My #1 rule is to accept that I'm going to be wrong 20 to 30% of the time and to get out with as small of a loss as possible. And some days the market will just seem to be against you even if you're following your strategies that normally work. I like having a hard loss of the day set in place then I'm done for the day if i hit that point. I still have a long long way to go but I still manage to make money since I limit my losses.
Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it. I am purely a technical trader but I do not use indicators. My charts are very naked. It is always a battle with me between being mechanical and having some discretion. I can quantify all my setups but sometimes have to break the rules. I made the Fib comment out of frustration from all the hype out there. There are tools that can help but they are often presented without the acknowledgment that there needs to also be an understanding of the raw structure of price action.
Honesty & objectivity are of utmost importance â lose your emotions Always be open, but trust no one except yourself â and learn to trust yourself completely To hell with what anyone thinks, including yourself â having an opinion will break your account â no one knows what the mkt will do, or the best way for you to trade â anyhow Never matters what you think â only what you do Accept price will do what price will do - always Always⦠observe â anticipate â react Never⦠hope â wish â pray â woulda â coulda â shoulda â what if â if only Become your harshest critic, staunchest ally, and most objective observer Confidence will make you money â ego will break you Learn to embrace and live on the hard right edge â become friends with it Focus â focus â focusâ¦. and be prepared to work your ass off Have sufficient capitalization â scared money never wins â and a broke trader is useless A trader is never right or wrong â just profitable or broke Becoming profitable will take longer than you think Decide how you will trade and stick to it Use multiple time frames Draw straight lines Follow price, never fight it Learn to read the emotion in a chart Learn the difference between real price movement and gamesmanship Identify exactly where you are wrong in a trade Cut losers religiously â and without hesitation or thinking Accept you will have losers Your eyes are the best indicator ever devised for trading â if you trust them Learn to sit on your hands â both when youâre in and out â of the mkt Simpler is always infinitely better Know when economic reports / major announcements are due out â be flat before then â never anticipate how they will be received â simply react to price Create both a trading plan and a business plan Give something back the best way you can â when youâre able Trading is a journey - not a destination Trading is only about making money â ever None of what you read here will ever matter â unless you make it your own Regards RN
These are two things I've found the most difficult to overcome and also very costly: changing the plan because of thinking about a trade after it's on, and chasing the trade that I was ready to put on but hesitated, thereby missing the entry price that made the trade a good one in the first place. When I miss an entry, my friend always tells me, "Don't worry about it, another boat will come along." This is what I strive to be, a purely technical trader. Tell me how long it takes to get "yourself" out of your own way and trade purely technical. Please leave me with a sense of hope this weekend by not telling me 5 years or 10,000 hours of screen time. :eek:
My rules to trade: * Don't trade, invest. * Don't hold overvalued stocks/ETFs. * Get out when the crowd is too optimistic. * Try not to use leverage, and if I do, use protection against blowup (in my case leveraged ETFs that track the DAILY movement). * Use an income strategy.
If you trade stocks intraday, always keep an eye on the futures(ES)/Spy/Market breath/Tick, and think about convergence /divergence between your stocks and the market.