Death by over-analysis

[grubs50]

Surely there will be ppl trading successfully using simple historical data like opening and closing prices instead of the constant overload of data, charts and seminars. Maybe the tendency 4 newbies like me to spend too much money on all sorts trading aids and seminars is y most of us don't make any profits in our first year. The unfortunate thing is that there r so many on offer esp on the internet that the temptaion is so hard to resist.

 

[oatman]

Agree, keep it simple. I've always thought it better to start with a couple of MAs on crossover. I used Indexia 21 and 55 at first(Fib numbers) and traded the crossover. I still like them. Try 1 or 2 other indicators at a time with your favourite MAs. Trouble is they all work some of the time! Some people do tend to pile on the indicators a bit. We all find what we're comfortable with and often stay with them. It's important to feel comfortable when you're trading.

Good luck

 

[PurplePerson]

Yep. Personal discipline is the most critical factor. Unfortunately it's easy to postpone dealing with that, and seek to benefit first from new toys. But none of them work if discipline has not been addressed from the outset.

Too many of us reach out for technical instruments as soon as we can afford them, and they disappoint. And the instrument gets discarded as being of no real use, and we move on to something more sophisticated, only to find that's not reliable either. Then eventually we get around to dealing with our own psychological approach and discipline - and we find that the simple well-tested instruments we discarded along the way are actually quite useful. The fault lay with the driver not the car. Buying a racier car doesn't compensate for not driving right. You just risk getting get killed quicker.

 

[grubs50]

I think good money mangement is also critical and the ability to take a reasonable profit and run instead of waiting and waiting till a small profit becomes a big loss. I still don't understand when people go on about having a good entry point but don't get the exit point right.