variables give you a real edge on the market over a set of trades. Many traders develop a plan, but when the moment comes they fail to execute their plan. This cycle tends to repeat itself over and over. “An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.” —Buddha It’s time to embrace action, not ideas. Create a plan and follow it for 20 to 30 trades. If the results are not what you hoped for, come up with a new plan, and try again. When you find something that works, stick with it until it doesn’t. In this way, you will learn, with a degree of certainty, what method produces the desired results. Blaming the market for your failures rather than taking responsibility for your actions Many traders fall into the habit of believing the market is responsible for their success or failure. The market is a dynamic sequence of events that has no feelings or emotions. It goes up, and it goes down. The market does not exist to make you a winner, just as it does not exist to make you a loser. If you depend on the market to make you a winner, the market can take your success away. If you trade like a gambler and the market gives you a series of winning trades, the market will eventually take the money back. Once you realize it’s up to you to get what you want from the market you will embrace the appropriate amount of responsibility. “It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.” —Buddha When you take a huge loss, it’s not the market's fault — it’s yours. The contradictory component here is that if you find yourself in a huge winning trade it’s not necessarily because you’re a great trader. Anyone with any degree of skill can stumble into a big winning trade, even a complete amateur. Therefore, big losses beyond what you define as acceptable are your fault, but big winners beyond what you can imagine are not a product of your ability. Why? Because you could have prevented the loss by using a risk management plan, but for the winner, you just happened to enter at the right moment and there is no guarantee it will happen again. Professionals don’t allow themselves to believe they are responsible for big winners — they understand it was just an occurrence of the behavior pattern that gives them an edge on the market and the next trade could very well be a controlled loss. If you believe that a single huge winning trade is more important than a consistent mindset you are missing the big picture. When you master the appropriate mental techniques the market cannot take your success away. You will keep the gains you make and you’ll have the ability to keep winning in a consistent fashion. It’s time to take responsibility and conquer your mind. Trying to get rich quick by trading in an aggressive and reckless fashion Many people get into trading because it seems like the easiest way to make money. In addition, they think it’s their ticket to quick riches, almost like winning the lottery. Indeed, a select few individuals have been extremely lucky and have gotten rich on pure gambles in the market. Yet, if these people kept trading in the same reckless fashion they were not rich for long. There are many high-risk ways to trade the market and inexperienced people are drawn to these methods by the lure of some fast life-changing cash. “Patience is key. Remember: A jug fills drop by drop.” —Buddha There are 252 trading days in a year. If a day trader can consistently earn just 0.5% on their account per day, they can gain 125% in a year. Alternatively, if a swing trader can earn 1-2% per week, they can gain 50 to 100% on their capital in the same period. Any money manager would be ecstatic to produce such results. If you cannot consistently earn 0.5% per day or 2% per week, what makes you think you can earn 100% in a month, and keep it? If getting rich trading the market was easy every retail trader who attempts to trade would be rich. Not viewing your trading exploits over a set of trades and overemphasizing individual trades Nearly every trader has the tendency to view each trade in a vacuum. In other words, each trade either proves or disproves the trader’s methodology or ability, and determines their emotional state. Any trade that does not meet the trader’s expectations causes frustration and mental distress. The problem is, that no trading system tells you what will happen on any given trade. A trading strategy only gives you an approximation of what you can expect over many trades. There is no other way a strategy can work. You must view each trade as a part of a set — this is what it truly means to think in probabilities. “Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else.” —Buddha When you have a methodology that gives you a positive expectancy, you must learn that you will never know in advance which trade will work. Each trade has its own unique outcome but also exists as a part of many trades. When you have a system that tips the odds in your favor, you must view the big picture and not let losing trades affect your positive mindset.
NASDAQ:NFLXEducation
by Level8Trading
3
Trading Insights #1: Probability & Random DistributionDebriefing In this mini-series, we take a look at what it takes to become a successful trader. The Trading Insights series focuses on concepts rather than analysis and will attempt to get you on the proper path to your trading goals. We believe the ideas contained in this series are the proper base to help you become a professional trader. We define a professional trader as an individual who makes consistent profits month after month, only takes controlled losses, does not succumb to momentary emotions, and does not experience outsized account drawdowns. In the shown example, controlled risk and consistent profit management ensures success. Intro Probability combined with random distribution is an important and often overlooked concept when it comes to trading. Mark Douglas brought the idea of random distribution to many retail traders with his book “Trading In The Zone'', but he is certainly not the originator of a concept rooted in data science and statistics. Our goal is to compress and synthesize these ideas so you’ll have a good understanding after reading this post. Traders who say things such as, “you need to make a large number of trades to make money”, or “don’t let the losses deter you from making more trades”, are ungracefully or unknowingly referring to probability and random distribution. Probability To understand how random distribution relates to trading we must first cover some basics of probability. If we flip a fair coin there is always a 50% chance the coin lands on tails. Each time we flip a coin the likelihood of landing on tails is identical, despite the fact we could flip heads five times in a row. This means the possibility of heads or tails turning up is unrelated to the previous flip. The result of each flip is random relative to the last flip due to circumstances we cannot control, such as the pressure applied to the flip, the airflow in the room, the landing spot, and numerous other factors. Let’s now pretend we rig the coin and change the likelihood of flipping tails to 55%. The same rules govern our new rigged coin – the result of each flip is unrelated and random in relation to the last flip. By rigging the coin in favor of tails we have not changed this fact, but we have tilted the outcome in our favor over many flips. In other words, if the rigged coin is flipped enough times, we will get more tails than heads. The increased probability of flipping tails is reflected over many flips of the coin, not on each individual flip. Random Distribution Once we understand the basics of probability, random distribution is simple to comprehend. If the result of flipping a rigged coin is unrelated to the last flip then the flips that produce tails are randomly distributed throughout a set of flips. For example, a sequence of flips could go: H,H,T,H,T,T,T,H,T,T – there is no discernable pattern in relation to tails turning up. Over a set of flips, however, our rigged coin lands on tails more often than heads. The increased likelihood of the coin landing on tails is reflected over many flips, not on each flip. What does all of this mean in real terms? Individual random events have a consistent outcome over a set of events when the odds are tilted in one direction. Relating The Concepts To Trading 1. Over a series of events where many unknown forces influence each event, the outcome of each event is unrelated to the previous event. In trading, this means the outcome of each market pattern is not related to the last instance of that same pattern. If a pattern results in a winning trade it does not mean the next instance of the pattern will also produce a winner, or vice-versa. 2. Over a set of events, the events that produce a favorable outcome are randomly distributed throughout the set. In trading, this means any attempt to predict which instance of a pattern will produce a favorable outcome is a waste of time. When you attempt to predict which instance of a pattern will produce a winner, you are saying you know what will happen next, which begs the question, if you can’t read the minds of the people who have the financial ability to move prices, how exactly do you know? Hint: you can never know exactly, despite the fact you can guess correctly from time to time. 3. Over a set of events, tipping the odds in one direction means the increased likelihood of a certain outcome is only reflected over many instances of the event. In trading, this means you need a pattern or strategy that tips the odds in our favor, but you must view many instances of your pattern or strategy to see the desired results. In other words, you must not view your trading exploits from trade to trade, but rather, over a sequence of many trades.
Education
by Level8Trading
2
1% risk per trade is too much, try this insteadHello traders, Remember when you just started trading, almost everywhere you could hear about the 1% per trade risk rule? While this is not too bad, I think in most cases 1% risk is too much. Here's why: 1. If you're trading a 100k prop firm account, 1% is $1000. Imagine you have a very usual losing streak of 3-4 trades. Now you've lost 3-4%, and $3-4k in dollar amount. If you're a day trader, it could happen in one day easily. Ask yourself honestly, how would you feel about it all and if you will be capable of executing your edge? 2. Most prop firms will have a 5-10% drawdown breach rule So again, a very usual losing streak will take you halfway to account termination. 3. 1% risk leaves almost no room for days where you executed poorly or traded emotionally. We are all humans and we make mistakes. Something goes wrong and you trade the setup you were not supposed to be trading. And instead of stopping after 3 losers, you continue to trade more. So what can we do about it? My suggestion is very simple: risk no more than 0.1-0.25% per trade. If your average winner is 3-7RR, then with a good account size a 1% winner is just huge and more than enough. And if you're going through the evaluation process, such a small risk will keep your equity curve in control and still will allow you to grow it to profit targets. Hope it helps!
Education
by Yelli_trades
Weekly Quote | 7 Rules of a Consistent WinnerHello trader, here's a quote from the great book "Trading in the Zone". Hope you'll find some inspiration or maybe even practical advice here. I'm a consistent winner because: 1. I objectively identify my edges. 2. I predefine the risk of every trade. 3. I completely accept risk ($ risk, risk of not being right, not being perfect, being wrong, losing money, missing out, and leaving money on the table). If not - I am willing to let go of the trade. 4. I act on my edges without reservation or hesitation. 5. I pay myself as the market makes money available to me (take partials). 6. I continually monitor my susceptibility for making errors (emotional pain or euphoria). 7. I understand the absolute necessity of these principles of consistent success and, therefore, I never violate them. Best Regards, Dima
OANDA:XAGUSDEducation
by Yelli_trades
2
Secret of trading mentality Hello traders 👋 Trading Mentality First of all, ask yourself this question. ❓ How did trading impact your life ❓ It is important to remember trading could help you reach financial freedom or could easily destroy your life. Everyone knows 90% of the time people lose their money while trading. But it doesn't stop them from trading. Once you start trading it's hard to give that up. Therefore, for anyone who is sure about starting their trading journey. Please pay attention to the following friendly advices. What to keep in mind when you trade ❓ Technical analysis and indicators are tool to help you do presumptions about trade, not a gaurantee that you will have successfull trades. For example, it is possible that you will have 9 out of 10 successfull trades and lose everything on the 10th trade. So what I'm trying to say is, instead of trying too hard to do presumptions. It is also important to prepare your trading mentality. What is trading mentality ❓ Anyone who trades studied more than enough about stop lose, risk management and technical analysis. Even though traders studied and uses all of the above, they still lose they money. Traders shouldn't be paying more than necessary attention to these. When traders start making profit, they start to release dopamine chemical in their brain. This chemical makes you feel good about your confidience, mentality and makes you forget about your fear of losing. For instance, when you fund your account with $500 and you want to make that incease to $10,000. You will start to think irrationally, make wrong decisions and lose. When you start losing, it negatively impact you financially. You can lose one month worth of salary clicking one button. More you lose more you become stressed and desperate to trade not to feel defeated. When start trading, your brian starts release dopamine again. You body feel more relaxed and feel less negative thoughts.You brain fill with happy thoughts. You will oversee your studies which you spent so much time on and lose money again. If it keeps go on, your life will go down rather than up. How to prepare for all this? Of course controlling your mentality. Next lesson will be on how to control your mentality. Trader, Doctor B.Yertunts
Education
by YertuntsTrader
2
Pairs You Trade? What Sessions Are Open When You Are Trading?What Pairs Should You Trade? What Sessions Are Trading When You Are Up? * Use Your Commonsense!!! The best forex pairs for you to trade will depend on many factors: What time of day you will trade Whether you are interested in making a long-term investment to achieve larger profits or are happy to scalp smaller profits many times each day Your knowledge of currency, the forex markets and global economies Should you trade (example) USD/JPY pair when Tokyo is in session? Yes, because half of the pair is in session and both volume and liquidity is moving markets during this time. AUD/USD pair when Tokyo and/or London sessions are open only? No, because Sydney session has closed and New York has not opened yet. EUR/JPY pair when London and/or New York Session are open only? Yes, for overlapping London/New York session, but no once London session closes. USD/CAD pair when Sydney, Tokyo or London is open only? No, because both sides of these pair are open during New York only- so trade only during NY. In my opinion and one of my rules is: at least half of the pair needs to have current session open and trading, if both parts of the pair are in session (say: Tokyo and London overlap (EUR/JPY pair) or London and New York overlap (EUR/USD)- that will give you the most volume and liquidity in these pairs, thus movement in the pairs is much easier. In Forex: Commonsense is a must, Patience is a must, Risk Management is a must and knowing what sessions are open and giving liquidity & volume is a must.
Education
by Anbat
6
Finding your optimal performance 🏃‍♂️Most traders spend a good bit of time looking at charts. Well here is a chart we traders should all take a look at. The chart shown is the Yerkes-Dodson Law. The Yerkes-Dodson law is a proposition that people perform best at intermediate levels of arousal, and that performance is lower at high or low levels of arousal. The theory behind this is visually represented by the graphic in this idea. No arousal levels or a bored/laidback approach to life will mean no stress but no real performance in what you are trying to achieve or do. However when arousal and stress gets too high by pushing to hard, performance starts to decrease. It's about finding the right balance to achieve an optimal performance. A certain level of stress about what you are trying to achieve motivates you to study, learn or train in order to do your best. A sportsperson has to get bumped up before an event as well as train hard, But getting to worked up and training to hard could cause a decrease in performance when it comes to the event. Pushing not hard enough to pass an exam will lead to a fail as you haven't studied or don't care, But also pushing to hard could lead to a fail as you've let stress and anxiety take over forgetting everything you studied. Moderate levels of arousal is best for overall performance. This theory can be applied to your trading. Take a non interested approach or bored approach and you performance in this area will be affected. Less potential profits etc. Get to focused on your trading or trade to hard could lead to poor performance along with a load of stress in your life. You as an individual will have to self reflect and determine where you fit on the curve in the idea graphic. If you fell more success, achievement and happiness can be had, by all means crack on and go for it! However, if you are getting to a point where you feel you might have reached your limit, it could well be time to dial it back a bit. Don’t push to hard for it that you go down the opposite side of the curve. This theory can be applied to every aspect in your life by using it to balance all aspects of your life will also help your trading as well as work, relationships and everything else we all go through day to day. Thanks for taking time to read this. Darren 🙌
Education
by pow_removetheguesswork
'Trading Psychology: 'The 3 Levels of your Game'Hello Traders, As we know trading is one of the most challenging professions in the world and not only do you have to do your research and own due diligence on a technical aspect, you must ensure your mind/emotions are on point as it is the most common reason traders lose money in this industry. I wanted to share a bit of information from a mental and emotional standpoint about breaking down the 3 levels of your Psychology Game. . No matter how skilled one trader is, everyone has an area that could improve and everyone will make mistakes. The 3 main mistakes we as traders make are: To summarize this chart, the differences between 'B' and 'C' game is that in the 'B' game you have the impulse or thought to make a 'C' game mistake, like closing a trade too early or forcing a trade. Instead you retain the presence of mind and emotional control to avoid it. In your 'C' Game, your emotions are too strong and you cannot stop yourself from forcing trades or cutting profits short. While in the 'A' game, the impulse or thought doesn't happen, or its too small you barely notice. Your goal to as a trader is to eliminate and correct your performance errors that cause your 'C' game. You cannot by escape how much of the gravitational force 'C' game has by focusing on improving just your trading skills and knowledge. You will continue to make the same errors (possibly different ones, but errors are errors) which will create a level of excess negative emotion in your mind. Creating and plan of emotions to examine & review on a daily basis will help you correct your failures and fill you with a different type of emotions, happy ones. By writing down your thoughts of what is going on before, after and during, you start breaking down the backend of your trading and your decision-making becomes much easier and more confident. Creating a plan of your emotions could come with a variety of things, some of the most common ones to watch out for are: -Trigger (eg. Swing trading forex) -Thoughts (eg. I can't believe I got stopped out, it has to go up!) -Emotions (eg. I want revenge on any trade that I lost which I know I should have won!) -Behaviors (eg. Overly focused on one position) -Actions (eg. Constantly looking at P/L) -Changes to your decision-making (eg. I need to get my money back, I need to trade more) -Changes to your perception of the market opportunities or running positions (eg. Your going off prediction rather then reaction) -Trading Mistakes (eg. I'm taking the same trade over and over, until its clear I'm getting no where) Journaling down these emotions and also reviewing them on a day to day, trade to trade, basis, will help your trading game improve and make you become much more successful. I hope this has given a brief insight on how trading psychology plays a huge role in our careers, please leave a comment and share what level of game you are! If you felt this has shared some good information, please hit the like button and follow me for more of these! Thanks Trade Safe!
COINBASE:BTCUSDEducation
by ktlfx
1
5 classics ways to open a trade 1. By anticipation: You guess the imminent start of a trend and you decide to enter a position without waiting for a confirmation signal. For your portfolio, this is a highly profitable approach when it works but ultra destructive if it fails. It goes without saying that you will need nerves of steel because before you are right, the time may seem long, very long. And be careful not to panic in the middle of the process, it would be a pity to have paid spread and commissions for peanuts at the end. 2. On signal: Something you were expecting confirms your initial analysis. A breakout for example. You enter the position as soon as it happens. From an operational point of view, the approach is relatively clean, but false signals are legion in the market. Still, with a stop and good money management things could go well. After all, this is probably the most common way for a trader to enter a position. 3. Waiting for a pull back: While not a panacea, this method will probably increase your chances of success. This is the double-checking strategy of the most cautious traders. The biggest risk here is to see the trend go without you towards the target, because after all, pullbacks are not mandatory. However, this is still relatively rare and is one of the safest ways to enter a position. 4. In several times: Another good way to reduce your risk would be to decide to enter the position in several times. In 2 or 3 times for example. This way you never put all your eggs in one basket. You trigger your first trade and then wait to open the next one only when it has been secured with a zero stop. And so on... This is one of the best entry options. Its main disadvantage is that because of its model, overall you will slightly underperform your average winning trade. This technique is great for trend following, much less so if you are scalping. 5. Late: You identify the opportunity long after the trend has started. But everything seems ok, the risk seems almost zero. You know that you can still open a trade. Perfect, the only downside is that you are far from the high point. The risk here is the drawdown. Obviously, with a very low risk/reward ratio, even negative, a mistake could cost you a lot. Make sure the risk is worth it. And if it is, never enter any way. Despite your delay, always optimize your entry position... Especially your stop.
Education
by ForexGoldenBoy
5 BIG MISTAKES TRADERS MAKE!Hey traders, I've had the privilege to have been involved in trading, both retail trading and working within a prop firm for many years. The biggest benefit I get, is to work with so many different traders with so many different strategies, personalities, timeframes, assets, you name it. I've probably worked with a trader that trades it. Now, there's a few things that are extremely common in all traders, regardless of what or how they are trading. It's the same mistakes that keep making traders fail. So today, I'm going to explain what five of these mistakes are and how to avoid them. I will also discuss how to incorporate them to ensure that you don't get hit by the stone wall that many traders do. If you have any extra information to add, please do so in the comments. I look forward to hearing from you all. TRADING WITHOUT A PLAN This right here is the biggest one and this is usually for the early beginners or even strategy jumpers. You must have a plan. That is non negotiable if you ever want to see some kind of consistency in training. I can tell you from experience, both personally and with working with traders from firms, that the more in depth that plan is, the better chance of success. The same way you create a business plan before launching a new endeavor. The same way you create a game plan for your team before you go out and verse the opponent. The same way politicians plan out their PR campaigns before running for office. You must have a thorough trading plan. A plan can consist of a multitude of different things, from understanding what you're willing to lose, understanding overall position size, understanding your trading strategy, minimizing drawdowns, maximizing profits, the assets you are trading, the times you're going to be trading, how much time you actually going to be allocating to trading and setting up goals. A trading plan must be thorough, so you can not only track your progress, but when you start getting unmotivated or confused, you have something to look back on to realign you with where you are and where you want to be. My final advice with your trading plan is stick to it. You will have bad trading days. You will have bad trading weeks. You will have bad trading months. Stick to your plan. OVERTRADING We've all been there. It's the start of a trading session. We've opened two positions. They've both gone on to be fantastic winners. You're unstoppable. Nothing can possibly go wrong from this point. You have mastered the markets. You are the best trader the world has ever seen. So what do you do? You open another seven positions because it's just free money on the table. And what happens? All seven of those positions lose, wiping off your original profit and some. This is so common in beginner traders. It's that aspect of unpredictability that they forget about in the markets. Trading too much too soon is a serious issue and it needs to be worked on as soon as possible. I understand the excitement of being live in the markets, the excitement of the profits you could earn day today, but the reality of the situation is if your brand new. Trading too much is going to be a serious issue. What sitting back watching and not trading does is not only increases your patience, but also allows you to analyze the markets in a clearer state of mind, making your future decisions a whole level ahead. Add that into the plan, give yourself a maximum number of positions per day if you are new. Trust me, it's going to help you progress. FAILING TO CUT LOSSES I've spoken about this a lot, especially in one of my recent webinars. A lot of traders are taught the whole set an forget method, and I'm not a big fan of it, but in some circumstances I won't lie. Yes, it does work. But a lot of the time, these trade ideas that they're in there actually give massive warning signals prior to hitting the stop loss that they are going to do that. The trader could have cut those losses a lot shorter. Now don't even get me started on traders that don't use a stop loss. What I wanted to do really in this segment is dive into the emotional side of failing to cut a loss. It's true. I remember experiencing it early on my trading career, that feeling of when a trades going against you, but you did all the analysis, so it shouldn't be going against you. So what do you do? You hold on with hope and temptation that it will turn for the better. The reality of the situation is in very, very rarely does. It's a horrible feeling because some traders are prone to even giving those trades more room, adding to the position, moving there stop loss, removing their stop loss altogether. Everything you shouldn't be doing in the time that your analysis is going against you, most traders lean towards because they done all the research they needed to do and they cannot comprehend bring wrong. The best way to battle this feeling, if you've ever felt it or still to this day feel that urge, is going back to number one. Trading with a plan. Have a plan. Risk management plans are the greatest things ever. We can plan for the absolute worst so when it does come in and everyone's going manic everywhere, we know exactly what to do, where to be and how to position ourselves. This will help you learn to cut those losses. NOT UNDERSTANDING LEVERAGE The world changed times are changing. You can access any type of information or access pretty much any type of market you want at the click of a button by the glorious internet. Same goes with trading is probably how most of you have gotten here, or even just into trading as a whole. The thing is, we reach out to these brokers and we open accounts with small amounts of money and they offer us great deals like 300 hundred or even 500 to 1 leverage. That means with $1000 account, you can open $500,000 of currency. Now, the reality of the situation is most traders will never use all of that leverage. But as a result is that most trade is also wouldn't have experienced a no money call when opening a position, or perhaps a margin call, or a true understanding of when they put in 0.5 lots of EURUSD, what they are actually doing. Leverage is a great tool. Fantastic tool. When used correctly. Working at the firm, had so many traders reach out. They keep getting an error code. They say, "I can't open this position!? WHY!?!" and it's all because they don't have the margin requirements to actually open that position and it is alarming to see how many traders don't fully understand what leverages and margin is considering they have used it for years. When you open a position of 0.5 lots on a U.S. dollar currency pair, for example, UUSDJPY. You are opening a position size of $50,000. You have just entered a $50,000 position. That means you are actively managing $50,000 while you are in that position. Let that sink in. Now that's just a position of 0.5 lots. There is traders pit there trading 10-100 lots and it is just baffling to understand the amount of risk there actually taking in accordance to their account size. Do your research. Understand your position size and when you're doing your trading journal. Instead of doing lot sizes in your trading journal, I recommend you do actual position size, value. That will give you a much better understanding on the risk you undertake when you take positions and also if you can, lower your leverage. You don't need 500:1. BEING ABLE TO ACCEPT LOSSES Now this is a fun one and this is what I really wanted to chat about. Being able to accept losses can be one of the most damaging things a beginner trader can ever have, because what happens is they lose the value and respect that the market can take their money. Every market "guru" and every trading course out there tells you to remove emotion from the equation, accept that losses are gonna be a thing, and trade knowing that. Now most people go, "OK, let's do that." and surprisingly, they actually managed to pull it off. Which actually creates a bigger problem. They become reckless. They no longer care if there's a little bit of parameters different from their trading plan. They no longer care if there's key indicators that the trade idea is wrong because, "we're going to have losses. So what? This one might as well be one. If you're not in the market, you're not going to make money." they become reckless. Do not remove emotion from your trading. Incorporate emotion into your trading and once again this results back to the first tip. Trade. With. A. Plan. Traders, that is all for me today. These are five things that I've noticed in struggling traders which seemed to be a common recurrence. Thank you for your time. I hope you enjoy the read. As always, have a fantastic trading week. -Jordon Mellor
Education
by the5erstrading
14
8 mental instillations for priming to trade.These are 8 things I start my trading session with. They help me greatly, and hopefully some of them can be beneficial to you. Once again, trading is mostly understanding yourself and what works for me and makes me tick may not transfer to you exactly the same way. But there are definitely some general ideas that can be gathered from different sources. Mine were gathered from many different areas: 1. "Good. It can always get worse." - This mental priming ensures that I am grateful for whatever situation I am in at this moment in time. Losses the day before? Good. It can always get worse. Profits the day before? Good. It can always get worse. This mental model completely removes dwelling, and substitutes it with practical gratitude. Very helpful. 2. "I don't know what today will bring. But I do know what mind I bring to the moment of performance." - We cannot possibly control the market. Thus, we do not know what today's trading session. We absolutely cannot know that. Therefore trying to know puts us completely out of sync with the market. Instead, we do know what mind we bring to the moment of trading performance. Do we bring calm and poised mind? Or do we bring chaotic and anxious one? 3. "My goal is to trade well. To do that I must make good decisions. To make good decisions I must operate out of mindstate similar to that of a hunter." 4. "Mindstate of a hunter - state of being that is sharp and deliberate, calm but alert, ready to pounce yet patient, aware of risk on one hand and reward on the other. Hunter - is present, as the moment of performance requires to be in the Now. To be in Present - means to accept it for what it truly is, and not what is desired to be. The Pull from The Present is by definition The Pull from the Hunter mindstate. 5. "There are absolutely no limits to the performance. It can get as great as it can be. Everything solely depends on the decisions you bring to the moment of performance. If they get better, so does the performance. As there are no limits, the decisions in the Present must be made without the imposed limits or other benchmarks in Mind." 6. "Easy is Right. This process should not be hard. It should be easy. And light. This is Light Work. Life should be easy. Money and profits should come easy. When you know when there is a trade or there is no trade - trading becomes easy. You ride the wave, you ride the wave. Relationships should be easy. Easy is good. Easy is Right." - If it feels difficult then we are doing something wrong. Of course in the beginning when learning it can be difficult, but overall when trading well it should be easy. Almost effortless. 7. "There is an abundance of resources and opportunities. There is always a whale to hunt. We live in the Kingdom of Plenty." - This puts me into abundance state of mind and helps to see abundance in opportunities. 8. "The process of 'The Hunt' must be - once a Market Structure Point of Interest is broken - we are on waiting for that prey." - Similar to some predators who wait in bushes until their prey get into the most optimal state to get hunted, in that same fashion we are waiting for setups to brew properly. Effectively we are hunting other market participants. It's up to us to decide whether we are hunters or prey. ___ After getting primed with these I feel much better to operate in the uncertainty of the markets. Meditate on these points, some of them will definitely be helpful. Cheers. Lightwork_
Education
by Lightwork_
2
W.D. Gann’s 28 Trading Rules - Part 2When you decide to make a trade be sure that you are not violating any of these 28 rules which are vital and important to your success. When you close a trade with a loss, go over these rules and see which rule you have violated; then do not make the same mistake the second time. Experience and investigation will convince you of the value of these rules, and observation and study will lead you to a correct and practical theory for successful Trading. Like and follow for more!
Education
by UnknownUnicorn33550147
3