Traders Alert !

As of late I have seen some new traders here and some of the regular ones too.
With todays modern way of living and trading done at the click of a mouse it is easy to get locked into this business.

Personally speaking, i tend to trade 2-3 times per week and time this after sudden movements on index's with a view of trading a retracement.

It is on these days I make 80% of my income through trading.

We do not have to start trading at a certain time every day and finish at a certain time like we did in the real world to become profitable.

So look out for the best times to trade, get in and get out fast, with draw 70% of any gains and enjoy. If there are losses do not attempt to get them back on that day, turn comp of and walk away.

Education is key, so out of 5 week days occasionally I have one or two free days , thisis when I go to a leisure club have work out swim, Jacuzzi etc and relax reading the new papers.

Monthly i look out for educational material so i can keep up with whats going on, new chats packages etc and do some review of business plans etc.

Over trading will ruin any trader, I speak from experience.

We do this to have a life style that is different to others, so use this time to capitalize on other opportunities be it dinner with friends, taking the wife shopping, doing other friendly tasks.

Last night i was watching a program where all bankrupt items were sold with no reserve, example a £80,000 Porsche 4X4 was sold for £10,000 indeed that is a business linked to trading in its self.So get the days of the week scheduled or penciled in have a strategy of what your going to do on that day IE bias is down so sell rallies on xxxxxxxx .

Life is too short for sitting at a screen plus its seriously un healthy in many ways.

I hope this has been useful, spend time with loved ones and use our knowledge/skills to make things happen financially, but never never forget what is important in life.

Regards TOMTOM

P.S. Have any of you guys ever started trading with out having a clear head ?
Best days are had when ones head is clear and one See's and reacts if your not mentally fit or up to the job on that day , do the sensible thing and do nothing as you wish you had if things go wrong remember this is a game of skills that one has to be mentally fit .

I agree TomTom. A proficient trader can make a decent living with an average of 1 trade/day. This does not mean that they have to make 1 trade every day either. Trying to win money back after a loss is a recipe for disaster!

new_trader said:

I agree TomTom. A proficient trader can make a decent living with an average of 1 trade/day. This does not mean that they have to make 1 trade every day either. Trying to win money back after a loss is a recipe for disaster!

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I've chased losses twice this week and got seriously stung doing it.

I wish it was possible to just turn the computer on and earn 5 pips a day regularly- i'm not greedy, 5 pips a day would do. The thing is it is probably extremely easy to do just this. So i wonder why i'm not doing it?

greed.

Yeah, you start thinking, 'well if i can steal 5 pips now i can do it again' and you do it again, and again and again all day long and before you know it you are dead.

UKtradergirl said:

I've chased losses twice this week and got seriously stung doing it.

I wish it was possible to just turn the computer on and earn 5 pips a day regularly- i'm not greedy, 5 pips a day would do. The thing is it is probably extremely easy to do just this. So i wonder why i'm not doing it?

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Uktradergirl, you are not the only one. When I remain focused and disciplined and have the courage to go with my figuring I make money and using a tight stop! When I make a trade based on a ‘think’ or a guess or I break my rules, I make losses. It is a matter of disciplined self training. You have to study your losses to try and understand why. I strongly suggest you start a trading journal (if you haven’t already) and make notes about your trades. Whenever you have a new realisation or even a theory or hypothesis make a note for future reference. It may lead to nothing or it may lead to newer and better realisations.

N.B: NEVER scorn a profit!! No matter how small...!

Form what I hear UKtradergirl, Many here are lacking guidance ? What is needed is for thouse who wish to is too attend a meeting where diffrent stratogies and plans are disscussed together with risk managemet ?
When this is gone through, then everyone gets the oppertunity to put what they have lernt by trading Directly Into The Market using the skills gained ?
Would this be of intrest to New / existing traders ?

Im not selling anything here simply getting a feel what people here may find usefull

TomTom said:

Form what I hear UKtradergirl, Many here are lacking guidance ? What is needed is for thouse who wish to is too attend a meeting where diffrent stratogies and plans are disscussed together with risk managemet ?
When this is gone through, then everyone gets the oppertunity to put what they have lernt by trading Directly Into The Market using the skills gained ?
Would this be of intrest to New / existing traders ?

Im not selling anything here simply getting a feel what people here may find usefull

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Maybe. In my opinion, everything you need to become successful in trading has already been posted in this forum. You just need to sift through 99.9% of the rubbish to find it.

TomTom said:

Form what I hear UKtradergirl, Many here are lacking guidance ? What is needed is for thouse who wish to is too attend a meeting where diffrent stratogies and plans are disscussed together with risk managemet ?
When this is gone through, then everyone gets the oppertunity to put what they have lernt by trading Directly Into The Market using the skills gained ?
Would this be of intrest to New / existing traders ?

Im not selling anything here simply getting a feel what people here may find usefull

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I know the problem for me, being here on this board is the sheer volume of information, strategies, opinions, etc. Whilst this is brilliant and interesting and gives me no end of trading ideas- it has proven detrimental to my trading. I was doing OK before i signed up on here, but i think greed has got in the way and i have changed my game plan for the worse.

It would be good to have guidance for sure. But it needs to be just one particular kind of guidance. Follow one persons ideas or seek mentorship/advice from them alone. Pick the person you follow carefully, it needs to be someone whose psychology of trading fits with your own.

Your idea sounds good but in practise i don't think it will work. It will just become a mish-mash of ideas and conflicting opinions.

By all means please do post strategies that have helped you though. It is always nice to see when someone posts their ideas that they include all aspects of it... risk, money management, stops, exits, entries... the whole deal, as all these components need to work together to make a method work.


-
have just re-read your post... and i think i understand what you are saying more now. A 'meeting' in a chat room or somewhere where ideas could be shared live would be a good idea. Discussing different strategies as a group and perhaps working out a direction to try and proceed in. Would be very beneficial indeed as it would take you through the learning process rather than just being told what indicators to use, how to trade, etc.

New_trader nice one
This is true, its like finding the magical leave in the woods, its there all right, but finding it is a FCKER

Without the risk management, stops, entry/exit points mapped out all working together ever trader who posts on this site will go broke.
However if that person has lots of luck, he will become sucsesfull extreamly quick, then one day become broke due to not having the key / structual parts of the business in place.

Sorry but this is true, we have to manage all these isshues correctly, investment banks have risk mamagers, allocation managers ect stratogests that give instructions.

What do we have in our business if we dont have thouse ?

We will be doomed

UKtradergirl said:

I know the problem for me, being here on this board is the sheer volume of information, strategies, opinions, etc. Whilst this is brilliant and interesting and gives me no end of trading ideas- it has proven detrimental to my trading. I was doing OK before i signed up on here, but i think greed has got in the way and i have changed my game plan for the worse.

.

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Go back to when you were doing Ok, see what you did then and what you're doing now, take the good bits from both.

EG if before you were taking a set amount of profit eg 10 pips but now you're letting it run look to make sure you take part of the profit and let the other part run......

UKtradergirl said:

I've chased losses twice this week and got seriously stung doing it.

I wish it was possible to just turn the computer on and earn 5 pips a day regularly- i'm not greedy, 5 pips a day would do. The thing is it is probably extremely easy to do just this. So i wonder why i'm not doing it?

Click to expand...

I think the main problem is sample size - to be consistent, you need to be making a decent number of trades, so daily targets are impractical unless you take a lot of trades per day.

You can compare it to tossing a coin - over time, you can expect about 50/50 heads and tails, but over a handful of tosses you can get a string of heads, a string of tails, or anything in between. Similarly for trading, if you only take 2 or 3 trades a day, you can pretty reasonably expect to have regular losing days, even if you have a solid edge and are profitable over the long run.

Ive been down a few K and kept trading and made it back and then some.

However its all about having the right mentality. In the past ive been down a few K and chased the market to get it back with disatrous results. Now Im more controlled..I have the patience to wait for the good setups.

I cover up my PL and this effect emotions. I look purely at the trade in hand. Not at the PL going up or down. Thats what screws most people up. Once you have that controll it becomes possible to keep trading despite having started ****e. Infact some of my best days have come from when having been down I stayed in for a good setup and traded it well.

TomTom said:

Education is key, so out of 5 week days ocassionally I have one or two free days , thisis when I go to a liesure club have work out swim, jacussie ect and relax reading the new papers.

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Hello Tom,

Me and a couple of trading buddies took your advice today ....

Captain Currency said:

Hello Tom,

Me and a couple of trading buddies took your advice today ....

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Are they turkeys? It's the t2w jacuzzi club,.....i'm the one near right.(do you like my fake tan?)

Hey Captain, I never reconised you there M8

gooseman said:

greed.

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I disagree. I am not a greedy person. The deadliest enemies to my capital have been fear, hesitation, pride and ego. The vicious cycle usually goes like this:- I have a few winning trades in a row and ego begins to take control. I let ego make a trade and it is a loser. This is when pride takes over because after so many winners in a row I am convinced that I can’t be wrong so I enter again and the result is another loss. Pride remains in control until fear and hesitation take the helm. I finally see the true indication to trade but I don’t take it because my confidence has been damaged by the actions of pride and ego. I then slowly but surely start taking my trades when the indications appear and have a few winners in a row...rinse and repeat.....

TomTom, with all this spare time you seem to have on your hands, perhaps you could learn how to use the spell checker.

TomTom said:

Without the risk management, stops, entry/exit points mapped out all working together ever trader who posts on this site will go broke.
However if that person has lots of luck, he will become sucsesfull extreamly quick, then one day become broke due to not having the key / structual parts of the business in place.

Sorry but this is true, we have to manage all these isshues correctly, investment banks have risk mamagers, allocation managers ect stratogests that give instructions.

What do we have in our business if we dont have thouse ?

We will be doomed

Click to expand...

Getting too lucky, too early is probably the worst thing that can happen, not just in trading, but in many other forms of endeavour. It sounds trite, but we really do learn more from our mistakes than our successes, and form, or test, our character that way.

I try to keep telling myself: "If I won, it was because I got lucky. If I lost, it was all my own fault."