TOTW What was the last thing you had to master before becoming profitable?

[CostaKapo]

I am now three months profitable by exiting losers early and not trying to get back losses too quickly.

 

[Mr. Charts]

Good post.

Have you never taken/left a trade because you had a feeling something wasn't quite right though?Or perhaps because you felt that what should be happening wasn't quite happening the way it should?Hope the question makes sense.Trying to ascertain if you operate completely without feel(or instinct I guess you could call it).

Sort of. There have been occasions when I haven't entered a trade because of a sense that something wasn't quite right. That is merely the subconscious voice of experience telling me that at sometime in the past there was a similar situation that didn't work out. I've been trading since the mid 90s, and since 2000 for a living having given up the day job, so some experiences are not recent and not near the surface of consciousness - but still there !
Oddly I never get that awareness to exit a trade, only not to enter.
I always check to see what would have happened and maybe 60% of the time it was right not to enter, so make of that what you will

Thank you for your kind comments about my current main thread and I hope you find it helpful.
Richard

 

[postman]

I had to learn that I needed to take responsibility for my own market education and not try to short cut it by giving away my trading capital to 'tipsters'. Paying for market 'inside info' or trading advice should be more heavily regulated.
Every trader has their own way of making sense of a random market, mine is a little more esoteric than some. But one thing is for sure, if I had some specialist knowledge that was so accurate that this time next year I would be a miw-yon-aire, I wouldn't flog it for £50 or £300 or for any price (well everyone has their price).
Take free advice from a wealthy trader, dont pay money to a poor trader.

So, I have a subscription service ....

 

[vol-guy]

Trade only with capital you can afford to lose - and keep adding funds slowly as your equity builds by keeping realistic targets, it will save you from becoming too overconfident and blowing your account.

 

[ffsear]

I suppose it goes with controlling emotions...

But finding my comfort zone was the last thing i feel i needed to master/or be mastered. I'm talking in terms of position size and risk.

When I first started with real money (spread betting) I quickly released that I could make money easily trading at £2pp, but when I stepped up to £10pp I lost money, and i lost it quickly.

The whole 2% rule never washed with me... And i don't know why its seen as almost gospel by traders. It dependeds how much 2% actually is of your total account (cash wize). and To YOU, personally.

Losing £20 on a trade was fine. No problem, onto the next one. BUT losing £100, be it only 2% of my account, was just to much for me. I became attached, emotional, loss chasing, gambling and all the rest (changing my strategy etc etc)

Back to £2pp and i was relaxed and able to make money again.

It took a while but I finally figured out that that 0.5% was as high as my risk tolerance can go.

 

[0007]

I suppose it goes with controlling emotions...

But finding my comfort zone was the last thing i feel i needed to master/or be mastered. I'm talking in terms of position size and risk.

When I first started with real money (spread betting) I quickly released that I could make money easily trading at £2pp, but when I stepped up to £10pp I lost money, and i lost it quickly.

The whole 2% rule never washed with me... And i don't know why its seen as almost gospel by traders. It dependeds how much 2% actually is of your total account (cash wize). and To YOU, personally.

Losing £20 on a trade was fine. No problem, onto the next one. BUT losing £100, be it only 2% of my account, was just to much for me. I became attached, emotional, loss chasing, gambling and all the rest (changing my strategy etc etc)

Back to £2pp and i was relaxed and able to make money again.

It took a while but I finally figured out that that 0.5% was as high as my risk tolerance can go.

I can empathise with that. There's something rather gut-wrenching when writing off a large actual loss even if it is only a tiny percentage of your trading capital. For that reason I work visually mainly in risk multiples or percentages rather than actual cash amounts (but the real cash figures are always lurking there on the spreadsheet) and to a large degree this overcomes the psychological problem but never quite eliminates it. They do say that it's the psychology that has to be mastered once you become profitable ..............

 

[iMusingKiMi]

"The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself." - Sun Tzu (Wait for PROPER setup, ********)

 

[rafla]

Hi,

Psychology has been the hardest part -> dicipline!
And I couldn't handle that without full automation:
BTW: Here is a picture from one of my accounts, about 2000 trades (all day trades)

- rafla

 

[archiemishra]

I am still in search for that, as I have not earned good profit through forex but loss money.