A right way to educate yourself ?

[BCV12]

Hey guys.

I hear many stories of people learning and it seems to be all over the place. Some recommend books, others say its a waste. Some recommend watching hours and hours of the free youtube vids, my only problem is those channels 99% of the time just show the winning days. Others just open and account and jump in not knowing, in doing so they lose some serious money.

So is there a right way to learn ?

Thanks.

 

[tomorton]

No. We're each very different in temperament, background and aptitudes. We all have different preconceptions of what trading is, and how it should feel. We all have differing "investment" horizons, will apply different levels of effort, accept different levels of risk and have different indicators of success.

In a sense you can start learning from anywhere and anyhow - you will learn new information and the worst that can happen is you'll get a better understanding of how you want to trade (and learn).

A word of caution - trading is not like most other intellectually based professions - more knowledge does not mean more money. Trading success comes form what you apply and how you apply it.

 

[Pat494]

Try a demo account before progressing to a real one.

 

[Quantt]

Hey guys.

I hear many stories of people learning and it seems to be all over the place. Some recommend books, others say its a waste. Some recommend watching hours and hours of the free youtube vids, my only problem is those channels 99% of the time just show the winning days. Others just open and account and jump in not knowing, in doing so they lose some serious money.

So is there a right way to learn ?

Thanks.

Back test a lot... if you come up with a sound idea and back test it successfully trough few market cycles, the chance is it is going to continue to work in the future, provided you have the proper risk management e.g half Kelly for example...

 

[BCV12]

Try a demo account before progressing to a real one.

Back test a lot... if you come up with a sound idea and back test it successfully trough few market cycles, the chance is it is going to continue to work in the future, provided you have the proper risk management e.g half Kelly for example...

I will defiantly spend months paper/demo trading. Still trying to figure out thinkorswim.

Just wondering how long do you usually hold on to a trade ? Is it wise to find a stock and just read the charts from the past year ?

Thanks.

 

[Quantt]

I will defiantly spend months paper/demo trading. Still trying to figure out thinkorswim.

Just wondering how long do you usually hold on to a trade ? Is it wise to find a stock and just read the charts from the past year ?

Thanks.

I don't have an easy way to calculate the average holding time for me, but I am doing 2.5 trades on average per week...

One year might be good or bad, you'll have to back test to see if it'll work or not...

 

[Brumby]

Hey guys.

I hear many stories of people learning and it seems to be all over the place.

You will hear a range of stories because you are dealing with diverse agendas. The point that you have not made clear in your posting - what is your agenda? What are you aiming to achieve? Your learning pathway needs to be aligned to your personal objective or else you will spend wasted efforts.

Trading ultimately is not an intellectual endeavour but one of personal development. In other words, predominantly it is not external but internal. It helps if you understand your personal behavioural attributes and then align it to an appropriate trading style.

Do you have above IQ? Studies have demonstrated that traders with lower IQ's have a higher success rate than those with above IQ's. For example, being right is more important than being profitable and consequently cutting losses become difficult. What is your EQ? Studies have demonstrated that 2/3 of traders cannot relate to their emotional state when trading. Overtrading, revenge trading, fear of missing out, impatience, boredom, inability to concentrate, et al are all symptoms of a misaligned emotional state.

Some believe knowledge equates success in trading and so engage in a pathway to acquire a never ending assortment of indicators and systems and progressively switch from one system to another but never finding satisfaction. Clearly there are foundational knowledge that you need to acquire but beyond that it is simply application and plenty of practise so that your behavioural attributes are reconfigured in the process.

In summary, trading is simple but not easy and that lies the dichotomy and your pathway.

 

[Pat494]

There is a school of thought that says one should concentrate on just 1 forex pair and get to know it really well.
Personally I like action and min trade say about 20 times a day, by covering about 15 pairs.

 

[BCV12]

You will hear a range of stories because you are dealing with diverse agendas. The point that you have not made clear in your posting - what is your agenda? What are you aiming to achieve? Your learning pathway needs to be aligned to your personal objective or else you will spend wasted efforts.

Trading ultimately is not an intellectual endeavour but one of personal development. In other words, predominantly it is not external but internal. It helps if you understand your personal behavioural attributes and then align it to an appropriate trading style.

Do you have above IQ? Studies have demonstrated that traders with lower IQ's have a higher success rate than those with above IQ's. For example, being right is more important than being profitable and consequently cutting losses become difficult. What is your EQ? Studies have demonstrated that 2/3 of traders cannot relate to their emotional state when trading. Overtrading, revenge trading, fear of missing out, impatience, boredom, inability to concentrate, et al are all symptoms of a misaligned emotional state.

Some believe knowledge equates success in trading and so engage in a pathway to acquire a never ending assortment of indicators and systems and progressively switch from one system to another but never finding satisfaction. Clearly there are foundational knowledge that you need to acquire but beyond that it is simply application and plenty of practise so that your behavioural attributes are reconfigured in the process.

In summary, trading is simple but not easy and that lies the dichotomy and your pathway.

This is what also scares me. Never got IQ tested, I however did pretty poorly in school no matter how hard I tried, I for the most part just passed. The EQ (Emotional intelligence, I assume ?). I can understand basic emotions, and of others, only problem is my high anxiety, low self-esteem, lack of confidence. Not sure if that would make a big difference. I've always played it safe, and most successful people are risk takers.

 

[FXX]

In many ways the human conditioning makes it very hard for people to be successful at trading. We are opinionated, greedy, have cognitive blind spots through being biased, and many more. Most of this comes from the Amygdala which is responsible for emotions. To be successful you really have to objectively view yourself as 2 people, the lower emotional you an the higher you (Prefrontal Cortex) which is responsible for problem solving.

The only way to get around the lower you dictating your path is to build habits that allow the higher you to take control is to be completely objective. Assume what you believe to be true is in fact a lie and seek the truth through understanding problems by their cause and effect relationships. Bisecting your mistakes and learning from them objectively by seeking the truth (facts not opinion) should provide you with a basis for building success. Collaborating with others to see their perspectives will help enormously because you will gain greater context than you would do on your own.

It is all about the process of problem solving and doing it without emotions and complete transparency. You have to take responsibility for your actions and allow your mistakes to become opportunity to build new knowledge. Unless you have a well defined process for problem solving, you wont find any success even if you are sitting on the holy grail - metaphorically speaking of course.