Alright, so you've pissed about , read the advantages of swing trading versus day trading, spreadbetting versus real market, calculated how much you would make if you made X$ per. But you're probably lacking any real progress, energy or momentum when it comes to your trading eh?
The best way to learn trading discretionary is firstly to grab an approach, and then never listen to anyone else's opinion on the market, even those who trade the same approach. It could be PA, MACD divergence, stochs, volume, whatever.
I see traders too often wondering what others have came up with in regards to their approach; they will flock to the 'authorities' on the method, and try and somehow be that trader. This will never work. Never. Trading is just too damn personal and it really is a journey which involves building a ****ing complex mental map with which you read the market.
Simply reading 'do this when X' will never embrace this fact, because there will always be exceptions to the rule, times when the black and white 'rules' you thought would guide you so peacefully to financial freedom, don't work. This is because markets and successful traders' mental maps are grey.
Now that you know it's up to YOU only , my last bit of advice is fairly simple: trade take records, and BACKTEST.
You can backtest with discretionary trading, it's just not for the purpose of coming up with % win or loss. This is how I made it into being a good trader. Pick 3 or 4 years, or a huge sample set that's easily divisible....and then literally, scroll bar by far (going left to right btw) and just be honest with yourself; never give yourself the benefit of the doubt when you see a trade you're not sure about, this ensures you are realistic.
Keep on doing these backtests after every few months to 'refresh' and again be honest with yourself. You will be improving by starting to feel comfortable with whatever the backtests throw at you,and gain somewhat artificial experience of trading. Also, include the trades you have taken into the backtest and constantly re-assess what you 'would have done'.
This way you are thrown into situation after situation; you are forced to mould your approach to fit into the context of the market, and you will slowly burn patterns (which are grey in nature) into your mental map of trading.
This is painful, this is extremely difficult, this takes time and you will end up throwing 'brilliant' ideas you came up with away, slowly stripping away ****ty ideas and gaining new ones. You will end up having to admit that you wouldn't have taken that great trade, that you would've taken that ****ty one. This is learning.
This was my approach to building a mental map of the markets and it worked (after 1.5 years), there are other ways of course which don't look at historical data, I wish you luck, this is my giving to the trading community, however it might be pissed on.
The best way to learn trading discretionary is firstly to grab an approach, and then never listen to anyone else's opinion on the market, even those who trade the same approach. It could be PA, MACD divergence, stochs, volume, whatever.
I see traders too often wondering what others have came up with in regards to their approach; they will flock to the 'authorities' on the method, and try and somehow be that trader. This will never work. Never. Trading is just too damn personal and it really is a journey which involves building a ****ing complex mental map with which you read the market.
Simply reading 'do this when X' will never embrace this fact, because there will always be exceptions to the rule, times when the black and white 'rules' you thought would guide you so peacefully to financial freedom, don't work. This is because markets and successful traders' mental maps are grey.
Now that you know it's up to YOU only , my last bit of advice is fairly simple: trade take records, and BACKTEST.
You can backtest with discretionary trading, it's just not for the purpose of coming up with % win or loss. This is how I made it into being a good trader. Pick 3 or 4 years, or a huge sample set that's easily divisible....and then literally, scroll bar by far (going left to right btw) and just be honest with yourself; never give yourself the benefit of the doubt when you see a trade you're not sure about, this ensures you are realistic.
Keep on doing these backtests after every few months to 'refresh' and again be honest with yourself. You will be improving by starting to feel comfortable with whatever the backtests throw at you,and gain somewhat artificial experience of trading. Also, include the trades you have taken into the backtest and constantly re-assess what you 'would have done'.
This way you are thrown into situation after situation; you are forced to mould your approach to fit into the context of the market, and you will slowly burn patterns (which are grey in nature) into your mental map of trading.
This is painful, this is extremely difficult, this takes time and you will end up throwing 'brilliant' ideas you came up with away, slowly stripping away ****ty ideas and gaining new ones. You will end up having to admit that you wouldn't have taken that great trade, that you would've taken that ****ty one. This is learning.
This was my approach to building a mental map of the markets and it worked (after 1.5 years), there are other ways of course which don't look at historical data, I wish you luck, this is my giving to the trading community, however it might be pissed on.
