Game changing habits.

[Championnatbelle]

So quite new to all this but here and there from various sources like YouTube, google, here etc... I bump into various things people claim to be gems and can create a huge difference. One example is tracking your trades in a journal/spreadsheet. One guy went as far to say that if he lost his trading skills it'd be ok but if he lost his trading data he'd be totally screwed.
I want to start this hobby/career as optimally as I can- please can you tell me what great things there are which require discipline and organisation like the above or anything really that can make a big difference to someone's trading? Any good habits really, even while trading...

 

[tomorton]

Decide what you need to look for in order to make your trade decisions. Do not stuff the decision process with more and more and more information and conditions and indicators in the hope your results will therefore be better. Then search out only that data which you need for the decision - enter / exit / stop-loss / position size / pyramid / take profits etc. Each bit of information must be essential to the right decision or else kick it off your check-list. Do not look for anything else.

Recognise that one you're in a trade, price can only do one of four things - go up slowly, go up quickly, go down slowly, or go down quickly. Plan before you enter what you will do in each case (its not hard, there are only 4).

 

[riki143]

maybe you must understanding how much money to risk, setting appropriate stop losses and taking your profits at the right time are all vital abilities.

 

[J_C_Anderson]

One of the most important, but quite often undervalued thing is trading discipline. Sometimes trading discipline could even compensate the lack of knowledge or education.

 

[NVP]

One of the most important, but quite often undervalued thing is trading discipline. Sometimes trading discipline could even compensate the lack of knowledge or education.

discipline is very important in the mix ......but in truth you have to bring a hell of a lot of other different skills and qualities to the table to be a good and consistently profitable trader ...and you have to do it day in and day out .....

the market has Zero weaknesses ....so only your best game will do

 

[J_C_Anderson]

But it is true that even educated and experienced traders could lose just because of lack of discipline. There are lot of profitable taders, but they all execute trading rules, prescribed by their trading systems.
If to talk about non-market risks, to avoid unregulated offshore brokers even with excellent trading conditions (at the first sight) is the question of discipline too.

 

[hatemypips]

Sometimes it can be difficult to stick to the trading rules, because volatility and leverage offers tempting opportunity to make big profit prompting us to underrate the chance of getting losses. That's why automated trading is best approach to solve such problems.

 

[Atilla]

Decide what you need to look for in order to make your trade decisions. Do not stuff the decision process with more and more and more information and conditions and indicators in the hope your results will therefore be better. Then search out only that data which you need for the decision - enter / exit / stop-loss / position size / pyramid / take profits etc. Each bit of information must be essential to the right decision or else kick it off your check-list. Do not look for anything else.

Recognise that one you're in a trade, price can only do one of four things - go up slowly, go up quickly, go down slowly, or go down quickly. Plan before you enter what you will do in each case (its not hard, there are only 4).

What do you do if price moves sideways?

 

[trendie]

What do you do if price moves sideways?

Ha-ha! The bug-bear of indicators! If price moves sideways too much, signals become unreliable.
I have reverted to using some form of granularity, maybe ATR, so that price needs to move by some minimal amount to be considered a move. Acknowledge the existence of uncertainty in moves.
Trend-plays have to switch to breakout mode. (have struggled for years to codify this, though. Its all eyeballs stuff)
Have been re-visiting Renko charts. (just for fun)

How do you resolve a sideways market?

 

[Atilla]

Ha-ha! The bug-bear of indicators! If price moves sideways too much, signals become unreliable.
I have reverted to using some form of granularity, maybe ATR, so that price needs to move by some minimal amount to be considered a move. Acknowledge the existence of uncertainty in moves.
Trend-plays have to switch to breakout mode. (have struggled for years to codify this, though. Its all eyeballs stuff)
Have been re-visiting Renko charts. (just for fun)

How do you resolve a sideways market?

Dentist's PnF charts are good for eliminating time aspect and looking simply at breakouts.

Our old Dante Tom had a good method which does work using bars which often converge to a triangle and then breakout making a HH etc.

My favourite is still PP's though, as you say eyeballs stuff and horizontal lines coupled with price & MA crossovers work best for me. Moreover, PP's often correspond to Fib retracement levels and when they do they become targets/resistance which are hit many times.


Addenda: BBands are really good for breakouts too. However, don't use them anymore. Clutters the charts too much.

 

[hatemypips]

Dentist's PnF charts are good for eliminating time aspect and looking simply at breakouts.

Our old Dante Tom had a good method which does work using bars which often converge to a triangle and then breakout making a HH etc.

My favourite is still PP's though, as you say eyeballs stuff and horizontal lines coupled with price & MA crossovers work best for me. Moreover, PP's often correspond to Fib retracement levels and when they do they become targets/resistance which are hit many times.


Addenda: BBands are really good for breakouts too. However, don't use them anymore. Clutters the charts too much.

I also gave up on using bollinger bands because I think they are quite outdated, markets seems to have pricing in all strategies based on them

 

[NVP]

I also gave up on using bollinger bands because I think they are quite outdated, markets seems to have pricing in all strategies based on them

i believe the BB was launched in 1980s ?.......thats nearly 40 years ago .......I rest my case

most of these indicators are not designed for modern market behaviour.....although they still pay the creator a decent pension as he tours the world selling a 40 year old product

imagine that in any other market ?

 

[hatemypips]

i believe the BB was launched in 1980s ?.......thats nearly 40 years ago .......I rest my case

most of these indicators are not designed for modern market behaviour.....although they still pay the creator a decent pension as he tours the world selling a 40 year old product

imagine that in any other market ?

Advertising makes everything. It's a kind of selling a game which is funny and simple enough to create impression of trading based on solid strategy, but still it lacks essential rigorousness

 

[tradesinspades]

Sometimes it can be difficult to stick to the trading rules, because volatility and leverage offers tempting opportunity to make big profit prompting us to underrate the chance of getting losses. That's why automated trading is best approach to solve such problems.

I want to echo what hatemypips said about how it can be difficult to stay disciplined and stick to your trading rules due to the temptations of volatility and leverage. I have definitely found that automated trading, which hatemypips offered as a solution, has really helped me with this. My favorite automated trading platform right now is capitalise.ai, which is not only free but also allows you to automate your trades by just writing out your strategies in English. Usually with these platforms you have to learn some kind of complicated system or language they came up with but Capitalise makes it super duper easy. I use the platform to trade forex, crypto, and stocks (by connecting my IB account) and include technical and fundamental indicators, trailing stop losses, and total Profit and Loss in my strategies.

 

[hatemypips]

I want to echo what hatemypips said about how it can be difficult to stay disciplined and stick to your trading rules due to the temptations of volatility and leverage. I have definitely found that automated trading, which hatemypips offered as a solution, has really helped me with this. My favorite automated trading platform right now is capitalise.ai, which is not only free but also allows you to automate your trades by just writing out your strategies in English. Usually with these platforms you have to learn some kind of complicated system or language they came up with but Capitalise makes it super duper easy. I use the platform to trade forex, crypto, and stocks (by connecting my IB account) and include technical and fundamental indicators, trailing stop losses, and total Profit and Loss in my strategies.

Checked this platform, commands in use looks pretty simple, although it seems to me that they complicate the process, like instead of clicking on buy button to buy 1 lot of EURUSD I need to make extra job typing buy EURUSD worth of 1 lot. Nonsense..

 

[tradesinspades]

Checked this platform, commands in use looks pretty simple, although it seems to me that they complicate the process, like instead of clicking on buy button to buy 1 lot of EURUSD I need to make extra job typing buy EURUSD worth of 1 lot. Nonsense..

I get what you're saying. The thing that strikes me that's different about the platform is not how you place the market orders but the conditions you can include for executing the orders which aren't available anywhere else in a natural language interface (as far as I know). Also, even if you have to write it a certain way, they make it pretty easy because you can just click on the suggested words they offer.

 

[modandroidapk]

I think I had to study the charts carefully before starting.

 

[NVP]

What do you do if price moves sideways?

NOTHING !!!!!!

 

[NVP]

The biggest issue I always had was patience to become a successful trader. Instead of reflecting on my learned knowledge I would try to trade and learn simultaneously which isn’t really possible. I learned patience and now I’m doing well in all areas of my trading with slow consistent gains.

trading demo while learning is a must ......

 

[NVP]

Dentist's PnF charts are good for eliminating time aspect and looking simply at breakouts.

Our old Dante Tom had a good method which does work using bars which often converge to a triangle and then breakout making a HH etc.

My favourite is still PP's though, as you say eyeballs stuff and horizontal lines coupled with price & MA crossovers work best for me. Moreover, PP's often correspond to Fib retracement levels and when they do they become targets/resistance which are hit many times.


Addenda: BBands are really good for breakouts too. However, don't use them anymore. Clutters the charts too much.

and dont forget volume guys ........volume talks.....